"It Starts with the Practice"
Over the past week, I’ve had some really enjoyable discussions about coach development, and a few points have really stuck with me. One of these was something Pierre Trudel highlighted in his work: "It starts with the practice."
This brought back to some of my experiences when I would meet many new groups supporting multiple coaches at the start of their journey at various levels from different sports as a Sports Coaching lecturer at Edinburgh College.
There was a big practical element to the courses, so when we started a block of a sport, we would often kick things off by playing full version of the game, which was a useful tool to find out where they were at on a performance level. Whilst they were there to develop their coaching, we would take the opportunity to improve their practical skill set. This would be valuable on 2 fronts as help when they went out to coach multiple sports at various clubs and schools around the city, and we could also demonstrate different approaches to coaching and give them some coaching experience before being unleashed in the real world!
And for those that can recall this part of their journey, there are few things more “real world” than being put in front of a group of 25 primary kids you’ve never met before as an inexperienced coach. All the planning in the world will not prepare you for that experience.
Thinking back on the session where we would play the game to get a feel for the groups level on a practical basis, there were various benefits to help with planning and adapting activities.
However, the one thing that stood out was that the groups were always mixed ability. The reality is that the vast majority of coaches are working with mixed ability groups, so it’s an essential part of coaching.
Mixed Ability: It’s More Than Physical or Technical
At the time, I thought mixed ability was all about the physical, technical, or tactical skills. However, coaching my son’s junior rugby team (now under-11s) has given me a new perspective.
The biggest challenge, I’ve realised, is often the differences in what Dan Abrahams would describe as biopsychosocial skills. Dan shares brilliant insights on LinkedIn and hosts The Sports Psych Show podcast, which I would highly recommend.
Dan defines biopsychosocial skills brilliantly here:
“We want to help players engage, learn, and compete with technique, tactics, and physicality in mind. Constantly influencing the engagement, learning, and competitive ability of the technical, tactical, and physical components is the biopsychosocial component of sport.
Bio - body
Psycho - mind
Social – world
Biopsychosocial is a constant force on the engagement of players, their ability to learn, and their capacity to compete - technically ,tactically, and physically.”
You can probably see with this description just how much mixed ability goes beyond the physical, technical, tactical elements of a sport, and how this extends way up the pyramid of sport.
Supporting Coaches: Mixed Ability Matters
The idea of mixed ability doesn’t just apply to players—it’s just as relevant when we think about supporting coaches. A recent event I attended brought this to life.
There were 60 junior coaches in the room, working with children aged 8–18. They’d come to learn and grow as coaches, with no obligation to be there other than their desire to improve. It was a free event, and every single one of them wanted to help give their players a great experience.
What struck me was the sheer range of experience in the room. There were first-time coaches and others who had worked at international level, united by understanding just how important good coaching is. I'm probably right in the middle of that spectrum, but the range in the room was clear to me when we were given a partner task to discuss what we'd just heard and translate to our context. I turned to face my partner and the first thing they said was "I've no idea what they were talking about there, that went right over my head".
Good coaching impacts a sport by supporting player retention, it benefits the individual by promoting a lifelong participation, and it benefits society by helping people develop social skills and confidence, not withstanding the numerous health benefits.
Just as the squads and groups of athletes we work with are mixed ability, so too are the coaches we support.
However, I’ve noticed that when delivering coach education, there can be an assumption that everyone is operating at a similar level. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When working with coaches, it’s standard practice to start by finding out about their experience and what they want to learn.
But, what if we went further?
What if the tutor came to the event with VISION on where each coach’s strengths and areas for development lay?
What if the coach arrived with VISION of how they coach, grounded in their own context?
What if the coach had already received constructive feedback on their coaching?
What if we started with the practice?