Jan 27: Coaches clinc and change

Jan 27


It was our first day with the coaches for our coaches clinic. We went over a lot of classroom materials: motor programs, methods and principles of coaching, blocked vs random practices, and the importane of using keywords to deliver chunks of information rather than overloading the players with too much at one time. Some of the coaches were pretty engaged and interested and others had a bit of a glazed over look so we went pretty slow. I know the language barrier is tough, mostly because of the American accent vs. British and Indian accents they are used to but we got through everything. We also covered passing and using key words to coach. Coaching in India is VERY different. They demand respect from the players and there seems to be little dialogue from athlete to coach. It's very much coach says, player does, no questions. After the theory portion we worked a lot on the practical and taught the coaches how to pass using our key words. Some of them seemed to pck it up pretty quickly.

In the afternoon we had the coaches with the players working on passing. We talked a lot with the coaches as they taught the players our key words while passing to ensure ONLY key words were used. Many of the coaches really laid in to the players when they didn't have straight and simple arms or they were trying to correct the players feet when we were focusing on their wrists and hands being together. We are going to have a LOT of work ahead of us this week to focus the coaches eyes on passing form and make sure they are using LOTS of positive reinforcement since that does not seem to be a cultural trait.