STAY AT HOME COACH AT HOME
STAY AT HOME COACH AT HOME
April 01, 2020
With everything going on in New Zealand and around the world at the moment, we believe it's crucial for our community to stay connected. To ensure we stay connected as coaches, we've put together this newsletter to outline how we can all communicate, connect others and develop as coaches during the COVID-19 lock-down period.
How can we communicate?
If you're one of the many who have some downtime available at the moment and are motivated to focus on hockey and more specifically coaching, there are a range of platforms you can use to communicate with other coaches. We've listed a few options below around how you can do this, some led by Canterbury Hockey and others by you.
- Join and interact with others on Canterbury Hockey's Coaches Circle Facebook Group
- The Canterbury Hockey team are really keen to get this platform humming over the next few weeks. We'll ensure we share content on there every 2-3 days, but what we need from the page members is comments, ideas or resource sharing along with questions for Canterbury Hockey and other users to answer. We currently have 98 members on this page, so if utilised properly it could be a great tool for the short and long term connection of our local coaches.
- If you're not currently a member of the group, but would like to join, simply click the link below (red button). If you don't have Facebook, unfortunately you won't be able to gain access.
- If you're already a member but aren't receiving any notifications from the page, search 'Canterbury Hockey Coaches Circle' and select the notification settings. Facebook automatically sets all groups notifications settings to 'highlights'. You will need to change this to 'All Posts' as below and you should see everything posted! Alternatively, you can just check the group regularly.
- Start a chat with other coaches and start sharing your ideas or questions. We recommend the below apps or platforms, but if you know of others, go ahead and set them up.
- Recommended apps or platforms - Whats app, Facebook Messenger, Viber.
- Email and texting obviously have group settings and can be used effectively, however we find these often get lost in amongst all sorts of other important information, so setting up a separate platform can be a handy way to keep coaching and work/family/friends communication separate.
- Give someone a call or video call. This one's pretty simple, just pick up the phone and call another coach you know. Maybe you want to see how they're going, discuss how their athletes are keeping busy in lock down or their plans for a different looking 2020 hockey season. Whats app, Facebook Messenger and Viber all have both audio and video call functions and are reasonably easy to set up for group calls too.
How can we connect others?
For most of us, we'll be doing well to connect with a couple of other coaches or athletes during the next few weeks, which is completely fine. However a few of you may be motivated to or in a role where you want to connect others too, and for those that are, we've put a couple of ideas below around who you could connect and ways in which you can do so.
- Connect your athletes. We can't physically meet and train, but does that mean all team activity needs to stop? Depending on your current situation, the answer for the majority of us is probably no. With the use of technology and the huge number of group communication platforms out there (some listed above), it should be reasonably easy for most of us to connect with our athletes. Why not challenge them with a few of the 1000's of skill videos circulating around the internet, put a fitness/conditioning plan in place (age group dependent) or just encourage some social interaction amongst team mates.
- The below video link from 'Changing the Game Project' in USA talks through 'How to support your athletes during COVID-19'. Please click the link below (red button) to head to the video.
- Connect your coaches. For the few of you who are in Coach Co-ordination or Development roles, or are simply a coach who wants to better connect with other coaches in your club/school, why not set up your own equivalent of 'Canterbury Hockey's Coaches Circle'. If you already have a page set up, share some content, invite others to input or put some questions out there. You don't have to use a Facebook group either, a number of the communication apps including those mentioned above that will do the job!
How can we develop?
Last but certainly not least, with more spare time than normal on our hands, why not look for ways to develop yourself as a coach over the next few weeks. Unfortunately there is no one size fits all model, but there are a range of platforms set up, particularly for new coaches. We've listed some free and easy to access courses below.
- Hockey New Zealand - Braken Learning Platform
- Hockey NZ's platform has four online coaching courses - Small Sticks 5-8, Small Sticks 9-12, Youth Hockey and Club Hockey. Simply create a log in, pick which course best matches the athletes you work with and start the modules.
- If you've already completed one of the courses and want to move onto the next one, just email Ben@canterburyhockey.org.nz for a new activation code.
- Sport NZ's Sport Tutor - Online Education Platform
- Sport Tutor has a range of courses focused on both coaching and generic sport development. You'll need to create a log in and search for each course in the catalogue.
- Recommended courses for new coaches include 'Sportstart Coach' and/or 'Coaching Safety Net'. For coaches at all levels, we recommend the award winning programme 'Thriving Under Fire', which is used in retail and service industries and has been adapted for those involved within the sport and recreation sector. Please note, for those doing Sportstart, Thriving Under Fire is included in the programme.
For access to these workshops, please click the link to our Online Coaching Courses web page below (red button). Sport NZ have also recommended some additional online courses in their article linked below too.
Sport NZ - Coach Tips for our times
Sport NZ's sport development team recently released a great article called 'Tips for our times'.
Their six tips include:
- Read
- Reflect
- Connect
- Ring
- Register
- Relax
For more information on each of these tips, make sure you follow the link below and read the full article.