Coaching Matters: Cumbria, 10th February 2018
Coaching Matters: Cumbria, 1st December 2017
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Each year, Cumbria RDT (Cumbria Canoeists) offers two Coaching Matters Coach Update events; one midweek in the late autumn and another on a weekend in mid-to-late February; the midweek date tends to appeal to professional coaches in the quieter time of their year, and the weekend caters for coaches who aren’t able to take time off work.
Our latest event, on 1st December 2017, was very generously hosted by Andy Sallabank and his welcoming and demonstrably professional team at Thurston Outdoor Education Centre (South Tyneside’s Outdoor Education Centre) on the east side of Coniston and, as usual, was fully subscribed (44 participants made it; we lost a few due to lurgy, work and the wrong kind of snow). With perilously icy roads, snowfall over the Pennines and a forecast of blustery 10-30mph northerly winds at 1°C that 44 turned up is quite impressive. Participants came from as far away as Ebbw Vale in South Wales, and Thirsk to the north east; around 50% live in Cumbria, a few more work in the county but live elsewhere. Around 20% were, and probably still are female, the rest mostly male, all but two being British Canoeing members with an age range of early 20s to 60s? (I’m guessing; life might have been harder on some). As I compiled the participant register, I considered the longevity of coaching experience of those that I knew or knew of, and conservatively estimated the collective experience to be significantly to the north of 400 years with the realisation that the one day was so, so little time to share the benefit of that experience. Perhaps we’ll be hosting multi-day events in future just so that coaches can talk with each other for a generous length of time. A typical format for Cumbria Coaching Matters events starts with the Keynote presentation, followed by morning and afternoon 3-hour workshops focusing on coaching practice and safety systems, practices and procedures. We also invite our Cumbrian paddlesports equipment retailer, Border kayaks, to bring along a mobile toy shop. For this event we’d invited our workshop presenters to deliver practical, outdoor session in the morning, making best use of the available daylight, followed after lunch and Thurston flapjack by indoor or grounds-based workshops. At the end of the day, we could gather to share a sample of participants’ experiences and learning before everyone departed. |
The Keynote Presentation delivered by Lee Pooley and Darryl Shaw of British Canoeing gave participants an overview of recent changes in British Canoeing coaching objectives, organisation, and qualifications and the underpinning rationale and ethos and early feedback suggest that this was a highly valued component of the event.
The range of workshop offered is the result of an informed guess at what will be desirable, popular and topical, and takes into accounts the available facilities, water and potential weather and wind direction at Thurston. The final schedule looked like this: Morning Session:
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Sean, Greg and Ashley have presented valuable and popular workshops on previous Cumbria Coaching Matters events, each sharing, with their unique, engaging and creative styles, the benefit of many years of professional coaching and coach development. For the first time, Jen Steventon, a coach at Thurston, delivered a very well-received session on using giant SUPs which are becoming more popular and can offer a superb outdoor learning experience: In Cumbria, invasive non-native species are a significant and growing cause for concern and paddlers can easily transfer these species, so we invited Bekka Corrie-Close of the South Cumbria Rivers Trust to deliver her workshop to increase awareness of the action that paddlers can take to diminish the risk of transference. Current safeguarding practice is an ever present topic amongst centre and clubs and so a relevant and popular workshop for this event.
Comments made and conversations heard and overheard during the day, along with feedback from participants and presenters allow us to judge the success of our efforts and, as with previous Cumbrian Coaching Matters events, we seem to have created a successful and valued recipe with “thought-provoking”, “well-organised”, “good-value”, “friendly and welcoming venue” as the common early messages. |
We will, in the near future, canvas participants to gain a greater understanding of the effect of this course; considered feedback enables us to continue to develop the service we offer for the benefit of paddlesports coaches regardless of qualification and experience. The key to our continued success will be to listen to the needs of our coaches and continue to deliver relevant, topical, engaging, professionally presented workshops with the help and support of our paddlesport community, especially the workshop presenters and venues, such as Thurston OEC who contribute so much to the success of an event.
Coaching Matters events are not merely for coaches needing to update their qualifications; they are a relatively cheap and high-value CPD opportunity to share knowledge with like-minded practitioners, to develop coaching and safety practice and contribute to the overall development of paddlesports coaching in Cumbria and further afield. The next Cumbrian Coaching Matters event will be held in late February/early March and will be widely publicised. If there is a particular topic that you’d like us to provide a workshop for, please let us know |
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Simon McElroy – Event Coordinator
ACR Cumbria SW: coaching.southwestcumbria@britishcanoeing.org.uk You can find a number of images from the event here. |
Thanks to Andy Sallabank and the team at Thurston, Sue Brighouse (Cumbria Canoeists), Sean McGrath (Wild River), Greg Spencer, Ashley St.John-Claire (Outdoor Resources), Jen Steventon (Thurston OEC), Bekka Corrie-Close (SCRT), Mark Fell (Active Cumbria), Lee Pooley and Darryll Shaw (British Canoeing) and Mike Sunderland (Cumbria Canoeists).
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Cumbria Canoeists Online:
Cumbria Canoeists on Facebook: For residents of Cumbria and coaches working in Cumbria; provides access to local events, news and chatter.
Cumbria Paddlesports Coach Development: This Facebook page offers a forum for sharing coach development opportunities. It’s a new initiative so needs your input. How about creating and offering an opportunity to share coaching practice at your workplace or club? Invite a coach to your workplace to share a session with you? Co-coach a session at Cumbria Canoeists?
www.cumbriacanoeists.org.uk: Cumbria Canoeists web site includes regional resources plus a packed calendar of events, coaching workshops and trips for river paddlers, sea kayakers and open canoeists at any level of development (mostly for Cumbrian residents).
Cumbria Paddlesports Coach Development: This Facebook page offers a forum for sharing coach development opportunities. It’s a new initiative so needs your input. How about creating and offering an opportunity to share coaching practice at your workplace or club? Invite a coach to your workplace to share a session with you? Co-coach a session at Cumbria Canoeists?
www.cumbriacanoeists.org.uk: Cumbria Canoeists web site includes regional resources plus a packed calendar of events, coaching workshops and trips for river paddlers, sea kayakers and open canoeists at any level of development (mostly for Cumbrian residents).
