Discussion Board

Hi 

My name is Daniel Scott, i'm a strength and conditioning coach based in Perth. I work mainly with rugby players but coach swimmers and hockey players as well. I've been coaching for about 3 years.

I consider an expert to be someone with a deep understanding of their field and an ability to perform at the elite level within it. I think the mark of an expert is someone who can break down and explain the complex elements of their field into simple concepts that novices are capable of understanding. As well as this I think experts are capable of thinking outside the box or in slightly more abstract ways and create positive change and understanding in the field. This understanding also allows them to go to other fields and draw parallels leading to the improvement of operational standards and thinking. I believe experts are more flexible in their thinking, something i see as being founded in their extreme understanding of what is involved in their role/job.

I see my personal development needs as continuing to improve my understanding of what goes into effective coaching, in context specific situations and broad terms. I see this course as something that will improve my understanding of how people tend to think and respond and what commonalities there are in different high performance environments or performance focused environments. Something I started looking at in the last week or two of the Coaching Process course and in more detail over the holiday's was what goes into man management and creating performance environments. What I've concluded is the huge importance of creating strong values and placing a huge emphasis on character and how to develop it. This has coincided with issues at work that I'm trying to resolve. It's an area I'm keen to discuss further, two quotes that have stood out to me is one from Vince Lombardi; "Know Yourself" he said you can't become an effective leader if you don't know yourself. The other is from the book "Legacy" and is a phrase the All Blacks used as a cornerstone of their culture and environment; "Better People Make Better All Blacks". There's been a lot of stuff I've found really interesting in this topic, including a management book my dad gave me that showed a of of parallels. I'll cut it off there or I'll end up going forever but I'm looking forward to discussing this topic further.

Hello,

My name is Grahame Cotterill I am 62. I worked for 38 years in secondary schools in England and Wales as a science teacher, middle & senior manager.

Since retirement I have supplemented my pension by teaching First Aid & Safeguarding.

I am a County Coach, Coach Educator, Assessor and Verifier for Archery GB, I have also worked as a tutor for Sports Coach UK delivering safeguarding and inclusive coaching disability courses and for Sport Structures delivering Archery Instructor courses. I coach archery at Leeds University and am a member of Phoenix Bowmen in Halifax. My weekends are taken up visiting all parts of the UK to deliver, assess or verify coaching and instructor courses so I get very little shooting time for myself.

I started this course to get some up to date CPD and to keep my aging brain from turning soggy.

For those of you that are new to this group I am also dyslexic so my spelling is not always good so be gentle with my typos!

Hi all,

my name is Chris Duncan. depressingly turned 25 last Tuesday (feel as though the days of youth are gone!) and I'm Director of Hockey at the Edinburgh Academy. My background in the sport is as a player. I have to represented Scotland at all levels from U16 to Senior and I hope to continue doing so for years to come, whilst I develop myself as a coach. I work as an assistant to Scotland's under 16 side, which is an extremely gratifying experience and I'm delighted to give back to the sport. 

I started this course to learn about the academic facets which support coaching. After completing one module, I feel as though it has totally changed my view upon coaching for the better. I look forward to hopefully the same experience in the coming months. 

Expertise for me is a deep knowledge and understanding which can be applied through all areas of the coaching process. To have expertise allows coaches to develop plans and ideas which as Dan suggests, are "outside the box" and that's the hallmark of a top coach, who can develop their own ideas, instead of copying others.

look forward to sharing good practice with you all during the module.

Chris

Hi

I am Britta Wenn, German origin and living in Brussels.  I am actually following the MSc Dance Science and Education program and choose the performance and development & expertise course as elective course.

I have been playing basketball in the first division in Germany and later on I continued my path in fitness, dance  and health education and training. 

I am a registered health and exercise professional, Pilates Teacher. I have been working for a few years as personal trainer and health coach and like now to promote dance for health and wellbeing. 

I choose this course, because I believe that a dance teacher is also a kind of coach and he/ she needs to have a certain expertise in his/her field. As dance troupe leader i have to coach the dancers in their rehearsals and performance, in auditions for  dance troupe members i have to discover the talent of a potential dancers, as judge in dance competitions i need the expertise.  So i am looking forward to take the learnings of the course into my field. 

Additonially i have access to the sport coaching field, as my daughter is playing hockey in the 2nd division in Belgium.

Looking forward for an interesting course and exchange with you all.

Britta

Hi.

My name is Scott Harrington, 27 from England.

I am a Handball coach currently based on the Faroe Islands, where I coach across the board from mini-senior players, though predominantly within a talent development context.

I started out as an athlete, and was a part of GB Handballs' World Class Handball Programme for 5 years prior to London 2012, during which time I developed a soft spot for coaching. Since 2012 I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to  coach both England and Great Britain youth squads, manage the Performance department at England Handball Association, and most recently join the Talent Development team at the Faroe Islands Handball Federation. Aside from that I operate a website called The Handball Academy, a coaching resource and planning portal, designed to share 'good practice' amongst developing Handball coaches. 

Besides my primary sport I enjoy a bit of golf, squash, hockey, and football, time permitting. 

To me, expertise is the result of vast experience and education within any given field and knowing how best to utilise it to cause affect. Its knowing what works best, for who, and why.  

Look forward meeting you all. 

Hi, 

Sorry for my delay, I did not have the chance to get connected this week till today... My name is Fran Ortega and also like Chris said, i turned 30 (not 25 like him) last week. I was working as PE teacher in Spain til 2012, when I moved to Edinburgh aiming to study a Phd in Physical Education for Health and go further in public health research. At the moment, I am also carrying out a probationary period as PE teacher in a High School placed in Edinburgh, being that ,so far, one of the greatest and more gratifying challenges in my life. I work with swimmers, coaching since i was 20 as well as teaching climbing and orienteering to children. I am also Aikido instructor, being that one my passion. 

From my point of view an expert is someone with a deep knowledge of the theory and practice in a particular sport or any sort of physical activity, being able to promote a free-lance practice in the case of beginners and a improvement either in technique, tactics, mental or physical capacity in the case of high performance athletes. Moreover, a distinctive skill of an expert is the ability to increase (or maintain) the level of motivation for the activity by the trainee or athlete (it must be said that this is specially hard with high performance swimmers, when it becomes really hard to imrpove their mark just a couple of seconds...)

I got enrolled on this course because there are aspects from performance development that can be applied into both teaching and coaching, so therefore this course in particular can help me to discern the correlation between them. I am also quite interested in motivational skills as a coach, either in school or performance environment, so it would be great if at some point we get through it throughout the course. 

Thanks!