Coach Learning and Development (CLAD)

(Potrac and Cassidy 2006 emphasis added) Thinking of the past…. The traditional role for the coach has been highly directive, instructional or prescriptive (Kidman 2001, Cassidy et al. 2004) The coach decides when and how athletes performance specified skills or movements (Potrac and Cassidy 2006 emphasis added) The coach is the unique knowledgeable source and directs a linear relationship where athletes a viewed as passive learners (Potrac and Cassidy 2006) 3

The coach and assumptions Possible problems with this approach? The isolation of movement skills from performance contexts during practice Task decomposition during learning The role of repetition. In skill practices to allow learners to transfer acquired technical skills into game situations (Adapted from Rink 2005)

How have these perspectives manifest in coaching practice? The use of the following approaches to coaching (learning?) Role of coach Mechanisms for learning (i.e. practice conditions, instruction) Role of players (learners)? 5

Thinking about planning effective learning environments (to create decision makers) New skill learning Skill Revision Introduction Evaluation/ Closure Warm up Skill Practice (drills/games) Game

A rationale for games based approaches A large number of children have achieved little success as a result of emphasis on component skill performance Leave understanding very little about games Development of putatively technically sound players with poor decision making capacity “ the basic philosophy of TGfU is that a person can play games with limited techniques and, even with limited techniques be very competitive” 7

Cinderella stories

Brazil v England (Ford et al. 2012) 9

Unstructured, enjoyable and non-coached practices

Success of ‘TEST’ batsmen?

You as ‘educator’ players as learners 1. Social interaction 2. Zone of proximal development 3. Cognitive apprenticeship 4. Scaffolding

- Readdressing the balance ‘why’ before ‘how’. (Hopper, 2002) Implementing a ‘Games’ approach - Designing learning experiences for individuals to acquire tactical skills - Modified games - Suitable for current physical, intellectual and social states of development - Readdressing the balance ‘why’ before ‘how’. (Hopper, 2002) 13

- emphasis placed on active learning Theorising how players learn…… The ‘game sense’ approach may be consistent with constructivist approaches to learning… Why? - emphasis placed on active learning the involvement of processes of perception decision making and understanding modification of games to suit

The ‘reversal phenomenon’ for YOU as coach Performance Learning High levels of instruction Infrequent Demonstration Blocked/massed practice Random/non-linear Increased feedback Decreased feedback 15

Let the game be the TEACHER Environment is the CLASSROOM Problem Based Approaches Let the game be the TEACHER Environment is the CLASSROOM YOU as the FACILTATOR 16