Today was a staff training day at Bloc Climbing, Bristol. This involved all of the coaching team and was created and designed myself (see files).
This training day was to address the issue that the coaching team had been left to their own devices for a couple of years without guidance or a head instructor to oversee their operations. This had led to skills fade and confusion over how to delivery certain sessions, like NICAS.
I created a Powerpoint presentation to assist with the training and the structure of the day is stated below:
Introduction (09:30 – 09:45)
Games (09:45 – 10:30) - This session was to help the team to share knowledge of their games, learn new games and practice the ability to adapt games for different learning outcomes.
Warmups & Cool downs (10:30 – 11:15) - This session was to provide guidance on appropriate warm ups and cool downs for different age groups, how and why to correct poor form, adapting warms up and cool downs for different types of session and/or techniques used.
NICAS Bouldering (11:15 – 12:30) - This was essentially an induction for most staff as they were mostly unaware of the scope of NICAS, the requirements and standards expected from coaching staff and the centre.
LUNCH (12:30 – 13:00)
Session Plans & Delivery (13:00 – 14:00) - How to write effect sessions plans, examples of session plans, how and why to write session plans and then an activity of writing a session plan and delivering it to the team.
CPD & Mountain Training Association Digital Logbooks (14:00 – 14:20) - How to use the MTA CMS system and why you should be logging your sessions and adding reflective comments.
Upselling, Cross Selling & Customer Service (14:20 – 14:45) - How to generate more income for the centre and signpost customers to appropriate products.
Debrief (14:45 – 15:00)
Overall the day went well. Though the coaching team were resistant to the idea of requiring session plans because they hadn't been required to do them for so long. They saw no value in them as they believed they were experienced enough to not need them. I did explain that it is easier for new coaches to run sessions, if there are pre-existing session plans available from the experienced coaches and that students would benefit from progressive structured learning and avoid stagnation in their learning. But I felt this wasn't enough to motivate them.
This could be in part my delivery and explanations, of which I need to find a relatable way of conveying the importance of session plans to the team. This could also be that they have got stuck in a rut of not having to do them and being told to now do them sounds like additional work for them. I will need to keep working on this as a way of improving the standard of coaching at Bloc.
Area :
Bloc Climbing - Bristol
