Team Building Camp

Unfortunately I have been out of action lately. the good news is that as a result I have plenty to talk about, which I'll split up over the next few posts.

I was away from March 16-18 on a camp with the AIS team. The camp was held at Berry Sport and Recreation Centre and was run by Jamie Bobrowski of Team Tops. Jamie has worked with the SAS and Special Operations Group and as reported has run a similar camp with players from the Western Bulldogs AFL team.

The purpose of the camp was to develop team cohesion as well as mental toughness. Throughout the camp there was various activities designed to support and develop underlying themes such as:

• Fortitude
• Resilience
• Unity
• Leadership
• Respect
• Trust
• Honesty
• Goal setting

Some of the activities involved physical tasks;  Exercise sessions intended to break the athletes down and push them further then they thought they could go. Problem solving challenges to which the athletes needed to come up with solutions and use team work to work quickly and efficiently. Tasks involving blind folded high ropes courses and 'leaps of faith' where the athletes needed to believe in themselves, but also trust in their team mates to get them through safely. Throughout these activities, the athletes were encouraged to set 'realistic' and 'unrealistic' goals as a group.

In my opinion, the most valuable experiences came from some of the non-physical activities. Each night the group came together in a casual, supportive, non-invasive setting simply to discuss thoughts and feelings in regards to their journeys as athletes.

During one of these sessions, Jamie showed the group a video on Dick and Rick Hoyt (AKA Team Hoyt) similar to this one (some may want to have a box of tissues nearby). I believe that there are many things which both athletes and coaches can take from this video, as I've discussed here. The video reminded me of the slogan that is used in our football program, "being here is not a sacrifice, it is an investment in my future". At times, some athletes in the football program have viewed their commitments as an athlete at the AIS to be a 'sacrifice', and I believe that this would be an issue not limited to this situation. After watching the video the athletes were encouraged to talk with the group about who they were, how they had come to be at the AIS, and what the commitment means for them. These discussions enabled the athletes to open up in a way that most would not have normally, and also enabled them to see that they are all in a similar boat. It also gave the coaches an insight into who their athletes were and where they were at in this sense.

I felt that there were many valuable positives to take away from the camp. Throughout the various activities, it was instilled in the athletes that:

•  They all have similar goals and dreams
• To achieve goals, it takes a lot of hard work and commitment
• When times get tough, they have the ability to dig deeper and get through
• They have team mates, coaches and staff who are all here to support and help them through
• Whilst trying to achieve their own goals, they must remember that they are still part of a team

The athletes enjoyed the camp and in talks with them immediately post-camp noted that it had enabled them to understand and find more meaning in their journeys and felt mentally stronger. It was a lot to take in on one weekend however. I started to wonder whether there would be long lasting effects, or if everything would be forgotten in a few weeks. An issue which I will save for next time.. stay tuned.

Extra Time (and a lot of it!)

As the name suggests this post is an attempt to catch up on all the content that has been passed onto us thus far. Apologies for the length of it, but bear with me!

Here is a photo from my trip to Finland.  It is the national sport - Pesapallo (Finnish Baseball)
The coach uses a multi-coloured fan to call plays, and his team use their bats to make signals to
represent that play (as shown). One of the most confusing and fascinating sports I've ever witnessed!

Before I get started though, quick bit of house keeping - I've now got an account on Linked in. I'll be using it as a professional e-networking tool and a way of connecting.

The Final Countdown

Firstly I'll respond to a blog post by Sam Lyons - a wonderful post about his journey as a Slalom Canoe racer entitled "The Final Countdown". One of the first things that grabbed me was the coming to terms with some of the realities of life, in terms of goals that can't always be reached. I can remember being a young and naive football (soccer) player and thinking "Well, if I don't make it to Arsenal, I'll just play for some second division German team or something.." - not to say in any way that Sam was naive in his goal to be an Olympic champion. As I got older I realised how absurd that assumption was and the finite number of players that actually make it as professionals. I see the same thing now in my work with the AIS football team. These 15-16 year old boys have been identified as some of the most talented young players in the country, and the reality is not all of them will make it - it's a harsh reality given the commitment that they have to the sport. This raises the expectations of the coach to bring the best out of these players and give them the best chance of succeeding. The second thing that got me was the mention of the adversities he has faced in the form of injuries. Once again it is something I can relate to as when I was 16, moving up to the level of a more serious U/18 Premier league competition I suffered a torn hamstring. I was out for most of that U/16 season and the following year my leg was broken. It was hard to recover from these injuries psychologically as much as physically - getting back into it I found I couldn't play at the same level I could previously, and I found myself hating playing a sport I had lived and breathed for the majority of my life. It took me a while to change my thinking into "Well, football will always be there, it's not going anywhere, I can spend the next few years just focusing on my studies and try to further myself to the point where I can have a job in the sport". I think it's important for athletes to succeed on an educational/career path as much sport due to the number of things that could take professional sport away in the blink of an eye. The last thing that I found very interesting was that one of his biggest highlights was his sisters promotion into Division 3. My older brother is the main reason I got into football. One of my highlights was being able to play in the same team as him only a couple of years ago. We truly are a product of our environment - the more I think about it the more I realise how much he has had an effect on me, from the music I listen to, to my determination to succeed in what I do, as he has done.

I think that the "product of our environment" philosophy can be directly related to coaching - in both the way we coach, and the way that this translates to the resultant effect we have on our athletes.

The Coach as a Performer

In week 4 we turned our focus to the coach as a performer. This includes relating coach performance to being just as important and often accountable for athlete performance as well as styles of coaching/teaching.

Starting off lightly, here's a bit of a satirical take on different types of sports coaches, although to be honest, they aren't far off with some.

Here however is a slightly more academic approach by Theresa Echtermeyer from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America on Coaching Styles and How They Impact Player Development. Echtermeyer outlines 3 styles of coaching.
1. The Authoritarian (aka Commander/Dictator) - An outcome based approach where the athlete's role is to respond to the coach's commands. We saw a clear example of this in Nikolay Karpol the Russian volleyball coach.
2. The Casual Coach (aka Submissive/Babysitter) - An approach where the coach takes a back seat and lets the players make all the decisions. Often used by less experienced coach's or in instances where the outcome is of lesser importance.
3. The Cooperative coach (aka Democrat/Teacher) - An athlete centred approach where the coach facilitates and the athlete is encouraged to participate in the decision making.

Each approach has varying advantages and disadvantages, and at the end of the day, each approach can lead to successful athlete performance - both in process and in outcome. A classmate of mine - Trent Hopkinson further discusses this in Coaching Approaches blog.
Another of my classmates - Leigh Sherman also shared some interesting thoughts on the dynamic nature of coaches and the requirement to get the best out of each individual in a team in his Are Players the only Performers in Sport? blog.

If I relate this back to my own experiences with the AIS football team - I've observed that the coaches are often more vocal in terms of direction during matches than the opposition coaches. A common difference between the AIS team compared to opposition teams is that the majority of the AIS athletes are 15-16,  whereas opposition athletes are on average 19-20 and often older. I think that given the athletes age and their introduction to the National Youth League (a far different game to what they're often used to) that more direction and instruction is necessary. I believe that in usual club circumstances, the athletes should receive enough direction and coaching during training sessions that during a match the instruction to players should be limited to pre match prep and half time talks - with the odd instruction here and there. I feel this way because I think the athletes at that level should by then have a pretty good indication of their role and be able to self-adapt to changing circumstances - if they don't, I think the coach hasn't done their job.

Week 4 Tutorial

In our most recent tutorial, we all joined in on some basketball fun. Keith took us through a session which involved easy ways of forming groups, different ways to communicate, useful methods of modifying simple games into sports and monitoring participant performance/enjoyment. It reminded me a lot of the Active After-school Communities program initiative by the Australian Sports Commission which is intended to provide primary school aged children access to free sport and other structured physical activity. I think it is an essential course for anyone intending to work with children or even just coaching in general. They offer a whole range of tools and resources as well as support.

And the final whistle blows..

Debut!

Well this is my first ever blog post! Going to keep it quick for now. I'll be using this blog to share my thoughts, ideas and other things which interest me as I undertake the Sport Coaching Pedagogy 2012 unit. I will follow this up with a more in depth entry on the unit content so far - for now however, I am excited to see where Keith takes us with this one. Here is a link to his blog Clyde Street where some of the unit content is shared as well as his own ponderings. We also have a Sport Coaching Pedagogy Facebook page :)

Stay tuned!