I wanted to reflect on my recent pieces of writing combined with some posts and podcasts I have listened to this week. I’ve listened to a couple of great podcasts last weekend, The Talent Equation where Stuart, Mark Bennett and Alan Keane talked of how they’re focusing on the term “need centred” or “needs led coaching” as opposed to “athlete centred”; this was followed by the Flying Coach Podcast where coaching greats Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll, both of whom I have written about before, discuss what’s really important to coaching great teams and how you need to be comfortable in yourself to serve your players in an authoritative manner. So, while I’ve addressed and believe in the importance of how coaching techniques and certainly the importance of coach-athlete relationships have increased with our new age players, alongside how being aware of your athletes should structure and shape your practice design and coaching methodologies, are we able to recognise what athlete centred coaching looks like and are we able to develop connection, understanding and care to offer players what they need throughout their sporting journey?

Quoting Andy Farrell, “The team is a reflection of you as a coach. Players want to play for a coach who cares about them.” Recent piece of writing looking at comments made by Ireland Head Coach Farrell and other sources of information, asking us to reflect and question our coaching processes and methodologies, understanding what is REALLY important to your athletes or how to make an impact with your coaching group. I also aim to answers questions forwarded around ensuring the players are enjoying the game while technically developing the individuals.

New article, looking at and discussing a few articles I’ve shared early 2020 via Twitter, addressing ideas around practice design, athlete-led learning and how techniques such as game-based ideas both engage and encourage players in team based sports. Review of methods recognising the importance of understanding the backgrounds of the players plus the needs of the group or individuals and structuring practice where athletes are required to be creative, adaptive and make decisions which shall transfer into competitive environments.

Piece of writing looking at Ronan O’Gara’s transition to coaching and the importance of coach-athlete relationships have increased with our new age players, comparing against research completed at University of Bath where Dr Shaun Williams and Andrew Manley found the emphasis on performance data is producing mechanical players and taking away instinct, emotion and unpredictability from the sport.

Writing during the early stages of COVID-19 lockdown, I wanted to look at what we can do as coaches to help our development and athletes. In this unfamiliar territory of postponed competitions, sporting organisations on lock-down and priorities of community wide heath and welfare taking precedence over sporting involvement and athletic achievement, what can we do as coaches to continue to develop our craft and maintain our athlete’s interest and development?