The Coaches paradox

[speed]

Well maybe now is the time of year for the coaches revenge

Send the archers a xmas card with a line like:-

Merry Xmas and all the best for the new year and sorting out your shooting stance. Standing on your hands and shooting with your feet looks real cool but must cause you some back pain.



Truthfully though our club has only 2 coaches at present and I would love to be able to see a coach on a regular basis to improve my technique ( yes I do also mean my scores) and my knowledge of archery including the mechanics etc etc.

As a former ski-instructor and athletics coach I fully understand the need for proffessional coaching. Ido agree that an experianced archer can offer some help and advice but there is a fine line between that and trying to coach when you may not have the knowledge to help someone.

It seems to be a standard throughout the UK people get to a reasonable standard and think they can do it and know everything about how to do it.
I do not know what the solution is but maybe one option for archery is for the coach to have a board within the club, and to identify problems they see with archers without mentioning names give some written advice on how an archer can check if they are doing this and then give a date for a clinic to look at the problem.

Another option may be to do a video say of a postal round ( with relevent consent for child protection) and then one night members watch the videoand comment on anything and everything in the video this leaves it open for the coach or a few acomplacies to comment on things people need help with.

[Furface]

Slight digression, but when I read "It's just a piece of paper", I always become even more of a sceptic. Driving licence, birth certificate, degree certificate, marriage certificate - I have in my time seen each of those described in this way, and it often seems that the subtext is "and I can't get one, so I'll pretend it's worthless" (Yes, even birth certificates!). Quite often, the certificates in question actually indicate set competences and commitment.
Perhaps a slight change in the Coaching system is required: allow candidates to be examined without attending a course (learning by experience), but make the exam for such candidates rigorous, so that they can prove they actually do know everything that would have been taught.

[pHz]

Originally Posted by Furface

Perhaps a slight change in the Coaching system is required: allow candidates to be examined without attending a course (learning by experience), but make the exam for such candidates rigorous, so that they can prove they actually do know everything that would have been taught.

good idea - this type of system works in teaching where most teachers still qualify through the normal degree / postgrad route but an increasing number are coming through QTS 'on-the-job' training

slainte rob

[ASW1973]

there will have to be a fast track in 2010 but untill then there is no intention to qualify coaches outwith the system in place. In fact the there is a stringent policy of denigration within the qualified coaches of those who have not gone through the prescribed system

[TWIW]

Originally Posted by Yorker

The gist of my post is this:
You can be In authority, or you can be An authority.
You can be Put in authority via a coaching certificate. However you are only An authority when you can coach well and get results.

Lots of decent coaches as people have emphasized have never gotten their certification

I have every intention of getting every GNAS cert up to Level 3 at least, because then I have a foot in the political door and among other things I'm a sucker for tangible achievements. What I'm doing right now by the latest definitions is pretty much level 3 anyway, so I am probably going to be fairly bored for quite a Long time!

What fur said I think is a great point and is how I think things should go. Basically, they should get some GNAS officiators behind a desk and give you a coach to try and teach how to shoot. Obviously the coach him/herself is going to know every concievable messup in the book and you have to work around it.

Not only would there be a visual perspective of what you are doing from the desk but the coach you are coaching will be able to see how they feel and approve of you.

As much as anything, there is no way you can revise for something like this, not in depth anyway. All you can do is what you would presented with the situation at any other time - thus you will be marked on what you will actually do at a later date.

With the driving licence analogy, basically the issue is you have been terrifying the #### out of your driving instructor for a few months and are tested rigorously in a number of guises before and after you do your test. At the day of the test if you do anything silly you have failed and you have to resit.

As far as I am aware, a lot of the GNAS coaches aren't like this. I looked at the synopsis for a course... and was like, Huh. I hope it wasn't the coaches course I was looking at...
Day 1 - The basis of how to assemble and maintain a bow. Basic principles of how to use it and teach.
Day 2 - Extended discussion of teaching and instruction...

and so it went on. To be fair if it is anyting like that half the novices of our club could do it ;/

I can't let this pass without comment.

I agree with your assertions on authorities. But there are a great number of coaches who are both and hold the GNAS certificates. On the other hand there are some who are neither despite holding the certificate.

I Coach is someone who has recieved formal instruction, passsed an exam and holds a certificate to that effect. There may be bad Coaches who do not expand and followup on their knowledge and there are some good ones who spend a lot of time and effort keeping up to date with the latest techniques etc. But for the majority of us we do what we can with our limited resources and train the archers who trust our judgement to the best of our, rather limited, ability. Anyone else who 'coaches' archers are NOT Coaches, they are archers (or other sportsmen) who have decided to or have been asked to providing coaching/training to a fellow sportperson. The 2 should not be confused. I worked hard for my qualification and don't like it demeaned by other people claiming to be 'coaches' when they are not. The whole point of doing a Coaches course is to learn the techniques of analysis, communication, nutrition, psychology, physiology, bow setup and tuning, etc,etc. Sportsmen who are not Coaches, in the main will teach other sportsmen the systems, techniques and information that they have found to be relevent to their own performance; and, as we all know that may not be relevant to the sportsperson be 'coached'. There are, of course exceptions but, I suggest, the majority of us will never get anywhere near them on a regular basis.

I would suspect the syllabus you were looking at was the Level 1 Coaches course and is only designed to enable a Coach at that level to ttake beginner's courses and conduct them safely. Also I can assure you that what you are doing is definitely NOT Level 3 coaching!!!

[ASW1973]

I actually agree with what the wayitwas has just written. Coaching is multi faceted and some will achieve results without knowledge that allows them to be able to use the Holistic term "coach".
On a personal note I have a "problem" with the gnas coaching organization and am always very carefull about how I couch this in public. I am a proffesional performance coach with a masters qualification in this, I work with athletes in many sports but within the archery sphere I teach archers who represent their countries in 6 countries and am the "coach" to one ngb's national juniour squad. I am an associate with a major personal trainer and work with experts in the fields of nutrition, sport psychology, kinaesthetic training and performance. As I have said before I look forward to 2010 when GNAS will be forced in to line with other sport NGB's to allow individuals to fast track qualifications. these fast track schemes require a body of work to have been completed that most people who denigrate the coaching certificate will never achieve and I will be proud to own one in archery.