Applied Coaching Research Journal Research Journal 4 | Page 26

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2019, Vol. 4 APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2019, Vol. 4 1. COACHING ISSUES Creativity Schön’s (1992) discussion on technical rationality refers to the limited approach of applying knowledge to decision making in order to eliminate surprises in professional practice. According to Schön, this systematic approach is inappropriate in the context of working life because an experienced practitioner’s reactions are largely informed by tacit knowledge. Technical rationality therefore limits creativity in a coaching context and underestimates the coach’s ability to respond reactively and to engage in critical conversation with the scenario; namely, ‘reflection-in-action’ (Schön, 1992). A distinction should be made here between the expert coach and the novice practitioner, whose learning needs are invariably different. It can be reasoned that technical rationality has its place in the education of the novice coach who has not yet gained the experience necessary to retain the relevant tacit knowledge and may benefit from guided reflection tasks. In contrast, the expert coach should be given the freedom to reflect in his or her own style and thus cultivate ‘professional artistry’, which is particularly essential if they have managerial duties. As both a Futsal Coach and Manager, I have found that during matches I am forced to ‘reflect-in- action’ and make decisions in order to affect the flow of the game. These moments are often followed by a time out, during which I will convey a change of tactics to the players in order to combat the strategies of the opposition. Schön (1992) terms this the ‘action present’, as the outcome from reflection can still make a difference to the situation. Some studies have suggested that reflection-in-action is impractical for coaches to engage in due to attentional capacity and time restraints (Gilbert and Côté, 2013). However, empirical research for this theory is limited and my experience suggests that instant reflection is not only practical, but essential (Box 1). Box 1 When I deliver coach education courses I promote a learning cycle process to facilitate reflection tasks within large cohorts of coach learners. Coaches are asked to ‘plan, do and review’ a group delivery that includes reflection-in-action and to peer review in pairs in order to feed back to the whole group. I encourage open responses and opinions from the wider group to validate and consolidate their reflection. Giving coaches a reflective framework to work from which looks at specific areas such as the positive learning environment, planning and practice design, responsiveness and communication, helps to create structure whilst encouraging creativity within the framework. My personal reflection methods incorporate many of the same elements, individualised to my learning style. Emotion Gilbert and Trudel (2001) expanded Schön’s work by conducting a study of six coaches engaged in reflective practice and developed a new model of experiential learning that highlighted six key components as central to the reflective process: coaching issues, role frames, issue setting, strategy generation, experimentation and evaluation (Figure 2). According to their study, a reflective conversation is inspired by a tangible coaching issue, which is filtered through an individual’s role frame (consisting of personal attitudes towards practice) to decide if it is worthy of reflection time. This process demonstrates that reflection is typically caused by uncomfortable feelings regarding an issue, which highlights a further consideration for discussion, as it suggests that reflection only occurs after negative experiences (Lynn, 2010). REFLECTIVE CONVERSATION Joint 2. 3. ISSUE SETTING Conditions • Access to peers • Stage of learning R O L E Other Conditions • Issue characteristics • Environment Self Joint Construction Advice Seeking F R A M E Reflective Transformation 4. STRATEGY GENERATION 2. R O L E F R A M E Coaching Repertoire Coaching Materials Creative Thought Other Real World Peer 6. EVALUATION 5. EXPERIMENTATION Self Virtual World Termination of Reflective Conversation Figure 2: Gilbert and Trudel’s (2001) model of reflection in sports coaching 26 27