Reply To: Good Habits at Practice? The Art of Coaching!

[hockeygod]

Coaches are not being taught how to teach

Fellow Coaches,

In a recent post I read a reply from a coach that caught my attention. Why? Because the statement he made reflects a stance and belief that I have held for quite some time, and oddly enough in 25 years of coaching, instructing or teaching the game I have never heard another coach express this concern.

So now that I hopefully have you intrigued here is what this coach said…and I am paraphrasing here…

The coach claimed that it had been his experience that coaches are not being taught how to teach. They go to clinics, symposiums, and seminars where they are taught drills, systems, tactics, strategy, etc but they are not taught "how to teach" this stuff.
I agree 100%. But I can only speak from a perspective of being a coach that has certified through Hockey Canada. I have the added benefit of being a school teacher. I have a degree in Physical Education and have been a Physical Education teacher for quite some time.

So it is easy for me to say with accuracy that coaching certification clinics and seminars that I have taken through Hockey Canada, and I have taken them all but one, do not, in my professional opinion, provide any insight into "how to teach" skills, tactics, game play, etc. They provide vast amounts of info on what to teach, various ways to teach it through varying setups and designs but nothing on the methodology of teaching: Nothing covering the different learning styles, teaching methodologies and philosophies, how to teach cognitively vs. physically, motor learning concepts etc.

So my reason for this post was to hopefully hear from coaches from all over the globe with their take on this issue.

Are we dropping the ball on fully empowering our coaches with the full slate of teaching tools they need to be better coaches?

Should our governing bodies that are responsible for the training and certification of coaches be more prudent in the delivery of material to ensure that it includes more information on the "how" to teach not just "what" to teach?

After all a coach can find the "what" to teach in a myriad of books, manuals and online sites. But if they don't know "how" to teach it, what good is it?

The key to coaching is not just knowing what to teach. It’s as much about (I believe more) being able to teach it effectively so that all your players are learning. Lets face it…we call ourselves coaches but in reality we are teachers. And maybe that is where the problem lies.

Mike Hartman

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."