Tobia Epifani Athlete Of The Month Interview. Listen to Tobia talk about being funny, sensitive and reading. (Approx. 6 minutes).
SJAC – Athlete Of The Month For February
SJAC – Athlete Of The Month For January
Ines Epifani Athlete Of The Month Interview. Listen to Ines talk about being Queen, independent and “muddley” (Approx. 6 minutes).
Surrey Youth Games – Fiona’s story.
Surrey Youth Games – Fiona Manning. Listen to Fiona talk about the Surrey Youth Games – “Fun”. (Approx. 6 minutes).
The Surrey Youth Games is an amazing opportunity to learn a new sport for free. Last year I chose to learn squash for Surrey Youth Games. I had 7 lessons and was picked for the team, even though I was a beginner. Going to the tournament was fun but slightly scary! I felt amazing when I won my first match, and it was even better when our team got the bronze medal. I think everyone should sign up for Surrey Youth Games, even if you haven’t done the sport before, because it’s a great opportunity to get active and find a sport that you may enjoy.
SJAC – Athlete Of The Month For October.
Fiona Manning Athlete Of The Month Interview. Listen to Fiona talk about being fun, friendly and energetic; being a Tiger and “Tidy your room”. (Approx. 6 minutes).
Energy Systems
Some thought provoking numbers.
When you consider Usain Bolt’s strengths when running the 100m race, what do these figures potentially mean?
Mo Farah running the 10000m, what do the energy system percentages mean when you consider his typical winning race?
Post a comment – let’s discuss.
The Quickest Way From A To B Isn’t Always A Straight Line.
As a general rule we are taught that the quickest way from A to B is a straight line. As coaches we often try to help our athletes learn by using a logical; straight-line; progressive approach.
Straight line learning involves assessing our athlete to establish where our starting point A is and then setting a goal of getting to point B. We plot our logical, linear progressions from A to B.
There is one essential ingredient for our learning recipe and this is engagement. Our athlete, our learner must be able to engage with the task. Engagement is like pushing down on the accelerator pedal of a car, making the car go faster. The more our athlete engages the faster their rate of learning. So what can we do as coaches to encourage engagement?
Rocket Fuel
Curiosity, creativity and challenge: the rocket fuel for engagement.
For our athletes to engage fully with whatever task they are doing, they need to have curiosity, creativity and be challenged.
Curiosity: “I wonder why…what…when…where…how much?”.
Creativity: “I’ll try solving it this way or that”.
Challenge: “I’ve had success, I’ve solved my problem, I feel pleased with myself and confident. What is my next step – where next is my curiosity leading me? I feel equipped to take on my next challenge”
The problem with straight-line learning is that we as coaches have worked out A and B and the logical progression between. We have been curious, creative and set the challenges. We have done all the thinking. We have been engaged but not our learner. They may well be doing our progressions but not necessarily engaging with our progressions fully.
The Flying Rubber Balloon Alternative
Picture yourself blowing-up a rubber party balloon. Instead of tying a knot you decide to let go of the balloon. The balloon shoots-off at high speed, flying in every direction. Using the flying balloon as an analogy:
The air escaping the balloon, powering the balloon in its flight: This is our athlete’s curiosity, creativity and the challenges they set themselves, powering their engagement and learning.
The journey travelled is maybe further and most definitely not a straight-line; but the journey is faster and richer, with more questions, more answers, more challenges and more learning.
So if we want high speed learning, we need to design sessions to foster, curiosity, creativity and challenge.
Supply the rocket fuel and let our athletes fly.
Breakdown but don’t break.
As coaches we observe our athletes. We observe their performances; their technique; their strategies. We think about what could be better. We break things down to work on making these improvements. We breakdown:
• Technique.
• Competition strategy.
• Lifestyle.
• Physical preparation.
• Our plan.
• Our goals.
But what about building-up? Perhaps with our focus on, “fixing” by breaking things down, we are losing sight of building-up. Building-up:
• Confidence.
• Success.
• Motivation.
• Our Coach / Athlete relationship.
• Our athlete’s ability to accept more responsibility for their own development.
• Enjoyment.
Breaking-down without building-up, might just leave us with broken.
