Evidence based Reflective Report on Placement

Details of Placement

I worked for the Leisure and Sport Development department for Stockton Borough Council in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside. Their main goal is to strategically support the implementation of change in perceptions and behaviour pertaining to sport and active leisure within the community. They also support the development of a range of sport and active leisure initiatives and functions.

I chose this placement so I could gain a greater understanding of how sport programmes and schemes were created and developed for the benefit of the community, including: school children, young people, adults and the elderly, disabled people and black and ethnic minorities. This placement also provided me with the chance to coach school children and young people through council programmes. This links with my current career plan of becoming a strength and conditioning coach and physical education teacher.

My main duty whilst on placement was supporting the development of community programmes and schemes aimed at increasing participation and awareness of sport in schools and young people. My lesser duties included supporting the development of coaches and volunteers. I did this through a number of mediums. On way was through designing new and creative coaching booklets for ages 16 onwards, offering level 2 and 3 community sports leadership awards. These booklets provided opportunities for volunteers to book coaching courses which took place throughout the year to develop their leadership skills and confidence.

Other duties included taking a direct approach to coaching in the community through delivering sessions to pre-school children and young people. These sessions were based around the councils’ current programmes including ‘Funky Feet’ and ‘Funky Football’ (Ages 2-6) along with ‘Kwick Cricket’ and ‘Street Soccer’ (Ages 7-11) sessions.

Learning Outcomes Achieved

One learning objective I set for myself was to improve my communication and instruction quality whilst coaching young people over a variety of sports. This was achieved through a number of different mediums. Firstly, I worked along side qualified coaches for youth sports such as football and swimming. By shadowing their coaching styles and through quality communication with the young people, I was able to develop a great understanding of their personality types; making it easier for me to deliver a session adapted around each individual. Having good interpersonal skills between the coach and athlete is an indicator for positive performance (Di Berardinis, 1983). Athanasios et al. (2001) found that a lack of coaching communication, leads to problems with coordination, cooperation and cohesion within a group. Goldsmith (2011) developed 8 key intangible factors of coaching. They included: Communication skills, self confidence and leadership vision and knowledge of sport. I improved my communication skills and self confidence by leading primary school orienteering lessons for the Cleveland Orienteering Klub (CLOK). I lead a group of 20 children aged 7-9 through navigation tasks which developed their problem solving skills. As it was outdoors, I used my coaching knowledge to stand in the correct positions so that the children could all hear me at once whilst not becoming distracted by their environment or blinded by the Sun. I greatly developed my active listening skills by absorbing information from trained coaches and asking them structured questions about how best to develop my

coaching skills. Berriman (2007) suggests that active listening, purposeful questioning and providing objective feedback are key to developing strong interpersonal relationships.

My second learning objective was to gain an understanding of how sports programmes and schemes were organised and developed for the communities benefit. I achieved this by working with my placement supervisor to develop new ideas for sport and activity programmes. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council was in the developmental phase of a new scheme aimed at improving KS1-KS3 school teachers approach to physical education. The ‘Instinctive-Sport’ scheme also encouraged children to have fun and promoted the idea of effort and commitment over winning. I helped with the development of this scheme by assisting in the manufacture of the prototype and by inventing the teacher and children codes (Appendix 1), which will be used for the real project.

Instinctive-Sport, challenging teachers to become:

Support the children, do not smother them!

Personality types are important, know who you are teaching!

Organise your session plans carefully. These should include contingency plans in case something does not go to plan!

Reinforce positive behaviour with positive feedback!

Teach effort and commitment over winning!

Intrinsic feedback is key to the child’s enjoyment and sense of achievement!

Engage in higher questioning to gain feedback form them and improve future sessions based on this information!

Retain their interest so they persist in participation!

Instinctive-Sport, encouraging children to:

Give it your all and Persist!

Have fun whilst you Learn!

Endless possibilities of what you can Achieve!

Be the most you can be by always being Yourself!

Chan (2009) stated that creativity is a key aspect to success when selling a product in the sport business industry. I demonstrated great confidence within myself and my ideas to pitch them to the head office who took them into account and included them within the final project. Confidence and positive mental attitude is crucial to success in the sport business industry (Sine (2011).

Through working with the community database on sports and leisure participation rates, I was able to achieve my third learning outcome. This was to understand young people and adults perceptions on sport and activity within the local area. Quantitative information from the councils’ database allowed me to understand where the Stockton Borough were in terms of the national percentages of participation rates. This knowledge gave me an initial perception of the people I would be working with.

However, I was not able to gain a qualitative understanding of young people and adults perceptions on sport and leisure as I was never in a position to speak with them in person for a lengthy period of time. Reswick (1994) compared quantitative and qualitative research in terms of validity. He found that through quantitative methods, he was able to gather reliable and trustworthy results. On the other hand, qualitative research gave in depth data, leading to a grounded theory of his own interpretations. In order for me to better understand the community’s perceptions on sport and leisure; I believe it is necessary to conduct semi structured interviews with the local people. Maher, Kinne and Patrick (1999) compared self-report questionnaires and qualitative interviews when looking at exercise class participation for the disabled. They found that the quantitative data provided little insight into their physical activity levels and enjoyment of the class, where as, the interviews showed important physical, social and psychological improvements within the participants; supporting my idea of interviewing the local people.

My final learning outcome was to enhance my ICT skills around research and information searching. I achieved this through completing a number of projects given to me by the head office. One example is the Club Development project I lead. I devised a 2,000 word report on what councils, NGBs and other countries are doing to develop clubs and increase participation for young people, adults, black and ethnic minorities and disabled people in sport. This project developed my ICT skills through extensive research around the subject. I used Microsoft Excel to create pie charts and scatter graphs based on data I found through literature search, as well as Microsoft PowerPoint to create a formal presentation which I delivered to the Club Development Coordinator. I improved my non verbal communication through presenting my findings. Body language, including: gestures, posture and facial expressions are all important in creating a positive feeling and trust between coaches and athletes (Schloder, 2012).

Reflection of Placement

I feel my time on placement was extremely useful. I gained new skills and developed onto my previous ones. The team that I worked with were welcoming and friendly which helped me develop greater interpersonal relationships with them; this made working a lot easier and enjoyable. I had the freedom to ask questions knowing that I would get a clear answer and support. They trusted me from the outset and gave me a lot of important work which kept me engaged and gave me confidence. Borrego, Cid and Silva (2012) found a positive correlation between group cohesion and self-confidence.

The work placement provided a real life application to the working environment. This gained experience and has improved my time keeping skills and motivation to wake up early and work. Battistelli (2013) found that self determined motivation played a critical role in positive behaviours in the workplace.

I have developed my coaching style through observations and practical applications in the field. I adapted my delivery approach based on who I was coaching. For example, when coaching an outgoing 6 year old boy and used positive praise as well as a tangible reward (sticker) when he produced the desired outcome. However, when I coached a shy 11 year old girl, I praised internally for trying her best and did not focus on the outcome. Athletes with high cognitive anxiety are shown to greatly prefer coaches who provide high frequencies of positive and informative feedback and lower preference for punishment-orientated feedback (Horn, 2011).

However, a weakness of my placement was that I was unable to lead a session for adults. This was a limitation as I could not interact with adult participants in the local area who may have had a different insight into the development of sport in the community.

In reflection, if I was to redo my placement, I would prepare information based around the local area before starting to work within the community. This would enhance my knowledge of the councils current target market so I could develop new ideas based around them. Umbach (2005) gave tips on how to have success in business. One of these tips was to prepare for any agenda before tackling it head on.

I would also work with the elite sports in the community. Being able to observe professional coaches within a variety of sports would greatly develop my own coaching skills. It would also provide me with a different outlook on career choices as I would experience the competitive elements of coaching over the recreational elements.

This placement has had a positive impact on my future career direction. It has given me the opportunity to understand sport businesses, NGBs and programmes, as well as help me find what aspects of sport I find the most rewarding. I see my future career based around coaching and educating young people as well as personal training. This may one day lead to coaching for an elite club.

References

ATHANASIOS, L., et al. (2001). The importance of communication skills in coaching young athletes. Studies in Physical Culture and Tourism, 8 (1), 139-148.

BATTISTELLI, A., et al. (2013). Mindsets of commitment and motivation: Interrelationships and contribution to work outcomes. Journal of Psychology, 147 (1), 17-49.

BERRIMAN, J. (2007). Can coaching combat stress at work. Occupational Health, 59 (1), 27-31.

BORREGO, C.C., CID, L., and SILVA, C. (2012). Relationship between group cohesion and anxiety in soccer. Journal of Human Kinetics, 34 (1), 119-128.

CHAN, M. (2009). Let science of marketing drive creative solutions. Street & Smith’s Sportsbusiness Journal, 12 (21), 20-23.

DI BERARDINIS, J.D., et al. (1983). Enhanced interpersonal relation as predictor for athletic performance. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 14 (4), 243-251.

GOLDSMITH, W. (2011). Coaching the uncoachables. ASCA Newsletter, 2011 (11), 6-8.

HORN, T.S., et al. (2011). Relationship between collegiate athletes' psychological characteristics and their preferences for different types of coaching behaviour. Sport Psychologists, 25 (2), 190-212.

MAHER. E.J., KINNE, S., and PATRICK, D.L. (1999). ‘Finding a good thing’: the use of quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate an exercise class and promote exercise for adults with mobility impairments. Disability & Rehabilitation, 21 (9), 438-448.

RESWICK, J.B. (1994). What constitutes valid research? Qualitative vs quantitative research. Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 31 (2), 7-10.

SCHLODER, M. (2012). Body language in coaching: a tool for effective communication. ASCA Newsletter, 2012 (3), 1-11.

SINE, R. (2011). Have confidence: ‘failure never crossed my mind’. Street & Smith’s Sportsbusiness Journal, 14 (19), 28-31.

UMBACH. D. (2005). Six tips for corporate meeting success. Successful Meetings, 54 (2), 15-17.