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 […]

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.  […]

I found myself in a new situation recently when delivering some one-off tasters in a primary school.  The aim of the tasters was to drum up more interest for an eaarly morning badminton club that I run.  I had arranged a half hour slot with each of 6 KS 2 classes.  My plan (which due to the nature of the choices involved thoughout was essentially the same for all classes) was to start in a […]

Whilst the main focus of the Learning Nutrition experiment is upon working with children, I could not resist using this new method with my adult group. The group was initially for beginners, but has been running now for 2 seasons and as such those that have been coming throughout have reached a reasonable club standard of play.  New players have joined along the way meaning there are a range of abilities on show. Having spent […]

My ongoing exploration of the minerals element of Learning Nutrition has begun to show some progress.  I have continued to offer a range of activities but am now moving to the 3* menu.  An increased awareness of the language I use has brought about some more change! Whilst, when I give a range of practices initially, most groups continue to start from the beginning and progress from there, I feel progress has been made as […]

Having had a pretty successful first experience working with minerals I was surprised how things initially went awry second time around.  Essentially, I ran the same session as before, but at my other junior badminton club, with players in the same range of ages and abilities. It was interesting this time though to watch one group who were so far outside of their comfort zone that they were simply unable to perform the tasks set.  The […]

In Learning Nutrition parlance, “Minerals” as a nutrient equates to the idea of shifting control of and responsibility for learning to the learners themselves. I’ve started to do this more in my junior badminton club sessions.  The age range for these sessions is 7-17 years. I’ve begun to provide the whole group with a range of practices for the same skill early in the session.  These are demonstrated, and numbered in order of increasing difficulty.  Players are […]

Learning Nutrition is the brainchild of Ronnie Heath at Create Development.  The aim is to consider how our coaching/teaching practices influence the learning of those we work with.  Have a look at their website with the link below. http://www.createdevelopment.co.uk/category/blog/learning-nutrition-blog-series/ I’m excited to be involved with the pilot of this project, experimenting with Learning Nutrients.  I intend to apply the ideas in a variety of settings from school curriculum to community clubs.  Keep your eyes on […]