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Guide-lines for coaching/teaching

These two terms are used interchangeably in this text

This is quite deliberate

Coaching/teaching is intentional planned interactive activity that occurs in a social setting and whose outcomes are uncertain

Some initial thoughts

We remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of personal experiences.

But 90% of what we teach someone else

The process of coaching involves giving organised help to people who are wishing to improve their performance. According to some sources this can involve

(i) Instruction which is helping in the acquisition of technical competence,

(ii) Teaching which is the sharing of ideas and how to apply and use them

(iii) Training which is the adaptation of body and mind to develop performance.

Learners tend to assume that a teacher’s job is to provide concrete and complete answers to all questions or to demonstrate perfectly, on every occasion, skills that are to be copied accurately and faithfully.

If a teacher does this then they will be very active and the learners quite passive. The teacher feels good demonstrating their abilities and the students feel safe because they are not being challenged

When we move out of our comfort zone then we often feel confused, anxious and bewildered. This is often when learning is taking place Sometimes the teacher’s role in this is to act as a focus for the discomfort engendered whilst learning is occurring. So don’t expect to be liked as a teacher but don’t go out of your way to engender dislike

The teacher also acts as a confirmer of success.

So teachers’ self awareness is also important, as their aims, assumptions and ambitions may not be the same as the learners.

If a teacher can provide a setting where physical skills can be practised then concrete experience is offered.

If they can enable the student to develop a framework of understanding and ask questions to stimulate curiosity then reflection and conceptualisation can be developed.

If the students can be encouraged to play about with the skills and understanding then they can develop their ability to experiment

What do learners need?

Decisions about movements-What are we going to do?

Selection of cues-What to attend to and why?

Control of movement-How do we do it?

Review of performance-What happened?

Put another way we have (1) sensations; (2) we translate these into understanding; and from this understanding we create (3) meaningful movement and activity

Coaches’ job for 1 is to say what cues to attend to-Can you feel your weight there?

Coaches' job for 2 is to provide meaning-Do you understand me?

Coaches’ job for 3 is to clarify important movements.-Move your hands together!

What do learners dislike?

Feeling frightened; Being bored; Having no interest being shown in them; Not being listened to; Being criticised; Having complicated explanations provided

What stages do learners go through?

According to Schmidt and Wrisberg in 2000 these stages are

Verbal cognitive (time spent talking and thinking)

Often large and rapid gains; instruction, demonstration, links are important.

Motor(refinement and stability)

Gains less rapid/instruction and feedback less important but feedback must be very precise and targeted

Autonomous(action with little or no conscious thought about the movements)

Improvements difficult to detect because individuals are reaching the limits of their capabilities but a classic study on workers on a cigar making production line showed the time it took to make a good cigar was still reducing even after seven years of continuous practice; that is after about 100 million repetitions

The qualities of good coaches and teachers appear not to have changed. A book that I had to read as a trainee teacher and recent research about elite coaches from Canada indicate the following qualities have always been important

There are several stages to the process of coaching. Put simply they are:-

Planning

Performing

Evaluating

They are all important but the focus for the novice coach is often the second one because to coach you have to perform in front of other people and that can feel scary. That scary feeling, based upon my forty years of experience, does not go away but can become a help because other things are in place.

So first Planning

My planning starts with remembering what it is like to be a beginner because that is what learning involves-Being a beginner

And this means:

(i)Trying something new:

(ii)Being eager for a challenge:

(iii)Being interested and engaged in activity:

(iv) Risking failure:

(v)Possible loss of self respect:

(vi)Possible loss of public face.

So there is always the risk of something good and something bad happening whilst learning.

The coaching task is therefore to try and enhance the good bits of learning and to try and diminish the bad bits.

This is where planning comes in because good conditions for learning involve the following and these can be put in place:-

(i)Behaviours being asked for are specific:

(ii) Skills and behaviours are modelled:

(iii) Skills and behaviours are practised:

(iv) Opportunities for safe rehearsal are provided:

(v) Opportunity to see self in action is provided:

(vi) Feedback is constructive and follows quickly and is on the basis of no failure only feedback:

(vii) Problems are recognised and there is a wish to solve them with coaches being seen as obstacle removers:

(viii) A group identity is present and support exists within the group.

The process that adult learners go through is cyclical and goes somewhat like this:-

(i)A sense of acute self consciousness followed by

(ii) A resigned sense of sink or swim leading to

(iii) Frustration in having understanding but limited mastery over the necessary movements which then becomes

(iv) Relative mastery.

This goes back to the beginning as the next challenge arrives.

The two challenges that I see in Kendo are

Firstly going from the deliberate thought process of ‘move this leg with that arm’ to the automatic movement that occurs without our being aware of it. I suppose learning to drive a car is another good example of this process;

The second process is making the apparent automatic and instinctive processes, like annoyance and fear, subject to deliberate thought.

So when we come to actual planning

There is the cascade of processes.

The BKA is responsible for development of the arts of Kendo Iai and Jodo

Each of these arts has a curriculum which a person can follow throughout life if they so chose.

Out of this curriculum should come a number of syllabuses;

(a) for beginners,

(b) for Kyu grades,

(c) for Dan grades

So does your dojo have a yearly programme?

If so who planned it and who does what when?

Is it published?

Where do the syllabuses fit into the programme?

Where do you get information about them?

Who decides what is in it?

Are they written down?

Are they checked and evaluated?

How is time allocated?

What numbers do you have in the class?

What is the ability/experience range in your dojo?

How are mixed levels of experience dealt with?

How are individual programmes developed?

There are lots of questions here and if they can’t all be answered immediately then don’t worry but you now know what answers you are looking for.

Lesson plans

You are now at the point of planning sessions from a syllabus. This is where lesson plans come in. Please note they are statements of intent and not ‘tablets of stone’.

Each lesson starts with at least one aim or objective; from this should come the content required to meet that objective and the method or style of presenting that material. You should also note how you intend to evaluate what you have done by the end. You use this evaluation to return to your original aims, see what has been accomplished and then modify or confirm the aim for the next session and so the cycle turns again.

Now at least you know what you are going to teach and why

Having got to this point how might your session progress.

Try these four stages

Introduction After preparation usually called warm-up-pulse raising, stretching, easy paced movement rehearsal and mental focussing

Get attention-How?

Arrange the group so that everyone can hear-What the best placing for this?

Name the technique or focus and the reason for learning it

Demonstration

How are you going to demonstrate? Yourself, another performer, video or DVD?

Prepare the group for the demonstration by saying what is going to happen

Demonstrate and explain

Put the demonstration into context

Receive and answer questions

Practice

Arrange the group for safe practice;

Fear of harm, failure, ridicule and boredom are great demotivators: deal with these before during and after the practice

Allow time for practice

Feedback

Take time to observe and evaluate what is happening

Give effective and appropriate feedback.

Give feedback as soon as possible after performance

Praise effort and success; they are not always the same thing.

Give simple, precise instructions for any changes.

Do not provide information overload

Make sure the performer has understood you

More on feedback

Intrinsic is what you get from yourself

Extrinsic (also called augmented or enhanced) comes from outside e.g. person, video crowds.

This can give both knowledge of results and knowledge of performance.

It is important if intrinsic feedback is difficult to get. It can give information about patterns of movement; it can help to maximise certainty, it can help minimise energy expenditure and can help reduce the time taken to accomplish movements and to increase the speed of learning

So feedback

(i)gives information,

(ii) can help motivation which can enable effective effort;

(iii) can reinforce wanted action by praise and extinguish unwanted action by criticism-

but overused it can produce dependency and this can reduce performance when the teacher/coach is not present. Performers are ultimately on their own when performing and this needs to be recognised.

Finish

Time to cool down, review and reflect

You may have an image of a learning curve. Varieties are drawn below but there are more shapes than these.

Some pointers

Speak softly to make people learn forward to hear you but not so quietly that they cannot hear you. Leaning forward encourages listening

Think where you are going to stand so that you can make eye contact.

If you are going to speak for longer than a minute then bring people round and if you are dealing with youngsters get them to sit down. They fidget less and listen more in this position

In this communication, plan what you are going to say before you say it, be clear and precise when indicating where to move, the signal to move and what people should do when they arrive at the destination to which you have sent them.

Consider the use of notice boards to reinforce this communication.

You have two eyes, two ears and one mouth; Watch and listen at least twice as long as you speak!

When you speak use the appropriate level of language-don’t hide behind technical jargon

If possible use showing, speaking, feeling lines of communication so that every one gets their favoured input for information.

Eliminate, where possible, distractions from other areas-this is sometimes extremely difficult.

Remember that face to face communication allows real dialogue

You are giving the message and errors of understanding can occur in two ways; the giver told it wrong; the receiver heard it wrong. You are giving the message so you are responsible for its effectiveness.

No matter how many times you have taught a particular thing, don’t seemed bored, don’t sound bored, don’t feel bored. It is the first time the student has heard it, seen it, felt it-remember what that felt like for you and remember the enthusiasm.

There exists a variety of teaching style descriptions but to my mind the most useful ones for teaching physical activity are those identified by Mosston

Those appropriate to Kendo are

Command style-almost self explanatory

With young participants it can help them to socialise into a group

With older participants it can help personal development and initiation into culture

It is important in safety matters, when precise performance is required or where there is a predetermined model to be copied

If used with affection, charm and care it motivates learners and develops self concept and esprit de corps.

If used badly it becomes abuse of power through excessive control and reprimand. This leads to rejection of teacher and teaching material

Practice style-again fairly self evident

Allows a coach to watch

Wall charts can be useful.

Allows for differentiation

Provides a chance for individual/group practice, feedback and questions but beware of:-continuous repetition of corrections-if a number make the same error, stop and call the group together;

people stopping and waiting for you to come to them-reassure that you will get to them and make sure you do

These two (out of several others) are called reproductive styles because they involve learning something already in existence. The following is a productive style because something new is produced

Guided discovery

In this style the coach leads the learner into the unknown and poses questions, which do not have to be verbal ones, leading the learner to search; from this search the learner may pose questions to the teacher which results in a similar search by the teacher. Here teaching is very much learning

The searches can involve memory, discovery, creativity and mediation by coach

Answers to the questions are found which may be possible, feasible or desirable.

New insights can lead to new movements.

It strikes me that martial arts have traditionally been taught by guided discovery

Donn Draeger 1973 in ‘Classical Budo says

‘The master deliberately places the trainee in technical dilemmas from which the trainee must escape by his own actions’

By putting teaching styles into another framework we can use the idea of SHU-HA-RI in which Command style is Shu; Practice style is Ha and Discovery style is Ri

I hope these notes can be of use to you but I know that if all you do is read them then only 10% will sink in; discuss them with friends and try things out.

I would like to offer my thanks to those generations of students that helped me put flesh on these bones.

Remember the outcome of what you teach is always uncertain.

Ian Parker Dodd

Feb 2006