Dan Owens on 11/05/2016
With a strong attendance of highly motivated and keen coaches at last night’s second round of Coaching Cymru (@CoachingCymru) West (#coachingcymruwest), the Welsh Sports Association (@WelshSportsAssoc) delivered yet another compelling Coach Development Seminar that captured the imagination in the world of Welsh coaching.
Hosted by University South Wales, Trinity Saint David (@UWTSD), coaches in attendance represented community based sports clubs from within the Carmarthen, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Swansea areas. The eclectic range of sports present included Rowing, Triathlon, Cricket, Athletics, Archery, Sailing, Netball and Swimming.
Coaches were engaged in three lively and interactive sessions delivered by expert practitioners. Kathryn Thomas (@Kathsthomas) of Sport Wales (@sport_wales) peaked the interest of the assembled audience when she discussed the benefits of incorporating Physical Literacy (#physicalliteracy) into sports practices. The workshop covered current research in the field of Physical Literacy in Wales, Sport Wales’ resource suite has an assortment of case studies demonstrating the challenges and successes of real life coaches engaging with Physical Literacy with their participants. To read more about Sport Wales work in this area, please follow the link below:
http://physicalliteracy.sportwales.org.uk/en/
Kathryn was swiftly followed by the WSA’s Workforce Projects Manager, Vicki Sutton (@VickiSutton1). Vicki challenged the coaches present with real-life coaching problems and encouraged them to share their personal coping strategies with each other. Problems posed included: “Overexcited Parents”, “Conflict Amongst Coaching Staff” and “Talented Athletes Being Drawn Away”. This collaborative discussion approach amongst the coaches and across sports has increased the understanding of wider support mechanisms available to coaches outside of the sphere of operation. These discussions emphasised that possible burdens in coaching are not unique to one sport or individual and that someone to talk to in an open and honest forum can illuminate many varied and previously untapped solutions.
The evening was concluded by the WSA’s Coaching Officer, Dan Owens (@dan_owens9) who spoke around the topic of “Learning from Obscurity”. Dan’s session engaged with and demonstrated the WSA’s free Coaching Cymru portal wsa.coachingcymru.com Dan highlighted examples of learning resources available on the online portal and posed questions to the coaches to find resolutions relevant to sport and coaching within everyday, non-sports related circumstances. Coaches watched a short video and read a short article to discover any resolutions or themes they felt were relevant. While this approach to coaching is a relatively new concept, Dan promoted the underlying premise, that learning opportunities are all around us; it’s knowing how to see them and make them useful for us in their application in sports.
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