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the PLAN
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INSIDE
The Coaching Plan for England has
been released. Let’s take a look at
the key elements of the strategy
and what the benefits will be
for you.
“A quest” is how the Coaching
Plan for England describes the
need to find new ways of
developing coaches and
extending their reach.
That makes us the explorers and
wayfarers of the period between
now and 2021, the time covered
by the plan.
So where should we be taking
guard? Which path should we
follow to bring us out in five
years’ time at a point where we
are the best coaches we can be?
The Coaching Plan for England’s
‘tactics board’ breaks the
strategy down into five sections
and for Stuart Armstrong, Head
of Coaching at Sport England,
existing coaches should pay
particular attention to the second
and third of these: “Foster an
improvement culture” and
“Transfer learning into practice”.
It’s no coincidence that both of
these sections touch on the
changing way coaches can
develop – and the way they will
be acknowledged for doing so.
“Generally speaking, when you
currently do your qualifications,
you go on your course and there
is an assessment there,” begins
Armstrong. “It’s a bit false as
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Hitting the Seam Issue 38
everyone is being nice, but you
are assessed on your delivery on
that day.”
This not only fails to mark
coaches when they are in their
element, it also requires a coach
to find a course and makes them
take time out of their weekly
schedule to attend it. The
Coaching Plan aims to see
this change.
“Our thinking on this is that if we
are going to make it more
accessible and increase the
diversity of the coaching
community, we need to take the
learning to them. So the starting
point should be that someone
comes to you and watches you
coach. Someone could be great
and be given a qualification
straight away.
“Others will need further
learning. This will be a
personalised learning plan, based
on an assessor who watches you
in action.”
Armstrong doesn’t envisage the
role of the assessor ending there.
Just as coaches are expected to
act as mentors to many of their
charges, assessors will play a dual
role as a mentor to a number of
coaches – albeit not the ones they
will be tasked with marking.
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“We want these assessments to
also be a powerful learning
opportunity for the coach. Or to
phrase it the correct way around,
we want to increase the number
of mentors, and those who are
given such roles will also be
trained to assess.”
With such an approach to
on-the-job education, coaches
should be able to improve
themselves steadily as they grow in
experience, something many do
now but are unable to see reflected
in their level of qualification.
“There isn’t really a great incentive
for people to continue ongoing
learning at the moment,”
Armstrong points out. “You learn
enough to qualify, then if you
want to, you can continue from
there in your own time.
“Take me: I’ve been a Level 3 for 15
years and I’ve been doing plenty
of things to improve as I’ve gone
on, but there’s no way of
recognising those ongoing
moments of learning. We need
to recognise that progress. Then
we can determine those who
have improved.
“This is where having mobile
assessors can help. In the past
we’ve asked for evidence of CPD,
but it’s from a distance, not in
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