Review of Coaching Experience - Research Paper Example

 Review of Coaching Experience Executive summary This project is a review of coaching experience undertaken in football coaching in Mile End arena area. The purpose of this review is to provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the coaching experience and the improvements which need to been done in order to imperfect the training lessons. This project looks into the perspectives of the coaching process and the traits that the coach should possess in order to effectively carry on with the coaching. The project introduces the coaching experience in sports and how this experience impacts the society. This is because there is an increased need for the sporting activities for social, physical and psychological development. Content 1. Introduction 2. Discussion 2.1 Coaching 2.2 Benefits of Youth Sport Participation 2.3 Role of the coach 2.4 Application of coaching skills in enhancing real-life setting skills 2.5 Strengths and weaknesses of the coaching experience 3. Conclusions 4. Recommendations 1. Introduction This project seeks to provide a review of coaching experience that was undertaken in the Mile End arena area to coach football. In this review, I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of my coaching experience. While there were activities which I did very well, there were instances where in felt that I needed to improve my competencies and skills in order to conduct better lessons in the future. Furthermore, this review will look into the findings and recommendations for improving the coaching experience in the professional sense. The feedback developed from this review indicates that there are effective skills and experiences which are required in order for a coach to achieve complete success (Borzekowski, & Robinson, 2001). This review focuses on Mile End arena area which was the location selected for the coaching experience. The coaching lessons took two hours on Mondays evenings, Wednesday evenings, Thursdays evenings and Saturday afternoons. The rationale for this work experience is because it is solely focuses on my course degree which is sports development. Thus, it looks into the development of young children in sports through a coaching regime. The reason this location was selected, was because I believed this would be an ideal location for me to progress my understanding in the coaching field and develop my knowledge as a coach, similarly after undergoing an FA online course of equality and diversity, I believed this would fit in well with my coaching period reason being that the young kids I was coaching was predominantly Asians who were being coached by a young black male. This can also be applied to a real life work setting as it influences ways in working with a diverse range of people through the use of leader ship skills. 2. Discussion 2.1 Coaching Sport’s coaching in young children has become a popular activity because of its significance in the development of the children. Sports develop the children physically, psychologically and socially. In America, most of the children are prone to the contemporary epidemic of physical inactivity and obesity which is associated with lack of physical involvement in active sports. That is why youth sports is very important as it plays a major role in helping children grow to become healthy and active. It thus improves the health and welfare of the children not only in their present years but also in the years to come. My rationale in engaging in sports coaching in young children is to improve young children’s health because I really care about the wellbeing and lifestyle of young people. My project focuses on how to influence a child to sustain a healthy life style alongside enhance their sporting experience. 2.2 Benefits of Youth Sport Participation My involvement in coaching of young children is shaped by the many benefits which accrue to a child who is actively involved in sporting activities. Many stakeholders in the education settings recognize the need for active involvement of children in sports in order to improve the quality of life of the young children and the future generations. Sports enablethe young children to learn the physical skills. Involvement of different types of children in sports enables their interaction and thus activity in the sporting activity is enhanced. As result, the learner develops fundamental motor skills such as hopping, running, jogging, and jumping. Other physical skills learned are sport-specific which allows the learners to stay active and involved such as shooting a ball in during basketball games, kicking the ball to the goal post during football or putting a golf ball. Sporting activities enhances the children’s appreciation of fitness. According to (Ewing & Seefeldt; 1989), sports in one of the most important activities which enables the students to learn how to “to get exercise” and “stay in shape”. This reduces the rate at which young children are becoming obese these days. As, such, one of my core motivations in coaching the staying children was to enhance their imprecation of physical fitness and staying in shape. I was able to achieve this as most of the children I was coaching seemed engrossed in the sporting activities as participated diligently. While appreciation is an attribute that is cannot be apprehended in a short time, there is clear indication that effective coaching leads to young children’s appreciation of the sporting activities and their role in helping the children stay active and avoid getting overweight or obese (Borzekowski, & Robinson, 2001). Interaction of children during sports creates a sense of belonging and identity in the broader community. My coaching class included children who were diversified in terms of ages, race religion, and ethnicity. My motivation for choosing the Mile End arena area for coaching students after school is because I believed the location would be an ideal location for me to progress my understanding in the coaching field and develop my knowledge as a coach, similarly after undergoing an FA online course of equality and diversity, I believed this would fit in well with my coaching period reason being that the young kids I was coaching was predominantly Asians who were being coached by a young black male. This can also be applied to a real life work setting as it influences ways in working with a diverse range of people through the use of leader ship skills. As result, the experience promotes social interactions not only between the young children but also between the young children and the coach. This way, the community which is diversified becomes united through a common interest in sports and their interaction through healthy practice and competition. Hence, the young children grow to respect diversity presently and in their future (Weiss & Stuntz, 2004). 2.3 Role of the coach Being in charge of student’sdevelopment in any area requires one to develop crucial skills since children are very sensitive and fragile. Theresponsibility of a coach to teach the young children is equally challengingespecially as one has to instill skills which the learners perceive as not part of the classwork. For me, the task of being in authority in teaching the students sports was an opportunity to apply my skills and also learn from the practice work experiment of being practically involved in the activities. This required patience, determination and a lot of learning through different means. Some of the qualities I learned which are very crucial in this experience are the following. Patience; a coach dealing with young children should be patient at all times. This is because capturing and maintaining the attention and interests of the children in the sport is high maintenance which requires a coach to have great deal of patience. I would have to admit that this problem was at its minimal during my coaching tenure as my students were actively involved in the activities I had planned for them and were ready to participate. Furthermore, they were very punctual during all the times our meeting times with only a few of them getting late. I viewed my group as a motivated group as there were limited cases of distractions during training times. Fairness; fairness in the game is very important in creating a good relationship between the coach and the players. Young children are very egocentric and would always want to have the best pout of every situation. It is the responsibility of the coach to make the players understand the reason for getting less time to play than the other, or exceptions in a particular activity. This should be done where the coach wishes to prioritize the safety and care for the players above all. As such, the coach should be fair to all players by giving them the same amount of time to play and equalizing all the opportunities such that no player feels left out. This was a big challenge for me at the beginning of my coaching. Unfortunately, I had two students who were not in the correct clothing so they had to sit out. Doing this meant that there was a great potential of the two students developing a negative impact on my image. My supervisor was very helpful in cautioning me about unfair treatment of students and how such students develop image on the coach. As was able to rectify this situation and remedy it by still engaging them in the coaching session and asking them questions from time to time to keep the active (Bruns, & Maffulli, 2000). Leadership skills; the coach should be a leader to the students he is coaching. As such, he should be able to command respect from the students without being strictly authoritative about it. This is done by establishing trust between the coach and the students. A coach will only be able to maximize the outcome of his students if there is respect and trust. A team is always full of many ideas which are conflicting and therefore, the presence of a respected authority will allows be the tool for restoring the sanity of the team. The coach should thus earn the respect of his players through determination and hard work, care, fairness and motivation of the group. I had no problem with leadership in my training activities as the team was very trusting and motivated. Furthermore, I have effective leadership skills were enhanced bylearning the traits of each of the students and thus, Iwas able to effectively assign training activities to the right students. My leadership skills were enhanced by my ability to effectively communicate with the students. Creativity; when dealing with children, it is very important to be creative since the concentration span for children is very low (Bruns, & Maffulli, 2000).Creating involves coming up with different activities and plans which will keep the students interest in the sport. I experienced the most discouraging moment in my coaching due to lack of creativity in the coaching. While I believed that I was very creative especially in designing the tactical triangle game, my supervisor was very helpful in cautioning me that I was dealing with basic lessons which were not creative at all. To rectify this challenge, I read an article which was suggested from my supervisor called successful coaching which looks into how a coach will handle a difficult situation. it stated that creative coaching is about finding qualities in yourself and being able to, present and teach them to the people you are leading. By then, I understood what was meant by the terms “creativity “. 2.4 Application of coaching skills in enhancing real-life setting skills The coach should possess the skills we have discussed above in order to effectively impact on the players. This is done through the application of different activities and strategies. In my case, I applied the tactical triangle game. The tactical triangle game was very effective in transferring the skills the coach wishes to transfer to the players. This prepares the players for the real practice of the game. During my coaching, the triangle was developed and planned to see the effects and use of communication applied in the real life work setting this was successful because children began to understand one another more and was able to work with different ethnicities and still work as a team. My session plan consisted of a triangle in where kids would be split into groups of 3 and had to pass to one another. The correct type of Communication had to be applied properly so they can do the drill properly. This shows that coaching has positive implications in the students as it enables them to learn practical skills which they can apply in real life situations to solve problems. During my coaching, the triangle showed that the activities where effective communication was applied, the activities were completed effectively whereas where the communication skills were not applied effectively, the activities were not done perfectly (Faigenbaum, 2000). 2.5 Strengths and weaknesses of the coaching experience The strength of my coaching was heightened by the use of a planned activity log which enhanced my organizational skills. With the planned activity log I was able to organize my coaching activities in order to ensure that all the planned activities were carried out in order under the guidance of my supervisor. My supervisor held that I had to prepare my own planned activity log myself as opposed to previous sessions where my previous supervisor would have a backup plan for me in case I didn’t have any. He also stated that this could be part of my development within myself. What he meant by this was that if my session does not go according to plan, then I will have to sit down and talk with him and see where I went wrong and ways in which I could improve better for the next session. When my first session was conducted I knew precisely what I was going to do because I had already planned my session. This allowed me to effectively carry out my lesson as planned (Bruns, & Maffulli, 2000). Another thing which enhanced the success of my coaching was the leadership and communication skill which I portrayed during my coaching. My supervisors were very helpful in giving me insights into the effective skills and traits which I should possess in order for me to be successful in coaching young kids. Prioritizing effective communication and leadership skills enabled me to effectively manage the lessons while building trust and respect in the students. I was also able to ensure the safety of my students by advocating for the right type of sporting attires to be won during the lessons. This I insisted by leading in wearing the ideal sporting clothes. I realized this was very important in shaping how the students perceived me and how they related to me. Wearing sporting clothes created a warm environment for me to easily associate myself with the students. Being in an ideal environment, I checked around for any hazards that can be caused to any child before a session began. I had no jewelry on me, for health and safety reasons I had to make sure everyone was in the correct clothing and also had no jewelry. Although there were two students who were not in the ideal clothing, I was able to ensure their safety by asking them to sit out while I engage them with questions as the rest of the class was participating in the other activities(Faigenbaum, 2000). The success of my lessons can be gauged by the ability of students from diverse cultures and origins being able to communicate with each other effectively. This shows that the students build on a sense of social integration and respect for diversity. There was increased confidence and self-worth among the students. This is because the perception of the students towards their coach is shaped by what values and attitudes the coach transfers to the students. I was able to steer a well consolidated team which made work easier in terms of increasing their won competence and also in heightening my self-confidence. While in the future I would like to increase my self-confidence more so the students depend on it to grow their own self-confidence and courage. It is imperative to say that development of social competence in learning to live and communicate with each other despite our diversity, the students develop moral competent as they are able to grow morally upright since most sports integrate moral development in young children. However, there were several challenges which I deemed fit to improve in order to make my lessons more effective. I learned that coaching young children is not just about impacting a skill in the students but also, it allows the coach to impact real-life skills, values and attitudes to the students. As such, I endeavor to develop more self-confidence, courage and expertise my developing more activities which will increase the experience of the students sin the age. This way, I will be able to transfer more good skills to be students which will increase their moral, social, psychological and physical development. To achieve this, I also realized the need to be more creative. Thanks to the article which was recommended by my supervisor called successful coaching which looks into how a coach will handle a difficult situation,I learned that creative coaching is about finding qualities in yourself and being able to, present and teach them to the people you are leading. By then, I understood what was meant by the terms “creativity “. This will allow me to develop more in the future on how to improve my coaching lessons (Gilbert, & Trudel, 1999). 3. Conclusions Coaching has an intense influence on how young people develop and enjoy sports. The coaches should be highly experienced and skilled in order for them to impact the knowledge and skills which are required for the physical, psychological and social development. Coaching is increasingly being used to change the lifestyle of young children and promote the development of a healthy lifestyle. The coaching program should provide the effective feedback to the coach about the areas which need to be improved in the practice in order to enhanceefficiency. Coaching children can be challenging at times. This is because the children are in a period where most of their developmental aspects are taking place. This means that the coaching does not only develop the physical, social and psychological aspects of the students but also, it leads to transfer of skill, values and attitudes from the coach to the students. Coaching has been used my many sports coaches to help students reflect on the things which happen on the real world and how they should be handled. This is done by allowing the students to interact with each other while maintaining equality despite their diversity. This is done through the effective character traits of the coach such as communication skills and leadership skills. The coach should therefore be a person of high moral and socialcompetency so that such traits can be transferred to the students. As a result, the students learn to respect each other and communicate with each other. Communicationsolvesmanysocial problems which arise in real life. As such, this allows students to solve their real life problems by communication. Fair play during coaching impacts fair treatment by the students in other aspects of their lives. This is because coaching advocates for team work where players are required to achieve both personal and collective goals. Activities are selected during practice where different activities are allocated to specific students. This way, the coach is able to achieve collective goals through the student’s collective involvement and also ensure personal development of the player’s individual goals (Faigenbaum, 2000). 4. Recommendations This review has presented the strengths and weaknesses of the coaching work experience which was undertaken in Mile End arena. The strengths of the experience present the effectiveness of the work experience while the weaknesses are the point of concern which the coaching lessons failed to deliver the best results. The areas of concern need to be improved in this review include; Improvement of creativity in the coaching activities in order to cultivate the interest of the children in the lesson; this is because the children have low concentration span which needs to be improved through creativity. Enhanced leadership skills; this skills are very essential in transferring important aspects such as values, trust and respect to the players. Coaching activities should incorporate communication skills which are essential in training as it helps the students to solve their conflicts during and after training lessons. 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