Self-Reflection Essay on coaching session PDF

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Reflection on coaching session ...

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In this essay, I will be reflecting on a coaching session which I delivered as part of my assessment for A Level P.E in April 2016. I will be talking about the activities which my session included as well as who participated and what the focus of my coaching was. During my session, I conducted a series of activities designed to improve the participant’s basic skill levels in the sport of cricket. My coaching focus was to deliver a clear and concise session in which it was both enjoyable and beneficial to the participants. My session was delivered to my peers also completing the A Level P.E course; ages 1718, amongst my group I had both male and female participants. Within the group there was a varying standard of ability as well as experience, thus resulting in a few challenges which I will go into more detail later. As previously stated I was coaching cricket, more specifically focusing on the skills of catching, fielding and throwing. The reflective model that I will be using in this essay to complete the reflection of my coaching session is; Gibbs (1988). This model encourages me to think systematically about each individual phase of the experience or activity during my session. “Gibbs’ own expanded six stage cycle: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action Plan.” During my session, I delivered three different stations for participants. Station 1 was focusing on simple catching where by participants would pair up and simply throw the ball to each other, to develop progression the distance between the pairs is increased gradually. Station 2 focused on fielding, here participants were required to line up in two lines opposite each other 30m apart. In the middle of the two lines was a single stump. One participant would throw the ball at the stump trying to hit it, the person at the front of the opposite line would field it using the long barrier technique and throw it back at the stump. Once the participant had fielded the ball and thrown it back they would join the back of their line, this process would continue. Station 3 saw participants stand in a single line 30m away from me where I was stood with a bat and ball next to a single stump. I also was wearing a wicket keeping glove. At this station, I would either hit the ball along the ground or in the air, participants would either field the ball or catch it and throw it back to me above the stump. Upon completing this they would join the back of the queue, allowing for progression after fielding the ball from distance participants would run towards me to take a short distance catch. Gibbs reflective model (1988) attempts to get practitioners to consider their normal way of thinking and respond within that situation towards gaining an insight into both self and practice. It’s simple and encourages a clear description of the situation, as well as analysing feelings. Furthermore, it is an evaluation of the experience and attempts to make sense of the experience, finally it examines what should be done if that situation arose again. Using Gibbs (1988) I was delivering a coaching session on basic cricket skills to a group of 17 to 18year-old students, during my session at times there was a lack of respect shown towards from me from the participants; a lack of authority. Another issue which occurred was that the ability and experience of the students taking part varied. Thirdly not all participants have an interest in cricket so not everyone engaged in the session. Coaching peers was a disadvantage to me as the participants were not respecting my authority, therefore I was unable to maintain full control and keep the session flowing. I felt like the participants didn’t want to fully engage in the session as they were not interested in cricket. I felt less important to the participants because they were not respecting me, I felt like my session was boring and therefore students lost interest quickly. Conducting a self-reflection of my experience during the completion of this session I felt that the drills that I set up were ideal for developing some of the basic skill sets required to play cricket therefore the session was a success. However I feel that some of the drills became tedious and

students became bored and lost interest. As well as this the session didn’t allow for progression so a plateau occurred rather quickly. I also found that coaching my peers presented the issue of the participants not showing me the desired respect required as a coach. As I was coaching my class mates who were all similar aged to myself there wasn’t a clear divide between who was in charge, the participants didn’t always see me as the coach. On the other hand the participants often saw me as an equal to one of them. A main success of my coaching session was that I was very enthusiastic in my delivery as well as giving the participants positive feedback as often as possible. Rather than giving negative feedback, I used a positive outlook on the session giving constructive criticism using phrases such as; ‘Next time try using a different technique when catching’. “Chelladurai’s model suggests the need for congruence between required, preferred and actual behaviours. Therefore, it is important to identify the athletes’ perception of the leaders’ behaviour within the sport environment. The evidence suggests that the more an athlete’s perception surpasses their specified preference with regards to training, positive feedback and social support, the more satisfied the athletes are with the displayed coaches behaviour.” Maintaining an enthusiastic approach to my delivery and constantly using positive feedback meant that the participants worked better with me and continued to put in 100% effort. I used positive feedback throughout the session to keep the participants motivated, this was successful as participants didn’t feel like they were being talked down to when making mistakes. In future, I will aim to develop my assertive skills when working with participant’s similar ages to myself, in order to ensure that the session runs smoothly as well as successfully. I will make this a goal for my learning, and will discuss this with my mentor to work out strategies for how I can achieve this. Furthermore to improve my session I will set up drills where by participants are able to continue progressing within that skill, making sure to avoid a plateau means the participants will enjoy the session more and therefore more likely to engage fully.

References Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice 12 Embedding Graduate Attributes into the Undergraduate Curriculum: Reflection and Actions, Vol 4, Issue 2 (2016), Page 13, Leeds Beckett University, UK, Susan Smith. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, Volume 10, Number 5, 2015, Page 969, Effective Behaviours of Strength and Conditioning Coaches as Perceived by Athletes, Christoph Szedlak, Matthew J Smith, Melissa C Day and Ian A Greenlees....