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!

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

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“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

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.

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.

Positive coaching through bias umpiring

LJMU 1st Vs UCLan 1st

This video, if you skip through the 4 quarters show how bias a home team can be, even if they don’t want to be. This is clearly demonstrated throughout this game with Liverpool John Moores at home to UCLan 1st team. We can clearly see who has better skill (not being bias myself because it is our home team) but because you can see that skill. Whereas John Moores just throw the ball in to Eleanor Cardwell pretty much every time. Great skill? Maybe, just not great to watch as a supporter.

Anywho, back onto the subject matter of coaching through bias umpiring. Some would say athletes only believe that the home team are bias because of that home team advantage (fans and background). Most of the time, home teams do get their umpires, referees and/or officials themselves, either from being previous students or a love of the club or game. In university cases, once you have your officials, they automatically become bias because of contributing factors such as fans, or the love for the university. As a coach it is your job to keep your team stable and confident when going to away games and during those away games to enable your team to get the best potential out of these situations.

Never go to a game thinking that the home team advantage is going to occur, because not all university officials are bias, only the majority. This could play great for yourself if you go into a game believing in your own team and their abilities, again the coach would play a vital role with this by initially talking and encouraging your team to stick to their own game plan and go ahead and get a fanatic away win.

“The atmosphere created by the home team fans is thought to be the major contributing factor, but the extent of this influence is dependent on the referee” (Poolton, Siu & Masters. 2011)

This statement in itself could explain many situations of home team advantage or bias, some officials will be able to cope with home fans and not change their mind, but others unfortunately are greatly affected by this and do start to become maybe even a little bias, if not sometimes a lot.

The best way to deal with this as a coach? Play your own game, play through the bias. As they say “Smile and wave” use this as part of your game (even the coach can do this), if your players do seem to be getting pulled up a lot by an official, allow your players to let them know that they’re sorry and give them ideas as what they can try to do different next time. If you notice that a particular player is being pulled a lot for something they may or may not be doing, either get them to call time and take them off for a while or give them more ideas on how to change the game to how they want to play it.

LJMU 1st Vs Durham 1st

As you can see through this picture, the GK is clearly contacting the GS, right? Well in this case, obviously because of home team bias, the GS gets called up for a contact upon the GK. In my eyes, terrible decisions but what can you do? Easy, same as above, you carry on coaching like the professional coach you are and you ignore the home team bias advantages, encourage your team to play their own game and hopefully win!

Yes, I know! Easier said than done, but to keep your team calm and collected that’s what you have to do as a coach yourself. If your coach gets annoyed and starts shouting etc, what do you think your players are going to do? Exactly, follow their coach and shout and get annoyed too.