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Browsing Posts in Coaching Articles

Student Centre Coaching

If you’re a coach or are interested in how you and others learn you may have come across the terms ‘Student Centred’, ‘Coach Centred’, ‘Student Led’ and ‘Coach Led’.

Coach education courses often recommend we should learn to shift from one option to another and be flexible with our coaching to bring out the best in our students. We can only do this once we understand the terms and how they are structured.

These terms are metaphors, and this video shows how we can take these metaphors literally and start to think about them in a way that allows us to use them with ease.

For more information about coaching and to find out about coaching courses contact Kim on Kim@kimbull.co.uk

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‘Utilisation’ for Coaches….

….or what to do when students don’t come up with the answers you expect!

When questioning students or setting guided discovery tasks, sometimes students come back with unexpected answers.  One strategy to use here is ‘Utilisation’.  Have a look at the video to find out more.

For more information on coaching techniques and courses contact me on Kim@kimbull.co.uk.

'Utilisation' for Coaches, All Articles, Coaching Articles, Communication none

Do You Take The Learnings From Your Mistakes……

……Or Just Give Up?

“I failed!”, “that’s wrong!”, and “that didn’t work!” are all potentially negative ways of perceiving an experience – but they are frequently heard terms when people are learning new canoe and kayak skills.

‘Failure’ can be repackaged as another way to describe learning what not to do. ‘Failing’ and making mistakes provide valuable information.

‘Failure’ is another word for understanding and gaining knowledge about what did not work on this occasion.  And by a process of elimination, the more mistakes we make the closer we must be to a solution – so we never really fail until we give up, we just find lots of ways of not doing something yet!

For more information on trips, coaching and courses please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

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Using Language to Inspire Confidence

Effective Language for Canoe and Kayak Leadership

We all know that confident leadership can inspire the rest of the group and help canoeists and kayakers perform at their best – but what can we do to come across as being confident?

We need to be confident in our decisions, and confident in our instructions.  We need to have clear aims and objectives, and communicate them effectively to the group.  And there’s a simple way for us to achieve this – we can do what great leaders do and eliminate the word “try” from our vocabulary.

When we use the word “try”, we introduce the possibility of failure.  We plant seeds of doubt in the minds of our group.  And yet “try” is a word I so often hear when assessing leaders for their 4 or 5 star awards.

“We’ll try to get that eddy”, “I’ll try to hit the line”, We’ll try not to capsize” – these are all common phrases, but they don’t inspire confidence in either the leaders or the groups ability.

In fact, “try” does not exist in the real world.  We either do something or we don’t – there is no try.  Many people think of Winston Churchill when we think of great leadership.  For him, trying didn’t exist either.  Imagine the effect on the morale of the people if he’d broadcast this speech before our ‘finest hour’-

“we shall try to fight on the beaches,
we shall try to fight on the landing grounds,
we shall try to fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall try to fight in the hills;
we shall try not to surrender”.

-the effect’s not quite the same is it?  It’s almost as if the word ‘try’ gives us permission to fail!  So when you’re out paddling, let’s stop trying – let’s just “do”.

For more information on leadership, coaching and courses please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

All Articles, Canoe and Kayak Articles, Coaching Articles, Communication, Safety and Leadership, Using Language to Inspire Confidence leadership, Positive language

Briefing Check List for Leaders

For the BCU Four and Five Star Leader awards, candidates need to have a simple and effective brief for the group they are leading.

Sometimes, it seems like there are so many things to remember that it can help to have a mental checklist to make sure that everything is covered.

One way to remember and check you have covered everything is to use the acronym My ABCDE.

M.Y.A.B.C.D.E. stands for-

Me – Introduction and a bit about me.

You – Introductions from the group.

Area – the plan for the day, the water we will be on, and the ‘type’ of trip we will be undertaking.

Boats and kit – safety checks and also who has what kit and where.

Communication – how will we communicate, what signals will we use.

Doctor – an invitation for anyone to let me know any relevant medical needs and a reminder for people to carry any relevent medication.

Emergency – what to do if an incident occurs – a swim brief and what the rest of the group should do.

For more information about Four and Five Star Leader training you can contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

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Shaping a Positive Outcome From a Negative Statement

“But….I Can’t!”

The word ‘but’ has only three letters, but is has a significant effect in directing our attention and behaviour.

It’s also one of the most commonly used words people use to stop themselves doing something.  This is because the word ‘but’ deletes from our attention the part of the sentence before it, and directs our attention to the part of the sentence after it.

Take this example-

“I really want to paddle grade 3, but I’m just not confident.”

It uses this common structure-

“Positive statement……BUT…..Negative Statement”

We make a positive statement about something we want (“I really want to paddle grade 3″) , we then use the word ‘but’, then we make a negative statement giving a reason why we can’t do it (“I’m just not confident”).   Now, as the word ‘but’ in effect deletes the first half of the sentence, this is what we hear-

“I really want to paddle grade 3, but I’m just not confident!”

-and this is what we base our behaviour on.

Many sports psychologists know this, and have learned that the word ‘but’ can be replaced with the word ‘and’.  This can work, especially when giving feedback.  For example, if a coach gives the following feedback,

“You controlled the edge of the boat well, but you lost your boat angle in the flow.  Next time work on this.”

The student will often unconsciously delete the first part of the sentence and miss the praise, and only hear the second half-

“You controlled the edge of the boat well, but you lost your boat angle in the flow!  Next time work on this!”

However, by replacing ‘but’ with ‘and’ the whole sentence is perceived more positively -

“You controlled the edge of the boat well and you lost your boat angle in the flow.  Next time work on this”.

BUT, how does this change our original sentence?  Now it becomes,

“I really want to paddle grade 3, and I’m just not confident.”

Well, the ‘but’ has gone, but the use of the word ‘and’ doesn’t really add much.  So let’s go back to the word ‘but’, and think about how it can be used to our advantage.

At the moment, the sentence is structured-

“Positive statement……BUT…..Negative Statement”

If the word ‘but’ deletes the part of the sentence before it, what happens if we change the order of the statements within the sentence?  If we put the negative statement before the ‘but’, and the positive statement after it, we can change which part of the sentence gets deleted.  The sentence would now be structured-

“Negative statement……BUT…..Positive Statement”

So now, our sentence becomes,

“I’m just not confident, but I really want to paddle grade 3!”

Suddenly, the whole sentence has a different emphasis.  And smart coaches can use this structure to empower their students.  So if you have students who doubt their abililty, listen out for ‘but’ sentences when talking to them and reverse them!

The conversation might go something like this -

(Coach)  “So we’re going to paddle a new river today, I think you’re ready for a new challenge.  What would you like to do?”

(Student) “I really want to paddle grade 3, but I’m just not confident. ”

(Coach)  “So, you’re not confident yet, but you really want to paddle grade 3!”

(Student)  “mmmm, yes.”

(Coach)  “OK, let’s go and do River X (insert your local grade 3 river here!)”.

For more information or training in how to use NLP in your coaching please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

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Learning Something New to Overcome Bad Habits

Language and Communication for Canoe and Kayak Coaches

It’s a lot easier to learn something new than to re-learn something and overcome bad habits or inappropriate schema.  Coaches know this, and students know this too, so the very mention of ‘re-learning’ means an uphill challenge before we even start coaching.  So how can coaches use this to their advantage?

We can reframe the situation, and utilise the curiosity and eagerness our students possess.  Instead of going through the long and painful process of re-learning, invite your students to learn how to do things in a different way.

It’s a lot easier to learn another way of achieving something – and it gives us more options!

For more information or training in how to use NLP in your coaching please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

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The Focus of Canoe and Kayak Leadership

Decision Making for Canoe and Kayak Leaders

Have you ever wondered how really good leaders make the right decisions?  How do they know when to stop the group and put them in a safe place while they paddle something or scout ahead?  How do they know when to stop the group and change strategy?

One thing they do is unconsciously monitor where they are placing their focus of attention.

Evidence suggests we can only focus our attention on one thing at a time.  However, we can switch focus from one thing to another quickly, with practice.  What we need to decide is how much of our time we should spend attending to any particular thing.

There are so many things we could attend to, and they can be put into three general categories-

  • The Environment (including the weather, the water and hazards)
  • The Group (including their performance, welfare and morale)
  • Ourself (our emotional state, the skills we’re performing, and our physical feelings eg temperature)

Good leaders are paying attention to these three areas in different proportions, and these proportions will vary depending on the situation.

If a leader is well within their own comfort zone, their focus of attention may look something like this-

Focus of Attention

Group

45%

Environment

45%

Self

10%

Now, imagine that the group arrive at a challenging piece of water.  The Leader decides that he needs to pay more attention to the environment – perhaps 70% of his attention. But that means the very most he can attend to the group is 30%, perhaps not enough.  So the leader stops the group, puts them in a safe place, and no longer has to worry about them while he pays attention to the environment and his own safety.

Now, perhaps the leader decides that the challenges ahead are within the capabilities of the group, but when actually paddling the leader will have to concentrate of his own performance and increase the focus of attention on himself to 50%.  And he’ll need to adapt his performance within the environment, so the environment requires 40% attention.  Again, that means that he cannot focus on keeping the group safe, so he decides to run the water one at a time with those not running it safely out of harms way.

So next time you’re out with your groups, have a think about how much attention you are paying to these different areas at different times and in different places.  Calibrating this can be a useful way to know when it’s time to change strategy.

For more information on leadership, coaching and courses please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

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Sharing Experience and New Ideas

Last week I was working with my good friend and colleague Ken Hughes (Ken Hughes Courses) delivering the new BCU UKCC Level 3 Discipline Specific Canoe Training.

There are some real benefits from sharing delivery and working with other people.

  • We had more time to reflect on our delivery.
  • We had more time to plan specifically and respond to what was happening in front of us.
  • We could bounce ideas off each other.
  • We could consider other ways to do things.
  • We could talk things through and develop our own ideas and understandings.
  • We could pinch each others ideas.

If you’re a coach, I can recommend finding another coach to work with for a day.  It’s a great way for you to develop and become even more skilled.

For more information on coaching and courses please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

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Goal Setting For Paddlers

Setting Your Paddling Goals

Sea Kayaking in Alaska

Sea Kayaking in Alaska

Research shows that those who set goals have a greater chance of being successful in their pursuits.  Yet very few of us set personal goals about our canoeing and kayaking.  Here’s one way of doing this simply and easily – using the benefit of hindsight.

Find a quiet place where you can spend just a few moments going through this simple exercise.

Imagine that you have travelled forward in time. It is New Year’s Eve on 31st December 2011, the end of another year and you are in a reflective mood. It’s time to look back on all you have achieved and the progress you have made in the year just past.

As you look back over 2011 you might like to reflect and ask yourself:

  • What paddling, training and practice did I do in 2011?
  • What are my paddling achievements?
  • What have I learned?
  • What were the things I was willing to do to make this progress?
  • What did I find most important, useful and interesting this year?

Imagine you could go back to the beginning of 2011, what advice would you give yourself that will help you make the best of this coming year?

Come back to the present moment, the beginning of this New Year and consider everything you have to look forward to.

Open canoe, sea kayak and white water courses and coaching, 1:1 and group workshops, BCU Training and Assessments in Northumberland and the North East.

For more information please contact me at Kim@kimbull.co.uk.

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