Professional Development and Practice - Essay Example

Professional development refers to the maintenance and development of skills and knowledge in order to advance previous expertise. Professional development not only enhances the competence of the person, but also provides an edge to professionals who continuously maintain their skill over those who do not. One of the approaches to professional development is coaching. Coaching facilitates a person in improving his professional skills by three major steps: observation, reflection and action. When I was employed as a coach, I cane to appreciate the importance of professional development and the process of continuous improvement. By improving upon my professional skills, I have been able to secure my employability and increase my job satisfaction. I applied what I have learnt in theory into practice that helped the team in improving its performance dramatically. I am the coach of the Brunel Abacus Football Club. It is a Chinese Society Football team situated in West London. The team plays Chinese Society League at Hackney Marsh every Saturday. When I was first appointed as the coach, I knew I was accepting great responsibility. Being a coach does not merely mean supervising players and ordering them around; there is more to it than the naked eye sees. A coach is required to provide moral support to the players and to bring out their capabilities and channel them in the best way possible towards the achievement of a common goal. A coach is of no use if the players can do better without him. Therefore the coach’s skills should reflect from the performance of the players. A good coach should have five basic qualities ingrained in him: Comprehension, Outlook, Affection, Character and Humor. As a coach, one is expected to recognize the individuality of each player and provide a wholesome environment in which each player has the responsibility to play the game without fear (American Sport Education Program, 2005). Keeping all these in mind, I set to embark on the road of coaching and professional development. Preparation and Planning My task as a coach lay in assessing the weaknesses of the players and in improving upon them. Doing this analysis requires a systematic approach, and I realized that the more organized I am, the better the analysis I can make. Furthermore, I was aware of the fact that my actions and decisions would be more meaningful if I reflect upon them and critically evaluate them. Therefore, I decided to apply the Gibbs Reflective Model in my coaching. The Gibbs Reflective Model was developed by Graham Gibbs, stating that reflection is an orderly step-by-step process (Johns, 2009). It is a reflective cycle used by professionals to analyze situation. Also, another reason why I applied this model was not only to analyze the whole situation, but also provide analysis that would help me and the team in improving our performances in the future. Well-structures planning and organization allows the coach and the players to focus on the important tasks of coaching football while taking away last-minute crises (Trimble, 2005). When I was appointed the coach, the first thing I did was to know more about the previous performances of the Club. Last season, the team finished fourth and won five games out of nine games, therefore making a loss of four games in total. Therefore, I decided to change certain strategies and ask the restructure certain tactics that would enable the team to perform well. Our aim was to win all the matches in the new season. The first step in Gibbs Reflective Model is description of the event. I asked the team to first do some pre-season warm-up matches. I felt that the long ball style of play did not suit the team, so I asked them to switch to simple passing. I made this decision based on the capabilities of the players, and I predicted that simple passing would be an effective tactic at keeping possession of the ball and exerting pressure on the opponents. I made an assessment of the problems the team faced, that were impairing their ability to perform well. One of the impediments to success that the team faced was lack of concerted efforts. The most important thing about football is learning to work as a tem (McFee 2008). There was too much individual effort, and the downside was that these efforts did not cumulate together in an organized and comprehensive team play. Since football is a team sport, the efforts of individual players should homogenize together in achieving two aims: attacking the opponent team and building strong defense of our own team. Thus, I focused the training primarily on quick passing and fitness, rather than individual skills. Another factor due to which the team could not perform its best was because the players turned up late for the game. As mentioned above, their lack of teamwork showed that they needed proper training. There was also not sufficient warm-up and the players were feeling fitness problems. Thus I realized that these problems need to be solved by improving collaboration between the players and providing them proper training twice a week. I also instructed the players to come an hour early before kick-off. Using Coaching model 4, I believed in solution focused theory that meant that the players had answers to their problems within themselves. Therefore, I decided to coach them accordingly, changing certain strategies so that they can do better. I held training sessions on Wednesday and Friday nights every week for six weeks. I made sure that attendance by all players was mandatory because the practice can not be useful if some players are absent. We used a 3G grass pitch for practicing. One of the problems the players had was lack of fitness. Since it was the start of the season, they were having problems adapting to the new training and the style of play. So I made it a habit that they had 20 minutes of warm-up before every session. I made them jog around the pitch with little strenuous exercise like star jumps, sit-ups and press-ups. I divided the aims of the coaching process into two sessions and made them more specific. For example, the Wednesday training sessions were mostly based on technique and ameliorating the teamwork, stamina and strength of the players. We used to do Seven-a-Side mini game on Wednesdays. The players were only allowed two touches, and they were permitted to shoot outside the D area; however, I did not give them freedom to dribble the ball. We also did shooting practices. One of the players used to do the one-two pass and shoot the first time. Then he used to pass it to the side, another player crossed-in the ball and used to score with a header or a volley. Another technique that we employed on Wednesday nights was Monkey in the game. Cones were set up in the area and four players used to pass the ball around, while the middle player chases it. Players who were passing the ball were only allowed one touch. If the players were able to do ten touches successfully, the middle player was punished by doing sit-ups and press-ups. One of the coaching models relies on Social cognitive theory/social learning theory to coach the players. I also indirectly applied this theory in practice: by punishing the player, he will not repeat the same mistake again and try harder next time to avoid the punishment, thus improving her performance. The key to successful coaching is teaching players to make intelligent decisions when they are playing, and I encouraged my players to do play smartly (Hargreaves, 2009). Friday night sessions were focused on improving tactical play and the individual skills of the players. Our aim was also to improve set pieces i.e. corners and free kicks. However I ensured that the players do not over-exert themselves and become tired for the match day. On Fridays, I divided the team into four defenders plus a goal keeper and five attackers. If the ball was cleared by the defenders, the attackers had to start again from the halfway line. Also, I did not put any limit on touches. I made the team practice set plays since they are very crucial in scoring goals. It is important that team practiced the maneuvers repeatedly so that each player knew what he had to do and that the player who will have the ball finally will be confident and expert enough to score a goal since he will not get any more chances. Therefore, since there is no room for error, every member should know how to carry out a perfect set play. Thus, in free kicks training, I assessed how many players were needed in the wall in a certain area. I marked the players, and encouraged them to practice quick free kicks and crossing-in. I also made the players work on corners and we devised signals were cross-in for both near and far posts. I marked the players and trained them in off the ball movement in the Box by penetrating moves. I encouraged them to apply these techniques in a way that was most natural for them (Guy and Sang 2009). Performance in matches and evaluation The second step of the Gibbs cycle requires an analysis of the feelings of the professional. It was an exhilarating experience both for me and the players when we won the first six matches. After six matches, I reflected on the problems that the team was still facing. I felt that after six weeks of practicing on an approach that focused more on attack, the players sometimes showed weaknesses in defensive approach. Moreover, by the second half of the match, the team performance used to slacken because the players felt drained and exhausted. Football is a demanding game so players must expend great energy for each play to be effective (American Sport Education Program and Ash 2006). Some of the players had reservations regarding the new changes I had introduced in the practicing style and complained about it. Furthermore, it was difficult to get all eighteen players present in the squad to get involved week in and week out. Rotation was difficult too because I had to keep everyone happy. Some players were also dissatisfied when I made changes to the playing position of some players. The players whose position I changed took time adjusting to it and therefore compromised the team performance for some time. However, I still felt a sense of achievement because the team had won the matches and that my training was a success not only because of the results, but also because the players were using the strategies that I taught them effectively on the field. Analyzing the six matches that we won, part of step 4 of Gibbs Reflective cycle, I felt that there is still room for improvement. The results so far were good, and I told my team that what’s important is that they keep playing in the same spirit and go all they way to the end of the season by winning all the matches. Since everyone is equally important, I kept making changes depending on the opposition to the initial line-up. The disadvantage of this tactic was that the team could not perform as well as it did in the first half, but at least the players got a chance to experience the game. Conclusion for performance in first six matches The result for the first six matches was: 4-3 Vs University College of London Chinese Society 6-3 Vs Imperial College Chinese Society 5-2 Vs London School of Economics Chinese Society 2-0 Vs University College of London Abacus 5-1 VS Imperial College Abacus 3-2 Vs Kings College London Abacus As we see from these results, we gave too much emphasis on attacking play, and so our defensive play was not strong enough. The players could attack the opponent better, tackle them and counteract their moves, but when it came to defending the opponent team from scoring, we could not exhibit good performance. The centre back, wing back, full back and the sweeper defenders had to work in collaboration with the goal keeper in order to prevent the opponent from scoring. I realized that during these six matches, the team could have won with a higher score had our defense been strong. Letting in the other team’s goals are more due to some the performance of individual players than that overall performance of the team. Thus, I made a mental note of working more on the cooperation of the goal keeper and the defenders and the skills of the defenders during the training sessions. Furthermore, I realized that the team needed to build up the pace of the passing because it sometimes showed slow build-up play and the opponent teams are likely to exploit this weakness by counterattacking us when we are far too slow. The team’s performance was also lacking in set pieces despite my emphasis on set pieces training. Set pieces are a very significant element in any team’s ability to score. Set pieces provide them with an opportunity to score that would otherwise require a lot of hard work. It has been seen that more than one third of the goals in professional games are scored from set plays (Set Plays in Soccer/Football, 2010). The team did not know how to defend or attack during free-kicks and corners, and as mentioned above that set pieces can help the team score very easily, lack of adequate practice in them increased the pressure on the team, compelling them to work even harder in order to cover up and beat the other team. Action Plan After a few weeks of coaching the Brunel Abacus Football Club, we managed to win all the nine games, and were top of the league. However, I still feel that there are obvious weaknesses that the team needs to overcome. Setting performance goals can be done solely by the coach and individual players making them aware of how they can be better players (Flores and O’Connor, 2005). The team needs to improve its defending, especially in situations when a foul has been committed and the ball is not in play. Since other teams have an edge over our team in corners and free kicks, I feel that it is vital that the players are able to execute a set piece properly. This will require consistent practice. This will have advantages in not only allowing our team to score more goals, but also blocking the rival team from scoring. In a league, one can not afford winning from a narrow margin. Also, if a defender faces a high-flying ball, he should have adequate training in headers to prevent any foul. This training also applies to other team players. I felt that they are too slow and their timing of crossing and header is not fine enough. The other team can take advantage of it in the field and they can take possession of the ball easily especially in the mid-field. The significance of pep talks in a game can not be overstated. The best football experiences are the ones that match the motivation levels of the players (National Alliance for Youth Sports and Bach, 2006). These motivational talks boast up the energy level of the players, boasting them. An encouraging talk aimed to increase the enthusiasm of the players and their determination can go a long way in overcoming any psychological problems that they are facing like hopelessness, lack of confidence etc. Reflective Summary Thus in conclusion, working with Brunel Abacus Football Club has been an enriching experience. By coaching them and reflecting on my performance, I have been able to increment my professional skills and have professional advanced my self. I addressed the problems the team faced like lack of teamwork, low punctuality, poor fitness etc. and focused on specific training techniques in the sessions. The team is very assiduous and followed my coaching tactics with little resistance; however, there still remain certain areas where I feel I could have done a better job at training. I believe that reflection on my acts has provided me the insight where I could improve as a coach and in turn improve the performance of the team. Reference List American Sport Education Program & Ash, R., 2006. Coaching football technical and tactical skills. Illinois (IL): Human Kinetics. American Sport Education Program, 2005. Coaching youth football. 4th Ed. Illinois (IL): Human Kinetics. Flores, T. & O’Connor, B., 2005. Coaching football: from youth leagues to the pros. 2nd ed. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill Professional. Guy, R. & Sang, R., 2009. Football Kicking and Punting. Illinois (IL): Human Kinetics. Hargreaves, A., 2009. Skills and Strategies for Coaching Soccer. 2nd ed. Illinois (IL): Human Kinetics. Johns, C., 2009. Becoming a Reflective Practitioner. 3rd ed. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons. McFee, S, 2008. Let's Play Football. New York (NY): The Rosen Publishing Group. National Alliance for Youth Sports & Bach, G., 2006. Coaching Football for Dummies. New Jersey (NJ): For Dummies. TeachPE.com, 2010. Set Plays in Soccer/Football. [Online] Available at: http://www.teachpe.com/soccer_football/set_plays.php [Accessed 13 May 2010]. Trimble, A., 2005. Coaching football successfully. Illinois (IL): Human Kinetics. Read More