Wayne Goldsmith from Australia overstates, … a little.
But he’s got some very good points in an article on Sports Coaching Brain:
1. We base coach education programs on sports science.
2. We create athlete development pathways but then do not align the coach development pathway to them.
3. We believe that competency based training is the new messiah.
4. We run workshops and conferences that are largely based on sports science, gimmicks, fads and short cuts.
5. We give token attention to mentoring programs.
6. We teach all coaches the same outdated periodization processes.
7. We spend most of the alloted time teaching “what” to do and not focus on “how” and “why”
8. We create courses which do not reflect where the sport is going -i.e. we present course information which is based on what worked in the distant past.
9. We allow people to present the courses without insisting their teaching, education and communication skills are the best in the sport.
His best point, I feel, is the last:
10. We continue to present courses which are classroom based.
How many goals are scored in a classroom? How many world records are broken in a Board room? How many touchdowns are scored in a training room? Why do we insist on making coach education classroom based?
He’s right. From now on I’ll do every presentation possible inside the gym, alongside the apparatus we are discussing.
Coach education – Ten Dumb Things we do and call it Coach Education
Active learning.
(via Brett MacAulay on Facebook)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 