Supporting grassroots coaching - Planning Grassroots coaches work with a range of demands which can take time, effort and focus away from a critical aspect – planning the content of the session(s). In this article we have aimed to help coaches with the planning process by providing an example of a process board. While coaches could produce their own process boards, this example, based around the theme of ‘passing through the thirds’, provides an illustration of how progressively more demanding learning activities combine within one session, and how individual sessions then build on each other to produce a more coherent series. While the process board shows the possible content of a series of coaching sessions it’s important to note that as with any medium term plan, this is only a starting point. As such the process board is to be used as a basic framework which can then be adapted or added to, based on an understanding of the ability of particular players within the team.
Supporting grassroots coaching - Coaching FA Learning continue to stress the importance of grassroots coaching in the development of the game. In their recent communication to coaches they stress “The innovative coach of the future will be skilled at designing practices which provide the appropriate blend of challenge and learning that the players in their group require” (FA Learning, 2010:3). Similarly, Pete Sturgess (2010) when commenting on the new Level 3 Youth Award called for the coach to be aware of the needs of the whole child and promote ‘holistic’ learning so that the coach knows how young players learn and understands the best environment for learning to take place.
With this focus on learning, it’s important to recognise that more innovative coaching skills are commonly based on the foundations of constructivist learning theory, where a range of child-centred approaches are adopted which stress the active role of the learner. Constructivism is founded on the premise that knowledge is constructed by actively linking new information to prior learning. By reflecting on our experiences and connecting our learning, we construct and develop our own understanding. Players, therefore, learn new information by building on the knowledge that they already possess. As such, it is important that coaches constantly revisit and assess prior learning to ensure that their perception of learning is as intended. Bruner was prominent in the development of the constructivist approach and advocated the process of consistently reviewing the foundations of learning when introducing a new skill. He believed that ‘a curriculum should revisit the basic ideas repeatedly, building upon them until the student has grasped the full formal apparatus that goes with it’ (Bruner, 1960:13). Players often make errors when asked to recall information and reconstruct gaps in understanding with logical but inaccurate information. It is vital therefore, that coaches catch and correct these misconceptions to consolidate firm foundations for future learning.
Process boards fit well with this approach as they provide coaches with a visual means of presenting and revisiting learning activities. By seeing the sequence of learning activities, which may run for a number of weeks, players can be guided to make connections across sessions. In this sense the process board is a scaffold to learning, as by being shown a coherent sequence of sessions, players can consolidate prior learning and make sense of how practices fit in and why they are valuable in achieving and end goal. In short, players are “able to connect their prior experiences with new knowledge to construct personally meaningful understanding” (Zhu, Ennis & Chen, 2011:83).
Example – based on the theme of passing through the thirds The process board shown on the following pages relate to the theme of passing, where the coach wants the players to play quality shorter passes to keep possession of the ball and build play through the thirds of the pitch. This is to counter the tendency of some younger players to concede possession by passing the ball inappropriately over distance. In 2010 at the Wembley launch of The Future Game – Grassroots Sir Trevor Brooking stipulated,
“We believe, longer term, in the international game you’re going to have to play through the thirds and have 10 proficient players. We’d like everyone to work towards that, particularly in the grassroots”
In this short article we have used a process board to show how a grassroots coach can begin to plan learning activities to help young players play through the thirds.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88