Practical advice on coaching from a distance
My expereinces during Covid
A guest post from Ben Caldwell
Ben Caldwell is a professional badminton coach who has worked across Europe in Spain, Germany, Austria and England.
He is expereinced in coaching juniors to international level and has previouilsy been a project leaders for German U19 players.
I’ve known Ben for many years and always valued his opinion.
The year was 2020
In the last few weeks, there has been a unique situation for coaches, who are unable to work with their players due to social distancing restrictions amid the COVID-19 crisis.
However, there is hope, using modern technology and creativity will allow us to find solutions.
In this post, I will offer some advice from my experience gained since they closed all sports facilities in Germany on the 16th of March until the present (16 April 2020)
As a coach, the balance between wanting your players to be autonomous and to follow the advice is a key debate, even more so now under these restrictions
How to encourage autonomy and offer guidance
Now is your opportunity to develop confident autonomous, individuals. Your aim is to have your players think by themselves within a framework that you feel comfortable with.
Its always been my core belief that we need to assist players so that they can manage themselves, make decisions (they don’t have to all be correct), create plans and strategies. All this will initially be managed by you in a subtle strategic way.
Players must feel that they can and are able to be independent people with their own thoughts and viewpoints.
Especially during this lockdown you need to be confident as their coach that you trust them to manage themselves safely and effectively.
Encourage autonomy
There are many benefits of having self-motivated, autonomous athletes, but how can we develop this in the current situation
Set creative tasks
Set your players a challenge.
Ask them to plan a stability session to share with the group. Or, analyse a video that you’ve sent them, using the worksheet that you normally use. With a video analysis task, you can broaden their skills at analysing the game which will allow them to become autonomous.
Give them a broad plan with flexibility for their own ideas
I’m referring to physical training. If you set a periodized weekly plan but also give them a choice of sessions within the plan they will take more ownership. They need to asess themselves every morning and decide on their plan for that day.
Introduce role models that they can follow independently
It’s important that your players seek information from any sources. These are some of the people I recommend that they investigate
Offer guidance
In an ideal world, players would know how to develop themselves and coaches could sit back and watch. In reality, there are so potential speedbumps that are best avoided!
Send a weekly structured plan
Organising their day at home can be very difficult for young players who are used to being at school. Making a structure for the day really helps. Example – morning stability – school work – afternoon running session. Plus, some players need more structure than others.
Do you know your players that well to identify which need you will prompt?
Use social media
Send motivational videos. Use Zoom or a similar platform to have group training online ie. Core training or Tabata sessions. Follow up on the creative tasks using individual Skype calls or Zoom group sessions.
Why don’t you workout with them following their plan 🙂
Promote good role-models
Mobilising the parents as key role models is especially important with the youngest players until age 13-14 when players can be a lot more self-guided.
People to follow on YouTube, click on the links below to visit the sites
I hope that through these difficult times,
players will increase their internal motivation and ability to take charge of their own learning
Who is Ben Caldwell
Ben is an English Coach currently working in Europe.
He has worked in Hamburg, Germany, as an assistant Coach to the German U19 Squad and Project Leader for the German U19 Players
Ben worked for Badminton Ireland and the Catalan Badminton Federation
Send me a question
I’m always grateful if you have read this far.
If there is anything that you have read that has helped or that you disagree with, then please send me an email.
I promise to read all your comments
It would be great to hear from you contact@badmintonandy.com
