Wednesday 17 October 2018

Different approaches to setting up a coaching session.


Several years ago, I was in conversation with another windsurf instructor and trainer. He was recalling a recent trip to watch the GB Olympic windsurfers train. Nick Dempsey, a three-time Olympic medallist was dominating the training at the expense of the rest of the squad. When back on the shore the coach I was chatting to was asked about his impressions of Nick’s sailing. He was obviously very impressed generally but made the comment that Nicks tacks lacked consistency of movements with any number of different hand and feet combinations, and timing getting him from one side of the sail to the other. He considered this a negative suggesting this as a way the rest of the squad may be able to gain an advantage. At the time I was in agreement with him, surprised there was still such an obvious way in which an Olympic medallist’s sailing could be improved. With experience and exposure to minds greater than my own I have come to realise how wrong we both were. We were both products of the RYA instructor training programme which focuses on one way of doing things, at step 1 you do X, Y and Z, then comes step 2 and so on. While this may be an appropriate way to train beginners to achieve enough success and gain sufficient knowledge to be able to continue in the sport it is frequently not the way to coach higher level athletes.

I now understand what Dempsey was doing was skilfully selecting any number of different combinations of movements to best match the differing demands of each tack. Tacks will rarely be identical as the conditions of wind and waves will vary as will the strategical demands of the situation and physical condition of the sailor. Learning a set routine doesn’t allow for the brilliant adaptability that Dempsey displayed in this training session, it also needs to be learned explicitly, that is through conscious thought. Interestingly when questioned Dempsey wasn’t aware of his inconsistent movements through tacks, suggesting perhaps how he had learned his trade and also high lighting another benefit of his lack of specific routine. Psychologists commonly explain the phenomenon of choking by proposing pressure leads a performer to consciously analyse actions rather than performing skills automatically. This results in a regression in performance to a time the performer was learning the routine.  Under such situations a skill learned explicitly will be susceptible, but a skill learnt implicitly will not. Implicit learning results from activity that demands adaption and improvement in technique but does not involve conscious learning.

To put this in a coaching situation coaching for explicit learning would involve clearly outlining areas to improve, probably land drills to enforce correct technique before practice afloat demanding concentration on technique, coaching involving feedback on said technique and lots of repetition of the same movement. Coaching for implicit learning would involve minimal knowledge input from the coach and carefully designed activities afloat that challenge current technique. Improvements are demanded by the activity rather than the coach. Activities will be varied frequently in response to the learning. Done well sailors will be pushed to find novel solutions to problems and will seek to adapt to the continual variations in the tasks.

It would be hard and impractical to teach every aspect of sailing through varying activities. There is unquestionably variation within good technique, but there is also just as unquestionably technique that will be detrimental to the sailor’s development and needs to be taught or corrected by the coach, and unlike land-based sports it is hard to pull one sailor to one side and work on technique with them. The skill of the sailing coach, as I see it, lies in being able to identify which techniques will prevent continuing development and therefore intervene in a directive style, and which ineffective techniques are just a part of the learning process and will evolve into good technique in response to challenging activities. The best solution for coaches is probably to use a combination of both. Knowledge and correct technique should be shared and discussed, sailing is a very technical sport. On the other hand successful sailors require a huge amount of adaptability, variation in task and learning through solving challenging problems is important to develop adaptability of technique.

As an example of how a session could be set up differently. Stopping and holding position on a start line, one method could be to spend time on shore looking at techniques then on the water getting sailors one at a time to stop next to the coach boat. Another method could involve a much shorter briefing. Outline the aim of the session (improve stopping and holding position) and ask a few questions to wake the brain up (what equipment can you use to stop?). At this point I would also outline the nature of the session and how the sailors should learn from the challenging tasks. Set a range of challenging tasks on the water that mimic situations the sailors would find in a real race (set a very short line; mystery whistle; go will sound when all boats are on the line; etc). Vary the activities, keep the sailors challenged. Keep on water coaching to a minimum, allow the learning to happen.  The coach could also use a hybrid of the two, starting with some information on how to in the brief and initially setting an activity that allows coaching, before moving onto activities that challenge the technique.

Frequently sailing coaches can be directive, reluctant to release control of the session and knowledge. As this has become the established and often expected method of coaching, practitioners may feel they are not performing their role as coaches without continual output of knowledge. This may lead to short term gains but retention and transfer to a race environment may be poor. For alternative coaching methods check out Teaching Games for Understanding; Game Sense; Constraints led approach to coaching; and differential learning.