ATC Sport Learning Design Principles

Here at Ambrose Treacy College Sport (ATCS), we are passionate about providing our students with the best possible sporting experience we can, so that 1) they fulfill their potential, but more importantly 2) so they enjoy their sporting experience and to set our students up for a lifelong engagement in sport and physical activity, and ultimately to live a happy and healthy life beyond their school years.

A key method we are looking to implement to enhance our provision of quality sporting experiences for our students is through development of our coaches across all sports in the school. This is happening through:

• 1-1 mentoring and support for our coaches on the field or court as training is happening.
• Engagement with our coaching coordinators to ensure that the messaging throughout the school and throughout the programs is aligned, especially regarding our learning design principles (LDPs).

Our LDP are principles that have been identified in relation to 3 key roles as coach has: 1) how to communicate, 2) how to design training tasks, and 3) how to connect with students. They form an anagram of ATCS. This piece will detail our LDPs and discuss what that can look like for a coach in a training session.

However, before diving into our LDPs, it is important to give a bit of background around what we are trying to achieve with our coaching. As stated, we are looking to make the sport experience as enjoyable as possible for our students, so they engage with sport far beyond their time at ATC. Part of this long-term engagement is to do with competency – students with more competency in sport are more likely to stay involved in the long-term. A key focus for us (relating to point 1 above) is to develop skilful players. We believe by implementing our LDPs throughout all sessions across all sports in the school, we will increase the skill levels of all our students in whatever sport(s) they have engaged in.

LDP 1 – Autonomous learners

A key question we ask our coaches is “how many decisions have the players made in this session?” Creating player-centred environments is a fundamental component of our sessions. This means players are making decisions around what to do, rather than simply being told where to go and what to do.

Following on from this, we encourage coaches to ask questions of the players, so the flow of information from player to coach is great than the opposite way around. By asking questions, coaches can encourage players to think for themselves and guide their attention to key parts of the game they may have missed.

Finally, the coach does not have all the answers, and a group of minds is better than one. We want to try and encourage players to help each other, and also help the coach with the implementation of drills, so the training session is a collaborative environment rather than an autocratic one.

LDP 2 – Time on task

Maximising time on task is important to ensure that players are getting the opportunity to learn. Some coaches are solo, but there may be multiple coaches involved with the coaching of a team. Regardless, we encourage coaches to run multiple tasks at once to ensure players are getting as many touches on the ball as possible, and as much exposure to the game to maximise learning time.

Coaching on the run is encouraged throughout, to ensure that freeze time and player huddles are minimised. A useful strategy for this is questioning (see LDP 1), and this is something that could also fall under LDP 3. Delivering key messages is an important aspect of coaching, but it should not interfere with the players’ active learning time.

Coaches coach and players play. We discourage coaches from getting involved in a task to “speed it up” or “ensure a quality ball feed”. By having players involved in every component of a task, players are maximising their time on task, and getting the most learning exposure possible.

LDP 3 – Concise communication

In line with LDP 2, training is not about how much information the coach gives the players. Rather the coach should work to minimise his/her input during session. Coaching through questioning can allow a coach to influence a player’s behaviour without being overbearing and talking too much.

Allowing players to explore and figure it out is a critical aspect for a player’s development. By simply telling players all the answers, coaches rob the players of opportunities to learn and opportunities to be successful. We encourage coaches to set the task for the players, and then get out of their way.

Catching players doing well is important to reinforce good behaviours. Praising and affirming positive skills (and positive efforts) will help players believe in themselves and impacts their long-term engagement.

LDP 4 – Suitable challenge

Within coaching, this is one of the biggest challenges, because some groups can have a massive disparity in skill levels. The first step then, is for the coach to understand and know their group so they know the level of skill within their team.

Another component that coaches should consider when to dial up or dial down the difficulty of a task. For example, a game of 5v5 can be made easier for one team by reducing the number of opponents they face (5v5 becomes 5v3), or it can be made harder by incorporating a joker who plays on whatever team is in possession (5v5 becomes 6v5). Being prepared for this is vital so coaches can suitably challenge their players.

Finally, with a suitable challenge comes errors. It is important that coaches embrace errors as errors are guiding lights when it comes to improvement. Mistakes tell players that they need to change something to succeed, and the number (and type) of mistakes can guide a coach to make a task simpler or more difficult.

Jordan Cassidy

Coach Development