Unit 6 – Coaching for performance and fitness

Learning aim A – Investgaae coaching for performance and faness

A1 – Skills and knowledge for coaching and performance.General skills for coachingCoach is an ever changing role, lots of demands placed on their skill, expertse and supportve qualites. For a coach to be successful they must have lots of qualites to call upon to cope. These include:• Well organised,• Good rapport, • Excellent communicaton skills, • Excellent motvator, • Good diplomacy, • Have a good understanding of the athlete, • Good knowledge of the event.

OrganisatonThese are crucial. What are the basic ideas around organisaton. Examples?Anyone who does not prepare will struggle to deliver quality sessions. “fail ao prepare, prepare ao fail”Organisaton serves a number of purposes;

1. Identfying the aim and objectve of the session2. Planning to meet the needs of the partcipants, 3. Planning for equipment and facilites that may be needed, 4. Identfying the outcome achievements.

Good organisaton allows the coach to be adaptve and refectve and respond to the needs of the session to allow it to fow smoothly. It is important to write the session down, maybe keep records or diaries to log how sessions progress or if they didn’t why.

RapporaWhat is rapport? Discuss?It is an efectve working relatonship that is built up through efectve communicaton. For sessions to be enjoyable, the coach must be able to establish a rapport quickly.An important aspect of a coach/athlete’s relatonship is the need to want to achieve. This does not have to be winning though, it can be a personal batle from improving skill or regaining full ftness.

Motvaton – Why is this important?This is key for learning and coaching. The athlete wants to get the most out over any/every session. Positve coaching environments with stable conditons will keep the partcipants focussed. Negatvity can have the opposite efect, demotvatng the partcipants. Long term this can totally diminish an athletes drive and could allow they to become despondent and reduce self-confdence and improvement.

Communicaton and diplomacyCommunicaton is possibly the single most valuable skill we have.Excellent communicaton can enable you to provide essental instructon, motvaton and encouragement to succeed. The coaches opinion is not always right, they must guide the athlete and refect up feedback they are presented with. The coach must:Be able to provide clear messages

Mostly non-verbal; positve and negatve body language; this is the main feedback a performer receives so presentaton of self is important

Avoid overusing verbal communicaton, can lead to confusion; to much informaton is not good; pace, tone, volume, will have a signifcant efect on the partcipant'ss engagement; a coach who spends too much tme shoutng abuse will lose the respect of the partcipants, partcipants want to be coached so the coach must be diplomatc in order to motvate them.

Communicaton and diplomacy (contnued)

Be able to receive incoming messages Involves understanding signs and signals or other players, ofcials

etc.; Listening to opinions from players such as tactcal decisions, drills in practce or perhaps opponent informaton; a coaches refecton on informaton they have received from the athletes will help develop their ideas and coaching strategies.

Be able to check message receptonMUST check for understanding; can be called “learning check”;

good coaches will queston their players regularly to check for understanding; if something is misunderstood then it must be reinforced as it might be crucial to overall performance; one way is to ask the partcipants to explain in their own words.

Knowledge of spora’s aechnical, aactcal and faness characaeristcs and demandsAthletes confdence can grow if they are being coached by someone with a good knowledge of this.

Coaches are mentors, athletes should have trust in their decision making and skills to achieve.

A good coach must understand the sport, both physical and technical demands of the actvity.

A lot of experience can come from partcipaton themselves, not necessarily at a high level, but enough to understand performance characteristcs.

Specialisa knowledge means the coach are able to identfy tactcs that may infuence play, skills needed to achieve them plus the ftness demands placed upon them.

Apart from courses or qualifcatons, where else

might this come from?

Knowledge of spora’s aechnical, aactcal and faness characaeristcs and demands (contnued)Each sport has its own physical ftness demands, which we can divide into two areas. Do we know what they are?1. Physical ftness• The ability to cope with the demands of an actvity, with

efciency without becoming excessively fatgued. • Sportng context – 400m runner able to sprint at a fast pace to

win the race with a quick tme. Their ftness level is sufcient enough to not slow down because premature fatgue.

2. Skill-related ftness• More actvity specifc. It is the abilites of functonal underlying

skills with partcipatng in sport.• They are not focused on one sport, but are fundamental to being

successful.

Challenge and develop performance and faness wiah a range of actvites and sporas adaptonsA coach must have a thorough understanding of the rules and techniques needed to deliver stmulatng practces.

They should replicate game or event situatons, adaptng skills needed for compettve performance.

Sportng conaexa – badminton serve, most know when practcing short and long serves the rules and techniques needed to place the shot.

Coach must be fexible; use space efectvely; adaptable with actvites, tme, pace/speed of actvity, people involved, intensity and duraton.

Changes aim to develop skills, adapton of games can help to coach basic skills that can then be developed in greater difculty.

When working with young partcipants, it is important to focus on the enjoyment, to promote a love of the sport, inspiring future partcipaton. Sportng context – not introducing ‘full-contact’ tackling in rugby too early in order to prevent them being put of by them.

Planning for changing conditonsAs said before, it is important to be adaptable. Not everything goes to plan. It is important to plan for the unexpected, contngency plans are useful to have. Its not always easy to predict what might happen, but it is good to try to think of what might happen with what you want to deliver. Examples?High numbers of partcipants and low numbers/quality of equipment. Small sided/adapted games to use the space more appropriately. There are a number of infuences on planned sessions;

1. Weather, 2. Partcipant numbers (team games),3. Facility availability, 4. Equipment availability, 5. Rate of progress (skills easy/difcult)6. Session too tedious or not varied enough, 7. Locaton – practce conditons are safe.

Planning for progressionProgression takes tme. Doesn’t happen overnight. Can take years.

Important to start with the basics. Important to break skills down, as no-one can pick up a badminton racket and perform a smash winner straight away.

In badminton, aactcal demands come from when a shot is appropriate to take. Therefore as we progress we begin to understand shot choice and placement.

Fitness progression is the most common type of progression. It can come from development of training programmes that become progressively more difcult over weeks/months of training.

It is event specifc, but the basic principle of progressive overload applies in order to make the body fter and stronger.

Mainaaining safeay in changing conditonsThis is the coaches responsibility throughout the session. They should consider the safety of:1. The aahleae• Are they correctly dressed? No jewellery that might cause harm or

damage equipment? Medical health history such as epilepsy etc.

2. The equipmena• Has it been serviced and in appropriate conditon for use? Are there

any sharp points? (javelin)

3. The locaton• Suitable for use? Check for hazards, such as uneven surface, rubbish,

obstructons from other equipment, poor lightng?

4. The weaaher conditons• Dangerous for partcipaton? When should golfers, professional or not,

avoid playing?

A2 – Qualities for coaching for performance and fitnessA good coach should have a range of qualites. Parentng qualites are ofen needed, showing understanding and empathy to support the athletes needs. Some athletes are more willing to talk to coaches about issues than parents, therefore coaches need to show a positve attude and be approachable.

Task – in small groups, research the qualites that you feel are important that coaches have and why.

Coaches can infuence player development in a number of ways;1. Social – sport has a code of acceptable social behaviour,

teamwork, citzenship, cooperaton and fair play.

2. Personal – learn life skills, promote self-esteem, manage personal maters such as career/socialising, develop values and manners, politeness and self-discipline.

3. Psychological – coaches create environments that help performers control emotons, develop individual identtes, confdence, mental toughness, visualisaton and a positve outlook.

4. Health – good healthy habits can be learned and maintained through positve sessions from coaches.

Typical Qualites

FitnessPersonal

appearance

Approachable

Proactve

Positve attude

Knowledge

Time-keeping

Suitable level of ftness to interact, making it a motvatng enthusiastc actvity

Professionalism. Dressed appropriately in order to provide demonstratons.

Punctual, setng standards and expectatons. Start/fnish on tme, also in compettons.

To inspire all they work with. Can bring motvaton and enthusiasm to succeed. Positve role model for group.

Good understanding of actvity coaching. Be analytcal, observe performance, refect how it went and provide clear and accurate feedback.

Independently lead and take control of sessions. Being adaptable to develop practces that are tailored to individual needs. Diferentaton.

Easy to communicate with. Trusted and able to share ideas, thoughts and knowledge. Should listen to feelings, thoughts with positvity to inspire further achievements.

Oaher Qualites (Professionalism):• Positve role modelling• Knowledge• Problem solving abilites• Adaptability• Empathy• Approachability• Enthusiasm• Positvity• Appropriate levels of confdence• Refectve skills• Ability to be analytcal and observant• Ability to be responsive and reactve• Awareness of individual athlete’s

ability• Experience

A3 – Best practice for coach for performance and fitness

Task – You are going to research aspects that are involved in this secton. There are 4 sectons to research:

1. Safeguarding, DBS and equal opporaunites• What is safeguarding? Sports examples. What is a DBS? What does equal opportunites

mean and involve?

2. Qualifcatons and CPD• What does it mean to have qualifcatons? What examples are there? What are NGB

qualifcatons? Where can you fnd informaton about them? What does CPD mean? What does it involve? Do you think you will need other qualifcatons, not just sportng?

3. Risk assessmenas and emergency procedures• What is a risk assessment? Sportng example? What is an example of an emergency

procedure?

4. Adminisaraton for coaching• For a coach to be successful, what could they put in place? How might the coach keep

track of sessions and progression? What is a PAR-Q and what useful informaton could the coach gain from it in order to keep a log of? What is an easy way to keep a track of partcipants involved in your sessions?

A4 – Methods of supporting the development and performance

FeedbackVery important. Performer should always be informed of progress. Important to identfy positves, and carefully identfy weaknesses. Athletes who receive praise and positve feedback are more likely to keep motvated. There are many types of feedback:

1. Sandwich Feedback• Sequence feedback, positve-constructve-positve.

2. “Two saars and a wish”• Efectve method of one-to-one feedback.• Used with younger athletes. • 2 positves (stars), and one improvement (wish)

Hoa and cold feedbackTiming of feedback is crucial. Feedback during the event can provide limited tme to create new response.

Immediate post-event feedback can be more supportve in order to change performance in the future.

It is important to limit the tme of post event/session in order to fully refect on feedback provided.

Goal SetngImportant to understand the personal goals of the performer.We need to consider:

1. Primary goals• First stage of goal setng. It will be the ultmate aim of achievement

and will involved several secondary goals.

2. Secondary goals• These are mini-targets and foundatons of the primary goal. • Don’t have much individual value, but together ultmately allow you

to achieve primary goal. • The secondary goals are useful to encourage the performer to reach

their primary goal. • They help the coach to:

• Focus the atenton of the athlete• Encourage determinaton to achieve• Motvate learning• Increase the efort needed throughout partcipaton.

Goal setng contnuedThere are specifc types of goals:

1. Process goals – refning of skills. Sportng example?2. Performance goals – More compettve based. Use the process goals to

aid the achieving of the fnal compettve outcome. More manageable as they can be adjusted throughout the season/training session. Performers may have goals in training sessions, such as in hockey, hitng the back of the net taking penaltes, or in basketball, scoring a specifc amount of free-throws by the end of the training session. It is important to have something to aim for in training sessions.

Others include long/medium/short term targets. These targets must always follow the format of the ‘SMART’ principle. By using ‘SMART’ targets we can identfy secondary short/medium targets and primary long term targets, whether they are realistcally achievable, and there is enough tme to complete the primary goal.

Task – defne what long/medium/short targets are and how they difer. Then explain what the ‘SMART’ principle is.

A5 – Technology and sports professionals

Technology has enhanced performers throughout the years. It has allowed signifcant advances in skills and achievements.

Supportng aechnologies Global Positoning Satellite (GPS)Keep track on athletes’ movements during training and competton.Used in cycling, but becoming more popular in rugby and football. It is expensive but can provide the coaching staf with data and statstcs on performer speed/acceleraton, disaance run, locaton on piach and player actviay. The coaches can also analyse from pitch side, looking at physiological responses of players, work rate and fatgue. This helps the coach to pick the freshest and most efectve team.

Supporting technologies (continued)

Video TechnologyThis helps the coach analyse performance from visual recordings. The frst and most obvious is watching back recordings of the game to see goals, engagement, errors and success. This type can be limited due to it only being as good as the coach. There is additonal sofware available that uses video footage to create data feedback for biomechanical analysis. It is beter as we can use it to look at specifc areas, such as:

1. Strengths and weaknesses,2. Observe technique and movement efciency, 3. Measure acceleraton and deceleraton,4. Measure movement velocity, 5. Measure power, 6. Support injury management.

Sportng example – assessing take-of velocity and technique of a long jumper.

There are a range of programmes that coaches can use:1. Quintc2. Dartish3. Kinovea4. Sports Coach5. Kandle

Supporting technologies (continued)

Advances in technology have enable coaches to analyse lots of informaton both in training and competton. It is much more readily available and can be downloaded to mobile phones and tablets. Can anyone ahink of any?

Mapmyrun (GPS tracking system), Sarava (GPS tracking system for runs and cycling), MyFianessPal (calorie counter and diet tracker), Fiabia (monitoring app that tracks all day actvity, workouts and health), Insaana Heara Raae (heart rate monitoring app) , Ski Tracks (GPS tracker for mountain Skiing) and Hudl aechnique (slow moton video analysis sofware.

Some of the previous applicatons are free, or might have a minor cost, and provide the modern coach with much more informaton.

Can analyse team performance also, through other programmes such as Prozone and Eyevision.

Use of these new technologies give coaches more opportunity to be scientfc, creatng statstcs on individual/team performance. They can look at coaching strategies and/or ftness of the team.

Social media, YouTube and other such online forums are available for coaches to keep up to date and learn new ideas to improve performance.

Supporting technologies (continued)

• Coaches can work alongside sport scientsts that can use technologies such as VO2 max assessments and lactate threshold testng.

• VO2 max testng is the maximum oxygen uptake of the body and it can be assessed using a gas analysis procedure that measures how hard we work during exercise. It is one of, if not the most efectve ways to asses true cardiovascular ftness.

• Coaches can look at results from such tests and alter training schedules and sessions to improve any areas needing improvement.

• Why would this type of assessment be limited for coaches to use?

Supporting technologies (continued)

Supporting technologies (continued)Q – Whaa is ahe efectveness, cosa, practcaliay, usabiliay and relevance of aechnologies for coach and aahleae.

Supporting ProfessionalsQ – who would be more likely to be able to use the types of technology talked about previously?Elite athletes are more likely to be involved with supportng individuals that can enhance their performance. Q – What individuals are available for performers to use to enhance their performance?• Sports scientsts, • Sports nutritonists, • Sports therapists (massage/osteopath/chiropractor)• Physiotherapists • Psychologist • Strength and conditoning coaches

Q – What would be the down side to the use of such professionals?

Cost is a major issue with the use of specialists. Coaches would ofen need sufcient funding in order to use them.

Availability, tme and logistcs are also issues with the use of specialist.

The use of them is relevant to the improvement of the performer, but the practcality of using will be difcult. It would be much easier for an Elite athlete to use these professionals than an amateur. – Why?

Supporting Professionals