ECB Coaches Association links Coaching Insight 2019 | Page 35

What is ‘player-centred’?
F
irst, a confession. Having been
asked to contribute something
to Coaching Insight, I not only
went back to re-read the last
issue but also rewatched
Wings to Fly 2018, a
revision-like act I’m thankful
of doing for several reasons. What a privilege. How can all that
stuff be the same job?!
Firstly, both resources made me
think; think about the richness
and challenges that inevitably
accompany the phenomenal range
of things coaches do. From being
a selflessly paternal or maternal
guide/mentor to (for example)
an autistic child, to hosting
conversations through practice, led
by athletes at a kind of intellectual
as well as physical peak (see both
in Wings to Fly 2018). Does it mean or imply that it’s all
about the player? That the coach
must sacrifice some part of his or
her ego... because the player is key.
Secondly, because I wanted to hug
or buy beers for one or two of the
coaches featured – such was their
obvious human decency.
Thirdly, because (in the example
of the Great Britain women’s
hockey section) there was a
powerfully contemporary, almost
provocatively demanding feel
to the coaching activity that I
felt asked questions of all of us –
whatever our level.
The apparent transfer of almost
all responsibilities across to the
players during Thinking Thursday
sessions made me wonder about
transfers between playing levels
generally. What, if anything, is
there in common? What can we
take and recalibrate around ability
and experience and meaningfully
plant somewhere else?
So I read and I watched right
through and thought, wow.
Amazing. What a responsibility.
“I looked back and
Then I thought
some more
– on
and
thought
about
player-
through the labels. Specifically, this
centred coaching. What
notion of player-centred coaching.
does that actually
What does that actually mean?
mean?”
Let’s let the ideas tumble out.
Does it mean being deeply
generous, and humble, in a sense
– even when as coaches we
may be likely to be extrovert or
opinionated? Even when we’re sure
about a way of playing that feels
utterly right – that would “sort the
issue quickly” – we might have
to ask a further, more generous
question, as opposed to direct
things a tad more sharply.
Does it imply a particular way of
coaching?
There are so many things to
think about here. Player-centred
coaching might mean incredibly
different things at different stages
or strata of the game. Or it might
mean the same. Or does it mean a
deep understanding of the player’s
needs and wants and a decision on
how best to meet them.
We could go on. The fact that this
conundrum-fest implies a kind of
openness or uncertainty is best
seen as a positive. It’s great that
questions almost swamp answers
– that though we coaches may
never lose our certainties, we
learn (hopefully) to treat them
as supporting material rather
than gospel to be spread noisily,
urgently, far and wide.
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