The Stag Do. A group of blokes, associated with the groom through friendship or family, get together to undertake activities they’d never otherwise do.   This is usually followed by copious amounts of alcohol leading to a hangover to remind the condemned man what he’ll be missing out on once the knot is tied?! My two last experiences of “The Stag Do” shared Clay Pigeon Shooting as one of the activities. OK, lets get one thing […]

Having delivered a week of a Closing the Gap Summer School with Create Development I found myself challenged in new ways. The ethos of the project is around empowering pupils to make the transition from primary to secondary school by raising their awareness of the skills (Learning Powers) they have and need in order to be successful in their new environments. The challenges for me were manifold: A target audience with whom I had little […]

We are currently experiencing an attendance boom at both badminton and cricket sessions with which I am involved.  With a bit of foresight I have managed to get to a situation where I have some L1 coaches, parents and experienced players in place who are willing and able to help out.  By coincidence this has all been happening in a period during which I’ve been involved with reviewing Coach Education programmes.  Part of this has […]

I watched this video earlier Learning Styles There is a fair amount of dislike for “Learning Styles” from a variety of academics at the moment.  I am not an active academic, but I am an active coach and coach educator.  I wonder whether it matters if “learning styles” exist?  Perhaps what is more important is the impact that any belief in/interpretation of the theory has upon practice.  Practice is what interests me.  In sport and Physical Education we […]

Those of you who follow me on twitter (@gingercoaching) will be aware that with SASP (@SASPSomerset) I have been working on a project to aid less experienced coaches in their reflection and hence to help them evolve and develop as coaches in a more autonomous manner.  The logistics of mentoring coaches through observation are challenging and hence the idea is to develop a toolkit that enables the customers to air their views.  Ultimately what they think […]

The Devon Youth Cricket Foundation arranged a 4 hour workshop run by ex-England ‘keeper and current Notts captain Chris Read.  Chris didn’t charge to deliver this session meaning it was free for coaches across Devon – a great opportunity.  Chris delivers the wicketkeeping aspect of the ECB Level 4 coaching programme so for a lowly level 2 coach like myself this was a chance not  to be missed. There were 4 Devon age group wicketkeepers […]

Having blogged in the past about CPD, and had a bit of a moan, I have to say how valuable I found a discussion group I attended this week.  It was hosted by SASP, was not certified and as such went wherever we wanted it to go – helped by some skillful facilitation. We discussed various thoughts around coaching prompted by a couple of group tasks and short youtube videos on “quality coaching”.  The main […]

An interesting situation occurred this evening. I coach (with a colleague) for a local leisure provider.  Players pay the sports centre to participate.  We are employed to deliver a session between set times.  Once those times end, who is responsible for the child?  We have another session with different players following straight on from the previous one.  If a parent is not there on time to collect their child, and they wait in reception or in the carpark, […]