Looking into the future

Although i am certain in stating i have gained an extensive amount of knowledge at WW, i still feel i need to dramatically improve my sport specific coaching knowledge. I am hoping that i will be able to gain an additional placement at Rochdale AFC as i have previous knowledge of football drills etc. However, if im unsucessful at gaining a placement there then i may have to go into a different sport where my knowledge of sport specfic drills is limited. I do accept that its almost impossible for a coach to know every single aspect of every sport and most coaches obtain knowledge and skills through experience at previous internships/ placments.
Within the next 12 month i aim to gain an additional placement within a different sport with the intention to gain a knowledge across other sports. I intend to start a masters degree september 2014 at loughborough university but in order to be able to get a masters at this university i have to get a first class degree. I do believe i am capable of gaining this grade but regardless, i need to gain as much work experience as i can to enhance my CV.
I believe that if i can get a first class degree and have two placements under my belt then i will be at a huge advantage over other candidates which i may be competing with for future work. I hope that a MSc degree will allow me to seem more desirable to employers and therefore myself and make myself more employable.
I will never forget my first placement at WW and i feel this placement has motivated me to strive to achieve. I really am grateful for the insight into what is required of a S&C coach and i now am very eager to compare my experience with WW with another club as a sport scientists. This will give me an even better insight into the diversity of roles which a sporting club can offer.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my blogs and hopefully some readers have found my experience useful. I did not intend to group Feb and Aprils sessions together but the sessions was so similar i was worried the reader would become less interested. Most skills i obtained over april and may was simply skills which only come with time and practise.

Connor

Have i achieved what i intended to?

Before i gained the current placement i had to build a rationale to why the chosen placement is appropriate. I knew i wanted a placement within a professional sporting club working with elite athletes. I wanted to gain an insight into the roles and duties which a sport scientist or strength and conditionist underwent. Now i have completed my 60 hour placement i feel i have achieved what i intended to. I feel i have a realistic, educational idea of what is required of a S&C coach and i have experienced both the great and bad aspects of the job.

I feel that by working closely with such a great professional team of coaches i have had the opportunity to learn from the best. I was very low on confidence when i first arrived at WW because it is known as being a professional establishment. However, from shadowing the coaches and listening to their feedback i gradually became more confident in my capabilities. One thing i was keen to observe and adopt is professional conduct. I feel that once i was given the opportunity (through leading sessions) to demonstrate what id learnt i was able to proove to myself that i had infact adopted this professional conduct.

One thing i am worried about is that i became familiar with the protocols that WW required of me and therefore the weeks became routine. None the less, i still believe i continued to progress simply through the increase in comfortability. I do however believe i would benefit from working with different coaches in a different sporting club to see if the skills i have obtained over the previous weeks can be as easily transferred as i hope them to be.


Connor

 

How this blog has helped

I am new to writing blogs, i have never wrote one before and therefore have never understood the purpose of a blog. Regardless, i found them very easy to write as it was my own personal feelings.

These blogs have enabled me to set goals and targets for the following sessions. This has consequently meant that i can view my progress which has helped with my motivation and enthusiasm levels.  This blog also has helped me realise how i actually feel towards becoming a S&C coach. I can note my feelings down on here and read through them when im reflecting upon the session. The reflection models i adopted have been extremely useful but without a blog to evaluate on these models i dont think i would have progressed as much.

I will continue to write blogs with future placements and i will use them to reflect upon different challenges and experiences.

Connor

Feb, March

I decided to group numerous sessions together as the training has been repeated recently but the coaches are now adding more resistance onto the circuit based exercises. As my hours are accumulating, the coaches are giving me more responsibilities and giving me more duties and roles. This is really helping keep my motivational levels high as i now feel apart of a team!

I have built many relationships with the coaches and players which is enhancing the enjoyability factor. Now i am seeing the advantages of this placement i am beginning to realise that this is a career in which i would love to work towards. I have to continue observing the coaches and keep pushing myself out of my comfort zone in order to progress.

 

As this placment is coming to an end i am wondering what my next move will be. I feel i would be best looking at placements for an S&C coach as i now have my 60 hours experience. However, i feel i would benefit from gaiuning additional experience in other fields such as sport science or sports management. I think im just worried about limiting my options and i am interested to see what other jobs i could also look at.

 

Connor

My Fourth Day At Wigan Warriors

I came into todays training session aiming to aid my ability to take training drills. The day started as per usual where in which the gym were organised appropriately for the days resistance training. The U15 and U16 squad and coaches entered the gym, Ian gathered the athletes together and informed them that we was going to be indoors for the whole of todays session as the wheather wasnt appropriate for the session the coaches had in mind. Therefore we was going to utilise this opportunity to try out a new piece of equipment. The circuit played out as planned with the players this week showing significant improvements in lifting technique. Majority of players progressed from a box squat to a full squat, with a handful of individuals progressing further to a front squat. This was a real boost of confidence for myself as the individuals who progressed to front squat was the individuals who shown most willingness to listen to my feedback. Myself and Ian continued to look for training imperfections and focused on those who did progress wasnt overloading themselves too much as the last thing the club wants is more injuries.

During the circuit training session Ian explained to me what the next part of the session entailed. This gave me the opportunity to facilitate my improvement in confidence when taking sessions myself. Once the circuit had finished I got the players together and took a leadership role in explaining what we was going to do next.

We went into the sports hall were the players enabled the new digital timer to be utilisised for the first time since Wigan Warriors had purchased it. With the use of this new equipment the players focused on improving their cardio. The players had to complete two lengths of the sports hall in 15 seconds with a 15 second break and then continue this drill for aslong as possible. I was stood at the side encouraging the athletes to continue for aslong as they could. I was very surprised to hear the atheletes who had already dropped out to stay and cheer their fellow team mates on. The evidence of their maturity reinforced Wigan Warriors policy being professional and having the right attitude.

Upon reflection, I was very pleased with how the session went. I put myself out of my comfort zone and put myself in the spot light. The players shown great progression with some indiviuals even attempting front squats. This was very encouraging and in some way felt rewarding to see the progression from those who shown eagerness to listen to what feedback the coaches gave them. I left feeling excited to see what the next session would involve and to see if the progression of some players more than others would motivate the competitive nature these individuals to progress to the same standard. My aim for next week is to try and have more players attempting the front squat to box.

By Connor Franks

My Third Session With Wigan Warriors

As I was not aware that we would be conducting the same circuit training session as the previous two weeks I felt more confident in what was expected of me. I turned up at central park and got the squat racks ready, wrote the circuit on the board and basically get the gym prepared for the player’s arrival. I did this to prove to myself that I was becoming more familiar with the protocols.  Shortly after being set up, the coaches and players arrived and the resistance training session began.

In today’s session there was an odd number of players in the U16 group, I was asked if I was willing to join in and work one on one with this player who did not have a partner. This individual was one of the more reserved players who I hadn’t spoken much previously. I saw this as a great opportunity and I was able to give the player feedback on each different exercise. The player took on board the feedback I gave him and tried his best to improve his technique with each set.

The players then went outdoors to work on sprinting. Players were split into three groups, each coach worked on each station and the players were instructed which drill to move onto. I worked closely with Ian and shadowed him while he took the first group, as the second group came jogging over Ian told me to do exactly what he had done and take the drill. I instantly was nervous and started to panic. Fortunately, I felt slightly more comfortable around the players and chose not to think about it, just do it! I used demonstrated whilst explaining how to do the drill. It basically involved the players doing high knees and making foot ground contact with both feet in between each hurdle with a sprint finish (see picture below).

 

The initial first drill was always going to be the most nervous but now I had done that I felt like I had accomplished something and I felt like my confidence levels had grown dramatically.

Now that I have been at my placement for 3 weeks, I feel like I am beginning to get used to the protocols required of me. Therefore, I believe I can now start to effectively utilise Gibbs’ model of reflection to give myself a better overview of how I am doing so far. 

Feelings 

Ian and the coaches are beginning to give me more responsibility and the players are beginning to become more confortable me, this makes me feel more confident in my own abilities my role as a strength and conditionist.

Evaluation/Analysis

The stand out good point/development for myself was taking the players independently through a sprint drill. I felt more confident in the feedback I was giving the players and my justification for giving that feedback. I feel more welcome and feel like I belong there rather than feeling out of my depth. I must admit however that although I am growing in confidence, I dont feel im anywhere near the standards of the other coaches and I therefore still have someway to grow. I dont expect to be near the same standard of the other coaches anytime soon as they have done this for years and have more knowledge, improvisation skills and full respect from the players that I am still looking to gain.

Conclusion

After todays session I feel like I would like to take more drills and put myself in positions where im not necessarily in my comfort zone with the aim to increase my own capabilities. I cannot allow confidence issues to hinder this learning experience, I feel I need to grasp this opportunity and make the most of it.

Action Plan

If I found myself taking a training drill again I would try and project my voice more and take other coaching qualities into consideration such as positioning. I would try and sound enthusiastic and motivational in order to enhance the athletes commitment to the drill.

By evaluating my day by the Gibbs’ model I can see that I have been improving in my role as a strength and conditioning coach. I have been gaining knowledge that will definitely help me in the future whilst making me more employable.

By Connor Franks

My Second Session At Wigan Warriors

My day started exactly as the previous week, I turned up early in case Ian wanted to take me through anything different. Once I met Ian and the coaching department we discussed the process of the next couple of hours. Ian took me into the gym prior to the session starting where we got all the equipment set up exactly how it was set up the week previous. To my relief, we was going to conduct the same circuit as the previous week which meant my research I conducted in preparation for this session would come into practise. When the athletes arrived, instead of feeling anxious and nervous I was focussing on trying to remember their names and trying to further build a coach athlete relationship.

I felt more confident today approaching the athletes with some of the coaching points I had previously researched and therefore was more vocal. However, I still felt there was a barrier between myself and some of the athletes based upon their interest in what I was about to say. I was aware the athletes had been doing this circuit for 4 week before I introduced myself; maybe the athletes thought they knew more than me about the specific drills. I therefore justified why I was giving them the specific coaching points and as the athletes worked in pairs of twos I got the other athlete to help. I pointed out the coaching points firstly to the athlete who was on their rest period. This meant that once I mentioned specific coaching points to the athlete conducting the exercise the one who was resting would naturally adopt a sort of coaching role and would back me up with my justification; e.g: when performing a back squat I would inform the participant if they arched there back, I informed them that by pushing out their back this would enable their back to adopt a more upright posture. The athlete on their rest period would then get involved and tell me if they thought their partner’s technique had improved. This enabled me to engage in conversations with the athletes and get to know them in more detail whilst gaining their trust and respect as they understood why I was giving the athlete the feedback I was.

Unfortunately, as I have undergone resistance training for four years I felt more confident when I was giving feedback on lifting techniques as appose to specific game situation feedback when outdoors on the astroturf. I only represented my school in rugby tournaments on a few occasions as my natural build was more suited for football meaning I favoured football more resulting in my knowledge of rugby drills being limited. As the training session progressed outdoors I found myself shadowing the coaches again looking at how they projected their voices, the positioning of the coaches and how they improvised for the injured athletes who couldn’t take part in certain drills. Additionally I shadowed the grabbling coaches and listen to how they conducted these sessions and everything about it was new to me.

Using Gibbs’ model to reflect on my first day last week really made me feel more comfortable and more confident as I felt I had confronted some of the areas for improvement. I tried to be more confident by getting my views and opinions across but at the same time respecting the order of the staff members. I still would like to interact more with the players and want to feel like the players understand why I am giving them feedback but I understand that this will come with time. For next week’s session my area to improve is my knowledge of the rugby game specific drills the coaches used in today’s session and engage more with the other members of staff in order to try and build connections.

 

By Connor Franks