2013 wrap up

Hello All.

Firstly I'm sorry for my absent from blogging, due to numerous commitments i did not have time to blog.

2013 was a huge year, after being accepted into Honours at the University of Canberra, I gained a job  with Super Rugby championship team the University of Canberra ACT Brumbies. It was an unreal experience, as the assistant performance analysis i got the opportunity to work at training and home games. I learnt to use new Performance Analysis software (Versuco) and how to use and analyse GPS data. The highlight of the year for me was being in the coaches box along side Jake White and Laurie Fisher for the historic Brumbies win over the British and Irish Lions in Canberra. I would like to get this opportunity to thanks head performance analyst Warrick Harrington, all the players, coaches and support staff for accepting me into the franchise.

Whilst soaking in the Brumbies experience i was also completing my honours thesis. I had the pleasure of working with Keane Wheeler and Kate Pumpa as my supervisors. During the course of the year i learnt about a wide range of skills when completing a thesis but most importantly i learnt a lot about myself and my ability to do what i put my mind to. My final grades indicated that with my 1st class marks, however i obtained a high 2nd class grade overall.

At the conclusion of the year i found myself in the position of looking ahead for 2014. Its a rather scary experience taking the leap into the high performance sporting industry. Although unsuccessful at this stage i feel that my opportunity is not far away. In 2014 i hope to provide more blogs on my journey into the sporting industry.

Thanks for reading.

Trent

Talent Identification discussion

Hey Guys,

Today to continue my journey through the unit of sport coaching pedagogy, I have gathered thoughts and opinions from a recent post of a fellow blogger Leigh Sherman.

 In Leigh’s recent blog ‘Something Interesting’ that has this picture and in the top left hand corner you will see the quote

‘If you have a body you are an athlete’ 

This quote made me reflect on talent identification and long-term athlete development in sport.  As sport has become more professional so has the recruiting process and the identification of potential athletes in certain sports. Sporting organizations have for a long time focused on anthropometry or attributes such as speed and endurance to identify potential athletes.  Successful Australian hockey coach Ric Charlesworth has for years strictly identified athletes that have raw speed to play hockey, as in his belief speed is not a skill that could be taught, however hockey specific skills and game sense can be. 

However take into respect a player that has been playing the sport since they were 5 or 6 and have amazing hockey skills, but do not have raw speed or power does this mean they are little chance of being successful at the elite level?

You would think not, however because of the professionalism of sport and the industry being so cut-throat, an attribute speed could be difference between getting contract to the national side or not.

Taking in consideration what has been said, Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt in the past couple of years have made the transition from Rugby League to AFL.  Both having little experience in AFL, but they had attributes that coaches such as Leigh Matthews and Mark Thompson believe would make them successful in the sport.

Taking in what has been said and considering both these situations do you think that it is essential to have knowledge and game sense of the sport to be successful long term or can key attributes ultimately make you successful long term in the sport?

Anyway would like to know your thoughts on this post or anything to do with this interesting topic.

Thanks

Coaching Material

Hey Guys,

Today I’ve chosen to blog about a topic that come up in discussion with a fellow blogger Sarah Taylor in regard to coaching material.

When completing most assignments in sport coaching or sport science, you will look at journals and books for information regarding the topic that you are looking for.  However, some of the time these materials are too specific and may not be what you’re looking for, so where do you turn to next?

Websites, videos and coaching manuals from NSO are the most common as they are specific for the needs, however in most occasions they are not peer reviewed or backed up by scientific research.  Does this mean the information is incorrect and cannot be used, if not, where is the line drawn to what constitutes valid material that people can implement to their training or coaching regime?

And I would like to know your thoughts on your experiences with using coaching material that does not have scientific evidence behind it and for your coaching or training purposes?

For Example:

Recently when completing an assignment at Univerisity, I had to coach the fundamental skills of AFL to a novice. When researching for information on the skills of AFL, there was only research on a biomechanical analysis of skills or the tactical aspects of the game, something far to technical for a novice. However when looking on the internet and after talking to the Development Manager of the AFL in Canberra, I was lead to several coaching manuals made for the use of coaching novices. Once speaking to the development manager, I found that it however had no scientific research done on the methods of coaching or of the ways to teach the skills, however it had been determined that these methods were best way of teaching this to athletes in this stage of learning.

Similarly a mate of mine was struggling at the gym and had an aim of gaining muscle mass. He didn’t go to university so he therefore did not utilize the journal and books. However through the use of some useful websites he was able to constantly gain in muscle mass, through the periodization of gym sessions, changes in nutrition habits and recovery processes.

Anyway let me know what you think.

Cheers

The start of an amazing journey!

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delay in my blogging I’ve been full on with university and internship commitments.

Today I’ve decided to blog about my journey through this semester with my internship at ACTAS and progress on the research project that I’m currently completing. My internship at ACTAS is in the field of sport science specializing in hockey, this role requires me to cater for the needs of the hockey scholarship holders, by monitoring training loads, completing field testing for national teams reference, data analysis in games and training and recovery after training and matches.

As part of my internship and university arrangements I’m required to do a research project during my time at ACTAS and I have chosen to directly do this in the sport I’m involved with in hockey. Over the past 2 months I have been researching a stroke in hockey known as the drag flick and last month completed a literature review on the drag flick, which identified the key body segments used and sequences that they are used in. Currently along with the ACTAS head coach were are creating a methodology for a drag flicking project to monitor athletes from the squad on their consistency of key segments during the drag flick over a period of time.

Often we hear Keith in lectures, refer to something being a journey and I think that this internship for me has been nothing but an amazing journey. In just four months I have experienced what it is like to be in the sport science industry and been able to see the professionalism that goes into long-term athlete development and talent identification. I have also had the opportunity to work with the Australian Hockey team and later in the year will go over to Perth to do some further work experience with them.

Although this blog was not as informational was previous blog I hope you have got something out of it and keep posted as I’m hoping to catch up on my blogs in the home straight of first semester.

As always if you have any thoughts I would love to hear them!

Technology the present and future of presenting and sharing information to athletes?

Hey followers sorry for the delay in my week seven post in the past week i have been working with my internship at ACTAS which included doing some work with the Australian Hockey team and was an amazing experience but finally here it is my week 7 post.

The week seven lecture looked at sharing and presenting information and technology in recent times has played a critical role in determining how information is shared and presented to athletes and coaches.  Technology has added a new level of professionalism to sport, which has resulted in improved performances in players, as athletes and their coaches are able to access crucial information on their technique, strength/weaknesses and their performances in general.  GPS is one of the technological advances that has revolutionized the information that coaches are supplied with to help optimize their athlete or teams performance in the short and long term. Not only can this equipment supply information about the speed, acceleration and distance covered by the athlete, but it can also supply information about the forces and body loads of the athlete. This plays a critical role in the way the coaches train their players, as a player who is placing greater strain on their body is more likely to get injured.

This raises my first discussion point: as technology involvement increases and develops, is there actually a need to increase the involvement of sport scientists and statisticians in high performance teams? Is having more people in high performance areas going to assist or hinder the performances of coaches and athletes?

The second part of my post today looks at specifically how you present and share this information to the athletes in terms of feedback. Feedback is an interesting but difficult mechanism, as a mentor or coach you need to provide the information and advice in the right way to ensure that the athlete takes in the information and learns from it.

Here are some of the common types of feedback used by coaches-

The first two are a result of extrinsic feedback which is information not inherent in the movement itself but which improves intrinsic feedback. This is also known as augmented feedback.

v Knowledge of performance (KP) - information about the technique and performance. This can be provided verbally from the coach or visually via video and software systems such as Sport Coding. This enables the athlete to establish a kinaesthetic reference for the correct movement. e.g. an analysis of the rowing technique or tennis serve.

v Knowledge of results (KR) that is information with regards the result of the athlete's performance e.g. the sprinter's 100 metre time or how high or far they have jumped

The timing of the feedback is also important and has to be done occurring to the stage of learning and experience of the athletes.

v Terminal feedback – is the information provided to the athlete before or after the performance has taken place

v Concurrent feedback - information provided to the athlete during the performance

My second discussion question relates to whether there is a right method of feedback? Or is it dependent on the athlete, coach and sport?

Also to whether there is a length to the amount of feedback on coach can provide?

As always would love to hear your thoughts on this interesting topic.

Cheers

Reflecting, Observing and Mentoring

Our lecture this week in Sport coaching pedagogy, saw us look at coaches reflecting and mentoring.  Whilst Keith was discussing how coaches reflect and observe their athletes from a distance, it made me think about what is more ideal for coaching when providing feedback, especially those in team sports.

In sports such as AFL, coaches are split to whether they watch and observe the game from a box up high with their assistant coaches, before reflecting and providing the players feedback or being on the sideline to provide instant feedback to players in the game and feeling the intensity of the game.

So my first discussion point of the week is there a particular situation were these different observation points are better than the other? And also whether in individual sports this situation changes from your experiences?

During Keith’s lecture he also discussed mentors roles in sport.  It’s a role that is now so common in team sports, as ex-players of the sport are being employed to nurture and advise young inexperienced players through the beginning of their careers.

However I ask the question to whether sporting teams are currently employing mentors as head coaches on their reputation of their playing days and the team uses assistant coaches as ‘the brains’ and for the planning that is involved or that in fact that the head coach is the best person for the job?

In terms of individual sports I think a coach needs to be diverse and be able to serve as a mentor and coach to the athlete. As discussed in Sarah Taylor and Leigh Sherman's previous blog, although experience in the sport is not essential when coaching, however elite sporting experience is as you can relate to what pressure and circumstances that an athlete may be struggling with.

 Anyway let me know your thoughts. 

Do you need to be a good athlete to be a good coach?

Whilst watching a video during the week 5’s lecture, Keith raised the question to whether you need to be a good athlete to become a good coach. 

This is a question that for me had a lot to it and it my opinion is best answered by examples.

Some of the best coaches in many sports have not been convincing at the top level for example Wayne Bennett in rugby league, Mick Malthouse in AFL and John Buchanan in cricket and these three coaches have gone on to be 3 of the most successful in their sports.

On the other hand a coach I have often admired is Ric Charlesworth, who reached the pinnacle in two different sports (cricket and hockey) and has gone on to be the most successful Australian hockey coach in both male and female teams.

When comparing these four coaches, it is obvious that their coaching philosophy is similar and after reading Aidan Brown's blog it is obvious they are cooperative coaches (aka the teachers) who break the down the sport, but focus on key components or their given sport and are always motivating their athletes to strive for perfection.

This question also makes it worth noting parent- sibling relationships in sport. As parents are often going to have a huge influence on their siblings sporting careers. This is very common in individual sports such as tennis where often coaches are close relatives to the players for example Rafael Nadal and his Uncle Miqual who was not a successful tennis player.  On the otherhand there is some parents and relatives who prefer to observe or play little role in they’re relatives sporting careers such as Gary Ablett who has had no influence over his sons footballing careers.

Although I’m sitting on the fence to this question I think I have identified that you don’t have to necessary be an successful athlete to become an successful coach.

But after having my say I would like to know yours!!!