Gold Coast Baseball Association

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Gold Coast Baseball Association

• Coaches Education Forum 1
• General Principles

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General Coaching Principles

• Introduction to Coaching.
• Safe Coaching.
• Planning for Coaches.
• Coaching Communication and Group Management.
• Traditional Approach vs. Gamesense
• Long Term Athlete Development

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What is Coaching?

• Teaching skills?
• Deciding team strategy?
• Organizing trainings?
• Player selection?
• Facilitating improved performance in a specific
  context?

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Why do kids play sport?

• Have fun.
• Make friends.
• Learn new skills.
• Increase confidence.
• Be challenged.
• Be actively involved and successful.
• A wise man once said People will only continue
  to do something that they get something out of.
  All you have to do is find out what they want.

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How do kids learn?

• Learning through Listening (Audible)
• Learning through Watching (Visual)
• Learning through Participating (Kinesthetic)
• The richest learning experience for kids involves
  hearing an explanation, seeing a demonstration
  and then trying it for themselves!

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Safe Coaching

• Risk Management
• the process of managing a coachs potential
  exposure to liabilities, preventing their
  occurrence or putting processes in place to meet
  the costs of a liability. (ABF, Level 1 Coaches
  Course)

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Safe Coaching

• Coaches Duty of Care
• Coaches must exercise reasonable care to ensure
  that athletes under their care are not injured.
  If the coach does not show this duty of care,
  they can be found to be NEGLIGENT! (ABF, Level
  1 Coaches Course)

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Risk Management

• Risk Identification
• Risk Assessment
• Risk Reduction
• Implementation
• Review and modification
• (ABF, Level 1 Coaches course)

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Planning

• Spend 5-10mins planning training sessions and
  games
• Write things down
• Set clear session goals/outcomes
• Spend 5-10mins assessing how the session went
  afterwards, what things worked..? What didnt..?
  Did you achieve your goals..?
• Have a purpose but BE FLEXIBLE!
• Training diary??

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Training session plan

• Plan session
• Pre-training address/talk
• Warm up
• New skills
• Old skills
• Conditioning
• Warm down
• Practice re-cap
• Analyse session/plan for next session

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Communication and Group Management

• Verbal Communication
• - Instructions and feedback
• Non-verbal Communication
• - Body Language
• - Demonstrations

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Instructions

• Try to state instructions in the positive
  rather than the negative (tell them what to do
  rather than what not to do!) eg. Swing down
  through the ball, rather than Dont drop the
  back shoulder and upper-cut.
• Use language that is appropriate and that they
  will understand
• Where possible refer to the implement (bat/ball)
  rather than the body part
• Most effective when used in conjunction with a
  demonstration

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Instructions

• Particularly for younger groups
• Be concise
• Use lots of short instructions rather than long
  explanations
• Refer to interesting things they might like or be
  interested in (gorillas vs. chimps as team names
  etc. or alligator mouth for fielding)

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Feedback

• Feedback is most effective when it is
• Positive
• Constructive
• Specific
• Immediate
• Use the Sandwhich technique for negative
  feedback or consistent problems

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Non-verbal Communcation

• Body Language is key!!!
• If the non-verbal communication is consistent
  with the verbal communication the communication
  process is much more effective
• Be enthusiastic
• Be animated
• The old saying Do as I say, not as I do, is
  garbage!!! You are a role model and kids learn
  from watching what you do, and how you act.

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Demonstrations

• Demonstrate the complete skill/activity at game
  speed before breaking it down into components
• Have a competent athlete demonstrate it (if you
  cant)
• It is very hard to teach something you cannot do
  yourself!

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Communication and Group Management

• Create a Positive Learning Environment
• (Athlete-Centred Coaching)
• Each athletes needs are the focus
• Winning and loosing are irrelevant
• Emphasize or praise good performance/behaviour
  and individual improvement
• Dont draw attention to bad performance or
  behaviour
• Giving them plenty to do, and keeping them
  entertained will be the best way to get them to
  be well behaved
• If you find yourself yelling at kids or having to
  tell them off, it is a sign that you have not
  been able to entertain them enough!

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Traditional Approach vs. Gamesense

• Traditional Approach
• Select skill and break skill into sequential
  components
• Teach individual components
• - Progress from simple to complex
• - Progress from closed to open skills
• - Progress from slow to fast
• Progress to complete skill
• Learn to integrate skill into performance
  (introduce skill into game play/strategy)

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Traditional Approach vs. Gamesense

• Gamesense Approach
• Select skill
• Create modified game that incorporates that skill
• Allow participants to practice skill in game play
  (while having fun!)
• Eg. Ground-ball Soccer

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Long Term Athlete Development

• FUNdamentals
• Training to Train
• Training to Compete
• Training to Win
• Recycling

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FUNdamental Stage (6-10yrs)

• Key Coaching Strategies
• A positive set of experiences emphasizing
  enjoyment and fun.
• Informal and without regimentation.
• No discomfort, no pain.
• Agility, Balance, Coordination and Speed through
  simple exercises, games and relays.
• Early speed and agility windows
• Females 6-8 years
• Males 7-9 years
• Include non-weight bearing activities for aerobic
  development
• Running, Jumping and Throwing skills
• Catching, Passing, Kicking and Striking skills
• Volumes kept Low
• Intensity kept Very Low
• (Giles Benton, 2003 QAS LTAD Model)

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Training to Train (10-14yrs)

• Key Coaching Strategies
• long training period (6-9 months)- short
  competition period (2-3 months)
• Introduction to sport specific skills while still
  emphasizing fun/games.
• Skill trainability gradually declines after 11
  and 12 years of age.
• Second window for Speed Agility development.
• Strength training endurance improvement are
  introduced
• Team sport position specific skills are
  introduced without specialization
• Emphasis should be on learning how to train on
  the processnot on the outcome !
• (Giles Benton, 2003 QAS LTAD Model)

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Training to Compete Training to Win

• Training to Compete
• Increasing specialization and emphasis on
  competition
• Increased Commitment (energy and time)
• Decreasing emphasis on fun in exchange for
  increases in performance
• Training to Win
• Increased physical and mental stress
• Increased professionalism
• (Giles Benton, 2003 QAS LTAD Model)

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LTAD

• Path to being an elite athlete generally takes in
  excess of 10 years and 10,000 hours of
  preparation
• Train everyone as if they might one day become an
  elite athlete but understand what stage of the
  LTAD continuum you are working in.

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Improving your coaching

• Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to
  monitor your coaching performance and improvement
• Get feedback from players
• Get feedback from other coaches
• Or USE VIDEO FOOTAGE TO ASSESS YOUR OWN
  COACHING!!

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Summary

• Athlete safety must always be the first priority
• Emphasize fun
• Maximize participation and variety
• De-emphasize winning and loosing

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References

• Australian Baseball Federation (ABF) Level 1
  Coaches Course
• Giles, K. Benton, D. (2003) Queensland
  Academy of Sport (QAS) Long Term Athlete
  Development Model