The question this week comes from Andy, via Twitter: “What are the different approaches coaches take when working with female players?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and support each other on our exclusive Coaching…
How We Coach
This is the PDP way, informed by years of coaching experience and the wisdom of our network of experts.
Moments in sport can have a huge impact on a young athlete’s life. Founder of Changing the Game Project, John O’Sullivan shares his thoughts on a fantastic new book called The Power of Moments and the impact of sport in the lives of children. The Magic Castle Hotel is one of the top three rated hotels in Los Angeles. Of its nearly 3000 reviews, 93% rate it very good or excellent, putting it above properties such as The Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton. Yet,…
Game-based learning has enormous benefits in terms of decision-making and skill acquisition. PE Teacher, blogger and regular PDP contributor, Sporticus shares his fantastic article on the advantages of manipulating games and the environment and how coaches can adjust conditions in order to help young players improve their skills. At the heart of a games based approach to teaching is the challenge to the centrality of learning isolated and decontextualised techniques that will ‘allow’ the child to play. Instead of starting with the practice…
Christine S. Nash, John Sproule, and Peter Horton The Big Idea Albert Einstein was said to have said this about the nature of research: “If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn’t be called ‘research,’ would it?” And so, it goes. Researchers try to figure out creative ways to answer the questions they ask themselves, knowing all along they have no idea what they are doing. Not knowing in advance provides the go-juice to power the research process. Sometimes it is best…
Game sense, how do we develop it? PE Teacher & regular PDP contributor, Sporticus shares his innovative approach to PE and helping his students develop skill and game understanding in cricket through realistic scenarios, interactions and guided discovery. As a department we have over timed moved away from ‘sport as sports technique’ method of teaching sports within our curriculum to ‘sport as tactical concepts’. This is in the belief that: The game sets the context of learning and gives that learning some meaning. Play is…
In this fantastic interview with England U18 Rugby Coach, Russell Earnshaw, PDP Editor, Dave Wright dives into a conversation with Russell on the types of environments England rugby is looking to create in order to develop sustainable success. Russell shares his own experiences both as a player and coach, talking about the importance of player ownership, decision making and chaos. This is a fantastic conversation in which coaches across all codes can tap into the knowledge of a man driving standards in England’s youth rugby…
The question this week comes from Mikael, via the PDP Facebook Page: “What is your advice to a beginner in the field of football coaching?“ Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and support each other…
The question this week comes from Chris, via the PDP Facebook Page: “What is the best way to identify and develop a style of play for our club?“ Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and…
Recently, Mark O’Sullivan and James Vaughan attended the ICCE (International council for coaching excellence) conference in Liverpool to talk about the approaches of AIK Football Club and Player Development Project. Before the conference kicked off on Monday they spent the weekend at the research fair listening to some of the world’s leading academics in the field of Sport Coaching. What follows is a combination of their notes and ideas. “It’s not what you said…it’s how you said it!” How many times have we heard this…especially in…
Don’t miss this brilliant Masterclass Discussion with one of the UK’s top coach developers, Ben Bartlett from The FA. PDP Editor Dave Wright interviews Ben on his personal journey into coach education, his strong advocacy of a constraints led approach, discusses coaching methodology, communication styles and how to develop your environment. This is an absolute must watch for any coach. Image Source: depositphotos.com
In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Lead Researcher James Vaughan shares his PhD research after a 12 month stay in Barcelona where he immersed himself in Catalan culture and football. We go inside La Masia, examining the playing style of the world’s most famous academy and look at how it ties in to the history and culture of this great city. Some fantastic examples and footage are provided by James as he takes us on a virtual tour of FC Barcelona’s story. Image Source: depositphotos.com
Coaching can be a balancing act. When should coaches step in and help and what approach to teaching should you use? PE Teacher & Blogger, Sporticus discusses complexity thinking, the value of uncertainty and examines various methodologies and processes that a coach can go through to truly help their players. In Complexity Thinking in PE, Richard Tinning and Anthony Rossi write ‘In the face of messy, unruly, boisterous classes of school children and the expectation to deliver predictable, explicit, educational outcomes, teachers of physical education…
What role might emotional intelligence play in coaching? In this conclusion to his two-part blog, we follow the personal journey of A-Licensed coach Sam Grace, Youth Development Phase Coach at Reading FC, as he seeks to understand the importance of emotional intelligence and how applying the principles outlined by leading psychologist Daniel Goleman can help coaches. For the past four months, I have been on a mini-journey trying to establish the role emotional intelligence plays in my own coaching. I have done this through…
What role might emotional intelligence play in coaching? In this two-part blog, we follow the personal journey of Sam Grace, Youth Development Phase Coach at Reading FC, as he seeks to understand the importance of emotional intelligence and how applying the principles outlined by leading psychologist Daniel Goleman can help coaches. According to Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann, currently the youngest top-flight manager in Europe’s leading leagues at age 29, “Thirty percent of coaching is tactics, 70% social competence” (Honigstein, 2016). It’s coaches like Nagelsmann who…
Daniel Giansiracusa is a former professional AFL player who ran out for the Western Bulldogs 265 times over the course of a 16 year playing career. Daniel is now an Assistant Coach on the Bulldogs coaching staff and was part of a coaching team and playing roster that broke a 62 year drought at the club, claiming a long awaited AFL Premiership in 2016. PDP Editor Dave Wright speaks with Daniel on his transition from playing to coaching, the importance of empathy, the power of…
What are affordances? PDP contributor and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ben Franks shares his work on affordances, what the term means and examples to bring the concept to life. Affordance is a new ‘in vogue’ term, and appears to be replacing the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) as the modern evolving coaching methodology. Similarly to the nature of a CLA, affordances exist – they are properties of the environment that are ‘real’, emerging and decaying naturally. By definition, an affordance is the key origin…
What are team values and how do they influence culture? In the first of a two part feature, International Coach Developer and expert in culture in sport, John Alder discusses the balance of team culture and how often this is an element in team sport where control cannot be exerted and we have to look beyond slogans on walls and team meetings in order to greater understand team dynamics. *John contributed to this article in his personal capacity. The views expressed are his own…
Are you running ‘static’ sessions? Regular PDP contributor and founder of TOVO International, Todd Beane explains the dangers of static sessions and gives some practical advice for coaches to move towards ‘solution’ based sessions. There are voices from locker rooms of false wisdom suggesting that to train we must we must suffer through some rite of painful passage. It is a very macho and misguided notion of how we must make “suck it up” to stack up. It also tends to justify horribly boring training…