APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2020 , Vol . 6
1 . A culture of learning and improvement
A key feature of a high-quality development environment is a shared culture of learning and improvement , where everyone – coaches , athletes , managers and support staff – work collaboratively to ‘ get better together ’. Within this shared culture of learning and improvement , all key stakeholders understand the value of learning with , and from , each other .
“' We ’ re going to get each other better , because the better you get , the better we get ’. That was the philosophy .”
“ The environment had created a space where they [ the athletes ] were all about trying to improve the others and I have vivid memories of those years where players would stop training and be like ‘ no , you ’ ve got to be better here ’. And this is someone they ' re going to be competing with for a starting place on Saturday . It still stands out as one of the most exceptional environments I ’ ve been involved in .”
To highlight the importance of establishing a learning and improvement culture , research participants commonly referred to talent development environments as ‘ learning and development environments ’, athletes as ‘ learners ’ and coaches as ‘ learning designers ’ throughout the focus group conversations .
“ I say to coaches ' you ' re not a coach , you ’ re not a teacher , you ' re a learning designer ', which means that their job is to design an environment that is conducive to the athlete learning . That really is quite a subtle nuance , and it is certainly quite powerful , because you ' re empowering the athlete .”
“ We need to position the athlete as a learner and adopt learning design principles .”
“ Ultimately everyone involved in these systems and environments are learners and it ’ s a network of learning that potentially takes you to a decent place .”
The role of the coach in setting the tone and creating an environment that embeds learning , was highlighted . The coach was seen as the key catalyst for learning , through supporting , guiding and motivating athletes – or learners – on their learning journey . Helping them to ‘ learn how to learn ’ and understand the ideas and practices associated with the learning process itself , was seen as a fundamental part of the coaching role .
“ If we get them to learn to learn , they then learn to adapt and self-organise and problem-solve when they ' re not with us or when they ' re in the next environment , rather than learning only taking place when the coach is there , helping or instructing .”
A key theme to emerge from the conversations was the importance of developing independent , self-regulated learners , and empowering learners to take responsibility for their own learning and development .
“ In order to succeed in high performance , athletes need to become independent learners who take responsibility for their development .”
“ I take that notion of the athlete taking ownership of their own development and tapping into the coaches and anyone else that appears in the environment and using them for the expertise they have , but it ’ s the athlete driving it .”
To optimise learning , and to foster learning and improvement cultures , the importance of developing coaches who are independent and can self-regulate was also highlighted .
2 . A balance of challenge and support
Another key feature of a high-quality learning and development environment is that it provides the right balance of challenge and support . There was a recognition that simply winning games or matches does not stretch the learner and introducing challenge helps to prepare learners for the different scenarios they might experience as they progress through the pathway .
“ You are not developing people when you ’ re winning every game . We tried to introduce bigger challenges to actually lose some games . We had to explain to the parents and to the players that it ’ s useful , as you ’ re not going to win that many games when you ’ re a senior player .”
“ We would work with coaches a lot , in terms of periodising challenge on the pathway for the highflyer . If things are going in a nice linear path , we know that ’ s not great for future success , so we would purposely put in bumps along the road , to help them .”
Discussions highlighted the importance of taking learners out of their comfort zone , for example by playing them up a level , and the resulting impact on them having to deal with bigger , or more powerful players . The point was made that it is not
48