- Create a list of skills and characteristic’s that make a child successful in your sport?
- With the list created pick out one or two and describe and explain why a child would need the skill or characteristic listed to become successful?
- would have on the participant in terms of short, medium or long term?
For example in football a child would need communication when playing in a team. The child would need communication to become successful so that the child and the team can work together and create clear and concise plans. Without this the child would be held back long term because the lack of communication between teammates may result in a lack of confidence in expressing themselves, coinciding with a drop in confidence in team environments. This may in later life hold them back outside of a sporting context in terms of working with other people. All due to a deficiency in communication skills.
Importance of long term development
It is important that when describing development and implementing coaching practices that we think about the long term development. Coaches that lack long term development plans run the risk of depriving athletes of opportunities to develop. This can be due to increased focus on short term goals like winning/losing (Martindale et al 2007).Therefore developmental stages are missed. It is also important that we coaches understand the process of sports development and what is involved in development in a practical sense. Coaches are required to understand and learn the different processes in order to maximize development. “Understanding effective processes is particularly important within the context of talent development because it can be such a long-term investment.” (Martindale et al 2010).
Biopsychosocial Model
Collins and MacNamara (2017) present a model of talent development and human development called the biopsychosocial approach. The model proposes an interaction they describe as “dynamic” that involves biological, psychological, and social factors. These three factors are present in every individual but to varying degrees in each human being. If the three factors are considered as part of a bigger picture of long-term development, then as a coach we can develop a well-rounded individual that has been given the tools to progress in life. However, it would be unfair to ignore one of these factors and would most likely hinder any athlete that wanted to progress. As the coach it is important to develop each factor. Abbott et al (2005) reinforce the point that is made above that development is a multidisciplinary approach. They describe how talented performers are not just produced on the isolation of one factor. They describe how talent is a product of a multidisciplinary environment such as genetical factors, psychological factors, and an advanced amount of practice.
4) Directing this back to the list made above by yourself, next to each characteristic or skill identify weather they are biological, psychological or social?
E.G communication – social
My approach to developing Biopsychosocial factors
I currently coach an u13’s cricket team at my local club. I found that in recent games and due to the nature of cricket, circumstances change quickly and vastly. During these changes my team have been exposed and its clear that the adaptability of my players is lacking, resulting in a few losses due to wet conditions, last minute change of batting order and other weather conditions. During future training session I plan on coaching adaptability into my participants which is a psychological factor. In previous sessions i feel i have used too many blocked practices which on reflection has been repetitive. William & Hodges (2005) evidence my point by explaining that to promote long term development, coaches should focus on the avoidance of repetitive practices. Handford et al (1997) further explain “Alternatively, random practice may broaden the learning workspace, thereby allowing more opportunity for players to engage in discovery learning to find different solutions to each movement problem presented.”.
Types of random practices i will introduce to my u13 cricket team
| Random practices | Adaptability measures/options |
| Bowlers practice match | –Limit the blowers to 7 fielders only and let them set their own fields Keep changing how many they are allowed –Take away two stumps from the batters – Give the bowlers a damp/wet ball to bowl with –Give the bowlers a really old/used ball |
| Batters orientated game | –Add and take away stumps –Make the wicket 18yards yards to increase difficult and change the environment -Give the batters a “half bat” Give the bowlers a swing ball |
| Fielding practice match | – No long barriers allowed – One hand only rule – Take away two stumps when throwing – Introduce a wet ball – Add and take away fielders Keep rotating positions |
During these practices i will not be focusing on performance, and will be more concerned about the psychological skills performed in terms of adaptability. A lot of trail and error will be involved so Judging performance alone would be of no advantage. Bailey & Morley (2006) explain how judging success on outcome of performance alone is ineffective. Factors such as luck, unfair selection, coaching bias and other confounding factors result in a misleading outcome if success is judged upon performance alone. As i have identified my participant’s to be lacking the psychological factor of adaptability, by introducing more random practices i am proposing to equip them with environment that can help them develop as people and as athletes. Davids, Williams, Button, & Court, (2001) describe how variability in practice (which is what i am proposing) provides the learner with a larger workspace and greater opportunity to learn and discover. The role i will take during these practices is i will encourage and praise participants going out of their comfort zone as this can trigger intrinsic motivation (Williams & Hodges 2005). I will not overly praise individual’s as it can have a detrimental effect on skill learning (Salmoni et al 1984), and this would contradict the long term outcomes of development. Magill (1988) backs up this research by explaining that “reduction in feedback frequency encourages problem-solving, the performer is likely to develop skills that transfer effectively to similar situations.”. All of which ties together to aid development of my participants.
Reference List
Abbott, A., Button, C., Pepping, G.J. and Collins, D., 2005. Unnatural selection: talent identification and development in sport. Nonlinear dynamics, psychology, and life sciences, 9(1), pp.61-88.
Bailey, R. and Morley, D., 2006. Towards a model of talent development in physical education. Sport, education and society, 11(3), pp.211-230.
Collins, D. and MacNamara, A., 2017. Talent development: A practitioner guide. Routledge.
Davids, K., Williams, A.M. and Button, C.H.R.I.S., 2001. An integrative modeling approach to the study of intentional movement behavior.
Handford, C., Davids, K., Bennett, S. and Button, C., 1997. Skill acquisition in sport: Some applications of an evolving practice ecology. Journal of sports sciences, 15(6), pp.621-640.
Martindale, R.J., Collins, D. and Abraham, A., 2007. Effective talent development: The elite coach perspective in UK sport. Journal of applied sport psychology, 19(2), pp.187-206.
Martindale, R.J., Collins, D., Wang, J.C., McNeill, M., Lee, K.S., Sproule, J. and Westbury, T., 2010. Development of the talent development environment questionnaire for sport. Journal of sports sciences, 28(11), pp.1209-1221.
Magill, R.A., 1988. Activity during the post-knowledge of results interval can benefit motor skill learning. In Advances in psychology (Vol. 50, pp. 231-246). North-Holland.
Salmoni, A.W., Schmidt, R.A. and Walter, C.B., 1984. Knowledge of results and motor learning: a review and critical reappraisal. Psychological bulletin, 95(3), p.355.
Williams, A.M. and Hodges, N.J., 2005. Practice, instruction and skill acquisition in soccer: Challenging tradition. Journal of sports sciences, 23(6), pp.637-650.
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