Myself and Sophie Harper where paired together to take a group for a session of 2 attackers versus 1 defender in football. This essay is going to include an analysis of the preparation for my coaching session, whilst also evaluating my coaching ability as a whole. It will identify areas of my coaching performance which I believe where sound, whilst also pinpointing weaknesses within my session and coaching techniques including ways in which I could improve my overall coaching ability.
I found that coaching as a pair allowed me to gather greater understanding of my session and how it was going to take place.Working with Sophie gave me greater confidence that our session would run smoothly, as I had 2 sets of eyes which would allow for us both to pick out different coaching points with more individuals. I also found that the group was more manageable because if I was coaching an individual Sophie would be watching and coaching the others in the group. This allowed more 1 to 1 coaching to take place, which benefited those who were struggling and needed help with the task set. “Peer coaching focuses on the collaborative development, refinement and sharing of professional knowledge and skills.
(Becker, 1996).The disadvantage to working with a partner is that coaching points may be interpreted in different ways by the group from each of the coaches. I could describe and emphasise more on a key area than Sophie would which could cause confusion with the participants. I planned to coach for an hour and carried out a fifteen minute session. The assessor commented on the way myself and Sophie presented ourselves before the coaching session began.
I feel we approached the session with a strong coaching manor, which captured the attention of the group from the off.Our health and safety checks where sufficient and our introduction stated clearly what our session was about and how we planned to spend the time. During this time I introduced a simple pass and move drill in a square, this was to allow the girls to become familiar with the ball and to make them aware of their surroundings. At this point I made sure instructions where clear, that the girls should keep their heads up to avoid collisions and call names to identify where their team mate was situated.
My assessor thought my first drill was a good starting point as some of the girls had previously had very little experience playing football. Jones, Wells, Peters and Johnson (1982) state that “Skill level will vary widely within a group. Players do not come to practice with the same degrees of skill. Some will have never played before, while others will have a high level of skills specific to the activity. ” During this activity, the girls started to move around outside of the given area; at this point I stopped the session, re-identified the boundaries and started them again.
This was to ensure they were working hard in a ‘small’ space whilst also being in a safe zone of the court. The second task we introduced was a lunge. I feel I introduced the task well explaining why the lunge is effective in beating a defender; however my peers criticized my demonstration as I did not face them when talking and they found it difficult to hear what I was saying even with good voice projection. To improve my demonstration next time I would face my peers and speak clearly with-out turning my back until I had finished talking.My assessor believed that the drill was ok and was well explain but he suggested that it too simple and it could have been progressed into a game like situation which would have challenged the girls more. In future I should make tasks hard enough to ensure the athletes are challenged but not so difficult that they feel there is little chance of success.
(Martens, 2004). In future I would introduce the lunge for a few minutes then progressed this into player 1 being able to beat the defender and ‘go it alone’ or passing it onto player 2.I would then introduce a goal to bring in competition to see who could score after beating the defender in the hope that this would motivate my peers. I believe that I should have also set up more stations to split the group into smaller ones, as this would have enabled the girls to have more attempts at the task and therefore reinforce this action.
“When an organism responds to a stimulus and that response is reinforced it is very probable that the same response will be repeated the next time the stimulus occurs. (Johri, 2005).Finally we split the group into 5 and within little areas set up a 2v1 challenge. This was a progression as there was now an active defender. The aim was for the 2 attackers to see how many passes they could make with-out it being intercepted.
The commonwealth and international conference on sport suggest that a game situation provides players with an opportunity to demonstrate the skills they had just learned, preparing them for future games once their skills had developed.Again I found myself facing the wrong way during my demonstration; however I did ask frequent question to check understanding. My peers thought that this was helpful as they had the opportunity to ask questions if they were unsure. To conclude, I feel that on the whole our session went smoothly and that the group achieved greater knowledge and skill on how to beat a defender.
I feel that as coaches we got amongst the group and ensured coaching points where made to help and enhance individual’s skills.Previously I have discussed what I would change in future, and I believe that this would introduce greater progression into my session and greater opportunities for all to take part and have a more ‘hands on’ session. I would give out more praise because Bandura (1989) suggests that if an individual believes in themselves then the effort they put into a task will increase, which can only improve the participants skill and motivation levels. Most of all I would ensure that my demonstrations were carried out in a way that all the group could see and hear clearly what their task would be to minimize confusion and maximise outcome.
