Huntley) and Cardiff
Metropolitan University (Dr
Brendan Cropley and Dr Andy
Miles) have teamed up with
coaches at St Helens to trial a
pioneering new coach
development programme that
promotes a coach’s selfawareness and self-reflection.
This programme is the first of its
kind as it takes into account
each individual coach, rather
than using a one-size-fits-all
approach. The outcomes
helped identify key areas for
development for each coach.
Coaches wore a microphone
and were recorded on video as
they delivered a session, and
were asked to give their
thoughts and feelings out loud
throughout.
The coaches then watched
themselves back and attended
a reflective practice workshop
led by Dr Whitehead to share
their own personal reflections.
The workshop’s aim was to give
the coaches the opportunity to
learn more about reflective
practice, explore their own
coaching beliefs, feelings and
philosophies, and to ultimately
develop them as coaches.
Coaches were then able to
repeat the process of being
recorded and thinking aloud
while coaching for a second
time to further explore ideas,
seek confirmation on aspects of
their coaching practice and put
what they’d learnt from the
workshop into practice.
Observations suggested that,
having been made aware of
what they said and did, and by
having a chance to reflect on
this, coaches became less
descriptive and began to
challenge their own thoughts
and feelings towards how they
were coaching.
Dr Whitehead commented: ‘This
is a huge step forward in coach
education, as a lot of
programmes focus primarily on
giving coaches information and
being directive. What we are
trying to do is allow the coach to
explore their own methods and
question their own ways of
doing things.
‘This allows the coach to
explore different and potentially
improved ways of coaching that
ultimately develop the coach
practitioner.
‘This is a huge
step forward in
coach education.’
‘Furthermore, the coaches were
an absolute pleasure to work
with and were extremely
engaging from the start. I think
being able to listen to yourself
back word for word and hear
your tone, your language, your
level of enthusiasm etc. as well
as seeing your body language
and what you look like while
coaching, has been a real eye
opener for them.
‘They were then able to take
what they had learned from
looking back at themselves and
the information used in the
workshop to progress their
coaching and understanding of
reflective practice. Don’t get me
wrong, the coaches haven’t all
9
of a sudden become experts in
reflective practice, but they have
certainly taken a big leap in the
right direction and
demonstrated evidence of
development in the area.’
St Helens Coach Development
Officer Craig Richards added:
‘On the back of your work I've
really been able to dig inside
these coaches and find what
they’re getting out of it. Some of
their confidence has increased.
‘The biggest change that I've
seen is my discussions with
them after training sessions. I’m
able to reflect with them on
what they’ve done themselves
in the session, not just what the
players do. If the coaches are
developing and improving,
ultimately it is going to have a
knock-on effect on our players.’
This programme forms one
aspect of an ongoing research
programme between
academics and coaches seeking
to provide a practical framework
to enable coach development
using both ‘think aloud’ and
reflective practice
methodologies.
i
For more information
contact Liverpool John
Moores University expert
Dr Amy Whitehead at
[email protected]