Thoughts on Defining an Excellent Coaching Session?

Alex Twitchen

There has been a lot of attention attributed towards improving our understanding and knowledge of excellent coaching practice. It seems to me that at this moment in time the division in understanding excellent coaching practice falls between identifying the components and process of an excellent coaching session and identifying excellent coaching when a set of desirable psycho-social outcomes from a long, or at least a longer term, coaching programme are achieved. My interest lies in the former as opposed to the latter, and in particular developing a framework that defines an excellent coaching session which moves on from the useful but generally descriptive analysis that is found for example in Identifying Excellent Coaching Practice along the Sporting Pathway published by sports coach UK.

In my own opinion the architecture of an excellent coaching session can be defined around FIVE core components. These are: a) b) c) d) e) Challenge Engagement Practice Design Creativity Coaching Methods

I use the term architecture on purpose in order to convey the extent to which coaches design and build an excellent coaching session by taking into consideration a wide range of factors. In this sense an excellent coaching session is the product of a process that is more aesthetic than formulaic and by aesthetic I want to capture the imagination, depth and thought that coaches will invest to produce excellent coaching sessions. So what does each one of these five components signify in respect to designing and delivering excellent coaching?

Challenge If performance is to be improved then participants have to be extended and challenged to go beyond their current standards of competence. An excellent coaching session is one that is challenging to both individuals and the group as a whole. Crucially though the level of challenge is carefully calibrated and differentiated to match the current competence and needs of each individual. Equally the challenge is supported, or a scaffold is erected around the challenge, so that the level of challenge is not so unrealistic that it becomes a disincentive to the participants and diminishes motivation and interest as a consequence. The nature of the challenge can also be different, it might be a physical challenge in terms of actual performance or it might be a challenge that is focused on understanding, interpretation and knowledge. So a

coaching session will not be excellent if participants are not being stretched or challenged in some form. Engagement Excellent coaching sessions engage participants both physically and cognitively. By engagement I mean that the session captures and maintains the focus and concentration of the participants, there is a consistent level of physical and mental application required and participants cannot switch off or lose their focus. Maintaining consistent levels of engagement in sessions involving young participants is particularly crucial and connected to effective behaviour management. Coaching excellence is therefore unlikely to be attained if participants are left to stand around, unfocused and detached from the session. Practice Design How and why does the coach design the nature of the practices used within the session, what use is made of different types of practice such as blocked, random or variable practice, is there a clear rationale behind the practice design and the progression or sequencing of different practice types to achieve the desired outcome? Does the choice of practice type match the intended focus on learning or performance, are practices challenging and engaging? Excellent coaching sessions will demonstrate the skilled use and understanding of how to design different types of practice, and sequentially order practice, in order to create a challenging and engaging session that enables learning and improvements in performance to occur. Creativity Coaching is not a formulaic, instrumental or mechanistic process. Coaching is about building, managing and maintaining effective relationships with people who do not always behave or react in a consistent, rational and predictable manner. Coaching, as Robyn Jones for example would argue, is a messy business that involves solving problems, thinking on your feet and reacting to the unexpected and unforeseen. Being creative is consequently a much under appreciated skill in so far as coaches often have to deploy some creative solutions to the problems they encounter. Yet creativity is also important in respect to the extent that coaches challenge themselves, take risks and extend the boundaries of their own knowledge, expertise and understanding. Much like we encourage performers to experiment, take risks and learn from mistakes, so coaches will learn if they experiment, try something different and reflect on the experience. This often requires a creative commitment in the sense that coaches are prepared to try something a little bit out of the ordinary, something a bit different, something other than their normal, safe and conservative practice. Personally I always like to see and encourage coaches to try something a little bit different in their sessions, I encourage them to be creative and then reflect and learn from the experience. That is not to say that the whole session should be designed around a novelty or an experiment, it is just to say that an excellent coaching session will feature something somewhere that is out of the ordinary and the consequence of a creative commitment. 2

Intervention Methods I have already articulated my views on the difference between coaching methods and coaching style. In quite straightforward terms an excellent coaching session will feature the skilled use of appropriate coaching methods and ensure that the right method is used at the right time for the right reason. The proper and skilled use of different coaching methods is a critical component of an excellent coaching session and the poor use of different coaching methods is undoubtedly a feature of poor practice.

These five core components of an excellent coaching session are not independent and isolated from one another. I see them as a set of integrated components where each can have a relationship and influence on each other. For example the challenge in a session is inherently linked to effective practice design and the effective use of appropriate coaching methods. Similarly practice design is crucial to maintaining participant engagement during a session, as is the skilled use of different coaching methods. Each reinforces and connects to each other to form an integrated, holistic approach to excellent coaching.

Furthermore identifying five core components of an excellent coaching session facilitates the establishment of an assessment framework that I would argue is more realistic to the actual practice of coaches, is more useful to coaches and coach educators and more scalable than the current form of assessment which on most UK coach education courses is still founded on Jessups Model of Outcomes that was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990si. There is also a lot more to be said and discussed about the extent to which coach education in the UK has, since the early 1990s, been influenced by the competency based philosophy that underpins Jessups model. It remains a remarkable aspect of coaching in the UK that there has never been a critical debate scrutinising the validity of such an educational paradigm that is based on assessing competencies determined by occupational standards in a discrete can do/cant do or competent/not yet competent basis. Whether or not a competency defined outcomes model of vocational education is the best or most appropriate model to educate coach remains to be questioned.

In conclusion if the laudable idea of Excellent Coaching Everytime for Everyone is going to be promoted and have a chance to succeed it would be useful to have a lively debate and discussion as to what excellent coaching is, how we might conceptualise as opposed to describe excellent coaching and how it can be measured on coach education courses beyond a simple competent or not yet competent basis.
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see for example Jessup, G. (1991) Outcomes: NVQs and the Emerging Model of Education and Training London, Falmer Press.