{"id":1205,"date":"2019-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/why-coach-education-is-shifting-from-episodic-to-self-driven-learning\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:33","slug":"why-coach-education-is-shifting-from-episodic-to-self-driven-learning","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/why-coach-education-is-shifting-from-episodic-to-self-driven-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Coach Education is Shifting From Episodic to Self-Driven Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n May 14, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Why Coach Education is Shifting From Episodic to Self-Driven Learning<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Perspectives from the English Premier League, world tennis and international rugby.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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There has been a shift away from episodic learning towards self-driven learning in coach education and development. It is in part driven by the specific needs of adult learners and the requirements of coaching at an elite level, where classroom learning generally is not viable.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cEpisodic learning only does so much for coaches at this level,\u201d observes Sergio Lara-Bercial, a Reader in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University. \u201cAttending a conference or seminar may provide an injection of energy and motivation and help coaches corroborate and challenge some of their beliefs and practices, but real learning and behavioural change take much longer and require a more driven and carefully supported approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are some of the approaches adopted by a selection of coaching practitioners out in the field as they seek to provide further development opportunities on their coaching pathways.<\/p>\n

How are you creating and encouraging ownership in your developing coaches?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Edd Vahid, Southampton:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur Coach Development Manager, Iain Brunnschweiler, has regular conversations with each of our academy coaches and interspersed with those is an expectation that the coach goes away and invests time in the areas they agree are for development; it could be to work on your communication skills in a post-match debrief. There\u2019s an expectation that when they come back into the next conversation with Ian they\u2019ve had a series of support that sits between that period but they\u2019ve also gone away and actively researched and looked at it and used some of the contacts that Ian might have support them with or they might have encouraged our video analysis team to come in and film a debrief. We\u2019ve made progress in that area and if I reflect on a few years ago, a lot of coach development would have been driven by coach developers and I think we\u2019re now at a point where if we\u2019re going to make it sustainable, if we\u2019re going to make a real difference, it has to come from the coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Lubbers, Director, Coaching Education and Sports Science, United States Tennis Association:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing is that belief system and coaching philosophy and the next thing is alignment along with the team that you\u2019re working with, your athletes. This is an area where we work with coaches and whenever we bring new coaches onto our pathway from the private sector, and we host a coach development workshop, the first thing we ask is what you believe and why you believe in it. Most people begin coaching by coaching the way they were coached. We challenge them on that and get them to reflect on their beliefs; why do you believe this and what are the influences on that? If you were coached by somebody fantastic, if as a professional athlete, you had great personal experiences, that\u2019s fantastic. But what if you had a coach who was less than perfect and you adopt those same coaching practices. It goes back to being reflective and asking why you coach the way you coach; what is your beliefs system, and then aligning around the technical, tactical ideas of right and wrong, and ideas of professionals and what that means; what are the non-negotiables in your environment with athletes, teams, and staff. That\u2019s the foundation of a good coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Wilkie, IRFU:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of changing a coach\u2019s behaviour and thought process is educating people in the process of self-reflection. We talk about it a lot and I think people understand the importance of it but how you actually go about this is something I find I\u2019ve got to help people discover. And it\u2019s different for each person as well. For some it\u2019s returning to their training session plan at the end of a session; what went well, what could be better, what could be great. If the coaches have a small commute from their office to the training field it could be formalising a conversation with an assistant on the way back who might be at a similar stage and experiencing something similar. I know some coaches who get their video analysts to film them regularly, so I don\u2019t have to be present for that. Some coaches just use the voice recorder on their iPhones, place it in their jacket pocket and listen to themselves at different times. In a certain way, if I do a good enough job across those first 12 months with a coach I can nearly make myself redundant through the fact that self-awareness is so high in the coaches; they can continue without someone needing to be there to be the catalyst to make sure it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Poulton, coach development consultant:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-reflection is a learned skill and it\u2019s not something we should take for granted; it needs to be taught and it needs to be practised. A second-year senior AFL coach told me recently that he was surprised by the amount of time he spent thinking about a conversation with an athlete and then the amount of time thinking about the conversation he\u2019d just had. There needs to be a capacity for each coach to say I can withdraw myself on any given day from the daily training environment without feeling as though the program is going to fall apart if they\u2019re not there. There needs to be a release from this dependency because without that coaches and high performance managers will not partake in development opportunities, because something else is considered more important. Until we get this headshift, this transformational piece around the coach\u2019s own capacity to influence and control the program. It\u2019s good for athletes and other staff to be empowered to run the program if the coach is away for a day or two. It\u2019s shifting the idea of the coach as the expert having control to allowing the space for others to grow and develop, which is where this growth and development space can really start to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sergio Lara-Bercial, Leeds Beckett University:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOn our coaching Masters, assignments are always contextualised to the practice. We don\u2019t ask them for traditional academic essays, we\u2019re asking them to demonstrate their knowledge off the field as well as the knowledge we\u2019ve given them to write a practical assignment to solve a real-life problem they have. They will have to demonstrate how they use literature through self-assessment of their journey to expertise and explain where they are in their own journey. They understand how important it is to be a life-long learner and they\u2019re also given the tools they need for that to happen. There needs to be a disposition towards wanting to learn but you also have to be able to find information, to be able to critically think about information; the skills to drive their own knowledge and learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, how do you manage the expectations of coaches on your pathways?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthew Wilkie, IRFU:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s fairly similar in a lot of places. There\u2019s some who understand the landscape, if that\u2019s the right way to put it, but there\u2019s others who want to progress as quickly as they can. One of the ways we go about handling that is by explaining we can\u2019t control your progression as a coach because we don\u2019t hire and fire; we\u2019re not responsible for the appointment process. What we can focus on is you becoming the best coach you can be and through doing that you need confidence that when opportunities arise you\u2019re presenting the version of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edd Vahid, Southampton FC:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outset it\u2019s establishing and planning towards goals. The setting of realistic goals is critical because if you\u2019re working towards a goal you might attain in 12 months\u2019 time or in 24 months\u2019 time, you can break down into smaller chunks where you can evidence progress. That helps maintain progress. You might not achieve your long-term goal for 12 months but you\u2019ll know what success looks like in one month, then two months and you\u2019re working towards it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Jones, LTA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not always possible for a top coach to be a top job all of the time and being a mentor is probably something they\u2019ve haven\u2019t thought about. Mentoring is a useful development tool for both. A skilled mentor has the ability to get the mentee to come up with their own solutions by digging deep into their reserves of knowledge and experience; it encourages stronger learning and a greater sense of ownership. A skilled mentor will explore different options, apply challenge, make the mentee accountable \u2013 and that creates action. Some will call that \u2018coaching\u2019 \u2013 there should be no limits in coach development and open the mind to different options.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There has been a shift away from episodic learning towards self-driven learning in coach education and development. 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