Coaching
One of the many discussions I had with Aidan was on what make a good coach. Aidan had said it is a mixture of many things to be a good coach. He mentioned skills such as good communication, good organisational skills, approachable, fun, understandable, have patience, adaptable, enthusiastic and also someone who is trustworthy. You need to have good communication skills as you need to be able to communicate to the participants throughout the session. You have to be organised so you can have the session set up before the participants arrived and take them through the session easily because you can’t have the participants standing around as they will get bored easily and lose interest in the session. As a coach you have to be approachable and Aidan said this is very important and this is because if a participant has a problem they should be able to come you and talk without any fear or problems. This is especially important for when you are coaching children because as a coach you have to be as approachable as possible. Aidan stated as a coach you need to know how to have fun especially when coaching children as children can lose interest easily if they’re not enjoying the session so having fun has a big part to play for one of the many roles as a coach. Another important skill for coaches to have is being understandable and being able to listen to anyone who has a problem. Coaches have to be patient and Aidan stated this is vital as he has had his patience tested a few times so it is important to stay calm in certain situations. Aidan mentioned that if I was to be a coach I would have to be adaptable and a few times Aidan had to adapt his sessions to suit the needs of the clients so he said that you have to be ready for anything and be able to adapt. Coaches have to be enthusiastic so they can help the participants enjoy themselves and have a good time. Aidan mentioned one of the most important skills a coach so have is trust, it is vital that the team can trust a coach as they put full faith into the coach to help them reach their goals so important a coach can be trustworthy to help the team. In one of the sessions I had to be patient with one of the children who was misbehaving and Aidan said I handled that situation very well and got the child involved again with the group without any fuss. Aidan said for me to become a good coach I will have to work on a few of these but he mentioned I did perform well throughout the sessions as I was able to adapt and made sure the children had fun but also that I took the children through the sessions in a safe and effective manner which is important.