APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2020 , Vol . 6
As a result , Louise is making an effort to arrive earlier to her sessions , so that she can chat with participants and get to know them a bit better . She ’ s now realised how early some of the earlier participants turn up – perhaps because they are lonely and have nothing else on – so that has been quite enlightening . She has also set up a Twitter and Facebook account to allow participants to communicate more and feel like they are part of something .
* Name changed to ensure anonymity .
Feelings of confidence and competence
Learners were asked to reflect on their level of confidence and competence to achieve the three learning objectives for the workshop ( adopt a person-centred approach ; use the understand , connect and thrive framework ; and provide engaging experiences for all ).
For all three learning objectives , the self-reported confidence scores were higher post-workshop , compared to pre-workshop ( Table 1 ).
Table 1 : Confidence scores pre- and post-workshop Confidence pre-workshop
Confidence post-workshop
Average score |
Range |
Average score |
Range |
Adopt a person-centred approach 6.61 5-8 8.39 6-10
Use strategies and tactics to identify people ’ s individual needs , motivations and goals using the understand + connect = thrive framework
6.62 2-10 8.43 6-10
Provide engaging experiences for all 7.33 4-9 8.46 6-10
While it is not possible to determine individual changes within the survey data , or assign causality , the comparison of combined data between the pre-workshop sample and the post-workshop sample provide a positive indication that learners feel more confident in using soft skills to improve the experience they provide to players and participants .
Workshop participants were also asked to consider how confident and competent they felt when delivering sport or physical activity sessions , and if they could coach to a standard they were pleased with . Again , while it is not possible to determine a direct causal effect , comparing the scores pre- and post-workshop indicates a positive trend ( Figure 2 ).
Figure 2 : Levels of confidence and competence to deliver sport or physical activity sessions
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