Cliff Olsson – Teaching Table Tennis

Image yourself in this scenario – Sports hall dance studio, 4 table tennis tables set up, only a few students to participate, and the great Cliff Olsson ready to go with a table tennis bat in one hand and a ping pong ball in another.

You can see how annoyed he is there is only a few of us that have turned up, but he is still going ahead with the session. Is our lecturer going to be nasty? You just couldn’t tell nor did you want to find out.

What would you be thinking?

Take a minute to imagine yourself standing in front of him, knowing all of the above. How would you feel?

So, you’d think I’d say not very great but actually, I was happy to be there knowing I would be playing sport. On the other hand, if you are not so sporty, you would probably be stood there thinking “Get me out of here” or “I’d do anything not to be here right now” right? I think even though you would have thought this at the beginning of the session, by the end you would be amazed at what you have learnt and how this came about. Strangely I found this particular session confusing but fun as I was able to pick up the tasks set very easily.

It actually was a great session, from start to finish. Seeing the progressions that Cliff used and how he went about showing them to our particular age group.

From start to finish, Cliff had full control over the group, yet was still able to have a joke and a laugh with all students. Seeing what skills we had first was essential for Cliff to see to be able to progress us further, knowing most of us can play table tennis, (even at a basic standard) was essential so that he could carry on with the tasks for that day. Obviously we could all play to that basic standard through being brought up in a world full of sport and playing sports of some kind (I should hope because we’re on a sports course). He did this by letting us have rally’s with our choice of partner, to see our limits.

Me and my partner we’re diabolical at keeping a rally going, we decided to try and smack to the ball at each other instead, which didn’t really help our situation as none of us were great at the sport to begin with.

I think it’s safe to say, we were nothing like these.

Going through step by step instructions, Cliff shown us the correct way to hold a bat from head to toe, individually he slowly helped us to become more focused on keeping our head straight, arm in a bent position (writing arm), other arm in a straight position (to use as a guide of flow for other arm to follow), body an arms length away form the table, legs shoulder width apart, and knee’s ever so slightly bent.

Seeing the improvement for myself was great, I went from a beginner to amateur being able to strike the ball most of the time, me and my partner were able to have a rally back and forth for a lot longer than first time round. Each time we went back to learn something new, our rally’s became greater and our attitude was more focused than trying to win each other through smashing the ball at each other.

By the end of all the coaching points we all came together to have a mass competition to see who could last the longest whilst cliff was hitting the ball towards us, we were all on one table and once we had hit the ball back, we had to run around another table and back until we were the last one standing. A few different people won but nobody really stayed at the same standard as the first time we did this, by the second go around everybody stayed in a lot longer and didn’t miss hit the ball that often. Nobody was greater than another person at this, we were all very similar in skill.

By the end of this, we went into a mini tournament which was run by winners go up, losers go down. Cliff placed us all in order of how he thought we could play (I thought this was the case anyway). To be the ultimate winner, we had to make it to the top table and win everybody we had played. The underdogs started at the top! 

Strangely enough, they were able to maintain their hierarchy and stay on the top 2 tables and kept playing each other, which is not what was expected by anybody, and especially not Cliff. Trying to take them off their ‘throne’ was what seemed to be impossible. The one who didn’t try throughout the session ended up winning. How you ask? You tell me because I have no idea.

I think this just proves that teaching children or adults in set ways does not always work, yes it may for some but not all. So trying to get a person to do something if they do not want to do it may end up in them failing, whereas if you let the child learn from their own marks or mistakes, they may just surprise you and come out on top.

My theory for the day is to never let somebody tell you what to do. The same goes for coaching, never let somebody else tell you how to do your job. If you know something is working with whom you are teaching, stick with it and don’t mess it up.

P.S. I’m still amazed at the outcome to this day!

Coach Logic – TGfU

http://www.coach-logic.com/coaching-styles-teaching-games-understanding-part-1/

Working with other Coaches

It is our hope that we can engage with like-minded coaches to share experiences with others from a variety of sports and levels.

There are so many great coaches out there who will have experienced so much in their time coaching, and by sharing this you will help to improve your own performance and that of those who are at the beginning of there coaching careers. Working with the coaches that I have had chance to work with has benefited myself to be able to become more confident and assertive but not aggressive whilst coaching. It has enabled me to see the difference between two very different coaches and how they work. Working with both coaches has enlightened me to better myself and see that not all coaches are the same, moreover, everybody makes mistakes. NOT JUST BEGINNERS!

---

All good coaches know that whether you have been coaching for 30 minutes or 30 years, there is always room for improvement.

---

“It is hoped that through a variety of methods, we will be able to learn from each other to improve both your performance as coaches and ultimately the performances of those that you coach.” (Coaching Logic. 2015)

EVOLUTION OF TRIGGERS FROM ANIMALS TO COACHING PRACTICES..

James Taylor Blog

Do you think this will be an evolution? And what do you think will become of this in the future?

In contrast to Jaice’s  view, many philosophers have argued that while humans are different in a variety of ways from each other and other animals, these differences do not provide a philosophical defense for denying non-human animals moral consideration. What the basis of moral consideration is and what it amounts to has been the source of much disagreement (Standford, 2015).

Humans have an unbelievable capacity to resolve conflict peacefully if they develop certain attitudes that allow it to happen. Animals, on the other hand, rely on instinctive reactions to conflict. People possess the same instincts as animals do, but humans have the ability to reason and solve problems with their minds.

How animals and humans respond to conflict: Animals might Fight, Submit, flee and freeze. Humans might fight or contend…

View original post 150 more words

Evolution of Triggers from Animals to Coaching Practices

Has animal triggers made its way into Sports Coaching?

My example of this would involve Liverpool Football Club and Brendan Rogers philosophy of when an opposing player is looking at the ball you can go in for a tackle as they are concentrating more on the ball and not who is running towards them.

How animals are involved in this you ask?

Well, if you think about a human or an animal trapping another animal to catch them for food, this is a trigger or a trap, whichever way you would like to think of it. An animal will therefore wait for the animal they are wanting to pounce on to look at something else, or concentrate on another thing and that animal will then be able to pounce and catch their prey.

The same in football, Liverpool defence are told to wait for the opposing attacking players to concentrate on the ball and then go in for the tackle. Again they will more than likely be successful.

My final questions from this to you is, do you think this will be an evolution? And what do you think will become of this in the future?

This is just a bit of fun to see if I do get any responses and see how many people actually believe this could be a philosophy or practice.

Explicit and Implicit Learning

I believe that we both have the same ideas when it comes to coaching young children, this has helped me to understand both learning methods better as well as my own research that I have done.
Younger children do need the freedom to learn freely rather than in a structured environment but they also need a structure to ensure that they are performing the skill correctly. Both learning methods enhance each other and could be throughout any age group but especially younger children as they are learning motor skills and not sport related skills which is important for not only sport but every day life too.

James Taylor Blog

Explicit learning is characterised by:

• A large set of rules and knowledge of how to perform a skill
• Conscious processing of these rules by the athlete
• The athlete is able to explain, when questioned, how a skill is performed

Implicit learning is characterised by:

• Subconscious learning of skills
• Lack of verbal instructions
• The athlete is unable to explain, when questioned, how a skill is performed

The methods used in every coaching course I have attended sit heavily in the explicit learning style and on first glance this appears the sensible approach as it provides a methodical approach to teaching and subsequently checking for understanding or learning by the athlete.

Implicit learning is far more difficult to implement as it requires critical and creative thinking to shape the training environment in order to produce the desired movement outcome and makes it hard for the coach to assess how much the athlete…

View original post 198 more words

Implicit V Explicit Learning

Which do you think works best? & which is more important for a coach to know & exactly how can this change the way a coach teach’s their participants?

I’m going to tell you exactly what I think.

Implicit learning – individuals with impaired movement dynamics may benefit from implicit learning methods when acquiring sports-related motor skills. Individuals with altered movement dynamics and compromised working memory can benefit from implicit motor learning. (Steenbergen Et al, 2010)

Explicit Learning – Explicit learning places high demands on working memory capacity, but engagement of working memory is largely circumvented when skills are learned implicitly. Older people, whose movement dynamics deteriorate, can implicitly learn sports-related motor skills and that this results in more durable performance gains than explicit learning. (Steenbergen Et al, 2010)

What’s the difference?

Implicit learning methods typically contain no formal instruction about how to perform the skill yet result in a learner being able to perform the skill despite being unable to verbally describe how they do it. Explicit learning can be related to traditional coaching approaches where verbal instruction is used to coach a learner about how to perform a skill. This process typically results in the learner being able to verbalise how to perform the skill, although it does not guarantee the learner can physically execute the skill (Farrow, 2015).

In theory Implicit learning could lead into explicit learning, for example a child with an born ability at a particular sport would be able to perform well in that sport however when questioned about it he/she would not be able to explain oneself. However if the child was to research and study the motor skills, the child would then be able to explain clearer or fully at a later point.

How can this affect my coaching style?

For myself, explicit learning would be a more effective way of coaching as I am working with younger children, so this would mean that I would be able to explain in better detail to the children as well as enabling them to fully understand that motor skill themselves so that they could explain it themselves, and how they are performing that skill. This would benefit the children I coach as when I coach, I ask a lot of questions to them to see if they understand what I have demonstrated. This would be obvious to me as they will all be able to respond to my questions with the correct answers.

Implicit learning is better for informal structures, for example at a skate park, children are being coached but they do not need to reiterate what they have learnt and how they have learnt that skill. They are just able to do that skill and keep doing that skill without people questioning them so they are more likely to learn more because they are not being hassled to do better.

A Philosophical Chain

What are my values & beliefs?

 Yourself, as a coach, may or may not agree with what I believe is right or wrong as a coach  but I feel that it is necessary to every coach that they have their own philosophy and stick tot hat philosophy regardless of what might be happening inside or outside of your comfort zone. This pressure can sway you to make drastic changes to your philosophy within a tight game or competition which can alter how parents and athletes see you. They could start to believe that you are easily influenced and take that on board themselves, which in turn could alter how they behave around and towards you during training sessions or games/competitions.

my philosophical chain mainly includes building rapport and development as I feel that they are the most important to my coaching and how I approach coaching. Building rapport is vital to coaching, as you need to be a friend as well as coaching with the age group that I love coaching. Being a friend gives the children confidence to be able to come and approach the coach and then gives them more confidence to enjoy the training and thus bringing in my other main value which is development, if the children are having fun they are more than likely to develop their skills without knowing they are learning.

Some sports are only interested in how well they play (whether they win or not) which can keep up their own reputation and not develop their players. This to me is totally wrong on all levels, athletes should be able to enjoy the sport that they play without being criticised if they are not winning games, to me performance is key, if they perform well (even without winning) that to me is winning, it enables them to create more opportunities for themselves whilst they are enjoying their sport.

My coaching philosophy has come through my past experiences and how I was treated whilst I was being coached myself. I was mistreated and left out of a few experiences because I was discriminated by my height, when I was able to trial for higher teams I was not able to make the teams through being short. Sterkowicz & Zak (2014) gives us the information that players with long competitive experience with adequate weight or height ratios are usually selected for national teams. Again because I was short and not exactly thin, I feel as though I was not chosen and overlooked as soon as I walked into the sports hall. This is not what I want potential future athletes to go through as it can put you off for life.

Knowledge V Intelligence

What is more important? Can you really distinguish the difference between knowledge and intelligence? Do you think coaches or athletes know the difference between them? How can this effect your learning or teaching? Lastly, Does this effect me as a coach if I did not know this?

Knowledge – one of the most important factors to develop both coach and athlete. Knowledge is based upon facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject (Oxford Dictionary, accessed March 2015).

Intelligence – would you say that we are born with intelligence or is it learnt through others? Intelligence enhances the process of the coaches philosophy, benefiting both coach and athlete. Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills (Oxford Dictionary, accessed March 2015).

“Listening to a meaningful speech is knowledge, applying what you listened is intelligence”

“Knowledge speaks, Wisdom listens” (Jimi Hendrix)

Thinking about these 2 definitions of knowledge and intelligence, it is vital for a coach to know the difference so that they can provide themselves with the intelligence if they do not have the knowledge or gain knowledge to enhance their intelligence. Both work hand-in-hand but can mean so much more standing on their own.

For myself, coaching has given me intelligence and I have given my participants knowledge but, coaching given me extra knowledge whilst I have given my participants some intelligence.

Could you work with one when the other isn’t involved? I’d say no, they both work together to enhance each other. Which in turn, turns a situations or problem into something greater or enables somebody to progress better. If I had knowledge without intelligence, I couldn’t portray that knowledge because I wouldn’t know how. The same would apply if I had intelligence with no knowledge, how could I do anything with my intelligence if I had little knowledge. Personally, I feel as though my intelligence and knowledge wouldn’t stand and help on their own.

Reblog – jamesryantaylor.wordpress

This blog belongs to James Ryan Taylor’s blog on his thoughts on coaching guidelines provided by Sports Coach UK. I have decided to reblog this as his opinions and beliefs are very similar to what I feel coaching is about and the guidelines that are presented are important to all coaches, know matter what your own philosophy is. These guidelines give you great understanding and knowledge of the expectations of Sports Coach UK themselves.

My thoughts on these coaching guidelines from Sport Coach UK.