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Week 14

Hi guys, this is my last post for semester one, 2012.  It's been a great semester and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.  Like all of his units, Keith has taught SCP in a very unique and interesting way.  Some of the stories, experiences and ideas which have been shared during this semester have certainly given me a different perspective on particular subjects and enhanced my understanding of many aspects of coaching.

While writing these blogs I have attempted to give the reader a further insight into what was covered during the lecture or tutorial, as well as building on the topic with my own ideas and opinions.  Some (but not all) of the subjects I have addressed in this blog include: 'The Expert Pedagogue', 'Social Media', 'Performing, Reflecting & Mentoring' and 'Augmented Learning'.  I hope I have allowed the readers of this blog enough thought provoking material amongst these topics to prompt their own new thoughts and ideas.

Thank you all for reading, and thank you Keith for teaching a great unit! 

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Week 12

The topic of this week’s lecture was ‘The Expert Pedagogue’.  Keith introduced us to a couple of extremely successful coaches.  One of the coaches was John Wooden, a college basketball coach.  Wooden wrote a book about coaching, it was titled: You haven’t taught until they have learned.  This book speaks about teaching principles and practice.  I think the name of this book is not only a fantastic title but also a great motto for anyone to coach by.  I think it simplifies coaching.  These words remove all the distractions that can develop with coaching and brings the task back to the basics.  Coaches can then simply implement the necessary teaching strategies which will ensure their athletes/pupils are learning and improving.     

Keith also introduced us to a psychologist, Carol Dweck.  She alludes to the idea that people are in charge of their own intelligence.  She states that being smart is not a gift, nor is it a product of genetic good fortune.  The idea is that the brain is like a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets.  This is illustrated in the picture below.  Furthermore, Dweck poses the question, ‘How often do you laugh at babies for being stupid?’  Babies aren’t dumb, they just haven’t learned yet.  This idea can apply to people of any age, simply because someone doesn’t know something doesn’t mean that they don’t have the capacity to learn it.  This concept can be directly translated to coaching.  It may be unfair to deem players who perform below standard, or struggle with executing a particular skill as having no ability.  Instead, they may have simply never learned the skill and only need it to be taught to them to understand how to perform it.

Dweck’s opinions and thoughts can be seen in more detail in this YouTube video. 

  http://slavieboy.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/mindsets-and-carol-dweck-live-from.html

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Week 11

Hi guys! Following on from last week’s blog, I would like to share a website which Keith added to the unit’s Facebook page.

The website, which can be viewed here, displays a number of interesting facts and figures about social networking sites.  One of the main points that I took away from reading this website was the power of social networking.  Yes, I realised before that social networking was a powerful tool, but some of the figures shown are quite phenomenal.  Such figures include:

·         On average in 2011, 140 million tweets were sent per day.

·         There are now 845+ million users on Facebook.

·         On March 12 2011, 572,000 people registered a Twitter account.

These numbers are incredible and certainly reinforce how much social media can influence society.

Keith’s presentation this week alluded to both Tudor Bompa and Istvan Balyi, and the training models developed by these two men.  For this week’s blog, I thought I would offer a little bit more insight into these two people and the training models they have developed.

Tudor Bompa is considered by many as the ‘father’ of periodisation.  Bompa created a method which broke down an athlete’s training program to specify their training and allow them to benefit more from their training.  An example of this is shown here.

Bompa was born in Romania and begun his sporting career by playing soccer, as well as competing in track and field events.  Bompa later got into the sport of rowing and in the 1958 Rowing European Championships he won a silver medal.  Bompa is the only coach to produce both Olympic and World Champions in 2 different sports – rowing and athletics.  To date, he has written 16 books, selling more than 650,000 copies worldwide.  I gathered my information from this website, where more knowledge about Bompa can be gained.   

Similarly, Istvan Balyi is considered an expert in long term athlete development (LTAD).  An example of the ‘Balyi Model’ can be seen below:

http://www.unchainedfitness.com/blog/windows-of-opportunity-and-athlete-development  

The LTAD principles allow coaches to integrate training, competition and recovery programming into the biological development of an individual so that they can reach their full potential.   The concept involves a number of stages which are shown and displayed in detail on this website

While exploring YouTube for videos relating to periodization, I found this video about coaching.  Like me, I’m sure many people won’t find it very interesting as it’s a rather basic video.  However, I still think it displays a very good insight into coaching.  It shows the role of a coach very well.  Basically it demonstrates how the athlete or pupil can achieve success by themselves, simply with the guidance of a coach.  Anyway, if you’re interested then check it out!

Thanks for reading!

   

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Week 10

Hi guys, after a bit of a break, I’m back for another post.  In this week’s SCP lecture, Keith raised some interesting points.  I would like to re-hash some of these points and build on them as well.

Technology has come a long way in a relatively short space of time.  Compared to a decade ago, the internet is so readily available these days.  The introduction of so many mobile devices, which are capable of accessing online material combined with the ever increasing wireless internet hotspots, means global connectivity is more advanced than ever.

As Keith touched on in his lecture, we (as students) can produce work and have it displayed around the world within minutes.  We don’t require IT specialists anymore, we can do this ourselves.  This is evident with the recently completed SCP presentations.  Thanks to various websites (youtube, slideshare, prezi and wikiversity) our presentations for this unit can be witnessed anywhere in the world.  In fact Keith has compiled a wikiversity page to house everyone’s presentations, making it even easier to view people’s work.  This can be viewed here.

The world is becoming closer than ever through technological advancements, meaning work and study can be shared/stolen so much easier.  This situation poses the question, do copyright/ plagiarism laws need to be tighter to ensure the originality of people’s work?  Or would it be better to relax the laws and allow people to openly use other people’s work?  I think both sides of the argument have valid points.   

As we’re all aware, the university plagiarism laws are quite strict.  Although a slight relaxation of these laws could lead to a host of problems, it would also allow people to work together much more freely with people anywhere in the world to potentially create a higher quality of work.  As mentioned by Keith, Wikipedia is becoming a more reputable source.  It is constantly being updated and monitored to ensure the information is correct and reliable.  Maybe more Wikipedia type webpages will be the way of the future.  Places where anyone can post information and share their knowledge.  Of course, policing the validity of the info could be the main issue, however this is contrasted with the policing of plagiarism laws, which is likely to become harder in this growing global network.      

I would like to leave a final thought for anyone who may wish to comment.  Will it one day be possible to learn everything you need to know in a certain field, solely using the internet?  Ie. Will the internet allow us to acquire a university degree (or equivalent) without attending campus or paying the tuition fees?

Any thoughts are welcome, thank you!

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Week 8

Hi guys, I’m back for another blog.  It’s been a bit longer than usual since my last blog and with good reason too. 

Since the start of this online endeavour I haven’t spoken much about myself or my own experiences.  Due to recent experiences, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of my stories.  As stated in my small profile I do enjoy playing cricket.  This has been the main reason why I have been a little lax with my blogging lately.  I play cricket for the Western Districts & University of Canberra Cricket Club.  Despite some very poor performances from our team since Christmas, we just managed to scrape into the finals of the two-day competition.  The finals of this competition are played over three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), hence why I have missed the past two lectures and tutorials and have decided to write this blog about some of my experiences rather than the class content.

I will aim to link some of the past topics such as ‘performing, mentoring and reflecting’ from week six to this post.  As I stated we just snuck into the finals.  Finishing 4^th we were faced with the challenge of playing minor premiers Tuggeranong.  The match seesawed for three days but we came out on top.  This saw us progress through to the grand final against Queanbeyan.  Queanbeyan is always a tough opponent, thanks largely to a strong contingent of representative players.  We elected to bowl first on Friday and had them in a lot of trouble at 5 for 87 at lunch.  Unfortunately poor fielding on our behalf allowed them to form some strong lower order partnerships and build a total of 395. 

Although we were chasing a considerably large total (particularly for Canberra cricket) we knew we had a very strong chance of winning the game.  However, ill-discipline with the bat and some good bowling saw us crumble to being all out for a measly 132.  Losing is never fun, but losing by such a hefty margin in a grand final is very disappointing and quite humiliating.  From our point of view, it’s now important that everyone involved in the game has learnt something and can come back next season as a better player.

I said I would try and incorporate the week 6 topic into this post.  Well in my opinion we have plenty of mentors around the club.  Everyone is happy to offer advice and help out where they can.  The mentoring aspect of our season began last year around July.  Despite being the middle of winter we would meet on a cold Friday night when we should be watching the football and work closely on some aspects of our game which needed correction.  I think the mentoring ‘phase’ lasted the whole summer and although at times it is not as strong as at other times it is very much an ongoing aspect of playing sport. 

As for the performance aspect, well that can simply be viewed as the length of the season.  However, in my opinion it is not necessarily that simple.  The season is roughly six months long and for a player to ‘perform’ every week for that length of time is a phenomenal effort.  Players will inevitably experience peaks and troughs in regards to their performance throughout a season.  I would like to suggest however, that performance is not simply the numbers and figures which sit next to a person’s name.  Cricket in particular is a ‘numbers’ game but often these figures don’t tell the true story of how a player performed.  Competing in team sports requires a combined effort and although some players may finish the game with average looking statistics, their performance could well have permitted another team member to excel, thus leaving the team in a fantastic position to win the game.  A perfect example was the 2005 Boxing Day test match between Australia and South Africa at the MCG.  The following YouTube clip tells the story but essentially, Glenn McGrath walked out to bat when Mike Hussey was on 27.  Mcgrath only scored 11 runs, but he batted for two hours which allowed Hussey to score a hundred and put Australia in a commanding position, from which they went on to win the match.  The scorecard from the game can also be viewed here.

Hussey celebrates

Finally, is the reflecting aspect.  Some teams or individuals may opt to frequently reflect throughout the season, or even after each game.  As a team, we would speak about the good and bad to come out of the game we had played and we would aim to improve and build on it for the next game.  Since the heavy loss in the grand final though, I can’t help but think that I will be reflecting about the game for quite some time to come.  We had our opportunities to seize the game and take control but we just couldn’t quite do it.  This experience has made me more determined to ensure I do everything I can to prepare myself and my teammates for any future finals that we play in.  This game got me thinking, is there a time limit on how long one can reflect for?  I certainly won’t forget this game in a hurry and like I said if I get another opportunity to win a competition I will be reflecting on this missed chance to try and prepare not only myself but also the team.  Whether that chance may come next season, or in ten seasons time, I will be looking back on this experience to ensure I have learnt and improved in order to give my team the best possible chance of victory.

Thank you for reading and please post your thoughts below!

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Week 6

This week’s topic of ‘performing, reflecting, mentoring’ is quite broad and can be interpreted in a number of ways.  I will focus largely on mentoring in this week’s blog.

Firstly, the definition of mentoring (as spoken by google) is to ‘advise or train someone’.  The benefits of mentoring will significantly differ from person to person.  Some people may prosper dramatically and heavily rely on some form of mentoring in order to improve.  Yes, the aim of the mentor is to see their ‘pupil’ advance their learning and realise their potential.  If however, the mentor doesn’t allow their pupil the opportunity of independent learning, they may become too dependent on the guidance offered by the mentor, which may impact on their judgement or decision making in a game situation.  What I’m trying to convey may be difficult to understand.  Essentially what I’m saying is that although mentoring will have a positive effect in most instances, it is important to allow the space needed for the pupil to learn in their own manner.  Everyone is different and the ‘space’ required will vary for each individual.  Knowing the person and understanding the degree of intensity required when mentoring them in order to achieve the best results is critical. 

I assume most people will associate mentoring with an older person passing on advice to a younger person.  I don’t believe this should always be the case, and think advice can (and probably should) come from all ages.  As part of the learning process, I think it is important to listen to advice from any source, take in all comments and decipher what is necessary and what isn’t.  Part of the mentor’s role is to advise.  Assuming the mentor is a bit older and has a vast amount of knowledge of the sport, simply passing on their experiences of how to play the game can be the best advice given.  Imparting knowledge and game sense in a young person who has the ability and skill to be successful can prove beneficial for their progress as they mature as a player at a faster rate.

I have taken a different approach to this week’s blog.  With limited research, I have simply thrown some ideas and thoughts out there.  Whether you believe they are actually valid and have some merit or you think they are completely illogical, I would like to hear people’s thoughts on the matter.

Cheers              

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Week 5

Our lecture and tutorial today focused around observation and augmented learning.  We were shown a video of some canoe slalom coaches and athletes.  This sport is quite foreign to me as I have seen very little of it.  As Keith informed us, it is not like many sports where athletes are permitted a ‘training’ run.  The first time the athletes enter the water, they are actually competing.  So, it is clear why observation plays such a large role in this particular sport.  In order to maximise performance competitors and coaches must examine the course in great detail prior to competing. 

My next point is the coach.  In the two examples of athlete/coach that Keith showed us, both were family.  In one instance a mother/ daughter combination was formed, while in another, two brothers worked side by side.  Both the mother and the brother who were doing the coaching had reached great success in the sport and were now passing on their knowledge.  With this in mind, I would like to ask whether a good athlete automatically makes a good coach?  There are countless examples of former players going on to coach.  This happens regularly in both the NRL and AFL as well as other sports like cricket, soccer and netball.  In fact, most sports now have former athletes filling coaching or management positions.  In my opinion, not all former players will make good coaches but a large percentage will.  Although they may not have the greatest coaching ability, they do have experience and I believe that is one of the greatest attributes a coach can have.    

Keith raised another interesting point about the ‘feedforward’ concept as opposed to ‘feedback’.  As a coach or an observer, ‘you can look back on what someone didn’t do, or you can choose to look forward at what they might do’.  I agree with this statement, athletes should be encouraged to move on from a bad game or poor performance and should not dwell on the negatives.  However, in saying that, the coach must also find the right way to help to player learn from that previous experience in order to improve.  Like I mentioned earlier, there is no substitute for experience.   

Lastly I will mention the ‘final two per cent’ which was raised by Keith.  He stated that as humans we have an extra two per cent left in us to help in frightening situations.  We won’t often, if ever reach the point where this is required but when we’re faced with potentially life threatening circumstances, or even just pushed out of our comfort zone we can exhibit extra strength.  I did a little bit of research on this topic and found the following article which I thought was interesting http://mindhacks.com/2010/01/02/the-psychology-of-super-human-strength/

Please feel free to leave your thoughts, cheers.