Saturday 25 July 2015

Coaching the Mind - Performance Psychology Theory into Practice

For the last couple of years I had been pondering running a Sports Performance Psychology course.  I had attended the British Canoe Union (BCU) Coaching the Mind course as part of a coach up date and had really enjoyed it.  But there was no time to really reflect and see how I could put the theories into practise.  Since them I have made time and had started thinking about providing a 2 day course.  one days theory and a 2nd days practical that would allow time for an individual to experiment with new ideas and see what actually worked while having the opportunity to gain further feedback and input from a couple of experienced coaches.

Lee Pooley I had worked with and I delivered a couple of BCU 5 star Leader training courses for and we had got on really well.  He was an active paddler and sounded like he also new the material well.  The initial thought began to grow.  Now to see if there is any interest?  Within two weeks I had sold the 8 places!

The content of the first day was a mix of short inputs, work groups, individual work and out door short sessions to highlight various points.  The aim was focused with the individual and In brief covered the following:

Reflect and develop upon understanding of performance and arousal
discuss application of control strategies such as attentional focus and imagery
Explore factors and influences of personal motivation and how an individual/coach/leader can influence the motivational climate
Investigate how personal though/non verbal can influence behaviour

At the end of the day, an action plan was created for the following day and a control strategy was chosen.

Day 2 was the application and with a F4/5 W, with wind against tide, Rhoscolyn was chosen.  Working in teams of 4, between Lee and myself and then regrouping at lunch to share the mornings progress and results.

It was really greta to hear and see so many smiling faces ... the song 'happy shinny people' by REM came to mind ... stuff was really working!!











As a couple of people said after the weekend ...

Opportunity to put things into practise and to try a bit of trial and error before your memory gets fuzzy will I’m sure mean that the weekend will be far more effective than a single day in the classroom.


Importance of goal setting and the need for this to be aligned to one’s intrinsic motivations.

The need to be positive, to control the controllables and to eliminate doubt as far as possible.



And ... I am very pleased with the way the course built on the paddling I had recently done with Coastal Spirit  to improve my confidence and performance.
And ...

Thank you both for a really excellent weekend which exceeded my expectations in every way.

I'm keen to run this weekend again as the 2nd day was a pilot and because of this it was aimed at Intermediate to Advanced paddlers.  Is there interest from IntroMdiate to InterMediate or another InterMediate to Advanced?  
Early Autumn would be the aim or late spring.  Let me know if your interested ...

Thanks, Roger

www.coastalspirit.com
info@coastalspirit.com









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