I had the pleasure of compiling and delivering a day of leadership training to BTEC students in early May.  They will be planning and running a badminton festival for year 3 and 4 pupils later in the year, so my brief was to help prepare them for this experience.  Luckily, we were able to use a year 7 PE group as guinea pigs in the afternoon, and so prepared a mock festival for them to experience. [...]

Since attending the pilot of the UKcc level 3 learning programme  run by BADMINTON England a couple of years ago, I have carried around and regularly handed out a notebook in which I ask players to offer their feedback from the session I’ve just run.  I offer this opportunity to primary children, all the way up to adults on coach education courses and teachers attending CPD opportunities.  Why?  For two reasons.  It is a method of passing [...]

CPD, hugely valuable, often compulsory, sometimes rubbish, occasionally inspiring.  I’ve recently completed a couple of formal qualifications. The Introduction to Assessment Practice in Sport course now certifies me to do the assessing work I’ve been carrying out for the last few years!  It is, probably rightly, a pre-requisite to hold this qualification to assess UKcc candidates for the NGB with whom I work.  However, the fact that I’ve been able to assess before completing the [...]

In recent posts I’ve made some observations about the behaviours during coaching sessions for my cricket club.  With the changing of the clocks and the improvement(!) in the weather we have now moved to outdoor training.  Having talked about the challenges in terms of seeking leadership I thought that maybe sometimes a lack of a decision maker can in fact be a positive thing.  A controversial thought maybe, but watch this clip: http://www.facebook.com/v/10150621366175936 As the [...]

Having run a successful session with the club juniors last week, the changeover to the adults illustrated a few things.  Usually the nets are set up and ready to use as the colts have trained in them.  This time though, the soft ball session had not needed them to be set up.  As the senior players arrived I was debriefing the juniors.  Rather than setting up the nets (the whereabouts of which were known as [...]

Recent injury has forced me to think about what I can achieve when coaching without being too physically involved.  I’ve mentioned before the set up we’ve got going this season for indoor pre-season cricket training – colts followed by seniors in the same venue on the same night.  This has given rise to me being able to access a range of coaching resources which previously haven’t been utilised.  Each week one or two senior players (with [...]

To start with I want to refresh your minds with this previous blog post: http://www.gingercoaching.com/?p=69 You’ll now remember the player who initially complained about her group, and then became chief organiser for them.  I wrote at the time that the experience had made no difference to her as a player.  Now though, the proof that it was worthwhile has emerged. The next time I ran a similar session – a selection of progressive practices to [...]

It’s the time of year when my cricket coaching begins to kick into action.  There are always bits and pieces that continue year round, but with the season approaching the hours increase.  Over the past couple of seasons I have started to take on the challenge of coaching the seniors at the club at which I play.  A club with a rich history, but one which had now found a level more akin to the [...]

I’ve been raising my expectations based on my Learning Nutrition experiences.  As such, I chose to hand more responsibility for the content of one of my community junior clubs sessions to the learners.  This session is weekly and has the youngest players of my regular work. I had 8 players, and wanted them to split into two groups.  I asked them to do so and ended up with two groups of three and a two. [...]

Complex Carbohydrates provide us with sustained energy.  In Learning Nutrition terms we suggest that offering praise for positive behaviours has this effect upon our performers.  By combining this praise with a shift in control (Minerals) I’ve had a breakthrough with a challenging player. The challenge is not aggressive, but in a cheeky trying to catch me out type way.  Has been coming to me for several years, and has recently started playing at other clubs too.  [...]