What did i learn from using the assessment criteria?

During today's session we changed the format of the assessment criteria to look at the grading process and have a more realistic idea of how we would be graded during practical assessments. From this I learnt what was needed in order to achieve the higher grades, this means that by working on this and trying to improve my technique to the desired standard, I will be able to improve the grade I will achieve.

Video Analysis

When reflecting upon the video after our session, we noticed that there were some key points in which we needed to work on in order to improve our coaching technique and delivery.

Time Keeping - This was one aspect of the session we think could have gone better because we had 4 different exercises that we wanted to go through and we ended up not having enough time due to spending too much time on one exercise. This meant that we were not able to effectively deliver each exercise to the group. This could be made better by making sure we stick to the time restraints on each exercise but then also if one exercise is going particularly well then we could increase the time length on one exercise and then take out an exercise that we think would be less effective. 

Equipment - Another issue that we had was that the equipment that we were given was not what we needed for the session, this meant that one of the exercises wasn't as effective due to us not having the correct equipment. To improve upon this next time, we will need to ensure that we know what equipment we will be allowed to used so that we can plan the exercises effectively. 

Body Language - This was another point that we needed to improve on because some of us had our hands in our pockets whilst delivering and we weren't giving off the appropriate image as coaches. This is simply improved on by making sure that we are more open when delivering our sessions.

What values can sport instill? How do we teach or coach them?

In sport, there are lots of life lessons and values that sport can teach the participants involved. Although these values can be taught, it is up to the coaches and parents as to how much they influence the participant as they would be the people involved in teaching the values. These values include..

• Discipline - This value is needed by participants so that they can maximise the potential that they can gather from their coaching. This will teach the participants that discipline will help to improve their chance of success. This can be taught by coaching by the coach having the correct attitude towards their participants, this will help the performers to know what is acceptable and what isn't in terms of sportsmanship and also in life decisions. 
• Hard Work - This is another value which can be taught by coaches because without hard work, the chance of success would be slimmer as less effort would be put into the training that the participant is taking part in. This can be taught by coaches so that the participants can realise that with harder work they can maximise their potential in both sports and life activities.
• Teamwork - Teamwork is another value that would be useful for the participants to learn and take forward into both sporting life and also general life as working in a team is utilised in both the sporting world and also the academic and working world. This can be taught by coaches as they would stress the importance of not only performing well as an individual but also as a team by learning how to build chemistry and communication.
• Dealing with Success and Failure - This is another value as this will be a problem throughout the participants life again both in sporting activity and also personal life. A coach can teach this by giving feedback after wins and loses and ensuring that the same attitude is maintained after a match. This will meant that the participants will learn not to be a bad winner or loser and to make sure that morale is kept at a constant level and to maintain could character as both a person and a player.
• Goal Setting - This is a very important value that can be used both in sporting and general life as it means that the participants will strive more to achieving personal goals to improve themselves as a performer and as a person. By setting short, medium and long term goals in the micro, meso and macro cycles, it will help the participants to have personal goals and a better chance in improving skill progression goals or academic/work goals. This can be taught by coaches or teachers by helping their participants during the planning process and pointing them towards what they think would be effective for them to improve in to make them a better player and they can then take those planning skills forward for personal gain in general life.
• Value of Practice and Preparation - This value is vital in achieving goals as the performers will need to learn that the preparation of goals is vital in setting out clear goals for them to help identify specific advances in skills. Practice is also vital as this will be the make or break of achieving goals, without practice, it will be a lot more difficult to achieve the goals set out by the individuals or the coach. This value can be taught by using motivation as a technique to encourage their practice. 
• Sacrifice - This is another important value to be taught as the participants will need to be accepting when it comes to giving up social activities in order to complete sporting or general goals. This is important as it will make clear to the performer their priorities in which will help them to improve more as an athlete and also an individual. This will then help the performer to ultimately have better life choices in what they know would be better for them. Coaches can teach this value by allowing the performers to learn from their mistakes, this can be harsh as they may be unsuccessful in some parts of life but it will help them to realise where they went wrong and what they will need to change and know what to do in future circumstances,

How do we put the fun in fundamentals?

In order to put the fun in fundamentals, the coach will need to ensure that the exercises that are run are exciting for the participants in order for them to stay interested. This will need to be done because the fundamental skills are quite hard to stay interested in when training as with speed and agility especially, the participants will become bored easily if they are just running or sprinting around a course. The fundamental skills are agility, speed, balance and co-ordination. When planning a session around developing these skills, I will need to be thinking about making them innovative and fun. This can be done by progressing the initial activity and throwing in new rules to mix up the game and keep it interesting but still on the task.

An example of this could be that during an Agility style course, they would start off doing simple runs round a course of cones and then maybe adapting it and bringing in a ball for a sport and adapting the exercise to fit that sport. For example if i were to use rugby as an example, I could place the players into teams and then make them play a touch style game, this would then get them thinking about the gaps that they can chose to run into and will improve their side stepping ability and also their ability to change direction quickly.

An example for speed would be to start off with sprints and working on their running technique in general to ensure they are reaching their top speed. I would then change this into a competitive situation and also try to involve a sport. Using football as an example this time, I would have the athletes run through a timed course whilst dribbling with a football at their feet. This would actually help to improve the athlete in all of their fundamental skills because they would be using their speed on the straight runs, agility to change direction, co-ordination to aid with dribbling and enabling them to keep the ball at their feet and then balance to help them with running with the ball and working with their co-ordination to try not to trip over the ball or fumble it away.

I think that overall the main aspect to take into consideration when planning sessions based on fundamental skills would be to make sure that the activities that are being planned vary in what they include.

What characteristics did you see today that appear to defined teaching or coaching

There are different characteristics between coach and teaching.

The main characteristics when teaching are:

• Communication - this is the most important role as the teacher will need to make sure that the whole group have an understanding of the activity that is going to take place. 
• Variety - when teaching, variety is key, this is because the teacher will need to ensure that the activity is changed regularly to make sure that the group don't lose interest.
• Knowledge - knowledge is also a characteristic that is needed by teachers as they will need to know the types of exercises that would benefit the students. An example of a good session would be smaller team games so that all students are engaged. A poor example would be elimination games as it then means that the students with more expertise in the specific game type will always be active whereas the students that need to see more improvement will spend most of their time outside of the activity because they have been eliminated. Long queues should also be avoided during teaching as there will then be students that are just stood around during the exercise.

The main characteristics when coaching are:

• Knowledge - this is so the coach can make drills that aim specifically at a skill that needs improvement. They also need to be familiar with their coaching group so that the coach can identify weaknesses of each player so that the coach can structure a session around those weaknesses.
• Engagement - due to coaches usually having fewer people in a group, they will need to be able to engage more with each participant, this is so they can create a better coach to student bond which will keep the student much more active and willing.
• Awareness - a coach will need to recognize when an athlete is struggling so they know when to step in and help. 

What makes an effective warm up?

What makes an effective warm up?

• Making sure that the whole group is engaged in the activity.
• Good preparation is key to a good warm up, this includes making sure equipment is out ready and a session plan has been created.
• Ensuring that the warm up is enjoyable as well as pulse raising to make sure that the group will not lose interest.
• Making sure that a strict time period is kept to. This will mean that the warm up will need to be fluent in order to meet that time restriction.

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