ICaP member climbs the BASES ladder

ICaP's Dr Howie Carson has successfully completed his British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Supervised Experience course.

Conducted by Professor Dave Collins, the course lasted over three years during which Dr Carson provided support in a variety of sports including Golf, Motor Sport, Archery and Rugby Union.

He now plans to apply for Accredited status as a BASES Sport and Exercise Scientist and also Chartered status as a Scientist.

Dr Carson worked with numerous leading sports organisations during the course, including Leicester Tigers Rugby Union Club and the English Cricket Board.

He is qualified as a PGA Advanced Professional golf coach and has been invited with Professor Collins to deliver a headline talk at the prestigious Golf Trade Show in Harrogate later this year.

For more details about Dr Carson's work please click here.

Top names gather for coaching event

Bryan Jones and John Trower recently attended a showpiece national conference which brought together some of the world's leading coaching educators.

Hosted by Sports Coach UK at the University of Gloucester, the UKCC Level 4 Conference featured talks from a number of high profile names and gave delegates the opportunity to share ideas and good practice techniques.

Toni Minichiello, who coaches star athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill; Professor Jean Cote, a world leading researcher into sport; and Sports Coach UK's Andy Grant were amongst a range of speakers from across the sporting spectrum.

The event featured a number of workshops, including updates on the latest research, the current thinking behind the process of reflective practice and the challenges of Mentoring in the UK.

Bryan said the two-day event was extremely productive: "It was great to catch up with colleagues who deal with the same issues on a day-to-day basis. We share our approaches to working with high performing coaches and challenge each other to improve what we do.

"There was a brilliant mix of coaches and coach developers in attendance and it's great to get their views. It is clear from the conference that UCLan are performing exceptionally well and changing the practices of coaches."

For more information about Sports Coach UK please click here.

Scottish Basketball Coach achieves UKCC Level 4

Jim Wright has become the first Basketball coach in Scotland to achieve a UKCC Level 4 qualification.

Jim (far left) came to the course as an experienced coach/tutor with many years coaching at both National and International Level.

He felt his coaching skills had been somewhat self-taught and that he, and his players, would benefit from the course both from a purely academic perspective and from the networking opportunities on offer.

The course had coaches from a number of diverse sports including hockey, rugby league and motor sport, with everyone delivering at National/GB level. Jim was also encouraged to develop his practice through observing other sports and high performance environments.

He said: "Little did I know that I would make excellent links both professionally and personally and have my practice positively impacted in such a fundamental way. I think despite the disparate experiences we all brought, the over-riding emotions during the first weekend were described by all of us as 'my head hurts', 'brain melt' and 'head on fire'.

"This was quickly replaced by an enthusiasm to get into the course largely as a result of the attitude of Bryan (Jones) and John (Trower), who led the academic input and coach mentoring respectively and who were always engaging encouraging and challenging.

"One of the most enjoyable aspects of the course was the fact there were very few 'definites' - it was always about possibilities and opinions. This was refreshing and made for a stimulating learning environment. The range, depth and experience of the guest speakers made for added value.

"Adi Stan, John Kiely and others allowed the teaching to avoid staleness and offered students an opportunity to discuss pedagogy with true leaders in their field. Many of my colleagues took the opportunity to visit Adi and others and found them to be both supportive and welcoming.

"John (Trower) was the Coach Mentor/Yoda figure to a few of us. He was available to discuss Practice Issues, L4 Portfolio and for general discussion regarding the course. I found him particularly supportive on a number of occasions, helping to deliver to various coaches within Scottish basketball.

"Particular highlights were the often tangential discussions that developed from the initial topic. These were always allowed to develop and create stimulating discussions. I believe this was strength of the course, in that it allowed the students to truly be responsible for their learning, and to lead their own learning.

"This was crucial for me, as I viewed the course as both academic and a coaching journey. I could develop or not dependent on my efforts and inclinations. All of the input generated reflection, so it was up to me how to implement it in my practice. I was also exposed to academic challenge and reinforcement of my practice, Graves, Dweck et al were all a delight to re-discover and immerse in.

"The course was a boon to my coaching as I was involved with Scottish National Squads and I was able to relate my new experience to my coaching almost in 'real time', developing both my practice and my players' performance at the same time, examples such as performance anxiety, functional variability spring immediately to mind.

"I would recommend the course to anyone hoping to develop their coaching practice within a hugely supportive academic environment. I'd especially like to thank Arvinder Kaur, Bryan, John and the rest of Cohort 4 for their support during an energizing two years."

Professor Collins presents at ECB event

Professor Dave Collins was a keynote speaker at the recent ECB Association of Cricket Officials Annual Conference 2014.

Professor Collins discussed the Psychology of Officiating, which built on previous work with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) that used video simulations to develop more coherent decision making in referees and touch judges, long before the days of video referees. He also talked about the multi-tasking skills needed by umpires - the 'Flash Lag' hypothesis.

The event attracted a number of leading names from the world of cricket, including former England international fast-bowler Steve Harmison.

Exploring theory and practice - a constraints-led approach

The Institute of Coaching and Performance (ICaP) is teaming up with Plas y Brenin National Mountain Centre to host an adventure sports coaching seminar.

ICaP's Professor David Collins and Dr. Loel Collins will be joined by top coaches Marianne Davies and Dean (Sid) Sinfield at the event, which is aimed at all coach educators in the industry.

The day will be based around sharing ideas and expertise to explore how we can more effectively coach adventure sports using the interaction of personal, environmental and task-specific constraints, and in particular focus on the application of theory into practice.

The event takes place on Friday, 28th November, 9.00am-2.30pm. For further information please click here.

Institute and students help Tongan Rugby preparations

The Institute of Coaching and Performance have been helping the Tongan Rugby Union team prepare for the forthcoming Autumn Internationals.

The squad is spending three days at UCLan Sports Arena using its rugby pitches and strength and conditioning suite as part of a rigorous training schedule before facing Georgia on Saturday, 8 November.

The players were joined for one of the sessions by former South African Rugby Union team coach Jake White. Tonga Head Coach Mana Otai commented: "Training is going really well and we're all feeling very positive. This is our first visit to Preston and the whole squad has been made to feel really welcome.

"We're very impressed with the facilities here at UCLan Sports Arena and will make the most of them as we prepare for our first Autumn International match next week."

Students from a range of UCLan Sport courses have been able to go along to some of the training sessions and watch the players and coaches in action.

Two second year Sports Coaching students, Oliver Hicks and Liam Reilly, have been chosen to work with the squad on performance analysis and the players also took advantage of the University's Physiotherapy Clinic for sports massage treatment from second and third year Sports Therapy students.

Liam said: "It's a massive opportunity to work so closely with the professionals and they see how they do it.

"We've videoed the players in training and can feed back to the coaching staff on specific areas. It's been a big learning curve and we've been given some really useful advice."

If the three day training camp is a success, Tonga will consider using UCLan as a base for next year's Rugby Union World Cup.

It follows a series of other high profile international sports team visits when both the Irish and Fijian Rugby League teams used UCLan Sports Arena as a base camp during the Rugby League World Cup 2013.

UCLan also hosted several Olympic athletes from Oceania, including Tonga, as they prepared for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

ICaP's Bryan Jones said: "Tonga's visit is a legacy of the work we did with several Oceania countries in the build up to London 2012. Since then we've worked hard to develop this relationship and it's fantastic that we're now able to host yet another international rugby team right here on campus.

"It's a great opportunity for students to see and work with professionals and hopefully we will welcome the squad again next year as they prepare for the World Cup."

In addition to the Georgia game, Tonga face the USA on Saturday, 15 November and Scotland on Saturday, 22 November.

ICaP Divisional update

The Institute of Coaching and Performance (ICaP) is looking forward to another successful academic year.

During 2013/14 ICaP hosted its first Talent Development Symposium and had over 45 peer review papers published, including three in the top rated journal 'Sports Medicine'.

ICaP's Professor Dave Collins is delighted to confirm there are now over 90 students on the DProf and MProf courses, including five full fee overseas students. ICaP has also had three doctoral graduates and secured grants worth approximately £300,000.

Staff who have secured prestigious external applied positions include John Kiely (Strength and Conditioning consultant to the Irish national Rugby Team) and recently appointed Lecturer Andrew Cruickshank (Psychology Consultant to British Judo and the Motor Sports Association).

Dr Tim Holder (Senior Lecturer) and Dr Howie Carson (Research Assistant) have both joined ICaP, whilst Dr Aine MacNamara has returned from maternity leave. The Institute are also planning some new postgraduate degree courses.