Technology and Coach Education: a view from the coalface

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Technology and Coach Education a view from the
coalface

• Angela Calder

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Overview

• Benefits and limitations of technologies for
• delivering coach education courses
• use in the field
• communication
• Challenges for coaches a coachs view

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Delivering Coaching courses

• Computer based technology
• Individual presentations eg. Power Point
• Server-based systems eg. Web CT, Blackboard
• Assumptions
• All coaches have access to a PC or laptop.
• Programs and systems are compatible with the
  central server.
• All coaches know how to use a computer.
• All coaches have access to Broadband.

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Individual Presentations

• Benefits
• Visual, adaptable, portable, prompts for teacher
  to tell stories / give examples.
• Ability to have group interaction, comments and
  immediate feedback.
• Limitations
• Lack detail need extra notes / supporting texts
  etc.
• Limited availability.
• In large groups difficult to provide individual
  feedback.

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Server-based systems

• Benefits
• 24/7 accessibility.
• More detailed information eg. preparatory
  materials, graphs, trial assessments, etc.
• Individualised feedback and comments.
• Limitations
• Feedback is slow takes longer to type comments.
• Less interaction with other classmates.
• On-Line I rarely meet my students or see them in
  action.
• System designers state that on-line teaching
  should represent only 30 of the educational
  experience.

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Technologies in the Field - video

• Benefits
• 100 recall (camera an eyeball with a memory).
• Real situations coach and athlete relate to
  easily.
• Captures non-verbal communication as well as
  performance information.
• Visual learning style predominant effective
  teaching.
• Transcribes to DVD easily, inexpensive, and
  accessible for individual athlete or coach.
• Limitations
• Access not always available. Cost?
• Operation and care of equipment not understood.

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Technologies in the Field - headsets

• Benefits when used with video
• Captures verbal communication to complement
  video.
• Limitations
• Access not always available. Cost?
• Operation and care of equipment not understood,
  eg. appropriate radio frequencies.

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Technical Analysis Systems

• Examples Swinger, Dart Fish, Silicon Coach, etc.
  
• Benefits
• Relatively easy to use some coaches learn
  system quickly.
• Provides immediate feedback, and increases the
  quality of qualitative feedback.
• Limitations
• Availability. Costs ?
• Some coaches struggle to learn how to operate
  systems limited familiarity with using
  computers.

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Tactical Analysis Systems

• Examples Sports Code, Game Breaker, AnalyRugby,
  Snapper, etc.
• Benefits
• Video editing and rapid processing of vast
  amounts of information.
• Limitations
• Availability. Costs ?
• Employ others to operate system (often not
  coaches but IT boffins) Process becomes driven
  by what the system can do rather than what the
  coach wants to know.
• Lack of understanding of how to develop Key
  Performance Indicators for a sport. What do you
  want to know?
• Limited to using systems for quantitative
  analyses only.

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Communication

• Emails Benefits
• Develop and maintain a network of contacts
  worldwide.
• Individual contact with athletes - overseas
  training etc.
• Immediate delivery.
• Emails Limitations
• Can get too many takes time.
• Websites Benefits
• Keep Up-To-date (Sporting Organisations).
• Ability to search for information on any topic.
• Websites Limitations
• Reliability and authenticity of information
  questionable.
• Keeping the site updated!!

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Personal Observations

• Coaches are Time Poor
• Coaches struggle to cope with their multiple and
  diverse roles.
• This is as true for developmental coaches
  (volunteers), as it is for High Performance
  coaches (full-time employed).
• Technology should aim to save the coach time and
  facilitate the coaching role eg. more time to
  spend coaching /communicating with the athlete.
• Does it do this?

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Wayne Bennett - Rugby League

• Technology should have made life easier but in
  many ways its added to the workload. When I
  started in this game we didnt even have access
  to video and now weve got so much statistical
  data available to us it takes your breath away.
• The real challenge now is to decide how much of
  it to use and when to use it
• Brisbane Courier Mail, August 17th, 2005

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