Coach Logic delivered our second headline event at Welford Road in September this year. The event held in association with BMC and Leicester Tigers AASE was part of the Coach & Player Development series. Attendees heard from leading voices in the coaching field discussing modern best practise.

The speakers shared their unique perspectives and understanding of the player-coach relationship during an interactive session covering practise design, learning environments and effective feedback.

John Fletcher

First to speak on the evening was John Fletcher. Having worked in Player Development for 16 years, Fletch now wants to support people in creating an environment in which they can explore and innovate.

His presentation focused on Learning and how teams and organisations can cultivate and craft better environments. He discussed the PLACE and CARDS acronyms and gave examples from some organisations he believes are pioneering this namely; Google, Ajax and The Brit School.

Mark Cairns

Next up was Mark Cairns who focused his presentation on Effective Performance Feedback. Using personal experiences from coaching at the Currie Chieftains in Edinburgh, he explained his understanding of player and coach development.

Getting an insight into player understanding is imperative if a coach is to understand why certain decisions are made on the pitch. The most effective way to get this insight is getting players involved in the analysis process. Offering added responsibility and ownership in match review allows a coach to pinpoint exactly how much learning their players are taking in.

The middle part of the presentation involved the attendees analysing a clip from a recent Currie Chieftains and Boroughmuir match. The room came up with a varied bunch of feedback which evidenced that utilising your players’ knowledge can create a better data set than that of one individual e.g. a coach or analyst.

Stuart Armstrong

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Concluding the presentations was Stuart Armstrong of Sport England. As a leading athlete development specialist, Stuart has helped thousands of coaches across a multitude of sports create better learning environments and develop deeper relationships with their athletes.

Stuart began by asking the audience for their understanding of what talent is and then expanded on the topic based on his research.

With reference to recent work with England Hockey, Stuart moved onto coaching decision-making situations and an example of problem based learning. From talent, the discussion moved onto creativity and how certain environments burgeon levels of player and coach creativity.

Stuart’s presentation finished with his well-recognised Funnel of Variability chart which discusses how creativity exhibited changes from the method of performance whether that be Full Game or an unopposed drill.

The evening finished with an interactive Q&A session. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for networking afterwards but we can guarantee that will be in place for the next one.

Further Watching:

John Fletcher - Full Presentation

Mark Cairns - Full Presentation

Stuart Armstrong - Full Presentation

Collaborative Coach & Player Development (Part 1) - Review & Highlights Video

Collaborative Coach & Player Development (Part 2) - Highlights Video