UKSCA Conference 2022 - a Personal Reflection.
This blog article was written by Joe Evans-Murray. Joe entered the competition to win one of 3 days’ passes to the UKSCA conference, and shares his reflections from the day here! Thanks to Joe for writing this (his second article in the same month) with some great reflections for all to benefit from.
Recently I was fortunate enough to go to the UKSCA annual conference thanks to the practitioner development fund set up by Dan. I attended day 3 and I was sufficiently excited for the chance to meet and hear from some of the best coaches in our industry. There was a great atmosphere and feeling of energy being surrounded by fellow coaches who were equally as dedicated to bettering themselves and striving to constantly deliver the best service to those they work with.
I wanted to share my top 3 highlights from the day:
#3. Gareth Walton: Back-to-basics speed training
This session was all about how to improve speed by simply using the basic skills and drills we all know. The key aims for Gareth when he trains his athletes are good interactions with the ground and correct posture, to ensure projection in the desired direction and promote an effective acceleration strategy.
He covered his go-to drills: A-marches and skips, broad jumps, ankling and wall drills. Every time the emphasis focused on transferring large forces into the ground to move forward whilst maintaining a solid trunk to hold the body in the right position.
Finally, Gareth shared his thoughts on session structure; he firmly believes that to make someone faster they need to practice sprinting - simple right? That is why he focuses on one key principle: every session finishes with several maximal effort sprints.
This was a really informative practical that focused on one simple element. The basics being done consistently well!
#2. Rene Wormhoudt
I couldn’t take notes quick enough for Rene’s presentation!
When someone, as experienced as this man, takes to the stage you know there will be a lot of golden nuggets of information. Lachlan Wilmot describes it as “the phone moment”, where I knew I would be able to access this presentation online, but I felt compelled to take pictures of most of his slides because I wanted to make sure I saved a copy of this information for myself.
The theme of Rene’s talk was focused on variability in training leading to improved sporting performance.
Sports have more in common than they do differences, but how often do we take advantage of these similarities to help with the training process?
We know each sport requires a number of fundamental movements to complete relevant sporting tasks. If training only ever exposes individuals to these same movement patterns, we are doing athletes a disservice because there are so many advantages to adding variety to what we coach.
Rene also helped highlight the importance of avoiding early specialisation in sport because you risk losing out on the benefits other sports that provide variability to participants.
This talk particularly resonated with me and made me consider the movement patterns I include in my coaching sessions daily. Have I been prioritising certain movements over others in training because I think the sport doesn’t “need” them? Maybe!
Rene summed up his presentation by saying we should be trying to “optimise a person’s adaptive ability”, since the best “adapter” is able to differentiate themselves in competitive situations. This is a perspective which will stick with me moving forward and influence my program design.
#1. Kirk Vallis
I didn’t expect the best talk of the day to have nothing to do with S&C….. This epitomises the point Kirk was making during his presentation, which was we should allow ourselves to look outwardly when trying to solve problems, rather than assuming different industries cannot have the same challenges.
Whether we like it or not, our brain wants to be efficient in solving problems; it will draw upon past knowledge, expertise and the information available to find the most efficient solution to the problem. We subconsciously constrain the creative options we are able to come up with, with the more expertise we gain. This is because we find ourselves in an ever-deepening river of thinking. Clearly, this approach can be limiting when you are trying to look for a new solution. The thought that you face finding a solution in a way that hasn’t been done before means it can be hard to come up with new ideas. This will ultimately hold us back if we are rooted in our ideas and unwilling to step out of our river of thinking!
Attempting creative problem-solving does not mean we have to completely disregard everything we currently do, however. Kirk quite simply articulates it as “there’s always one more option”. Therefore, before making a decision, allow yourself to consider one more option; if you do this, it can give you more confidence in what you finally choose to do.
Some helpful approaches to creative problem-solving:
· Are we framing the challenge in the right way?
· Are we focusing on how the problem should be solved rather than the way it needs to be solved first?
· Think expansive, then reductive. So think wide, then narrow your focus with more clarity.
In summary, it was a brilliant day being able to spend it learning and improving just like everyone else. There were so many great people to connect with and learn from that it didn’t feel like CPD! Instead, it was a group of like-minded individuals coming together to share ideas to help improve their craft over a coffee or three!
I can’t wait for the next one. Thanks to everyone who took the time to engage with me during the day!
Don’t forget! Today (Sunday 30th) is the last day to apply for Sponsorship to join the Group Mentorship Programmes in January! Click here to get a last-minute application in!