Coaching Edge Issue 20

SUMMER 2010 ISSUE 20

WWW.SPORTSCOACHUK.ORG

EDGE COACHING

’s UINK G

LEAADCHINGE CO GAZIN MA

ADAPT AND THRIVE

How cricket coaches have embraced lessons of Twenty20

INSIDE: Football’s Masters • Making Mentors Work • Surviving the Credit Crunch

COACHING EDGE |CONTENTS|

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CONTENTS 04

Learning from the Masters – Peter Shilton and Nobby Stiles

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On the Way to Wembley Mark Pointer

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In The Running for 2011 Sam Hawcroft

Martin Betts and Craig Smith

Do Captains Set the Course?

Pooling Experience

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Howard Foster

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One Moment In Time – Norman’s Wisdom

John Goodbody

© sports coach UK

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© Darren Walsh/Action Images Limited

Sam Hawcroft

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20:20 Vision Richard Gibson

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Lynn Allen

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David Bloomfield

Credit Where it’s Due

Let the (Friendly) Games Begin...

John Goodbody

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Power and Influence

Take a Bow Jeff Thornton

Getting the Most from Your Talent

© Getty Images

Jeff Thornton

Published July 2010 by sports coach UK Post: 114 Cardigan Road Headingley Leeds LS6 3BJ United Kingdom Phone: + 44 (0) 113-274 4802 Fax: + 44 (0) 113-275 5019 Email: coaching@sportscoachuk.org Website: www.sportscoachuk.org

Patron HRH The Princess Royal Chair Chris Baillieu Editor Tim Hartley Chief Sub Editor Craig Smith Design The Coachwise Design Team Enquiries for advertising sales and bulk subscriptions to Paul Rufus at

prufus@coachwise.ltd.uk or on 0113-201 5457.

The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of sports coach UK, its management or staff.

Throughout these articles, the pronouns he, she, him, her and so on are interchangeable and intended to be inclusive of both males and females. It is important

in sport, as elsewhere, that both genders have equal status and opportunities.

Coaching Edge is sent quarterly to all sports coach UK members. It is also available to non-members.

The term parent includes carers, guardians and other next of kin categories.

For subscription information or to purchase back copies of Coaching Edge or FHS, call 0113-290 7612.

sports coach UK will ensure that it has professional and ethical values and that all its practices are inclusive and equitable.

Cover Photograph © Action Images Limited/Reuters Inner photographs © Action Images Limited/Reuters unless otherwise stated.

© The National Coaching Foundation, 2010

Designed and produced by Coachwise Ltd 90618:5

|EDITORIAL| COACHING EDGE

EDITORIAL

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sports coach UK

NEWS

Welcome to the latest issue of Coaching Edge.

For issue 20 we’ve given Coaching Edge a fresh new look and hope you find something which, in the best traditions of journalism, will inform, educate and even entertain.

Most importantly, it’s designed for you, the coaches.

BURSARY SCHEME

We know that the very best coaches never stop learning, thinking, talking and – perhaps most importantly – listening, and within each of the features in this magazine there’s something you may pick up from seeing how others approach their sport and use as a tip for your own work, something which could be adapted to make your own athlete or team stronger, and you even better.

As coaches, there may be ideas and examples you want to add to any of the features in this issue, and we’d be delighted to hear from you (our email address is below).

In this issue you’ll see how a new approach helped one small football team come oh-so-close to their dream, how coaches will use the Commonwealth Games to prepare for The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, how cricket is evolving thanks to the Twenty20 format, and so much more.

As a young hockey goalkeeper, I was glued to the TV every time Norman Hughes’ Great Britain side, which claimed bronze in 1984, took to the field – a team which laid the foundations for the sides of 1986 at Willesden and 1988 in Seoul...and to see Norman urging coaches to get involved at grass-roots level is inspirational all over again.

We’ll be building on the great job done by previous editor Anne Pankhurst and wish her the best in her coaching career and academic work.

Summer’s here, for some it’s the key time of their season, for others it’s the moment for pre-season training and all those hard miles to begin...

We hope you enjoy reading it as much as the team here have enjoyed putting it together...see you in three months!

Sports coaches are in demand, especially in the capital. SkillsActive’s London Coaching Bursary Scheme pays two thirds of the cost of a coaching qualification course for people new to coaching, or coaches who want to become qualified. More opportunities are likely to be offered as the Mayor of London announces further initiatives to boost training and qualifications in coaching and officiating, backed by the Olympic Legacy Fund. Visit www.skillsactive.com for more information.

UK ANTI-DOPING Tim Hartley, editor, Coaching Edge editor@coachwise.ltd.uk

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The line provides a platform for anyone to report any information they may have on doping, trafficking or supply of prohibited substances.

UK COACHING AWARDS 2010 It’s time to think about those inspirational coaches, and have your chance to say thanks.

This year’s UK Coaching Awards will take place on Tuesday 30 November at The Brewery (www.thebrewery.co.uk) in London.

sports coach UK has produced a series of video clips for parents and carers who are interested in becoming coaches.

Hosted by sports coach UK, the Awards honour coaches and coaching organisations that have achieved outstanding success over the previous 12 months.

The films provide information on how to become a coach and what steps to take.

Updates on the event, including categories and how to nominate, will be posted on the sports coach UK website.

UK Anti-Doping, the national body responsible for the implementation and management of the UK’s anti-doping policy, has launched a confidential Report Doping in Sport hotline, and is keen for anyone within the sporting community to help ensure all sport is clean.

Visit the sports coach UK YouTube ‘channel’ www.youtube.com/sportscoachuktv and the Coach Zone section of the sports coach UK website.

The line is hosted by Crimestoppers, which has years of experience handling calls of this nature, and all information received is fed into the UK Anti-Doping intelligence team for analysis and investigation. Callers will not need to disclose their personal details if they don’t want to.

The number to call is: 0800-032 2332.

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COACHING EDGE |THE MASTERS|

LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS It’s often said you can only plan for the future by understanding your history, so anyone who has the arrogance of youth would do well to listen to two of football’s grand masters – Peter Shilton and Nobby Stiles, men only too aware that coaching analysis and psychology have long played a part in their beautiful game, as Martin Betts and Craig Smith discovered.

|THE MASTERS| COACHING EDGE

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hough he currently saves anecdotes for after-dinner speaking rather than 25-yard thunderbolts destined for the top corner of the net, it’s difficult to argue with Peter Shilton’s views on the beautiful game and coaching.

Having made more than 1,000 professional appearances and won 125 caps for England during a 30-year career, he plied his trade under legendary managers Sir Alf Ramsey, Brian Clough and Sir Bobby Robson on a professional journey which took him from Leicester to Leyton Orient, with nine clubs in-between.

Shilton on Robson: ‘If you’re talking about a great manager and great coach, then I probably would have to say Bobby Robson, because that’s what he was. He loved to get on the training pitch and he loved to join in the coaching.’

While his list of medals and caps may blind to the fact that he doesn’t hold any significant coaching qualifications and that his own foray into football management with Plymouth Argyle was unspectacular at best, there’s no doubt that one of the world’s greatest ever goalkeepers has some useful insights and advice for today’s coach.

His career spans four decades, from a black-and-white era where a cigarette in the dressing room before kick-off wasn’t uncommon, to the dawn of the Premier League and the arrival of the continental manager, sophisticated training, nutrition advisors and psychologists.

When Coaching Edge catches up with him he is sitting in a pokey dressing room in the bowels of the Savile Rooms, an exhibition venue in Leeds. Even aged 60 he is an imposing character and looks the part in an England goalkeeper’s jersey and tracksuit bottoms ahead of a corporate event that will see him face penalties from an array of star-struck businessmen and women.

‘When I first started out on the early part of my England career, people like Sir Alf Ramsey were basically managers,’ explains Shilton.

‘They had coaches – Harold Shepherdson and Les Cocker – but the coaching was a lot simpler, a lot of playing games and letting the lads have a bit of fun at the right time, a bit of shooting practice, a bit of running.

© Getty Images

‘But coaches started to think of new ways of doing things and it got more complicated.

‘I think there is a danger of overdoing things: there’s a desire to improve, to coach better, but better doesn’t have to mean more complicated.

Implementing more complicated drills where professional players have to really think, day-in day-out, can jade them.

COACHING EDGE |THE MASTERS|

‘With kids, certain drills can improve their concentration, improve their technique, get them thinking. But with professionals, if you complicate coaching too much, they can get tired mentally because they’re thinking too much about training. It can be that, when you come to a match day, players can be a little stale rather than being mentally fresh.’

It’s the pervading message from Shilton throughout the day: keep it simple.

However, that’s not to say he doesn’t believe in analysing coaching, nor taking the radical step of taking a coaching lead from one sport and incorporating it into a session plan for another.

He’s also quick to underline the importance of an area of coaching sports coach UK has been trying to promote in recent months: the FUNdamentals of movement.

‘I think I was probably the first goalkeeper to start to develop alternative exercises and drills specific for my position, like footwork exercises and quick-reaction exercises, and practising punching and analysing different areas of goalkeeping in order to improve in certain areas.

‘When I started it was “catch the ball at its highest point” and “get your body as near to, or behind, the ball as much as you can”– two very basic things. I developed my footwork and body positioning, which I learnt off a fellow called Len Hepple, an ex-ballroom dancer, who started to teach body positions.

‘If your body is in the right position, your feet are in the right position and you have your weight in the right position, you can be better balanced and quicker to react.

‘I don’t think a lot of coaches know about the importance of getting the fundamentals of movement right.

I learnt my footwork and body positioning off a ballroom dancer.‘ ‘I don’t think a lot of coaches know about the importance of getting the fundamentals of body movement right.’

Shilton, as his posture and demeanour suggests, is a very relaxed man, and his favoured coaching style is laid back rather than dictatorial.

Nobby Stiles was part of the success of ‘66 He has no time for the rant-and-rave approach of some managers and coaches, and he cites ‘Uncle Bobby’ Robson as the best manager/coach he worked with.

‘It’s important coaches appreciate that if you make a mistake it’s not always a bad thing as long as something positive is learnt. People don’t make mistakes on purpose; a coach has to man-manage those people and get their thought processes positive again.

‘The worst thing a coach can do when things go wrong is to scream and shout, because you then have even further to go to pick people up for the next challenge.’

But if Shilton’s greatest moments on the pitch were during Italia ‘90, it’s another World Cup which springs to mind when Englishmen say just one word...‘Nobby’.

Nobby Stiles, George Best and Bobby Charlton lining up for Manchester United in 1968

© Getty Images

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Norbert Peter Stiles, ‘Nobby’ to football fans over the last 50 years, was one of the unsung heroes of the 1966 win.

Mention his name and images of a toothless wonder dancing on the Wembley turf with the

|THE MASTERS| COACHING EDGE

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Jules Rimet Trophy are often conjured up. This jig following the 4–2 win over West Germany only touches upon the success of the diminutive ball-winner who plied his trade under the stewardship of some great coaches.

‘I joined (Manchester) United in 1958,’ recounts Stiles, who made his first-team debut against Bolton in October 1960, having originally being signed as an inside-forward... the Frank Lampard of his day!

Stiles, who along with Bobby Charlton shares the distinction of being the only Englishman to finish on the winning side in a World Cup Final and European Cup Final, considers himself ‘very fortunate’ to have worked under footballing knights Matt Busby and Alf Ramsey, whom he calls two great managers, but with very different philosophies and personalities.

‘Alf picked me for the under-23 international v Scotland in 1965. My dad had told me my best position was playing at the back, so I asked Alf to see if I could revert to the back and he said “you may if you wish, but in that

position we have a certain Bobby Moore”... that was how Alf spoke to you,’ says Stiles.

A boyhood Manchester United fan who thinks perhaps the nearest player to him these days would be someone like Owen Hargreaves, Stiles believes communication and listening to the manager was, and remains, the key to success.

‘I tried to balance their two opinions (those of Busby and Ramsey). Alf cemented a great bond within the England team of ‘66, which is still there today.’

After earning 28 England caps and following a spell at Middlesbrough, Stiles moved into management with Preston North End, whom he had originally joined as a player-coach.

Jobs with Vancouver Whitecaps and then West Bromwich Albion followed, and the last coaching job for the 68-year-old was back at Old Trafford from 1989–1993 under Alex Ferguson, helping develop a new generation of talent which would include David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.

THE COACH’S EDGE

© Getty Images

Stiles on Ramsey: ‘Tactically, Sir Alf was so far ahead.

As a manager, he was tremendous.’

Don’t overdo things: there’s a desire to improve, to coach better, but better doesn’t have to mean more complicated.

Develop alternative exercises and drills specific for positions, such as footwork exercises and quick-reaction exercises. If your athlete learns that their body is in the right position, and that their feet are in the right position and they have their weight in the right position, they can be better balanced and quicker to react.

Coaches must appreciate that if you make a mistake it’s not always a bad thing as long as something positive is learnt.

For more on the FUNdamentals of movement, visit www.1st4sport.com where you can purchase An Introduction to the FUNdamentals of Movement resource and DVD.

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COACHING EDGE |CAPTAINS|

DO CAPTAINS SET THE COURSE? How important really is the captain? Are they simply the ones who toss the coin at the start of a game, or are they the ones who organise the coaching sessions and whose turn it is to provide the bacon butties and ensure the kit is clean? It varies between sports, between levels of those sports, and is often dictated by a sports club’s finances.

But, as John Goodbody points out, at the top level the role has certainly changed...

The role of the rugby captain – such as British and Irish Lions’ leader Paul O’Connell – is very different to that in other sports

|CAPTAINS| COACHING EDGE

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he era of the god-like captain is over. In team sports, the captain used to be regarded as the fount of most knowledge and would plan the strategies and tactics, and often the training and preparation for games such as football, netball, rugby union, hockey, cricket and lacrosse.

would have coped with a director of cricket.

Not well I suspect.

This will follow extensive consultation before the game.

However, I could see Mike Brearley, so acute as a captain of England 30 years ago, as being far more amenable.

Lord says: ‘The shift in recent years has been the increased amount of performance analysis.

This is trawled through by the captain and manager or coach. Previously, strategies were based on intuition. Now they are based on facts. Captains now go out on to the park with very clear plans.’

However, gradually over the decades, with the increasing professionalism of sport, the role of coach and manager has become more and more significant.

Gordon Lord, the head of elite coaching development at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), talks of the ‘clarity of role’ of the captain and the coach.

Think of Sir Clive Woodward and Martin Johnson, architects of England’s 2003 Rugby Union World Cup-winning team, or Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan of the victorious 2005 Ashes squad.

What matters is not only the ability of the players, but the way in which they are prepared physically, technically, psychologically and nutritionally for their matches.

Cricket has remained a sport in which the captain has continued to have a major role, despite the arrival of, at county, let alone international level, the director of cricket or cricket manager.

One wonders how celebrated martinet captains of the past, such as Douglas Jardine of England’s Ashes-winning Bodyline team or Warwick Armstrong of Australia, nicknamed The Big Ship,

‘In 2009, there were seven new county captains but two had relinquished their posts by the end of the season.’

He says: ‘The ideal model, to which the vast majority of coaches aspire, is for the captain to have the information to make all the necessary decisions on the pitch. The job of the coach is to prepare the captain and the team in such a way that the captain is totally in charge on the field.’

England netball captain Sonia Mkoloma fights for the ball against Aussies Sharelle McMahon and Alex Hodge

Asked if messages are still sent out, in the traditional manner, through the 12th man with the drinks, he replied: ‘Yes, there are occasional messages but these might sometimes be in the form of a question rather than a statement.’

Michael Fordham, a former lecturer at Loughborough University who has worked extensively on the managing and coaching of cricketers, points to the structure of many counties who have a director of cricket or cricket manager, the person responsible for ‘getting the team to win’.

Below him, he has several coaches. At big counties, such as Yorkshire and Lancashire, these may number six-plus others for younger teams, whereas Worcestershire have three full-time coaches plus part-timers.

Fordham, who has been instrumental in the Level 4 awards at the ECB, says that the relationship between the captain and the director of cricket is ‘absolutely crucial. They must sing from the same hymn sheet’.

© Darren Walsh/Action Images Limited

Now the emphasis is on the partnership of coach and captain.

Still, unlike shorter and more fast-moving games, the captain in cricket remains responsible for decisions on the field, such as the change of bowlers and the field placing.

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COACHING EDGE |CAPTAINS|

England captain Charlotte Edwards lifts the ICC Twenty20 trophy at Lord’s

The other players also like to see their captain in form. It gives them confidence.

Much of Fordham’s work has been with directors of cricket and county captains, and he points to the pressures of the modern game.

‘In 2009, there were seven new county captains but two had relinquished their posts by the end of the season,’ he says.

Fordham has also worked in football, where the concept of a player/manager or coach has disappeared from the top flight in England, although there have been many celebrated names enjoying both roles – such as Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Ruud Gullit.

Probably the last really outstanding success was Kenny Dalglish, who led Liverpool to the Double while having both roles in 1986.

Fordham says: ‘The advantage of a player/manager is that he can lead from the front. However, nowadays it does put a huge burden on the individual. A good coach uses their background as a player in their work but, of course, you don’t have to have been an outstanding player to be a successful manager – look at Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.’

Of course, lower down the leagues, player/managers survive, but this is often for financial reasons. Doubling up simply saves money.

A footballer, hockey or rugby player will always have a partial view of the game, even if that view may be most illuminating, whereas someone watching from the touchline is better able to appreciate the ebb and flow of the match.

Simon Drane, a performance psychologist at the English Institute of Sport based at Bisham Abbey, believes one of the great disadvantages of the player/coach is that ‘he is trying to do two jobs at once, whereas modern sport demands 100% focus’.

In rugby union, you now often see the captain or player looking to the touchline for advice on what they should do when, say, a penalty is awarded in the latter stages of a game, querying whether they should go for goal, kick to touch for a lineout, or take a scrum. In general, therefore, it is better to separate the two jobs of player and manager/coach.

‘In cricket there is an enormous strain on the captain because an outfielder can switch on and off. But a captain has to be switched on all the time and if he drops a catch or misfields, the mistakes are so much more explicit than in many other games, when you may be able to make up for it very quickly. It is simply very demanding to be a captain.’And also very demanding to be a coach or manager.

THE COACH’S EDGE

However, it is also important that the captain is worth his place in the side. Fordham explains: ‘If not, he will start getting worried.

Even the power base of Mike Brearley used to fluctuate.’

How to make the most of the role...

The successful partnership of a captain and his manager/coach is a matter of chemistry. It is like a marriage. They have to have similar ambitions and ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’.

In cricket, their knowledge has increased greatly in recent years because of the development of performance analysis. Captains now go out on the field having a much better factual and statistical basis of the strengths and weaknesses of their own players and those of the opposition.

Captains in any sport must be worth their place in the team, otherwise their confidence will suffer and the players will no longer believe in them.

Player/managers are no longer commonplace in top-flight football because the pressures are too great. Modern sport demands 100% focus. However, further down the levels in the game, the player/manager role still exists and, financially or practically, it is worthwhile for the club.

If a player/manager is appointed, that person must lead from the front and set an example to the rest of the team.

Managers/coaches on the sidelines will better be able to see the pattern of the game as a whole than the captain. This is why in sports such as rugby union, you often see players looking towards the touchline to get guidance on what particular tactics to adopt.

|LIVING THE DREAM| COACHING EDGE

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How many millions of children have played in their back garden and dreamt of Wembley?

For most it remains just that, a dream, but one small club in East Anglia showed that with great planning and the right spirit, nearly anything is within reach. Mark Pointer spoke to the coach who masterminded their run to the big stage...

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ood communication with your players is fundamental to sustained success.

So says David Batch. The man who guided Wroxham, a small village club on the edge of the Norfolk Broads with an average attendance of less than 100, to last season’s FA Vase final at Wembley.

The Yachtsmen have been Norfolk’s dominant force at Eastern Counties level for the past 20 years – or step five of the non-league football pyramid.

Until Batch’s close-season arrival, national success had eluded this well run club. But he brought with him an impeccable coaching pedigree: a UEFA ‘A’ qualified coach and the youngest-ever to achieve the FA advanced coaching licence when he was just 20 – the same year he became the youngest manager in Norfolk senior football history at Downham.

‘The time you have with the players is precious and you do not get much of it and you have to take into consideration that people have been working all day.’

Batch gained experience in the professional game with Cambridge United at youth level before founding his own company, Premier Sport, which now has an annual turnover of

more than £3.5 million and is a national leader in sports teaching for children.

‘How to communicate with the players and to communicate in the right manner – how to impart our message to the players is really important and is probably more important than football-specific knowledge at this level,’ says Batch, who cites José Mourinho and Aidy Boothroyd as two managers who have mastered that particular art.

The successful entrepreneur applied some core business fundamentals to the task of guiding Wroxham to Wembley – after first establishing with the Trafford Park club’s board the FA Vase was their top priority last season.

‘It came totally out of the blue when Wroxham asked if I wanted to become their manager,’ he says.

‘Most of the time you get asked to become a manager when that club is struggling.

Wroxham has a great pedigree and were far from struggling, but they felt they

© Archant

ON THE WAY TO WEMBLEY

COACHING EDGE |LIVING THE DREAM|

needed to step up a level, which made it quite an interesting challenge.

‘I wanted those priorities and that remit because there was going to come times when I would need to give players a rest. Therefore, if I knew what their criteria were, it would make it easier to work to.’

Batch surrounded himself with backroom staff whose complementary skills he could blend as he built foundations off the field before the key task of player recruitment. He knew he had a decent base to work with and that would make attracting the right players a little easier.

Wroxham brought in players from their own league and the best local talent from the lower leagues which might have been overlooked in the past.

‘We had certain player criteria – but probably the most important thing for me was what they were like as people,’ says Batch. ‘We wanted people who were hungry to improve and hungry to win. We made no promises to the players at the start, apart from that they would be treated the most professionally they could be treated at this level of football.’

Before a ball was kicked, Batch sat down with his playing squad to find out what they wanted from the season ahead and what keywords would form part of a collective blueprint.

Batch would refer frequently to that agreed template during the campaign. The players wanted to create a ‘family’ environment at the football club – somewhere they liked going, seeing their teammates and where their families liked to accompany them.

‘The time you have with the players is precious, you do not get much of it and you have to take into consideration that people have been working all day,’ he says.

FACTFILE David Batch, Wroxham Football Club manager  Youngest-ever manager in Norfolk senior football when appointed boss of Downham Town aged 20  Youth team manager at Cambridge United when they were then a League Two club. Developed several academy players who graduated to the professional ranks – including Trevor Benjamin who joined Leicester City for £1.3m in 2000  Cambridge City manager at Southern League level for a year  Only the second manager to guide a Norfolk football club to the FA Vase final when Wroxham reached Wembley this season  Chief executive and founder of Premier Sport, which is a nationwide coaching company with an annual turnover of £3.5m–£4m specialising in sports teaching and instruction.

‘So there are different factors involved. ‘We tried to design our sessions to have an impact on as many people as possible. My style has now evolved into setting up the sessions with restrictions to coax things out of the players that I want, and then letting the game and letting the players find that – rather than saying you do this and you do that.

Whitley Bay v Wroxham FA Vase final

‘We have had to coach in different ways and it might mean not even putting on a session, but coaching people into our way and how we want things done, to educate them away from the pitch.’

Inevitably, given the desire for a successful FA Vase campaign, preparations for those games differed from the league, mainly because of time and budget. Batch had every FA Vase opponent watched.

‘We trained to expose any weakness they may or may not have and organised ourselves for specific situations that may arise,’ he says. ‘As for budget, if we went away we would stop and have a pre-match meal or stay overnight if we had a long journey to make.

© Archant

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© Peter Cziborra/Action Images Limited

|LIVING THE DREAM| COACHING EDGE

‘We trained and prepared like you would do at a professional football club – we might not have had much time, but we dealt with it.’

horrible experience, but one I would take again – because not many people have done it.

With Wroxham’s progress to within touching distance of Wembley, Batch also had to manage the rising expectations and pressures affecting his players who were on the verge of making history.

‘I would rather be in the ring than watching as an outsider. Losing in a game like that hurts and we can do something about that this coming season and when we do beat teams we will do it in the right way and be professional about it with humility.’

Wroxham’s memorable FA Vase run ended without the fairytale postscript as holders Whitley Bay proved too strong on the big day.

But Batch knew his squad had done everything they could to prepare. And he learned another invaluable lesson from the Yachtsmen’s humbling 6–1 defeat.

‘The journey was a brilliant one,’ he says.

‘I am sure I will look back on it fondly and I am really proud of the players for doing it, but the biggest thing is I hate losing – that was a

Batch believes Wroxham Football Club now has the foundations for sustained success.

THE COACH’S EDGE

‘It was great testament to the players that they kept referring back to the blueprint and the words that kept coming up were improvement and humility,’ he says. ‘Winning each round was good, but we knew we had not won anything and needed to step it up and improve in order to compete.’

Last month, Batch, along with his staff and players, again sat down to devise a fresh blueprint for the new season that looks to evolve the ‘family’ ethos which underpinned last season’s achievements.

‘I am really proud of the environment of honesty we have created and the biggest word that came from the blueprint was trust. Trust between the players and the management staff, which hopefully we can use to our benefit in the future.’

Good communication with your players is the number one priority.

David Batch says: ‘How to impart our message to the players is really important and is probably more important than football-specific knowledge at this level.’

Core business fundamentals are needed – establish the top priority/target.

Choose your fellow coaches wisely. Work with staff whose skills complement your own.

If changing players, consider what they are like (as Batch says) ‘as people’.

‘We wanted people who were hungry to improve and hungry to win.’

Establish what the players want to gain from the season ahead and ensure they buy in to a ‘collective blueprint’.

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COACHING EDGE |MENTORS|

POOLING EXPERIENCE But who is there for the coaches themselves? Howard Foster examines the importance of the mentor, and what qualities they ought to possess...

Š Austyn Shortman

Coaches are meant to inspire their athletes and teams, to always be there for them with a word from the wise.

|MENTORS| COACHING EDGE

edication, perspiration and…inspiration. We all have sporting idols whose methods and achievements spur us on.

But a poster of Muhammad Ali, or a worn-out VHS of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic and Paralympic Games aren’t much use when it comes to rolling out of bed in the dark for yet another uninspired early-morning training session, or helping you realise why your most talented protégé’s competition times don’t match up to their training sessions.

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You need real-life inspiration to fill the gap between training courses and job experience – which is why more and more coaches are being encouraged to work with mentors.

Long-established in the business world, a mentor is defined as a ‘wise and trusted guide and advisor; a teacher or counsellor’.

In his pioneering 1998 book A Guide to Mentoring Sports Coaches, Bill Galvin points out the vital role the mentor plays – stressing: ‘Mentoring is a powerful tool in the education and development of sports coaches at all levels. Successful coach education programmes change the behaviour and practice of coaches – whether they are novices or (at an) international (level)’. But he adds: ‘The process of mentoring is difficult to pin down; this is a strength, not a weakness.’

This view is endorsed by Christine Nash, lecturer in sports coaching at Edinburgh Napier University: ‘Mentoring can fill the gap between a good training course and on-the-job experience, offering a mixture of both. A lot of coaches, when they finish doing a course, don’t always see the direct relevance of what they have learned, and being able to have someone to talk to about it is a very helpful thing.’

‘Some people learn better practically than in a classroom environment. The difference is having someone who has been through the same thing.’

Nash, who has coached swimming at international level in both Scotland and the US, gives the example of a training course role-playing exercise where other course members take on the role of, say, a group of 10 year olds. However, such a group in a real-life coaching situation can act very differently…

‘Nowadays, with coaching courses and the Internet, coaches can get access to techniques and things of a more technical nature. Mentors provide the help for troubleshooting, the things you don’t find in a textbook.’

Dame Kelly Holmes, who founded her own mentoring scheme ‘On Camp with Dame Kelly’ recently, told The Sunday Times: ‘For me, it’s about an exchange of knowledge and learning to benefit a person who’s on the same journey as you. But it’s as much about nurturing self-belief and confidence.’

One of her ‘mentees’, athlete Laura Finucane, said Dame Kelly’s help was invaluable when she suffered an injury: ‘When I hurt my calf last year, having just recovered from another injury, having her there gave me the extra self-belief I needed to stick with the sport.’

‘For me, it’s about an exchange of knowledge and learning to benefit a person who’s on the same journey as you. But it’s as much about nurturing self-belief and confidence.’

Austyn Shortman is widely acknowledged as one of the finest swimmers Britain has ever produced. His record speaks for itself: Double Commonwealth silver medallist in 1990 in the 4x100m freestyle relay alongside the likes of Mark Foster, and in the 4x100 medley relay when teammates included Adrian Moorhouse.

And, until recently, Shortman was World Masters record holder for 50m freestyle. He is now the county swimming development officer for Carmarthenshire County Council.

Shortman is in the process of developing a formal mentoring scheme and currently mentors his junior coaches on a more relaxed, ad hoc basis. He says the advantages of the new scheme are clear, with a pooling of experience the obvious benefit.

‘We are getting cooperation between three previously separate regions. Where once coaches jealously guarded their techniques and information, now, crucially, they are sharing – perhaps not everything – but enough

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KEYQUALITIES Christine Nash’s research states the top qualities a mentor should possess are: 1. Effective communication skills 2. Knowledge of their sport 3. Experience 4. Approachability 5. Enthusiasm 6. Qualifications of the mentor 7. Success in their sport 8. Organisational skills The top three qualities identified by student coaches in a study by Nash were: 1. Effective communication skills 2. Approachability 3. Enthusiasm Mentors ranked different skills in their top four: 1. Knowledge of their sport 2. Experience 3. Organisation 4. Leadership Key ways in which a mentor can assist a coach are: 1. Being a resource 2. Building confidence 3. Developing knowledge and skills 4. Being challenging and questioning 5. Being a role model. to work together. What we need to do is share techniques and advice. We are now working together for the common good.’

Shortman – who cites his own father as his coach/mentor during his competitive career – has these tips for mentors to impart to coaches: ‘Stick to your beliefs – don't be distracted.

Young inexperienced coaches need to have the courage of their convictions and not be swayed by other influences, especially parents.

‘The strength of conviction comes with experience, and a mentor can take the pressure off by reminding the coach of their qualities and supporting their right to coach in their own way.’

Echoing what Shortman tells us about a key mentoring role of allowing less experienced coaches to find their own style, and to have confidence in their abilities, Galvin says: ‘Mentoring means different things with different coaches at different levels. With novice coaches, mentoring may be about empowering and helping coaches to control the learning process for themselves.’

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COACHING EDGE |MENTORS|

Nash firmly believes mentoring should be a process, with the end product seen as the empowerment of the coach.

‘You are looking for the development of the person who is being mentored.

‘They should eventually be able to give advice to the mentor. In the beginning there is a flow of information from mentor to novice. Then it becomes more reciprocal.’

But she warns: ‘In some organisations and mentoring situations, the idea of the mentor relinquishing authority, especially to a beginner, is a difficult concept to introduce.’

Choosing the right mentor – and choice is the operative word – is vital to a successful process. Nash stresses: ‘Difficulties arise if a mentor is imposed. It should be someone you know and respect. If you know next to nothing about who they are it’s very difficult to get into that situation. After all, it is very hard to tell someone your weaknesses, and a lot of coaches see mentors as having an impact on whether they are seen as a good or bad coach.’

Vital attributes for a mentor are, she believes: ‘Someone you trust, admire and respect, someone who has knowledge and the ability to communicate that knowledge.’

Getting a mentor can be a tricky business, however, especially if you are in a minority sport or already the most senior in your local field. However, Nash believes you can search for your mentor across other sports – many techniques, psychological tips and injury problems will cross over. ‘If you’re talking about someone who is just starting in coaching, there’s an awful lot of transfer between sports at the early stages. A lot of team sports are very similar, so are a lot of athletic sports.’

You can also broaden the field – we can’t all have a Commonwealth silver medallist as a coach – but it is respect that is vital. In Galvin’s words ‘the technical knowledge of a coach who has competed at a high level’ can prove invaluable. But it does not bar the way for

Great Britain’s Kelly Holmes celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the gold medal in Athens those with a less notable record on the world sporting stage.

Older coaches shouldn’t discount the need for mentors too, although Nash believes many already have a mentoring system in place, albeit an informal one: ‘At a higher level they develop networks. They don’t use the word mentor. They know who has been in their sport quite a while and that they have someone to talk to.’

Coaching is a long road – there will always be room for development. And the way to ensure you are always moving forward and staying on top of the game is to choose a mentor who is doing likewise. The support they will provide could provide that crucial extra five per cent difference between coaching the gallant contenders or the gold medallists.

Where to go next?

Clutterbuck, D. (2004) Everyone Needs a Mentor. 4th edition. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

ISBN: 978-1-843980-54-4.

Galvin, B. (2005) A Guide to Mentoring Sports Coaches. Leeds: Coachwise Business Solutions/The National Coaching Foundation.

ISBN: 978-1-902523-03-2.

Kay, D. and Hinds, R. (2004) A Practical Guide to Mentoring: Play an Active and Worthwhile Part in the Development of Others, and Improve Your Own Skills in the Process. Oxford: How To Books Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-845280-18-5.

Pegg, M. (1998) The Art of Mentoring.

Gloucestershire: Management Books 2000 Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-852522-72-8.

Zachary, L.J. (2000) The Mentor's Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships.

San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

ISBN: 978-0-787947-42-2. If you’re interested in developing your skills in the area of mentoring other coaches,

the 1st4sport Level 3 Certificate in Mentoring in Sport, developed in partnership with sports coach UK, is the qualification for you. The qualification is being used by a growing number of governing bodies of sport as the benchmark qualification for mentors.

Alternatively, you can take your support skills to the next level and attend the sports coach UK workshop ‘A Guide to Mentoring Sports Coaches’. To find your nearest workshop, visit the workshop finder at www.sportscoachuk.org

‘The strength of conviction comes with experience, and a mentor can take the pressure off by reminding the coach of their qualities and supporting their right to coach in their own way.’

THE COACH’S EDGE

‘Initially’, she says, ‘the mentor has the relevant experience and generally more power, or influence, within the organisation. The success of any mentoring relationship relies on the mentor allowing the beginner to extend their knowledge and play a more dominant role than at the outset’.

© Sandra Teddy/Action Images Limited

Nash states the relationship between the mentor and coach should be based on mutual trust and respect, and allow both to develop their respective skills.

Austyn Shortman’s key tips for mentors to impart to coaches: Stick to your beliefs – don’t be distracted.

Have confidence in your abilities.

A huge part of what a mentor can do for a coach is to enhance their ability to self-reflect, but with the determination to analyse what you do and change as necessary.

Young inexperienced coaches need to have the courage of their convictions and not be swayed by other influences, especially parents/families of team members.

Give your coaching the edge with sports coach UK workshops

WHATEVER LEVEL YOU COACH, SPORTS COACH UK HAS A WORKSHOP FOR YOU. For more information visit:

www.sportscoachuk.org/improveyourcoaching

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COACHING EDGE |ONE MOMENT IN TIME|

NORMAN’S WISDOM Many of us enjoy a defining moment in our sporting career, a time when things come right either as a coach or as a performer. For Norman Hughes, successful coach and businessman, it was an Olympic Games which by rights his team should not even have qualified for, as Sam Hawcroft discovered.

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orman Hughes was part of the Great Britain bronze medal-winning hockey team at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. Here he talks about his journey towards that defining moment, and how it has influenced his highly successful coaching career since then.

Hughes, now 57, somewhat reluctantly embarked on a career in hockey in 1968, at the age of 16 – relatively late in life compared with today, he points out – after his football teacher told him he was too short to forge a career as a centre-forward. A couple of school

friends at Crewe County Grammar School for Boys cajoled him into playing hockey for a few weeks, although Hughes took a fair bit of convincing – as far as he saw it (and to a certain extent people still do), hockey was a girls’ game; he admits he didn’t really want to be seen as a ‘nancy boy’, to put it bluntly.

However, another of his fellow pupils, David Swallow, who went on to be a leading international hockey umpire and who is now the head teacher of Barry Comprehensive School in South Wales, finally managed to persuade him to play – and Hughes realised that he did, after all, have a bit of a natural flair for the sport. ‘I had a go, and I thought – “I can play this”. You know pretty soon if you’ve got the knack of playing a game.’

As he reached his mid-20s, an international career beckoned; after becoming a senior professional in 1977, Hughes went on to become the first English male hockey player to reach 100 caps, and he captained the national team more than 70 times in a career spanning nearly a decade. At Los Angeles 1984, he was initially awarded the vice-captaincy, but finished the tournament as captain – leading a team seen very much as outsiders to an unprecedented bronze-medal victory against Australia, who had been favourites for the gold.

The road to the 1984 Games wasn’t a straightforward one, however; Britain’s hockey players had been due to go out to the Moscow Games four years earlier, but their

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© Norman Hughes

|ONE MOMENT IN TIME| COACHING EDGE

Norman Hughes and the Wakefield girls celebrate another success

‘Play with a smile on your face – because life’s too short to take sport too seriously.’ challenge was scuppered by a boycott of the event by Margaret Thatcher’s government, along with the US and many other countries, in protest over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Most UK sporting governing bodies defied the ban, and Great Britain ended up coming an impressive seventh in the medals table, with 21

(including five golds) – but field hockey bosses at the time decided to support the government’s stance and stay at home.

For the Los Angeles Games, Britain’s hockey team did not initially make the cut, but were made first reserves. Fortunately for them, however, in what appeared to be a clear retaliation against the Americans’ 1980 boycott, the Soviets refused to turn up to the 1984 Games – meaning GB hockey were set to play a part after all, earning a very late call-up a little over two months before the start of the tournament. ‘We thought we’d blown it about nine months earlier when we went through a qualification process in Hong Kong and lost out to Malaysia,’ says Hughes, ‘but now we’d got 10 weeks to prepare – so we

spent a lot of that time at Lilleshall getting very, very fit.’

In a lot of senses, this meant the pressure was off. Hughes said: ‘Nothing was expected from us, but deep down as a squad we realised that we were in with a shout – we wouldn’t be far off the mark. But people outside the squad obviously didn’t realise that, and with us being first reserves, they’d pretty much written us off.

They thought we’d probably come 9th or 10th, but no better than that.’

However, Great Britain’s men won through to the semi-finals, topping their group above eventual gold medal-winners Pakistan, but then narrowly lost out to that familiar sporting nemesis, West Germany. Their performance in

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COACHING EDGE |ONE MOMENT IN TIME|

COACHING THE HUGHES WAY ‘Hard work, in the end, pays off.’

Norman Hughes coaching at the National Seminar for Lithuanian Coaches

© Norman Hughes

It may not be a particularly flashy motto, but it’s the overriding lesson Hughes has learned from his numerous achievements, and it’s the main message he tries to get across to the youngsters he works with daily – as well as their parents. ‘The mums and dads may get agitated about their children not having made the various squads, but I just keep urging them to hold on; it comes in waves, and if you keep working and working, you’ll get where you want to go. It’s determination never to give in – maybe a selection might go against you, or the ball might not run for you, but keep going, keep working hard, and over time, things will level out.’

the group stages – drawing against Pakistan, and beating the Netherlands, New Zealand and Kenya – was the best ever by any British hockey team in the Games thus far. ‘We just lost the wrong game!’ says Hughes.

give it all out there – guts and everything – don’t bring anything back. Don’t leave anything on the pitch.” The game should have been completely beyond us – but we managed to turn it around and won 3–2.’

The battle for third place was not just a formality, though – it was to be another gripping contest among old rivals, and one almost worthy of the Olympic Games’ final itself. Hughes adds: ‘Without a shadow of a doubt, the best team there were Australia – but they lost to Pakistan in the semi-final, so we ended up playing against them for the bronze medal – and they absolutely pounded us for 35 minutes. The game should have been dead and buried – but we dug deep, and our goalkeeper, Ian Taylor, was absolutely outstanding.

Though this was undoubtedly the pinnacle of Hughes’ career, what he has gone on to achieve since then – and, more to the point, what he has helped others achieve – is, in his eyes, equally as important.

‘Just before half-time, when we were 2–1 down, we sensed that the Aussies’ legs had gone – that they’d given everything to get the game over with. At half-time, several of us senior pros got the lads together and said, “Look, they’ve gone – they’ve absolutely gone. Go out and

He retired from the international game after playing in the World Cup final in London in 1986, when England lost 2–1 to Australia, and later coached Great Britain’s men to sixth place in the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, and England to bronze in the European Championships in Paris. Since then, he has returned to club-level coaching with Wakefield Hockey Club, becoming involved with both the senior men’s and women’s teams, as well as leading the girls’ teams – aged from six to 15 – to a series of impressive victories. Under his guidance, the under-16 team has triumphed in

Hughes also has a message for elite coaches, whom he says have a ‘duty’ to give something back to their sport at grass-roots level. ‘Some of the top coaches and performers get so involved in the elite that they don’t have time – or they don’t find time – to work where they’re most needed, and that’s with kids. A lot of sports, not just hockey, put their so-called top performers and coaches working with just the elite 30 senior internationals in the country – when really, if the next crop coming through is going to be a healthy crop, they should be working with the eight to 12-year-old kids, instilling in them the right habits and skills.’ the England Hockey Cup for the past three years in a row.

‘To be honest, that’s just as inspirational as playing in any Olympic final or World Cup final’, says Hughes. ‘A young player might not think that at the time, when they’re, say, 24, but now, to see a bunch of young players grow and achieve their potential is really inspiring – it becomes a lot of fun.’

And despite the fact that Hughes – now the owner of West Yorkshire-based equipment specialist Wasp Hockey – has played and coached at the highest level, he insists that fun is what sport should be all about.

‘Play with a smile on your face – because life’s too short to take sport too seriously.’

|CRICKET LESSONS FROM T20| COACHING EDGE

20:20 VISION Even a year ago, could you have predicted England’s men would be cricket world champions? But that’s precisely what happened in the Caribbean this May and, as Richard Gibson discovered, it’s no accident... coaches throughout the sport have been adapting to a whole new discipline in the grand old game.

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COACHING EDGE |CRICKET LESSONS FROM T20|

wenty20 was dismissed as a hit-and-giggle fad upon its inception, but, seven years on, its increasing influence has led to a serious overhaul of how professional coaches prepare their players and teams.

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Most intriguingly, having been derided for its lack of subtlety, it has delivered various strands of new thinking.

Cricket is undoubtedly the strangest beast among our major national ball sports in that it comes in three different packages. But its newest arrival is impacting positively on the approaches to the game in general.

The 20-over format’s fast pace and concentrated time span has led those in charge to focus on the minutiae of nutrition, fitness and technique. After all, the smallest of gains can make the biggest of differences for a team, particularly when results are settled by the narrowest of margins.

Some will argue that modernisation of coaching methods was inevitable, but it is indisputable that the emergence of this sleek Twenty20 vehicle has put cricket on a road to greater wealth, and with greater wealth comes improved resources. For example, full-time nutritionists and fitness coaches on the county circuit would have been unthinkable just a handful of years ago.

Sussex’s Mark Robinson and Paul Grayson, of Essex, are two of the head coaches who have embraced the evolution and been successful to boot; in four years at Hove, Robinson has overseen two County Championship titles, two Pro40 titles and victories in both 50-over and Twenty20 finals; while in two full years as head coach at Chelmsford, Grayson has celebrated Friends Provident and Pro40 Division Two crowns, promotion to the top tier of the Championship and an appearance at Twenty20 finals day.

Remaining competitive across all formats is their primary challenge given the 24/7 nature of English domestic cricket. ‘Therefore, players have to be helped with their mental progression,’ explains Robinson.

‘They have to be able to think about what they are trying to do, trigger a mental switch to make sure they have shaken out of one mode when they turn up to play another.

‘You find that your best sportsmen are usually the most flexible. You can prepare a team to peak for an important one-day game and then send them into a situation where you are asking them just 24 hours later to get ready for the task

of facing Steve Harmison and batting for a day and a half. Or it might go the other way, where you have been grafting for your runs in Championship cricket and then are expected to go out in a Twenty20 contest and crash it from ball one.’

Encouraging players to visualise what they are trying to accomplish in forthcoming matches and familiarise themselves with their upcoming surroundings has become a major component in the modern coaching ethos. So, whereas traditionally batsmen would tinker with techniques and bowlers seek line and length in regular net sessions, they now take an altogether different approach: often working on the particular match venue’s square to get used to its idiosyncrasies – the distance to each boundary, wind direction and general visibility.

‘Particularly with Twenty20 in mind, batsmen now practise power hitting into the stands, a tactic associated with cow-corner merchants in club cricket a decade or so ago.’

England’s Kevin Pietersen, Craig Kieswetter and Paul Collingwood celebrate with the trophy after they defeated Australia in the final of the ICC World Twenty20, 2010

Batters will also spend designated periods reverse-sweeping or switch-hitting. Repetition drills also apply for bowlers in delivering yorkers, slower balls and bouncers. And with greater volume of time now spent on magnified technical areas within the game itself, even fielding practice has altered.

Gone are the days when the entire team followed a uniform session. Now individuals are asked to concentrate on skills specific to their role in the field.

Particularly with Twenty20 in mind, batsmen now practise power hitting into the stands, a tactic associated with cow-corner merchants in club cricket a decade or so ago.

And the influence of day/night cricket has resulted in practice sessions being arranged in twilight with the floodlights on, so that eyes are trained for every possible match situation.

But, as Grayson – who takes his team to his county’s largest ground, Billericay, to target clearing the ropes – explains, there is far more finesse to their aerial assaults. ‘You don’t see nine, 10 and jack getting runs in Twenty20 cricket, it’s the technically correct batsmen who are clearing their front legs to hit over midwicket or giving themselves room to hit over the off-side, like we have seen Craig Kieswetter do for England.

‘There is definitely more intensity in fielding drills than before and it has become more specialist,’ Grayson says.

‘It’s no coincidence that the guys who are successful six-hitters practise so hard – and they are helped of course by how great these bats are these days.’

‘Someone who fields deep cover or deep midwicket will practise boundary catches or running in to stop twos, while close fielders will concentrate on diving and under-arm shies at the stumps. The change in the way we think about fielding is emphasised by someone like Eoin Morgan, who does long-on at both ends for England. That is all part of the way the team under Andy Flower has been drilled. They all know their own games and know exactly where they need to go.

|CRICKET LESSONS FROM T20| COACHING EDGE

Conditioning of players has also come on in leaps and bounds in the past decade: Essex’s squad, now au fait with regular ice baths, were given personalised diet plans at the start of the 2010 season and, whereas stop-offs at fast-food joints used to be the norm on long coach journeys back from away matches, they are now very much a scheduled treat.

‘Body shapes and what players eat both pre- and post-match has changed considerably,’ Grayson says.

‘Protein shakes have become a staple part of the diet, guys are now even reluctant to have a beer, which is a big change from my playing days, and if they are not rehydrated sufficiently they are not allowed to take part in fitness work after the game.’

Sussex were market leaders in fitness in the early noughties, and their current 12-month-a-year programme is based upon building cricket-specific strength.

‘Twenty20 has influenced players moving around the pitch in a more dynamic manner and you are now expected to dive, hit the ground and be strong enough to get back up without incurring injury due to the impact,’ explains Robinson.

‘We are looking for anaerobic rather than aerobic fitness – it’s the short, sharp bursts that you want players to excel in, not run marathons.

It’s about being able to perform your action – whether it be bowling a ball, chasing in the field or running between the wickets, and then

THE COACH’S EDGE

‘Little differences can win games and so fielding becomes even more important: hunting in packs, chasing the ball down in twos or relaying it back to the stumps. You only have one-and-a-quarter hours to field and players seem to have decided that they will give it their all before coming off.’

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make the right choices for your next move.

Fitness has to be job specific and relate to performance, and that has to be supported by good nutrition and good sleep.

‘We need players who can peak for events, although our events are complicated because our season is so congested. A lot of other sports involve peaking for a match on a Saturday, but we can’t do that because we are playing five days a week. So endurance is another key part of being a professional cricketer.’

In ‘quick’ formats of sport, the smallest of gains can make the biggest of differences, particularly when results are settled by the narrowest of margins.

Encourage players to visualise what they are trying to accomplish and familiarise themselves with their upcoming surroundings – in cricket this may be the distance to each boundary, wind direction and general visibility.

Players with good technique can adapt, so spend designated periods on repetition drills.

Ensure individuals concentrate on skills specific to their role.

In short forms of a game, coaches look for anaerobic rather than aerobic fitness – it’s the short, sharp bursts that you want players to excel in.

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COACHING EDGE |COMMONWEALTH GAMES |

LET THE (FRIENDLY ) GAMES BEGIN...

Fans (and politicians) may be hoping for medals at The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and in the future, but as John Goodbody discovers, the best coaches already know the value, and are learning the lessons, of events such as the upcoming Commonwealth Games too...

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lways known as ‘The Friendly Games’, the Commonwealth Games holds a popular and unique place in the psyche of the British public.

Their status may not be what they were before sports such as athletics, swimming and boxing had their own individual world championships, but they remain not only an alluring feature for many television viewers, but also a valuable introduction to athletes to the rigours of multi-sport international competition.

The standard varies widely, not just from sport to sport, but also in the events of those sports. So, in athletics, some of the running events will be almost of world championship level, with the Kenyans often dominating the middle and long-distance races, while in the sprints there will be enormous interest should Usain Bolt take part for Jamaica when this year’s Games take place in Delhi, India from October 3–14.

However, in many field events, there will be relatively few world-class performers on show.

The separate participation of the individual nations making up the United Kingdom adds

spice to the competitions, while also allowing even more UK athletes to take part.

Don Parker, the sports director for Commonwealth Games England, points out that the Games are the second most important multi-sports event in which most competitors take part, and the British Olympic Association (BOA) has researched the benefit that athletes have had in subsequently winning Olympic medals, from having previously participated in Commonwealth multi-sport events.

Among recent examples he cites are: boxer James DeGale, who progressed from winning the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2004, to a bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games in 2006, to his Olympic title two years later; heptathlete Jessica Ennis getting a high jump medal in the 2004 Youth Games, a bronze in the 2006 Commonwealths and the world title in 2009; and Beth Tweddle competing in the 2000 Youth Games and subsequently winning world gymnastics titles.

Parker says: ‘You learn an enormous amount in multi-sport environments and, given the small percentages by which Olympic medals are won, the Commonwealth Games provides an invaluable experience.

‘In individual world championships, competitors are usually staying in a hotel, but at the Commonwealths there is a village with thousands of competitors. The experience of holding camps is also helpful.’

This year, the main holding camp will be in Doha, where about 150 out of the 360 England team members will attend pre-Delhi training, but Commonwealth Games England has learnt the value, as has the BOA, of individual governing bodies preparing in the way that best suits their competitors.

This autumn the cyclists, for instance, will attend a camp in Newport, just as they did before the triumphs in Beijing, while the wrestlers will stay in Russia after the world championships for further preparation in one of the strongholds of the sport.

John Atkinson, who will be team leader for swimming in India, says: ‘There are perhaps four or five events in the Commonwealth Games, which are possibly harder to win than the world championships because in the Commonwealth Games, countries are allowed to enter three per event instead of two and there is in a big rivalry between Australia, Canada, South Africa, who are progressing fast, and the home nations. The standard is much higher than it was before 2002.

|COMMONWEALTH GAMES | COACHING EDGE

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‘You learn an enormous amount in multi-sport environments.’ continued. It is one of the compensations for all the hard work she and other gymnasts put in.’

One of the dangers of the village environment of a multi-sport event is the ready availability, 24 hours a day, of huge quantities of food, which does not occur in hotels for other competitions.

Dr Kevin Currell, a performance nutritionist with the English Institute of Sport, says: ‘At an event such as the Commonwealth Games, athletes are in a situation that perhaps they have never had to face before. There is a huge range of food for different cultures. It is free and readily available and, for some people, they are facing the most important event of their life. It is not an ideal situation.

‘Athletes who have been training really hard and are tapering for their event may feel they deserve the food as a reward. And they have to be helped to manage the situation.

‘You have to be dedicated in gymnastics, as in all sports, but while Imogen’s friends outside the sport were going out and having fun, Imogen had to train.

‘England has 51 swimmers, including those for the six Paralympic events, which are interspersed in the main programme, and this also enables the Paralympians to get experience before the Paralympic Games in 2012.’

‘At the Commonwealths and Olympics, Imogen was able to go into something fresh and meet new people. And these friendships have

Atkinson adds: ‘It is not only the standard of competition, there is also the environment of the village with 3000–4000 people, including international stars. At the world championships, you are more likely to be able to control every single detail than you are in the environment of a multi-sports competition.’

In some sports, British competitors are passing up the chance of going to the Games because it clashes with other events.

Gymnasts have their own world championships in Rotterdam the same month (October 16–24) but Imogen Cairns, who was England’s only gold medallist in artistic gymnastics in 2006, is aiming to retain her vault title. Liz Kincaid, her coach at the Academy of Gymnastics in Portishead, North Somerset, says: ‘Gymnastics is one big family but you can see too much of the same people.

THE COACH’S EDGE

‘So the competition is an ideal preparation for the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games do also allow the home nations to enter separate teams.

‘There will be vast buffets, which are obviously a hygiene challenge in themselves, and there is the danger of trying food to which your stomach may not be accustomed. There is also the danger of overeating, not only for competitors in weight category sports, but for everyone.

Consultation has to take place as to what individual competitors need close to their event.’

The lessons learned at the Commonwealth Games in October will be useful at the 2012 games. Although an attractive event in its own right, the Commonwealth Games will also certainly be an invaluable dress-rehearsal for the London 2012 Games.

What will coaches take away from the Commonwealth Games?

Research by the British Olympic Association has shown how few individuals win medals at their first Olympic Games. Taking part previously in a multi-sports event, such as the Commonwealth Games, with the different pressures from competing in world or European championships, helps prepare individuals for the greater rigours of the Olympic Games.

Holding camps work best when they are tailored towards the need of individual sports, rather than all the competitors preparing together in the same location before an Olympic Games or Commonwealth Games.

At world championships, coaches can better control the details of preparation than they can at multi-sports events. This issue has to be addressed by officials.

The Commonwealth Games allows competitors to mix with other sportsmen and women from different disciplines, so widening their horizons, which might have become narrow because of their focus on their own activity.

The village atmosphere, with unlimited food 24 hours a day, can provide a temptation to the unwary athlete. There are hygiene challenges from the open buffets, the attraction of exotic food and the danger of overeating, not only for those in weight category events such as boxing and weightlifting.

COACHING EDGE |ANALYSING YOUR COACHING|

The team’s winning, the athlete’s on top, so all’s well... right? Not necessarily, as even the best coaches need to look at their own performance, as Jeff Thornton discovered.

© Steven Paston/Action Images Limited

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|ANALYSING YOUR COACHING| COACHING EDGE

In coaching, while it’s great to have the courage of your convictions, it’s also wise to question everything – how your opponents performed, how your athlete or team got on and why...and especially how your own performance as a coach measured up.

To Dr Hamish Telfer, a former senior lecturer at the University of Cumbria – formerly St Martin’s College, Lancaster – and an experienced top-level national athletics coach, this latter part is absolutely vital for the development not only of the coach, but also of the athlete or performer.

So important in fact, that Dr Telfer is a leading figure in sports coach UK workshops aimed at Analysing Your Coaching.

‘In the workshops, and in this whole subject area, we start from the presumption that most coaches have only ever been assessed on their team or athlete’s achievements and are respected on basis of what results they achieve.

In other words, they think that if the team or athlete wins, I’m good!

‘Crossing over from the world of teaching, one thing we know is that this is nonsense...that it’s down to the progress made.’

Dr Telfer says the emphasis is not just on ‘what' the person coaches – of course in sport that will always be important, instead just as vital is the ‘how’.

‘A really good coach is the master of both,’ he says.

‘A coach with the real ability is the one who can get the best out of athletes whose talent may not be quite as obvious as the (Paula) Radcliffes or (Sebastian) Coes of this world.

‘Analysing Your Coaching allows you to reflect upon your own performance, not just the outcome, and it's about a model to fit both the performance and participatory areas of sport.’

The workshop, and the weighty Analysing Your Coaching resource from sports coach UK, are aimed at helping you become the type of coach you want to become, to continually

improve, and just as you want your athlete or team to achieve excellence, to also achieve it yourself in the discipline of coaching.

native county of Rutland, where he helps coach as part of a busy new career which also involves plenty of charity work and fundraising.

He reflects upon styles and suggests picturing the coaching styles as a continuum, where perhaps 10 is very dictatorial, while one would be so laid back it's horizontal.

Hampson says from the off he has had to consider exactly what he says. ‘I can't physically perform the drill or the skill, so I need to verbally instruct. There are lots of different styles of teaching people – some get it verbally, others have to see it – and then I’ll pick two players and talk them through what I want them to do.’

‘As I say, you need to analyse how you come across. As a coach I realise that I tend to tell people...but that I need to discuss, suggest and listen. I need to analyse the environment, so I have to therefore develop the skills of moving back down the continuum. On that scale of 1–10, with 10 purely telling, and one listening, I’m perhaps a 7.’

‘When I played I got shouted at, trod down if you like, it was a tough environment. I benefited from that but a lot don’t.’

And Dr Telfer is quick to point out that the best coaches are able to adapt their styles as needed. ‘Of course, if you have, say 15 people in a squad or team, and whatever level they are at, some will want to talk, others will want you to tell them what to do, even at the highest level. So I need to be aware of that and shift my approach.

‘Analysis of coaching helps coaches become more adaptable, to have the ability to work with all types of athletes, and develop all individuals...and in many sports that is something which simply does not happen.

‘The best managers and coaches are ones who understand what their teams need, who understand how they can get the best out of each individual within the team and, when combined, the sum of those parts make the team better than they would be individually. A team becomes greater than the sum of its parts.’

One young coach who has been forced into a deep analysis of his coaching is Matt Hampson. He is the former rugby union prop forward who became quadriplegic after an accident while training with England’s under-21 side in early 2005. But Hampson remains positive and has become a great role model, not least to pupils at Oakham School in his

He says this method was what he used when taking his level one qualification, but that he has analysed closely his style as a coach.

‘What I have learned, not just at Oakham when coaching but in life, is that as I have a care team all the time, I have to be able to verbally instruct. Every facet of my life revolves around that, so it comes naturally to me.

‘Everybody is different. When I played I got shouted at, trod down if you like, it was a tough environment. I benefitted from that but a lot don’t. Some players respond just from a quiet word. I have learnt to empathise, to work people out.

‘I did a bit of coaching before my accident, but not too much. I found it difficult, but I was a lot younger then. I’ve grown up a hell of a lot in the five years since the accident, and have experienced more than most people my age.

‘I love seeing somebody improve. When they pick up something you’ve taught them and they use it in a match, it's very satisfying.’

THE COACH’S EDGE

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hile sportsmen and women at the top level need bags of confidence, and may even believe that too much thought on why they are winning can introduce doubts, it’s always good to understand what will bring success and improvement.

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For more on Analysing Your Coaching visit: www.sportscoachuk.org ‘Analysing Your Coaching’ workshops are due to be held on: – 9 September (Bilston, West Midlands – to book email winslowc@wolvcoll.ac.uk) – 20 September (St Helens, Merseyside – to book telephone Ruth Moss on 01744-675 651) – 29 September (North Shields, Tyne and Wear – to book email chloe.blakey@ tynewearsport.org).

For more on Matt Hampson, and to follow his charity work, visit: www.matthampson.co.uk

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COACHING EDGE |MARATHON|

IN THE RUNNING FOR 2011 Virtually as soon as the last charity runner crossed the line, thousands of athletes in this year’s London Marathon were already mentally preparing for 2011’s event.

Sam Hawcroft spoke to three people keen to take part on the streets of London next spring, and will follow their preparations right up to the big day...as long as they make it through the ballot! Meanwhile, coaching experts will also assess their progress...

|MARATHON| COACHING EDGE

‘In the end, you need to have huge determination to get from the beginning to the end.’

Sergio Lara-Bercial Spanish-born Sergio, 35, only started running seriously about 18 months ago – but says it has completely changed his life. As a leading basketball coach, he was already no stranger to fitness training and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but he soon discovered that, for him, running offered a whole host of new physical – and even psychological – benefits.

Sergio first caught the running bug after feeling that he needed to do more for his father, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, so he set himself the challenge of running the equivalent of the distance between his home in Stockport and Madrid – some 1287 miles (2070km). He began his challenge in February 2009, and is due to finish this July, when he’ll run the marathon-length distance from the airport in Madrid to his father’s house.

© Steven Paston/Action Images Limited

For Sergio, the impact of becoming a serious runner was almost instant, and took him somewhat by surprise. ‘The more I ran, the more I wanted to run,’ he says. He began, as most do, with the shorter distances, such as 10Ks and half-marathons, before building up to his first marathon in Barcelona last year, where he clocked up an impressive time of 3h 6m.

During his preparations, he talked to people who had already run at least one marathon, and he has embarked on a training regime that balances mileage and speed. Regular long distances mean leg muscles become more able to cope with runs of two hours-plus, while speed sessions help towards the overall aim of running a faster marathon. ‘Once you understand why you’re doing both, it’s easier to get motivated and go out there.’

As a coach, Sergio believes that taking up running has helped him set a better example to the athletes he trains – and even to his friends and family. ‘I’ve become more organised in my training, more organised in my family life, and I work more efficiently – it’s the epicentre of everything I do. It’s had such a positive impact on everything. My wife’s started running again, and a couple of friends have seen me run and have started to run themselves – it’s having a kind of ripple effect.’ Running has also helped him enormously with his own motivational techniques. During his basketball career, from which he retired eight years ago, he wasn’t so enlightened, as he says: ‘I didn’t quite know why I was training; I got told to do something and I did it. I never understood what I was supposed to be doing, because no one explained it to me.’ Many coaches, Sergio says, make the mistake of assuming that their

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athletes know what they are doing, and why they are doing it, when this may not be the case – and this has been among the ‘biggest lessons’ he has learned since he began running. He adds: ‘When you’re training for a very unforgiving event like a marathon, you can’t really fake it – you’ve either done the training or you haven’t, and if you haven’t done the training you’re going to pay for it.’

Abi Masha Abi, 30, who has been running seriously for about two years, is gearing up for what she hopes will be her first London Marathon next year. She only committed herself to signing up when the ballot opened at the beginning of May – and won’t know until October whether her application has been successful. In the meantime, however, she is in training for the Great North Run this September; having run last year’s race in just under two hours, the half-marathon is the furthest distance she’s done so far, and she’s looking for a time of around 1h 45m, in what will mark roughly the halfway stage in her marathon preparations. ‘Hopefully this will stand me in good stead to let me know how far I’ve progressed,’ she says.

For Abi, running is very much about self-motivation. After a friend introduced her to it, she has never looked back; the ‘feel-good vibe’ and sense of daily achievement is enough to spur her on – and she prefers to train on her own. She used to be a smoker, but taking up long-distance running gave her the final impetus she needed to kick the habit for good. Put simply, she says, ‘You can’t smoke if you want to run.’ And, while she does aim to eat healthily in general, and has improved her diet since she began running, she is not obsessed by it – in fact, she confesses to having somewhat of a sweet tooth – but the fact she is burning off so many calories most days means she can afford a few indiscretions.

Abi’s approach to the marathon is, no doubt, like that of many first-timers: ‘I’m following various different schedules that I’ve downloaded from the Internet,’ she says, ‘and I’m just sticking to the ones I feel comfortable with. But I am taking it quite slowly, considering I’ve got a year to prepare.’ At the moment, she is going out for, on average, five to eight-mile runs every other day; she is trying to work in some speed sessions, but admits she is finding this aspect of the training a little difficult. At this stage, she’s unsure what sort of finish time she should be aiming for in the marathon; having watched the elite athletes in

COACHING EDGE |MARATHON|

Chris Pearce Chris decided to sign up for the marathon with a friend, as they are both heading for a personal milestone next year – hitting 40.

‘We want to do it while we still can,’ he says. Although he’s been running seriously for at least six or seven years, he’s never gone the full 26.2 miles before, having done a couple of half-marathons and a few 10Ks in the past.

His main motivation is fitness – as he approached his late 20s, he decided he needed to improve his general health and lose a bit of weight, so took up running as a pastime, initially. ‘I was not doing enough exercise and eating too many burgers – I realised how unfit I was getting, and I thought, “it’s time to turn things around”.’ Long-distance running has inspired Chris to transform his diet and eat more healthily – he now aims to make more meals from scratch instead of falling back on ready meals.

Chris has, however, taken breaks over the years, but has been able to pick up more or less where he left off each time; he ran the 10K Leeds Abbey Dash in 2009 after not having run for about a year. ‘I did a quick six weeks of training for that – the first couple of runs were a nightmare, but I started with easy runs of about three miles and gradually built up to the distance. I am trying to take this one (the marathon) a bit more seriously, though!’ Like Abi, Chris’s first port of call for information and advice has been the Internet – while he is trying to get his distance up gradually, he is also following a guide on how to improve his speed by doing interval training once every couple of weeks. His main aim at the moment is getting round the course, but he does have one eye on a sub four-hour time.

The coach’s view Brian Scobie, England Athletics Area Coach Mentor for endurance coaches (covering West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside), said that, of our three runners, Sergio’s playing and coaching background, and the discipline this has given him, certainly gives him the edge over the others. He said: ‘Sergio seems to me to be highly focused; he’s been an elite sportsperson, and the fact he’s doing it for his father means he’s found an external reason other than fitness.’

Abi’s background as a smoker and her love of sweet foods means the marathon could represent a ‘huge task’ for her, says Scobie.

‘She has got a lot to do in order to be sure she can run in this race, and that she can finish it; I think she needs to change an awful lot in her lifestyle in order to achieve her goal. She would need to be a fairly determined woman.’

As for Chris, Scobie warns that ‘any 40-year-old guy embarking on a marathon at that age could come up against all kinds of problems; you’ve got to do the amount of work necessary and you’ve got to stay healthy throughout the training period. Avoid injury and illness while you put your body through conditions of stress it has probably not ever encountered.’

Scobie adds: ‘A marathon is a fairly substantial undertaking. Of course, you see people who you wouldn’t think could do it actually doing it; and the crowd helps, other race participants help – but in the end, you need to have huge determination to get from the beginning to the end, and before that, you’ve got to have a similar measure of determination to undertake the preparation.’

© sports coach UK

the race on TV, she says she couldn’t ever imagine being able to run a mile in 5.5 minutes – but for her, it’s more about going the distance.

THE COACH’S EDGE

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Further Reading Balk, M. and Shields, A. (2009) Master the Art of Running. London: Collins and Brown.

ISBN: 978-1-843405-43-6.

Hilditch, G. (2007) The Marathon and Half Marathon: A Training Guide. Wiltshire: The Crowood Press. ISBN: 978-1-861269-63-8.

Murakami, H. (2009) What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. USA: Vintage.

ISBN: 978-0-099526-15-5.

Nerurkar, R. (2008) Marathon Running: From Beginning to Elite. London: A & C Black Publishers. ISBN: 978-0-713688-52-8.

How you can approach marathon training for...

A Beginner In terms of a marathon, a ‘beginner’ still needs to have some running/racing experience and should be reasonably fit. If they can't run three miles comfortably, then perhaps you need to gently tell them that training for a 26.2-mile run is not the place to start. The main goal to set them should simply be completing the distance, and not focusing on the time too much, if at all.

Although some speed work is necessary, the bottom line is that you need to get your runner used to long distances – beginners who are not used to running 20–25 miles a week need to gradually work this in to their training. It is crucial they don’t do too much too soon, though; start at three miles and slowly increase the distance week by week.

An Intermediate runner You should assume that your runner has at least half-marathon experience, if not actually having a marathon already under their belt. They should also be used to running three to five days a week, covering 20–25 miles, and able to comfortably run at least eight miles. Being at intermediate stage, the runner is likely to be looking to go one better than just completing the distance, so will be aiming to achieve a specific time. To this end, you should ideally encourage them to supplement their long runs with some more intense running twice weekly, including sustained tempo runs at half-marathon race pace.

An Advanced runner Someone who falls into this category would have considerable marathon experience over at least three or four years, and be well used to training for such an event; they should also be currently running 30–40 miles per week, and comfortably be able to run at least 10 miles. Your runner will need to be prepared to up their weekly mileage to about 50 per week, although bear in mind that doing so many miles on the flat can lead to stagnation, mentally and physically – so incorporate interval training, fartlek training, hill climbs and power exercises. Rest is always important, but at advanced level, it is crucial; your approach may be to say that your runner must takes one day off a week – and this means a day off from all exercise, not just running.

|COACHING WITH NO CASH| COACHING EDGE

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CR£DIT WHERE IT’SDUE

© Paul Currie/Action Images Limited

Success comes at a price...not always the physical toll, instead it's quite literally a monetary cost. While some sports may be cash rich, and certain clubs bankrolled by benefactors, the truth is that most clubs in the majority of sports get by, just, on a shoestring, and if times are tough in post-recession Britain, they’re equally tough on sports clubs.

Wessex Volleyball Club coach Lynn Allen reflects on a great season...and what the club must do to keep on going.

A

s we near the end of another indoor volleyball season, Wessex can reflect on many plus points.

Our under-16 boys team are national champions, two other junior teams are ranked second in the country, while two others are in the top four.

The Wessex women’s team play in the Super 8s, the top national league division, our men are in Division One and our junior men won the South West Adult League.

Wessex also had many local and regional successes as well, while individual players were selected for England.

The club now has a really good set up with a great set of volunteers. However, all this has been achieved at a cost – a huge financial cost to the players and parents.

These are difficult times and unfortunately we cannot make cutbacks because our main costs are the essential ones – court hire, fuel, accommodation etc, all of which have gone up.

It is ironic that the more successful you are the more the expenditure you incur.

Volleyball has never been a sport which only the wealthy can afford to play, and there is no wish to become one. But how do we prevent this?

Our club has explored many possibilities for reducing the cost of playing our sport, some more successful than others: Fundraising – Due to the commitment shown by our players and volunteers we have little time left over to run many fundraising events.

We do hold a few but it isn’t easy to ask people for money when there are so many worthwhile causes in the world.

Sponsorship – The club have sent out many sponsorship letters in the past couple of years, and this season we have contacted 70 agencies. Despite being one of the top English volleyball clubs with a group of our volunteers running the biggest beach tournament of the summer with more than 300 teams competing, we have not been able to secure any cash sponsorship deal.

Links – This is one area where we have been able to make progress. Links have been formed with the University and local schools which have allowed us an occasional cheap court, free use of a gym and meeting room, and the cheaper use of minibuses. We provide coaching sessions in return.

Grants – There seem to be a lot out there but it takes time to research which ones may be applicable. Having decided this, there will then be a lot of work involved in the application.

If you are not successful it’s valuable time wasted, but you have to try again.

Governing body – This has been fruitful for us with benefits on both sides as Volleyball England has agreed to part-fund a Community Development Coach for our area. This came from much hard work and planning.

Volunteers – My last article highlighted the assistance Wessex Volleyball Club has had from experts such as Paul Rees on the strength and conditioning side and Bournemouth University on the psychology side. This has proved invaluable to the teams involved.

However, this would not have been possible if the players and parents had had to pay for these services on top of the other costs.

On the volleyball side, all our club coaches and managers are unpaid, giving hours of their time each week.

As we look to the beach season and start to plan for September when the indoor season restarts, we have grounds for optimism with new players interested in joining us and more juniors playing.

To reduce their costs in this difficult economic time, we will continue to try to establish links, apply for grants, seek sponsorship and – like thousands of clubs like ours – rely on volunteers to give athletes the opportunity to play the sport they love at as little cost as possible.

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COACHING EDGE |INFLUENCING THE PITCH|

POWER AND INFLUENCE Tactics, speed, stamina and strength all play a huge role in preparation, and getting them right enhances a coach’s armoury in pursuit of success. But sometimes, and it's often illustrated at the top level, the ability to influence other environmental factors can also hold sway, as David Bloomfield reveals.

Stoke City’s Rory Delap launches a long throw, one of his team’s best attacking weapons and one opponents try to counter

|INFLUENCING THE PITCH| COACHING EDGE

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t is impossible to say where the responsibility or the influence of the coach ends, he certainly holds sway over the tactics and personnel his team employs, but in an age where the line between winning and losing has become a fine thread, each and every angle where an advantage is to be had needs to be investigated.

The simple fact is that if you are not looking at the game in its context and trying to influence the environment in which the match is being contested, your opponent almost certainly will be, and without a ball being kicked your side will be at a disadvantage.

Of paramount importance is an analysis of your opponents. What are their strengths and weaknesses and how can you neutralise one and capitalise on the other? Knowledge of your opponents is a key factor at any level of sport.

As a Sunday morning football manager, in advance of an important cup-tie, I found out where our opponents were playing the week before and duly turned up with notebook in hand. I was then subsequently able to allocate my defenders to best nullify their forwards and pinpoint their defensive shortcomings.

Come the day of the match, our opponents were genuinely shocked to come across me again and there is no doubt that they felt a level of unease, albeit one that is difficult to quantify.

The level of analysis and attention to detail at Premier League level is astonishing.

Every match is analysed from every imaginable angle.

Peter Shreeves, the former Spurs manager, who acts as a match delegate, recently witnessed Chelsea’s assistant manager Ray Wilkins discussing with the match referee Steve Bennett, in precise detail, what his team was able to do to counter the long throws of Stoke City’s Rory Delap.

© Steven Paston/Action Images Limited

He said: ‘The discussion took place one hour before kick-off as the team sheets were delivered to the match officials’ changing room.

‘Eventually it was determined that a Chelsea player could stand no closer than three metres from Delap, and that he couldn’t jump until the ball had left the Stoke player’s hands.

‘When news of these deliberations reached the Stoke manager Tony Pulis, he in turn sought clarification and confirmation that this was how the fixture was going to be officiated.’

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The examples in football of managers and coaches trying to catch out the unwary are legion.

When Brian Clough ruled the roost at Nottingham Forest, the away dug-out was strategically placed some distance from the half-way line, affording a very imperfect view of the match, while Liverpool under Bill Shankly were renowned for providing pre-match balls that bore little or no quality resemblance to the ball that would be used at three o’clock.

For a period of time in the early 1990s, Cambridge United enjoyed relative success and came within a whisker of promotion to the top-flight under John Beck.

‘The examples in football of managers and coaches trying to catch out the unwary are legion.’

His side favoured a 'long ball' approach where the ball would be swiftly delivered from the back into space behind the opposition’s defence. The problem was that the ball often went off for a goal kick before his forwards had managed to latch onto it. The solution?

The groundsman was instructed to allow the grass in the four corners to grow in order to inhibit the ball’s propensity to roll!

One of the most successful attempts by a coach to alter the context in which a match was played was in 1987 when the Rangers manager Graeme Souness reduced the width of the Ibrox pitch for a European Cup tie.

In the first leg against Dynamo Kiev the Ukrainian flank players had had a field day in a 1–0 victory. In the return, on a pitch whose width had been reduced to within a whisker of the minimum requirements, Rangers overcame the deficit and progressed to the next round.

The old ‘same for both sides’ argument can be called into service by those wishing to denounce the key role the width of the pitch played in the match, but interestingly there is statistical evidence that Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal score more goals on the larger Premier League pitches. And if ever there was a side that played an expansive game where possession is kept in the sure expectation that spaces and gaps will open in the opposition’s defence, it is Wenger’s Gunners.

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COACHING EDGE |INFLUENCING THE PITCH|

When Arsenal moved from Highbury to the Emirates they increased the size of the playing surface from one of the smallest to the largest.

Indeed, but for the size of the pitch, Highbury would have been a venue for the 1966 World Cup and Euro ‘96.

Once upon a time the ballboys at a match were youngsters who, in exchange for their services, were rewarded with free admission.

Shreeves has noticed that even this practice has had a makeover: ‘Nowadays I have seen traditional ballboys replaced by young footballers on the staff and when their team has the throw-in the ball is swiftly returned. Even the ballboys are athletes!’

Shreeves himself wasn’t averse to calling upon the services of the ballboys: ‘When I was at Spurs and we were playing Real Madrid at White Hart Lane I got all the ballboys together and asked if any of them supported Real. I didn’t get a reply, but all hands went up when I asked if we had any Spurs supporters.

The wide expanses of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium suit their football style

‘“OK then”, I said, “when we have a throw let’s see the ball back with a Spurs player in double-quick time, and when it’s a Real throw let’s not break our backs!” I don’t class this as cheating...just that when you are the home team you have a chance to set the scene.’

all-white outfits Liverpool arrived in at Wembley for the 1996 FA Cup Final. Fine for a garden party, but they were out of step with the tradition of Liverpool FC. Needless to say they were blown out of the water by Manchester United come kick-off.

One of the factors behind the growth of analysis of all sorts in sport, apart from the sheer ease with which statistical data can be gathered and transmitted, is the need of the coach to avoid a situation whereby a player can retort, in the post-match blame game, that he simply wasn’t advised that ‘player X’ had a long throw, cuts inside, stands in front of the keeper at corners, or did whatever it was that caught the player unawares.

Many coaches can look at some of the above examples and identify with them. And if you are lucky enough to be at the top level and subject to media scrutiny, there’s more.

At the top level, the day before a match a meeting will be called where all those, apart from the players, who have a direct input into the team will be invited to make contributions.

This is an acknowledgement that even an experienced manager, although he makes the final decision, can glean something from those experts under him that will help him in that decision-making process.

Unless you are dealing with a very sensitive issue, in which case specialist advice may be the way to go, journalists merely just want to

Care needs to be taken and when the players start calling the shots alarm bells should start ringing. The example always mentioned is the

THE COACH’S EDGE

When Manchester United travel to an away fixture, more often than not they are seen in club blazer and club tie. They look a professional outfit in every sense of the word.

They look like a team. The lead here is clearly coming from Sir Alex Ferguson.

If your team is involved in a match that is the subject of press attention, the best rule of thumb is to play it straight, but to ensure that you avoid making comments that can be seen by the opposition as being dismissive.

write a sufficient number of words to fill the space their editor has allocated.

The late Sir Bobby Robson almost never failed to answer a question from the media, however banal, repetitive, rude or ignorant the questioner. He may have lost some battles along the way, but over time he most certainly won the war with his polite and gentlemanly stance.

Many times a manager’s programme notes have riled their opposite number. Patronising statements or over-confident remarks will be pinned up in the other team’s dressing room and act as motivation in themselves.

And the simplest method of creating a feel good factor among your players? Taking a new kit out of the kitbag. Players revel in trying it on for the first time and can’t wait to get out there. That’s the way you felt, wasn’t it?

What do you know of the opposition, the playing surface, the equipment, the venue? Research on these areas will pay dividends.

Clear up any issues you think may occur with the match officials before the game.

Consult with others in the set-up. They are a good sounding board and you can’t think of everything. Make clear that you are the decision maker, but that you value their input.

Have you relayed all that knowledge to your players? Communicate what you know.

If your team arrives looking like a team, there is a good chance they will play like one too.

Be straightforward and up front with any media requests. Don’t be afraid of the media, but don’t get carried away, your opposition might read it too!

Are the opposition trying to undermine your preparation in any way? The higher the level of competition the more this is likely – be aware of the possibility but don’t develop paranoia.

|THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE FUNNY| COACHING EDGE

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TAKE A BOW

Hollywood may like the glamour of the longbow, but as Jeff Thornton discovered, there’s an army of serious coaches out there...

W

e may well be midway through a summer of sport, and when someone mentions Lord’s your thoughts turn to Test match cricket against Bangladesh or Pakistan, but for one group of sportsmen and women the famous ground will mean just one thing...Olympic archery.

For many this will be a sport they know little about, and any mental images may involve Michael Praed or Russell Crowe careering through a recreation of 13th century Sherwood Forest in another Robin Hood guise...or perhaps their recollections are of A-level history and Agincourt.

But for a large number of people, it’s a thriving – and very much current – sport.

Colin Okin, who is already well on with planning his fifth Southern Counties Archery Society (SCAS) Coaches Conference for early 2011, says: ‘People perhaps don’t realise how popular this sport is. SCAS is one of eight regions making up Archery GB and we have approximately 10,000 members, and I believe there are upwards of 60,000 members across the UK. ‘Archery UK has 12 associated organisations including The English Archery Federation, the Army, the RAF, the Civil Service, the Post Office, Paralympics, Universities and The Royal Toxophilites. In addition there is the Long Bow Society, so overall there may be about 100,000 archers.

‘And we are working very hard at getting youngsters involved either in school or as after-school activities.’

So even though the latest Crowe version of the Robin Hood legend may be good for the tourists in Nottinghamshire, it’s a sport already working hard, and with coaches keen to improve our national standing.

‘That’s not to say films don’t have an effect on people interested in the sport,’ admits Okin.

‘I believe Lord of the Rings had a significant effect, a lot of people must have watched and thought “I’d like to do that”!’

What Okin does stress is the discipline needed, from archers as well as coaches.

‘Discipline and safety are paramount. A good coach in this sport has to be patient, aware, and know the technicality of the instruments we are using.’

The world has changed significantly since Britain’s last Olympic individual gold medallists in 1908 when Queenie Newall and William Dod both took first place (Dod’s sister Lottie was a sporting legend in her own right, coming second to Newall, but more famously being five-time Wimbledon tennis champion, a golfer and hockey player).

These days an Olympic-standard bow could cost £2,000, while the arrows, which may last a season, would cost £250 for a dozen. So Okin admits it’s not a cheap sport, and it’s also one which requires dedication from the archers and coaches.

‘To go through the ranks as a coach does take a lot of commitment. With the portfolios needed to maintain the qualifications a significant investment – not least in time – is needed. But there are people wanting to do it.

I may sometimes suggest to someone that they may consider coaching, but often it’s archers themselves who step forward and want to work as a coach and get involved. Of course, becoming a coach does affect your own shooting, as you give up some of your own practice time in order to coach others!’

And with sights set firmly on the Olympic Games, and improving the UK’s standing, Okin is enthusiastic about new developments.

‘There’s a brand new national development programme, where every county will have a coordinator to work with the national development team, perhaps to help start new clubs or develop existing clubs. The aim will be national centres of excellence.’

As Okin says, it’s a sport keen to learn, and next year’s conference has a lot to live up to.

‘Over the last four years we’ve gone from 90 delegates to 148 in 2010. I’m keen for more than 150 next time, we’ve had some phenomenal speakers, and will look for another excellent event.’

While he’s also keen to see another full house at Lord’s in 2012...but more long bow than Long Room. For details on next year’s Southern Counties Archery Society Coaches Conference, planned for 5 March, email Colin Okin on: colinokin@hotmail.com

Everything you need to improve your coaching

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A Guide to Mentoring Sports Coaches

By Bill Galvin, Revised 2005 Mentoring is a powerful tool in the development and education of sports coaches at all levels. This title focuses on how learning occurs and how, as a mentor, you might support a coach’s learning. It offers a framework for mentoring, but is not prescriptive, because every mentoring relationship is unique.

The process outlined is flexible enough to fit comfortably with any mentoring programme designed by a governing body of sport or other organisation. It provides mentors with guidelines for developing a meaningful relationship with a coach, and tools that provide a focus for, and record of, that relationship.

Code B23032 £9.99

Positive Behaviour Management in Sport

By Nicky Fuller, Sue Jolly and Joanne Chapman, 2009 This full-colour resource will introduce you to the subject of positive behaviour management, detailing why unwanted behaviour occurs and how to deal with situations as they arise.

Every group and individual is different, and managing the behaviour is a hands-on job. Use the examples within this guide to help find the best solutions to create a positive environment for young people to develop.

Broken down into manageable sections, it discusses the different ways of tackling problem behaviour and how to create an environment that encourages positive behaviour. The ‘Top Tips’ sections throughout help you pick out key techniques to recognise what creates a positive coaching environment, and what actions encourage acceptable behaviour.

Code B40679 £14.99

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