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My first ever 'Robin Hood'

Grahame Cotterill Post 1

• 16 October 2015, 2:27 PM

Good coaching practice week 5

I used the web to ask a variety of friends

  1. Do you/have you taken part in sporting activity?
  2. Which sport?
  3. Were you coached?
  4. What makes a good coach?

I got this reply from John who has been coaching a variety of martial arts for over 25 years. I had to share it before I compile all the responses.

1. Yes,

2. Martial arts including kickboxing and ninjitsu.

3. Yes,

4. A good coach should listen to what the student wants: understanding what are their goals.

A good coach works with the student to achieve a set target, breaking down each part. To begin with it’s a bit like teaching a baby to eat with a spoon… you make the spoon into an aeroplane and feed the baby making the activity fun so that they want to participate. Then the baby picks up the spoon  and sometimes misses its mouth, sometimes gets the food in. It’s copying, learning and trying, but still makes mistakes. Then it gets comfortable eating with the spoon so it can feed itself. At this point you should consider the job done, but I believe that a coach should always strive to keep developing a person. They should develop them to be an individual talent, unique and the best that they can be, whatever their goal is. That is my goal as a coach.

This is so close to what I try to do myself.