AFL COMMUNITY CLUB COACH DEVELOPMENT STUDY PART 2

                                                   

This post, or the study in full if you're really keen, is a must-read for all local/community clubs with a focus on coach development for all coaches within your football club.

Strap yourself in for part 2.

• Barriers and facilitators of coach development include that there is an expectation that the coach developer also needs to combined with other administrative roles that only takes away from coach developer duties
• The coach developer role needs to be acknowledged and accepted as an educational role, not an administration role
• There needs to be a clear indication that the coach developer will be provided with support, resources, guidance, education and acceptance
• The commitment to do to workshops away from their club is viewed as an inconvenience but when performed at the club it ensure more club relevant content
• Many club coaches struggle to accept coach development for fear of being scrutinised/judged but coach developers also don’t feel comfortable giving advice/feedback as volunteer coaches might see this as threatening and leave
• Coach developers have barriers with volunteers and feel as though they can’t place expectations on them
• Coach developers with teaching backgrounds have the skill set in managing people/activities and are trained in how to speak to kids and adults
• Clubs need to develop structured manuals but than also show how to use them and follow up that they club coaches actually are using them
• Club culture issues included the clubs need to emphasise participation/development over winning
• Coach development not only supports coach education, but it also disrupts the practice of coaching how you were coached
• Coaches don’t just want to be given balls and cones and told to go coach
• Clubs need to develop an environment where coaches want to undertake further learning rather then just participating for accreditation points
• Clubs that values and supports coach development and recognises the role is imperative to that environment and club culture as a whole
• High coaching quality expectations at junior and youth levels results in greater player retention and parent satisfaction to keep their kids at the club
• Learning to coach is more then merely being situated in the practice of coaching
• In response to coaches being volunteers, clubs grapple with enforcing accountability for quality coaching leading to issues with who takes the responsibility to initiate/sustain coach development and determine what constitutes the achievable quality of coaching
• Having a coach developer work with club coaches made them feel valued and provided an authentic experience
• At community level, club coach interaction can be learning situations in which issues are discussed, developed, explored and evaluated
• Learning situations that occurred at the club were most valued with outside sessions being additional commitments to coaches.
• On-site workshops can be made more relevant to your club
• Much of what new coaches learn is through ongoing interactions in the practical coaching context
• Coach developer programmes provides an environment where coaches wanted to learn rather simply been given resources to do what they want with
• Learning and understanding of coaching is developed through growing involvement and therefore becoming legitimate peripheral learning participants as they move towards full participation in the coaching community of practice
• Without resources and support, you’ll simply do what you’ve always done so providing learning context is not enough and without resources to aid the learning, coaches may not adapt to their environment and new learning is unlikely to occur
• If coaches are legitimate participants in a community of practice format, and are valued by other members of the community of practice, an authentic learning experience can be achieved
• A key feature of successful clubs is a strong club philosophy on what was expected of all members of the club, and protocols be in in place that outlines expectations
• Expectations created by the club facilitate the environment in which coaches learn, see and do and successful clubs valued and supported their coaches/coach developers and recognised the coach developer role as imperative
• Each role needs someone higher up to go to for help, offering a well scaffolded community of practice to support learning and development
• Not all coaches seek qualifications and development as some just wanted their children to be able to play in a team and therefore, mutual engagement may depend on the focus of the coach as well as the purpose of the coach developer programme

I have a great interest in becoming a coach developer as described in these past 2 posts so if you're club is interested then feel free to contact me.

AFL COMMUNITY CLUB COACH DEVELOPMENT STUDY PART 1

                                                       

This post, or the study in full if you're really keen, is a must-read for all local/community clubs with a focus on coach development for all coaches within your football club.

Strap yourself in!

• Coaches are fundamental to the provision of sport experiences and player retention is more likely when players have a positive experience in the sport and therefore, understanding how to enhance coach development is essential
• In Australia, community sport is still mostly a volunteer service at youth and junior levels with only a blended professional area in adult sport where remuneration is available, but varied
• Coach learning occurs through a complex mix of experience in the game, accreditation-based formal coach development, non/informal coach development (coach and/or zone coach coordinator support) and self directed learning experiences
• Coaches often question formal coach education accreditation finding it too technical, lacking in relevant knowledge or of limited importance due to their own lack of practical knowledge (you don't know what you don't know)
• Coaches seem to place the most value on experiential learning and less value on formal/mediated coach development programmes typical of large scale national coach accreditation programmes
• Formalised coach mentoring programmes are becoming more common with expert coaches often having mentors themselves
• Beginner coaches benefit from close and direct guidance while experienced coaches value multiple contributions to their learning
• The environment in which mentoring/developer work occurs is important with respect to an openness/willingness of a coach to critically reflect on practice
• This study sought to answer what are the experiences of coach developers, community club coaches and the organisation of participation in a state league community club coach developer programme
• In coach developer work, coach engagement occurs in a socially organised form of knowledge in that learning is a social process situated within, and shaped by, the social/cultural contexts of the coach developer/mentee coach
• Context leads to a way of understanding the learning that is occurring and can be considered through 3 concepts x communities of practice, situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation
• Between club, coach developer and mentee, there exists a mutual engagement where each member knows exactly where to go for help and how to help others to facilitate the negotiation of meaning with the possibility of the sharing of responsibility
• The 4 themes that emerged were reliance on volunteers, coach development resources, barriers/facilitators of coach development and club culture
• Reliance on volunteer issues include that it’s hard to find volunteers that tick all the boxes as an experienced coach and most are very green with little support which then halts greater expectations clubs feel they can place on them
• Most coaches were willing to donate time to coach but not further time/responsibility to develop as a coach
• Most coaches are player parents which means already busy people are simply get busier
• There seems to be an expectation of the club to provide coach developer practices but the actual coaches don’t want to take part in them
• Clubs find it hard to attract/retain club coach developers
• Coaches are often parents and if their child stops playing then they often stop coaching, placing more pressure on the club
• If club developers are used, it is usually a short term fix but then the coaches under them never progress from novice to experienced, and then become coach developer’s themselves
• Senior/experienced coaches are used/chosen in grades where outcomes count the most leaving the inexperienced coaches to the usually younger age groups but this is where the most experience/assistance is needed
• Clubs find it hard just to secure coaches, let alone build succession plans
• Coaches are appointed because the are the most willing more so then the most able
• Coach development resource issues include that there is a need for age/player level appropriate content or you’ll always do what you’ve always done/coach how you were coached resulting in training sessions being an optimal fit for only a small portion of your team
• Of the resources that are available, there is no education on how to use them with different age groups/levels
• Coaches need to be self directed/prepared to put some time in to seek further education
• Difficulty in navigating websites means coaches don’t often look at the coach AFL website once accredited
• Resources are preferred to be attained face to face rather then online
• Coaches and clubs want greater availability of resources in the off-season before training starts to eliminate doubling up of time on top of training in the same night or having to find an extra night during the season to find time although coach development incorporated into training nights did aid in convenience/location/timing etc
• Peak body workshops and programmes are not widely promoted and are limited by timing/location
• Ultimately lots of resources are produced but rarely used

Part 2 Tomorrow.

COLLINGWOOD'S EXPLOSIVE OFFENSIVE LANE RUNNING (2 VIDEOS)

 

If you're a coach, or simply a football lover, then First Crack on Fox Footy is a must-watch.

This past week Kingy showed footage of the Collingwood "line" that is formed on fast play through the middle of the round which I suspect you've noticed during their games in some shape or form.

I noticed both instances that he showed and thought I'd go back and look at what happens leading up to it, being well aware of showing split second still shots from a game in constant motion for 120mins isn't really telling the whole story.

Here's 2 videos I made today of the 2 pieces of footage he showed, and the lead up to both of them.

COLLINGWOOD LANE RUNNING VIDEO 1...

For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 4 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

CONNECT 4 TRAINING GAME

                                                   

We see it all the time in local football, especially in juniors, where the ball is your team's back line, your mids have worked hard to assist the defender's and then there's a massive gap of no teammates between defensive and forward 50m area's.

In some cases this goes back to tactical design from the coaching staff but more often it's a mindset and lack o coaching issue on what forwards are meant to do when the ball is not in there area and/or their team is out of possession.

I call this game "Connect 4" as you've got 4 playing area's that you want all your players to stay connected in with the aim of playing with as many players as possible at all times with lessens the load on every player in the team and will also provide excellent player representation for your team regardless of where the ball goes.

Here's how it starts out...

For full access to this training activity register for a level 3 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

3v3 TRANSITION GAME

                                         

We've got end to handball with defender/s in the middle and we've also got end to end handball where some of the offensive players in the previous rep take up defensive duties immediately after the ball has made it to their end and they both train transition but in only 1 of the 2 ways you need to do so.

The above activities train transition of roles and responsibilities (offensive to defense) but it doesn't require players to transition their body's through movement which is at least 50% of transition, probably more.

This game does exactly that.

Check out the video and I'll add some extra game details below it...

For full access to this training activity, register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

RANDOM GAME DAY, TRAINING AND COACHING POINTS PART 2

                                            

I've got files and files and stuff I've pulled from my research/reading and one of them I have titled "Game Day" but it's not really representative of what's in there even though is some game day stuff but as the title indicates, it's pretty random.

Hence most, if not all of these points, could be used immediately during your next training session, pre-game, actual-game and post-game periods in the next 3 - 4 days.

WHEN NOT IN POSSESSION

Coach each other on the field.

Protect the defense/goal.

Swarm when you can but never with more than 3 players.

Watch the eyes of the player with the ball, not the ball.

Stay goal side back shoulder.

Dictate where they move the ball to.

The 1^st pass and movement is crucial after a turnover and dictates where we go and how fast we can do it on the counter attack.

Cover and be proactive about it.

Your forward line work rate determines your defensive success.

NEGATIVE COACHING SPEECHES (STEVE MAGNESS)...

For full access to this coaching/training article, register for a level 2 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

RANDOM GAME DAY, TRAINING AND COACHING POINTS PART 1

                                          

I've got files and files and stuff I've pulled from my research/reading and one of them I have titled "Game Day" but it's not really representative of what's in there even though is some game day stuff but as the title indicates, it's pretty random. 

Hence most, if not all of these points, could be used immediately during your next training session, pre-game, actual-game and post-game periods in the next 3 - 4 days.

Here we go.

GAME SENSE

Game sense foundations form the basis for identifying the area’s of focus/improvement of game sense within your players.

Is the player making tactical errors or are they not aware of their positioning, which can be addressed/fixed by using more breaks to allow them to practice self-locating.

Perhaps they are not moving properly in relation to teammates on defense or they're not close enough as they move to offense, which can be developed by changing numbers or making uneven numbers for small sided games in practice or 7v7.

Is it a timing issue where they haven’t played enough?

Is your team preparation archaic and/or is there not enough focus on game sense with too much focus on gym and running?

 

SPACE AND TIME (FERGUS CONNOLLY)...

For full access to this coaching/training article, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

CREATING A TEAM DEFENSE

This is a team defensive set up that Melbourne put to excellent use in their 2021 premiership year and still use a fair bit of in 2023.

It's a pretty simple formation that aims to force the opposition to kick it to where you want them to of which you can then organise your numbers around the ball around the preferred end point.

I also like that it allows for a bit of autonomy as players can simply be told that their job when our of possession is to take away on of the 3 most dangerous kicks and then it's there job, with their teammates also with the same job defensively, to carry out the task but it's not a perfect formation either with a "close enough is a good enough" result being a positive result.

THE SET UP...

For full access to this training activity, register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

IN-GAME DECISION MAKING OF AFL COACHES (STUDY)

                                          

These notes come a recently released study titled "A Framework to Explain the In-Game Decision Making of Elite Australian Football Coaches."

• Coaches relied on subjective/objective sources of information and consulted with assistant coaches, performance analysts and sports scientists
• Coaches regularly make complex decisions pertaining to training, strategic game-play decisions, athlete management, team selection and recruitment
• They consult a broad range of knowledge sources and use that information to process their decisions whilst also considering the consequences of them
• This process, known as reasoning, rarely leads the decision maker to an optimal decision but rather one that is instead only satisfactory
• An extension of rational choice (boundary rationality) more suitable describes the coaches decision making process
• Within boundary rationality, coaches intend to make the optimal rationale decision, the outcome of their decision is dependent on the interaction between the available information (objective data/information from others), their own cognitive information processing capacities and the time in which they have to act
• Given the same problem this explains how different coaches come up with diff solutions which they believe to be correct
• For professional coaches, boundary rationale highlights the benefit of having access to the best possible information/environment, together with masterful capabilities (perception/knowledge/metacognition) when making decisions
• Decision making during competition is made via a combination of intuitive thinking (doing what feels right based on experience) and objectively measured data (KPI’s) to form decisions
• The naturalistic decision making framework (NDM) explains that in time-constrained decision making environments, expert coaches will scan for and attend to key attractors or recognise patterns in a continuously unfolding environment, framing a decision problem if a mental threshold is reached
• This leads to speedy situational assessment and matching of a potential solution to the problem based on tacit knowledge, and experiences stored as mental models without explicit reasoning
• A prominent model within decision making, recognition primed decision making (RPD) builds on this framework, proposing decision making in some cases involving a blend of intuition/analysis and according to RPD, key attractors immediately lead expert decision makers to a simply matched solution in most cases (known as variation 1 of RPD), as they search for additional cues to diagnose the problem if an immediate solution is not recognised (variation 2 of RPD)
• In some cases a stored memory may not match the present problem leading to mental stimulation’s of potential modifications to solutions (from previous experiences) to evaluate their applicability to the present problem (variation 3 of RPD)
• This highlights the presence of some reasoning in unseen, perhaps more complex decision problems
• NDM/RPD suitable accounts for time-constrained decision making and in high performance competition contexts, NDM suitably fits the decision making of coaches in this time-constrained environment
• Although NDM/RPD reflect decision making in time-constrained environments, they still focus primarily on intuition and expertise
• When observing players/umpires, the time constraints on decisions are far greater then those on coaches so it's reasonable to assume coaches may engage in more critical reasoning
• While coaches utilise intuition/expertise during competition, which aligns with NDM/RPD, they also have access to several objective resources (video replay, GPS etc) along with support staff
• Boundary rationality has been used to understand time-constrained decision making in the business world and has been used to explain the differences between coach decision making outcomes in sports with differing levels of information quality available to coaches
• Invasion sport coaches must make time-constrained decisions during matches but with limited opportunities to provide feedback to players outside of scheduled breaks but in AFL they have a runner that can relay individual messages to players in-game and also between quarters which provides AFL coaches the unique opportunity to have their in-match decision making supported by applying research to practice
• From a boundary rationale perspective, this study asked AFL coaches what actions/processes constitute the decision making of AFL coaches during matches, how do AFL coaches interact with their environment when making decisions during matches and what information do AFL coaches rely upon to make decisions during matches
• The framework assumes a boundary rationale perspective in the decision making of AFL coaches meaning they intend to act rationally but are bound to solutions that are only satisfactory within their constraints
• This study identified the 6 stages of decision making of AFL coaches during matches while highlighting how they use their own intuition/experience which leads to boundary rationale decisions which influence the feedback they ultimately give to players and also demonstrating that they trust their own assessment of the match but also believe in interaction with support staff
• The 6 stage framework of decision making of AFL coaches during matches is opportunity trigger, understand the opportunity, determine the need or action, explore options, take action and evaluate the decision