The second session of the day took place at another village school in the Lincolnshire area, with similar numbers to the morning session I had completed. However in this session, it was not one year group who were attending. It was a mixture of years 3,4,5 and 6, which at first seemed to be an issue. This did not prove to be the case, as once again there was 2 coaches present we split the group in to years 3+4 and 5+6. We later found out the reason for the vast array of age groups was because the school only had around 65 pupils in total. We agreed as coaches, that to try and coach all years mixed together in 2 groups would have provided us with to much of a coaching barrier, which is why we opted for the year group split. This left us knowing which style was appropriate and best to use for our group, rather than having to provide a mixture throughout the sesison, which could have privided not only confusion for the participants but also for me as a coach. The spectrum model came up with many different styles for coaching. A framework of possible options in the relationship between teacher and learner (Mosston & Ashworth, 1986).

As a coach I now had the task of managing to age groups, althogh not to disimilar in age, their skill levels were of a wider gap. I began with a game of ‘Trucks and Trailers’ which is a task which involves dribbling, spacial awareness, short passing and communication. The idea is to be in pairs, one person at the front with the ball, dribbling around the marked area, while the other follows. After a certain amount of time I will call change, the front person (the truck) will control the ball, turn and pass it to the person behind (the trailer) and the session will continue with the roles reversed. I allowed the speed of the trucks to be at the participants discression, coaching in a democratic mannor for enjoyment (Chelladurai & Carron, 1981) however, if the participants started to take this for granted and travel to fast with no control, defying the point of the session, I would introduce myself as a ‘Police Truck’ and send anyone who was speeding to the ‘truck jail’. This acted as a perfect deterrant for any participant who thought they could run around and not behvae appropriately.

References

 Mosston, M & Ashworth, S(1986) Teaching Physical Education. Columbus, OH; Merril.

SURUJLAL, J, & DHURUP, M 2012, ‘Athlete preference of coach’s leadership style’, African Journal For Physical, Health Education, Recreation & Dance, 18, 1, pp. 111-121, SPORTDiscus with Full Text, EBSCOhost