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Planning a coaching session

Aims and objectives

Before you coach any session you need to answer the following questions:

  • What is the starting point, what is their skill levels, who are they?
  • Where do they want to be and what do they want from you?
  • How will you achieve this?
  • What will you need to do this - facilities, equipments etc?
  • How will you/they know if they have improved?

These types of questions will help build the aims and objectives of the session. With the aim being the desired outcome and objectives the ways you are going to get there. In order to get that desired outcome the following points need to be considered.

  • The age of the participants, as this will affect the kinds of practises that the coach can use, and ever how they might approach coaching that group.
  • The level of experience and ability of the participants.
  • Whether the participants have any special requirements relating to diet, health, culture, or language.
  • The number of participants, as this will affect the kinds of practises that the coach can employ.
  • The aims and objectives of previous sessions.

Setting SMART goals

Setting small targets is an effective way to reach your goal - the overall aim. As objectives are the things you need to do in order to reach the goal it is important to consider whether you are meeting these. If progress is hindered for some reason or great headway is being made the targets set may need to be adjusted.

It is a good idea to use the SMART principle when planning your sessions:

SMART.[D]

Roles, responsibility and needs of participants

At the beginning this unit we identified the different roles that a coach can adopt. In practice it would be foolish to expect a coach to fulfil all of these roles at the same time. However coaches should be prepared to flick between roles as the demands of situations change. For example during a fitness session where the coaches principle role is that of a trainer, he/she may suddenly notice that that one of their athletes is really struggling during a session and is getting upset due to their poor performance, resulting in the coaching adopting the role of a friend so they can help reassure, comfort and motivate that individual. Through experience coaches begin to find that this process of shifting between roles becomes automatic and is done without any thought or planning.

During delivery a coach is expected to fulfil their professional coaching responsibilities. These include:

  • Ensuring that sessions are safe, fun and rewarding for the participants
  • Enabling people to learn and develop their skills safely, and in an enjoyable and non threatening manner.

A coach is expected to be aware of these responsibilities at all times as they help provide participants with a positive experience and increase the likelihood that they will return for more of the same. Again over time a coach's ability to fulfil these responsibilities will become automatic. However during the early stages of their career coaches should expect to make conscious effort to ensure that these are met.

The coaching experience should be positive for the participants and the session plan should reflect this. Points you need to consider are below:

Number - The number of participants need to considered to ensure the activities planned will be safe and that everyone is going to have the chance to be involved. You also need to make sure there is enough staff to meet the ratios set out. Under 8's you need one member of staff per 4 children and over 8's it is one member of staff per 8 children.

Ability - In most casel the ability levels may be quite similar, especially if you are coaching at club level. Summer camps however may be a little bit different, as all any ability participants can sign up and come along. This means the coach need to be flexible in the delivery approach and have a bank of ideas and practises to meet the needs of all.

Age and gender - All activities need to be inclusive of age and gender. If a coach is working with mixed genders they need to think about separating the males and females, especially if they are passed the age of puberty. In some cases sexes and ages can be mixed but maturation rates/skill level and strength of the participant must be considered.

The gender may also affect the sports chosen, however a good coach will encourage both sexes to take part in all sports to reduce the heredity stigma related to gender and some sports. E.g. only woman can play netball or only men can take part in the hammer throw.

Needs - The needs the coach has to consider can vary greatly. These can include;

Group size

Age

Ability levels

Environment

Any disabilities

A coach should consider all of these carefully when planning a session.

Resources

Human.[D]

Health and safety

The health and safety of all involved in sport should be the most important of considerations of the coach. In most cases it is necessary to ensure that facilities and equipment are safe and well maintained, and that performers are adequately aware of key health and safety issues, particularly relating to their safety and the safety of others.

Coaches should consider the following as a checklist, though it is by no mean exhaustive.

  • The context in which the sport will take place
  • The nature of the sport, for playing and training
  • The players
  • The coach.

Risk assessments

It is imperative that coaches conduct a thorough risk assessment of their coaching environment prior to the start of a session in order to meet their health and safety responsibilities.

Furthermore, during delivery coaches must be aware of

  • The emergency procedures that are in place at the venue they are using
  • Have pre-planned contingencies which can be implemented to help adjust your session in order to meet the needs of the participants.

Risk assessments are not just forms to fill out. A risk assessment is a skill that helps prevent accidents or serious events. You need to consider what could go wrong and how likely it is. Risk assessments should be kept and logged, and stored in a safe place.

Please refer to Unit. Assessing risk in sport for more information on risk assessments.

Risk assessments.[D]

Contingency plan

Things rarely go completely to plan and for that reason it is good practice to plan for the unexpected so that everyone remains safe and continues to learn. Consider the following as examples of what can happen and what you could plan for:

  • Weather threatens your outside session
  • You fall ill and are no longer able to continue as coach
  • There are not enough participants for the session
  • The facility is double-booked when you arrive for the session
  • The group are not responding to your style of coaching or the practises that you have chosen.

The components of a session

  • Warm-up

Before a session begins a coach will have planned the amount of time they would ideally like to spend warming up. However when it comes to delivery the actual amount of time spent on a warm up may depend on a number of factors. If it turns out to be a very hot day, the venue is indoors, or the session as a whole is very active the warm up duration may reduce as very little time will need to be spent on ensuring that the participant's muscles are warmed-up. Yet, in the opposite scenarios where it may be exceptionally cold, or the session planned requires a lot standing around observing demonstrations, considerably more time may be spent warming-up to help reduce the risk of injury.

  • Main Body

This is where you skills as a coach are really tested. During delivery you need to ensure that all of the practices and drills required to allow the participants to learn and develop are implemented.

  • Cool Down

It is essential that once the main body of the session has been delivered sufficient amount of time is spent allowing the participants to cool down and recover. This process should be gradual in order to allow the body the opportunity to remove any waste products that have been produced during exercise.

Feedback

It is important to provide participants with feedback on how well they are progressing. There is no set specific time to deliver feedback, it should be offered as soon as possible. Feedback needs to be clear, positive, constructive, corrective and helpful in order to facilitate participants learning.