Professor Chris Cushion is currently the head of coaching at England Netball and a professor of coaching and pedagogy at the famous Loughborough university in England. When it comes to the coaching environment, practice and coach behaviours Chris is one of the most prominent researchers in this space with over 100 publications and over 8000 citations from other authors and researchers. One of the things that sets Chris apart from a lot of his peers is that he has also had an exceptional coaching practitioner career in football as well as his distinguished career in academia and this ability to have what is effectively a foot in both camps helps with bringing research to life in practical settings. In this episode I want to talk to Chris about both his practical experiences and his research and how he and other coaches can effectively combine research in their practice.
I felt like there was some really valuable coaching advice from Professor Chris Cushion in this episode. For me the use of questioning and how to apply it was gold for me. I know as coaches we often discuss the importance of questioning, however applying it and following it up with further practice to initiate a change in behaviour is vital.
As coaches its also really important to schedule questions and into your coaching program – you can prepare these before the session to pre-empt learning situations rather than make things up as you go.
Secondly I really learnt a lot around Chris’s discussion on feedback – knowing the best times to use feedback, how to apply it effectively and what you are trying to achieve.
Finally thinking outside the square and using other teaching and learning strategies from educational research can enhance your coaching. As learning theories can certainly be applied to coaching to enhance athlete learning. Rosenshine’s principles of instruction could be a great place to start if this is of any interest and can be accessed by a google search.
I hope you enjoyed the discussion with Professor Chris Cushion, he is an absolute legend of coaching research. If you would like to follow Chris he is active on:
Twitter: @Coachc1
LinkedIn: Chris Cushion
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