Presenting and Sharing Information #SpCP13

How can coaches and teachers present their information to young athletes?

This question has always lingered in my mind as to how i would like to present and share information to my PE students.

After study and research i stumbled acroos a website called "Sport Coaching Brain" which outlines 101 coaching tips which i believe is extremely helpful to a teacher as well.

The ideas that caught my attention were:

• plan
• develop communication skills and never stop trying
• learn to use technology
• never stop learning
• be open-minded
• accept criticism
• allocate time
• steal ideas from other sports
• develop coach idependent athletes
• listen with eyes and watch with ears
• coach person not performance
• communicate - clearly, concisely, calmly and constructively
• be willing to share
• be enthusiatic
• be flexible
• do your homework
• inspire your athletes.

This website was influential and I believe a great source to refer to as a beginning coach or teacher entering the sporting industry and stuck with how to present their ideas and share information to their team and class.

Reference:

Sports Coaching Brain. 2013. 101 Coaching Tips. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com/101-coaching-tips/. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Managing Data # SpCP13

As a coach and teacher there are many expectations to be able to manage sporting data. This refers to analysing the athlete or students performance, reseaching and gathering information from primary, secondary and meta sources.
It also involves comparisons from athlete to another, one team to another, and one competition to another. It also consists of the analysis of tactical, physical and technical performance.

What is the easiest and most efficient way of acquiring and representing this data?

I believe the easiest way as a coach/teacher is to break it down into small steps and procedures to increase efficiency and accuracy.
1. Identify what is being measured - skill, physicality, performance, results or technical performance
2. Conduct measurements - comparisons
3. Record measurements
4. Represent measurements in appropriate ways i.e graphs or tables
5. Evaluate the effectivennes, store the data and provide feedback to athletes

I believe these 5 steps are the most basic principles to managing data as a coach or teacher.

Mentoring Programs #SpCP13

I often wonder how we can develop mentoring programs as coaches and teachers. The answer lies within the Australian Sports Commision.

Mentoring is an effective way for coaches and teachers to help, transfer knowledge, connect, support and assist in improvements and problem solving. Mentoring can be formal or informal.
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) provides PDF documents of mentoring case studies, guides and outlines for coaches and teachers to assess.
Here is the link:

http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/coachofficial/presenter/Mentor

One that captured my attention was the file about "Mentoring training programs", which outlined an influential definition of mentoring - "Behind every successful person, there is one elementary truth: somewhere, somehow, someone care about their growth and development. This person was their mentor" - Dr Beverly Kaye 1997.
It highlights the purpose of mentoring which is professional development, accreditation, updating and fast tracking. It outlines the characterisitics of mentees and the mentoring process.

There are many great sources to refer to as coaches and teachers to enhance our mentoring programs in the sporting sector and I believe the ASC is the most useful, understandable and doable.

Reference:

Australian Sports Commission. 2013. Mentor Training. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/coachofficial/presenter/Mentor. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Long-Term Athlete Development #SpCP13

What is Long-term athlete development? What are the benefits?

Several cases of teachers and coaches are unaware or not fully knowledgable about long-term athlete developlment (LTAD). I beleive it should be educated more thoroughly across the PDHPE sector at school and at sporting organisations. I believe more promotion in the media to society is necessary.

Canadian Sports for Life identifies great information about LTAD.
There are 7 stages of LTAD:
1. Active Start - 0-6 years
2. Fundamental - Girls 6-8 Boys 6-9
3. Learn to train - Girls 8-11 Boys 9-12
4. Train to train - Girls 11-15 Boys 12-16
5. Train to compete - Girls 15-21 Boys 16-23
6. Train to win - Girls 18+ Boys 19+
7. Active for life - all ages

Stages 1, 2, and 3 develop physical literacy before puberty so that children have the basic skills to be active for life. Physical literacy provides the foundation for those who choose to persure elite training in one sport or activity after the age of 12.

Stages 4,5, and 6 provide elite training for those who want to specialise in one sport and compete at the highest level, maximising the physical, mental and emotional development of each athlete.
Stage 7 is about living and active life to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Coaches and teachers need to be aware that to optimize the development of athletes, it is important to include elements of sports science and coaching practices into the 10 key factors of LTAD:

• exellence takes time
• fundamentals
• specialisation
• developmental age
• trainability
• physical, mental, cognitive and emotional development
• periodisation
• competition planning
• system alignment and integration
• continuous improvements

When you search Canadian Sports for life there are great visuals to see to help demonstrate the LTAD structure.

Long-term athlete development includes guidelines for training, competition and recovery based on principles of human development and maturation. This procedure considers the best interest of the athlete and I beleive needs to be highlighted and focused on more in our sporting society today.

Reference:

Canadian Sports for Life. 2013. Long-Term Athlete Development. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/coaches. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Performance Reviews #SpCP13

Performance reviews are the most critical sport performance enhancing process to conduct. Performance reviews allow for an opportunity to review and reward positives and to determine what can be improved on to achieve a better athletic performance.

The greatest coaches, teachers and sports people are thos who analyse their strengths and determine the aspects that need further development. As coahces and teachers have the most impact on sporting results it is important that they also conduct performance reviews.

Athletes Assessment outlines ways to conduct a review:

• line of review and time frame: identify who is going to be reviewed and who is the person doing the review.
• recording and conducting of review: each review is to be recorded, one on one discussions, data review, feedback from others, determine the succes and opportunities.

It is important to recognise the legal implications of performance reviews. As the law equires performance reviews to be job-relagted and valid, not bias, and performed by people who have knowledge in the area.

Here is an example of another performance review!
www.sportsscholarshippro.com

I believe performance reviews on both coaches, teaches and athletes can be very beneficial if conducted correctly and is an important aspect in the sporting industry.

Reference:

Athletes Assessment. 2013. Coach Performance Reviews. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.athleteassessments.com/articles/coach_performance_reviews.html. [Accessed 09 May 13]

Reflection #SpCP13

Why is reflection important to PE teachers and students?

Both teachers and students gain substantial advantages through conducting the process reflection. Reflection has the ability to determine the effectiveness of PE teachers methods and practices and evaluation of the students; skills, knowledge and performance. Reflection has the ability to determine the future procedures.

According to Katie Charner-Laird who is a principal at Lincoln-Eliot school in Newton states that encouraging students to pause and think about what they're leaning and why it is relevant to their lives is critical. Katie describles reflection as " the mind's strongest glue for making the connections essential to understanding, regardless of the subject matter".

Teachers can use a variety of media including bogs and audio interviews to encourage and capture reflection. The goal of allowing 5-10 minutes at the end of every lesson for reflection is to encourage students to begin to reflect more frequently and naturally in their day to day lives.

In society today, the advancement of technology allows reflection to be tedious and time intensive. There are many questions teachers can ask PE students during reflection time:
What did you learn?
How do you know you learned it?
What got in the way of your learning?
What helped your learning?
How did you feel?

Taking time to reflect enables students to analyse their perfomance of a particular skill, allows students to determine their positives and negatives and highlights how to improve for the next opportunity. Reflection can assist in increasing student motivation to perform better.

Ultimately, reflection has several benefits to both PE students and teachers and should be implemented in every session whether it is practical or theoretical.

Reference:

What Works in Education. 2013. High Tech Reflection Strategies Make Learning Stick. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.edutopia.org/student-reflection. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Teaching Good Sportsmanship to Students

"Good sportsmanship is when team mates, opponents, coaches, and officials treat each other with respect" - Kids Health

Students learn the basics of sportsmanship from their coachs, teachers and parents. Students who see adults behaving in a sportsmanlike manner gradually come to understand that the real winners in sports are those who know how to presevere and to behave with dignity whether they win or lose a game.

Teachers can guide their students to understand the concepts of good sportsmanship. Firstly making the sutdents shake hands with opponents before and after a game which displays respectful acknowledgment for opposing players. Teachers need to enforce encouragement and praise no matter the students outcome or results and acknowledge the students efforts. Need to encourage the students to play fair, and have fun whilst developing individual skill.s

Kids Health outlined many suggestions to help teachers, coaches and parents promote good sportsmanship to students.
1. Shout out words of encouragement, not directions from sidelines if not a coach.
2. Do not expect too much of the students. Do not go harder on one child only and do not play favourites.
3. Keep all comments positive.
4.  After a competition, it is important not to dwell on who won or loss. Instead ask "How did you feel druing the game?"
5. Applaud good plays regardless of who made them.
6. Set a good example, with courteous behaviour towards opponents and congratulate them if they win.

It is important for teachers, coaches and parents to ensure positive sportsmanship is conducted by students to keep the sporting field respectful, fair and fun.


Being the positive influence will go a long way with encouraging students to be sportsmanlike!

Reference: Kids Health. 2013. Sportsmanship. [ONLINE] Available at: http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/sportsmanship.html#. [Accessed 07 May 13].