Placement portfolio v8 PDF

Preview

Summary

A written experience of the sports coaching placement. Provides personal experiences of working within the RFU internship programme as well as taking a critical look at recent coaching methods and research and suggesting how this can be used in practice. ...

Description

Placement portfolio Introduction My Placement involved coaching rugby under the England rugby mentorship scheme at both Kings school winchester, and at the university of winchester with the men's rugby team.

Kings school Placement During my placement at Kings school, I was responsible for leading a weekly year seven and eight girls after school rugby club. I focused on developing a positive relationship with sport and confidence within rugby as well as a progressive approach to improving key rugby fundamentals during each session. The coaching sessions varied from games of touch rugby to game zones aimed at preparing for and managing contact. Additionally, skill zone games were employed to develop specific rugby skills such as tackle technique, rucking, kicking passing and offloading.

University of Winchester mens rugby placement I coached the whole squad training session on a Monday night which focused on game preparation for the BUCS men's western league tier 4A. I used feedback from the head coach on previous game performances and also key statistics from teams we were playing in the future to shape training practices. Sessions focused on using set pieces to create time to manipulate defensive or attacking shapes on the pitch resulting in an increase in tries. It is critical to be a reflective coach in order to avoid complacency in high-performance environments, but equally being reflective upon your coaching philosophy and coaching methodologies. By implementing reflection into your coaching practises, you can not only participate in self-reflection, but you can also reflect with other coaches and experts to critique how you operate as a coach. Consequently, by reflecting, you are further able to compose and adapt coaching activities to match the demands of the people you coach. Implementing reflective practice can strengthen the coach-athlete relationship leading to better communication and awareness. There are many frameworks designed to promote reflection in sports coaching including, but not limited to, Gibbs 1988; Knowles et al., 2001; Knowles et al., 2006; Loughran 2002. The Gibbs' (1988) model of reflective cycle aims to provide a structured framework to learn from experiences. The model centres on six stages of learning and reflection. These incorporate description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan. During the model's initial creation, Gibbs' advocated its use in repeated situations (Ghaye 2010). However, the model is also effective at exploring single instances of learning (Potter 2015). The first stage of the cycle, description, aims to identify the type of learning experience; the location of the experience and the purpose and meaning behind the experience. The second stage, feelings, looks at the emotional context of the learning experience by identifying the difference in the emotional state before and after the experience. Each stage of the reflective cycle can help coaches process and maximise learning opportunities they encounter (Husebø et al., 2015). The description and feelings aspect of the model enables coaches to explore the effect of pre-planned learning experiences and how feelings and emotions can be manipulated to enhance the coach-athlete relationship (Becker 2009). Moreover, the evaluation and analysis elements allow learners to understand factors associated with learning that may enhance or limit the learning process (Bhagat et al., 2015).

Finally, the stages of conclusion and action plan support coaches to deeply reflect on the experience in context and understand the critical components that can promote knowledge and understanding (Alterio and McDrury 2003). Subsequently, by examining the model, the individual gains an understanding of how to maximise learning in the future (Quinton and Smallbone 2010).

Reflection of session one: Coaching session one preparing to tackle: developing the tower of power. Using the Gibb’s (1988) reflective cycle model, one key progression in my coaching ability I have chosen to reflect upon is a year seven and eight girls managing contract rugby session. There are a total of six stages of the reflective cycle model, with each cycle focusing on a different element of reflective thinking. One of the first critical learning moments from this coaching session was the importance of planning and preparing coaching sessions, specifically understanding the demands of the people you coach and how to tailor the objectives of different actives to the varying abilities within the group. Before this breakthrough session, I focused on trying out new coaching methods and session designs that were arguably too complex for my own coaching abilities. However, after I simplified the session plan and focused on the most fundamental parts of rugby for the people I was coaching their enjoyment and success rate for given skills significantly increased. The earliest stage of Gibb's 1998 model is description, this element of the model allows for deep reflection on which parts of a session is meaningful. Firstly what happened? I recognised that my previous way of session design was too complex for me as a coach and was resulting in my coaching sessions being too complicated for the people I was coaching. I found myself becoming frustrated with my session ideas "failing" due to the session itself not reflecting the needs and skill levels of the people I was coaching. Moreover, reflecting upon this experience using ideas presented by Knowles et al., 2001 I understood that my Session planning system needed refining and adapting. I reflected upon my session plans using the gamification principles originally created by Gee (2007) which have been adapted to be used in sports coaching by Price and Pill (2016). Furthermore, I created a systemic way of planning my coaching sessions to maximise the learning opportunities and enjoyment for the people I coach. This process involved simplifying the objective of the session into different 'levels' for maintaining skill progression, equally, I experimented with using longer time limits of tasks to increase the likelihood that people would be able to master the skill during the session. However, when players struggled at a particular skill or movement I used pauses and freeze frames (Wilson 2008) to allow players to reflect in action to identify how they could perform a skill better. Using Gibb's 1988 reflective cycle model it is clear that developing my methods of session design I was able to increase the levels of confidence and enjoyment in the players. This subsequently increased my self-confidence as a

coach and by evaluating the experience makes me feel as though my coaching ability has increased. Thus, by reflecting I was able to improve my ability to coach and build rapports with the people I coached.

I chose to reflect on session planning and design in an attempt to improve the experience for the people that I coached. One key example of this was using a game of hungry hippos which was designed to simulate the tackling and rucking position experienced by players in contact during rugby. The game zone required 4 teams of equal size in a large conned square. The teams then bear crawled into a circled section in the middle of the pitch to collect balls which equated to points. My first time delivering this session I think that I overcomplicated key principles of the session and failed to check for theoretical understanding (ref). The second time of coaching this session I refined the key principles to simplify the session and made sure I checked for understanding along the way. One major takeaway from this session was to simplify my session designs using key game principles and make sure that fundamental skills were mastered before adding progressions and future game constraints.

Reflection of session two: Coaching session Two: Touch tackle pass The aim of this session was to build the fundamental skills behind tackling and managing contact. The reason for this was because as coaches we wanted to improve the players confidence in tackling and contact as in previous matches this was a major weakness. I had pre planned this session to start with the most basic element of tackling which I identified to be the tower of power position. I started the session by testing for theoretical understanding by asking open ended questions regarding tackling and contact within rugby, By testing for understanding and knowledge of tackling at the beginning of the session it made it easier to account for any development in learning by the end of the session. Reflecting on this using the Gibbs 1988 reflective cycle it is clear that I had thought about not only feelings (how I would boost the players confidence throughout the session), but also analysis and action plan. The main element of the game zone was focused around using a game of touch which the players were already confident in, and creating a constraint based game (ref) to implement skills that we had worked on in prior sessions. At the beginning of the session I gave a brief explanation and demonstration of how the game would work and the key rugby principles that supported it. This is something I had worked very hard to perfect. At the beginning of this placement I occasionally struggled to get sessions started within the first two minutes and as a result would lose the attention of the players and their enjoyment would decrease. However, after watching other coaches introduce sessions I learned some new coaching styles that allowed me to take control of the session and convey key learning aims and objectives in a way that kept people active and engaged. The feelings element of GIbbs cycle has led me to understand that the feelings I experienced as a new coach of not being able to always get everyone active and engaged is normal but I soon developed ways of overcoming this problem and implemented new coaching styles every session after and so this was no longer a problem.

Another key learning experience from this session centred around the learning or players and their ability to learn new skills. One element of managing contact that the game zone session looked at was how a team can use defensive lines and shape to create gaps in the pitch to move forward into. I used questioning for understanding and a constraint based approaches to allow for decision making and problem solving within the game. The players had to choose whether to pass after being touched once or to keep going forward into space in the hope that their teammates would provide adequate support play. At first the players struggled to grasp this concept of play and would almost always offload after being touched the first time and as a result would struggle to progress up the pitch. However, after we discussed the reasons going forward and adapted some of the rules to mean that the second touch resulted in the player having to go down and present the ball to create time and space in the putch the players were much more comfortable with the demands of the game and the feeling towards the game became increasing positive. Through this experience I learned that sometimes as a coach you need to adjust certain elements of your game to allow for a better level of understanding and learning from the people you coach. This is evident from when players developed their own way of using contact and rucks to move up the pitch to create scoring opportunities. The players found that after the first touch if they ran in a diagonal direction they could use support play to move from one ‘channel’ of the pitch to the over in a zigzag motion which would make it difficult for the opposition to realign the defensive line every time the ball was moved forward. This improved both teams confidence in utilizing contact to create space on the pitch as they were able to learn from each other and attempt to create counter attacking or defensive strategies that worked against the other team. The aims of this session was to improve players confidence in and ability to manage contact. I did this by working on the tower of power position so that the fundamental movement patterns could be worked on. I then gave players the opportunity to implement their new skill into a constraint based game, under safe conditions using a game of touch. The key thing I took forward from this session was, how a players game confidence can be improved by working on basic fundamentals.

Reflection of session three: Session three: using kicking and off loads to enhance going forward The aim of the session was to introduce different kicking moves into the principle of moving forward. This session stands out due to the players finally feeling confident enough to try out new creative ways of offloading. The session was split into two different elements, the first one being a skill zone where players were able to practise different types of offloads. Firstly just in pairs in a controlled environment where the players were able to choose the skills they performed and thus, could adjust the difficulty level to suit their own abilities. The second element of the session was a game zone

which looked at using the principles of go forward and support play. This was a full contact game with uneven teams using three players wearing coloured bibs who were asked to switch teams every time the ball changed position that the defensive team always had more players than the attacking team. This presented several challenges to the attacking team including a reduction in pitch space that they could move forward into, less players to use as support during attacking pases and an increase in defensive opposition numbers which reduced scoring opportunities. One breakthrough moment from this session was when without being told how to kick or the different types of kicks attempt to do a grubber kick to gain ground whilst going forward in attack. Whilst the first attempt at this was unsuccessful I took the player to one side and gave them personal feedback on how they could improve their kicking technique and timing and placement of the kick to better use it as an advantage when moving forward. After giving explicit feedback the player retired the grubber kick and was successful and resulted in her scoring a try from the kick. After this moment occurred I paused the session and gathered everyone in to talk about what happened. By questioning for theoretical understanding I was able to effectively describe and demonstrate different types of kicks and how they could be used in different phases of the game. This then sparked a new degree of creativity from the players that I had not seen from them before. Players then confident enough to try over head kicks, grubber kicks, one handed offloads, offloading mid tackle before hitting the floor and offloading behind the back to draw tacklers in. This session also resulted in players taking an active interest in developing new skills before and after training meaning they arrived at training earlier and left later so that they could receive feedback on their kicking, passing and off load moves.

Conclusion: In conclusion, every sports coach should aim to identify their own way of reflection as it dramatically improves their ability as coach. Reflection improves coaching performance by allowing the individual to process their actions and the effects they had on other people whilst identifying limiting factors of their coaching methodology. The reflective cycle model developed by Gibbs (1988) is a good starting point and should be used by coaches when first particking in reflecting thinking as it covers most areas of reflection. After using the reflective cycle individuals may then identify more appropriate methods of reflecting on action that better suit their coaching needs.

Word count: 2588

References 1. Gibbs G (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford. 2. Knowles, Z., Gilbourne, D., Borrie, A., & Nevill, A. (2001). Developing the reflective sports coach: A study exploring the processes of reflective practice within a higher education coaching programme. Reflective practice, 2(2), 185-207. 3. Knowles, Z., Tyler, G., Gilbourne, D., & Eubank, M. (2006). Reflecting on reflection: exploring the practice of sports coaching graduates. Reflective Practice, 7(2), 163-179.

4. Loughran, J. J. (2002). Developing reflective practice: Learning about teaching and learning through modelling. Routledge. 5. Ghaye, T. (2010). Teaching and learning through reflective practice: A practical guide for positive action. Routledge. 6. Potter, C. (2015). Leadership development: an applied comparison of Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and Scharmer’s Theory U. Industrial and Commercial Training. 7. Husebø, S. E., O'Regan, S., & Nestel, D. (2015). Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), 368-375. 8. Becker, A. J. (2009). It's not what they do, it's how they do it: Athlete experiences of great coaching. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 4(1), 93-119. 9. Bhagat, A., Vyas, R., & Singh, T. (2015). Students awareness of learning styles and their perceptions to a mixed method approach for learning. International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research, 5(Suppl 1), S58. 10. Alterio, M., & McDrury, J. (2003). Learning through storytelling in higher education: Using reflection and experience to improve learning. Routledge. 11. Quinton, S., & Smallbone, T. (2010). Feeding forward: using feedback to promote student reflection and learning–a teaching model. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47(1), 125-135. 12. Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. John Wiley & Sons. 13. Gilbert, W. D., & Trudel, P. (2001). Learning to coach through experience: Reflection in model youth sport coaches. Journal of teaching in physical education, 21(1), 16-34. 14. Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games+ good learning: Collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy. Peter Lang. 15. Price, A., & Pill, S. (2016). Can Gee’s Good (Digital) Game Design Features Inform Game-Based Sport Coaching?. Research Journal of Sport Sciences, 4(8), 257-269. 16. Wilson, B. D. (2008). Development in video technology for coaching. Sports Technology, 1(1), 3440.

Appendix Session plan one:

Session plan two:

Session Three...