Summary of reflections
This year I have learned a lot about coaching, and I feel my ability to coach has definitely improved through my experiences at placement. The school I have been at on placement (Weetwood Primary School) have been very supportive, especially Mrs. Lowe (the P.E. teacher).
When we first started placement, we were struggling to motivate the participants to put effort into our sessions. After doing some reading around self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and the theory of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), it became apparent that I needed to provide the participants with a feeling of competence. I planned to do this by creating a points system for the participants when doing a task, which is something I will definitely use in future when coaching.
During our time at placement, there were certain sessions that were more challenging than others. One of these was our fourth session, in which there was no teacher present. During this session, the behaviour was a lot worse than usual. In blog post 2, I have discussed how I think we could have handled this issue better by demonstrating care after reading the caring coaching model (Fisher et al., 2019). This has changed how I would think about situations like this in the future.
In blog post 3, I discussed what happened when we were put with a new class for a short period of 3 weeks. I mentioned that we had planned to try to improve skills from the first week and try to have the class playing a full game by week 3. However, after reading the personal assets framework for sport (Cote, Turnidge & Evans, 2014), I understand that before skills can be improved, quality relationships need to be built with the participants. Thinking back about the participants I worked with at placement, the ones that I had built quality relationships with were the ones that improved the most.
How my employability has developed
I feel my employability has improved the most this year through the coaching experience I have gained at placement, but I have also gained experience through attending different events throughout the year.
Firstly, I mentored two different level 4 groups at two different festivals. This was a valuable experience as it gave me a chance to watch coaching being performed from a different angle. I could see what the coaches were doing wrong and after reflecting on it, I realised that I sometimes do some of the things I advised them not to do or to do differently. This gave me an opportunity to reflect on the way I coach and change some of my habits.
I also attended two workshops which the level 6 students ran earlier in the year. The workshops I attended were titled “Behaviour management” and “Parents influence on children’s participation and performance in sport”. Both workshops provided me with different views on why children behave in certain ways and the ways in which parents can affect children. I would not have thought about either of these issues in the ways I was taught in these workshops, so it has provided me with a different way of thinking when dealing with issues in the future.
At my placement, as well as coaching sessions I have been helping with an after-school netball club. I volunteered to referee a game for the club against another school, which also involved coaching during the breaks between each quarter. This gave me the opportunity to coach in a different setting than I am used to. Coaching in a game is completely different to coaching in a session, and if I go into teaching and run a sports club, this is something I will need to do.
Finally, I attended two employability courses entitled “Mistakes to avoid when writing a CV” and “How to write a cover letter”. These courses were very useful as I have never been taught how to write a CV or a cover letter before, so learning how to will definitely increase my chances of getting a job in the future.
SMART action plan for next year
Next year, I aim to gain more coaching experience and improve my coaching ability. Specifically, I would like to achieve level 1 qualifications in at least two more sports, and either find a coaching job or volunteer to coach on top of placement. I will be able to measure my goals as I will know if I have achieved two qualifications by completing the courses and receiving the certifications, and I will aim to complete at least one hour of extra coaching per week to measure how much extra experience I have gained. I believe these goals are achievable as I have already passed a level 1 course in football so I will be able to pass them in two other sports as well. I also believe that I can achieve one hour of extra coaching per week as I have plenty of spare time in my timetable and one hour per week is not too much to take out of it. In the future I want to become a primary school teacher and I believe both of these goals are relevant to that; if I do become a primary school teacher, I will have to teach many different sports in P.E. lessons, so it will be useful to have qualifications in as many sports as possible. Also, all coaching experience will help me as I may come across situations I have not come across before which will help me to develop. Finally, the goals are time-bound as I am aiming to complete them by the end of the next academic year.
References
Bandura, A. (1977) ‘Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change’, Psychological Review, (2), p. 191. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsovi&AN=edsovi.00006832.197703000.00002&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 4 March 2020).
Côté, J., Turnnidge, J. and Evans, M. B. (2014) ‘The Dynamic Process of Development through Sport. / Dinamični Proces Razvoja Prek Športa’, Kinesiologia Slovenica, 20(3), pp. 14–26. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=101535985&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 4 March 2020).
Fisher, L. A., Larsen, L. K., Bejar, M. P., & Shigeno, T. C. (2019). A heuristic for the relationship between caring coaching and elite athlete performance. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 14(2), 126.
Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2000) ‘Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being’, The American Psychologist, (1). Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbig&AN=edsbig.A63492306&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 10 December 2019).
Nathan Westwell - Coaching Blog 