Sports pedagogy as a module has introduced me to the many complexities and moral considerations of the professional coaching world. I have particularly enjoyed talking about performance enhancing drugs in sport as well as fundamental movement skills and warm-ups. This has enabled me to better understand the complexities and nuances of the sporting world which in turn allows me to further understand the sports and sciences that I consider that I am passionate about. One of the hardest things for me has been coaching itself, finding the confidence to talk to a large group of peers in a loud, clear and confident voice has been a challenge but I feel that I performed the best I could on the day and I am very happy with the end result that me and my partner came up with, choosing the coach the sport I favour being CrossFit. Having my CrossFit level one certificate helped me with this and I feel that this module and that course have gone hand in hand to help make me a better coach overall which I am very happy with and I hope will be using in the near future. Having the freedom in the blogs to talk about a sporting topic of my choice has been an excellent opportunity to talk about something that I am extremely interested and partake in. Overall this module has been excellent and I feel has taught me a great deal about my future in higher education which I hope continues.

Motivation is the force within a human that drives them to accomplish certain goals or expectations that may have been put upon them in certain cases. There are many different things that may motivate someone to do something. Motivation in sport may be created from the desire for better performance, or the desire to be the best and even the desire to prove someone wrong.

Scientifically there are considered to be two main types of motivation, these are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is driven by the natural tendency to seek to become better for one’s own personal satisfaction such as fun, interest or curiosity as well as finding the activity itself rewarding in one’s own life devoid of input from others. Extrinsic motivation is he engagement from others that may be incurred from winning or avoiding punishment and proving someone wrong or right. Different people may favour different types of motivation due to various factors in their life, the way to go about coaching or teaching these individuals also varies in order to get the best possible commitment and performance out of that certain person. For naturally intrinsic motivated people it helps to avoid extrinsic motivation such as rewards or punishments as it may undermine why the participant is doing it in the first place, perhaps taking away from the magic that they have in the sport. Its common phrase that winning can go to someone’s head and I believe that once someone wins a large competition, they get a taste for extrinsic motivation, therefore decreasing the love for the sport for the sports sake. An example of this is a young Tiger Woods, once Tiger got a taste for winning he lost the love and the respect for the sport thus acting out in other aspects of his life as he didn’t care as much for the sport of Golf intrinsically.

Chinese Olympic weightlifters are some of the most successful weightlifters of all time dominating the platform in recent years in the low to mid weight divisions. One reason they are so successful is that they specialise from a very young age, when showing potential in the sport the government support the athletes providing housing, food and recovery for athletes. Olympic sports are considered a way of life when the best in the country and can provide welfare for a family if they become very successful. The Chinese have a very intense competition within China, with a large drive to become better coming from the competition within their own country as weightlifters from other countries are pushed to lift more when a certain weight is enough to be the best in their country and they don’t have many other people pushing them for that positions. To be the best in China you have to most likely be one of the best in the world. Another factor is the huge talent pool that China possesses due to the enormity and population density. Most countries have one big star in weightlifting at one or two weight classes, for example Lasha Talakhadze being the superheavyweight champion from Georgia.

A significant Chinese weightlifter that even some not interested in weightlifting may have heard of is Lyu Xiaojun, a 77kg weight class lifter who won gold at the 2012 and 2016 olympics whilst setting a world record snatch in both victories, the highest being 177kg making him the first lifter in history to snatch 100kg above their bodyweight. Eventually a new weight class was created and Lyu competed at a weight of 81kg, at the world championships in Pattaya, Thailand Lyu broke the clean and jerk world record at a weight of 207kg. Lyu, often marvelled at for using the elusive and less conventional squat jerk, created a lot of hype especially due to the fact that he is coming to the end of his career at the age of 35.

Mazzeo(2018) cites that “Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are synthetic derivatives of testosterone and are a class of compounds studied and synthesized to stimulate body and muscular growth” (Vasic & Jakonic, 2007). The most well known about drug in all of sports is steroids, which may be used as a blanket term for many different types of performance enhancing drugs. Steroids cause the hypothalamus in the brain to produce a hormone which acts on the pituitary gland to increase the production of certain hormones that initiate the process of producing testosterone within the testes. The workings of steroids for certain is largely unknown and therefore they can be extremely dangerous substances causing a variety of side effects that include acne, stunted growth, hair loss, heart enlargement and a host of organ crippling side effects. There are a variety of ways that steroids can be obtained with some being safer than others, people may be able to obtain them from a doctor after being prescribed for something that they no longer need treatment for, with a growing market of older people selling on steroids that they do not require to gym goers and performance chasers, as well as being bought abroad and on the black market which incur another safety risk as they may be counterfeit or copies of original pharmaceutical products using similar packaging made as cheaply as possible. Whilst steroids may be dangerous when abused they do have beneficial effects that many believe outweigh the potential negative side effects, some of these are Increased muscular strength, increased blood volume, increased metabolic rate and improves sex drive. Whilst steroids are inherently dangerous substances there is considered to be a correct way to use them, some generally accepted rules may include, not using counterfeits, using the right steroids for the job, using the correct dosage, correct cycle times, correct training and making sure your blood is tested to insure correct hormone balances.

Mazzeo. F (2018) Anabolic Steroid use in Sports and in Physical Activity: Overview and Analysis

Vasic. G & Jankoic. D NAJČEŠĆE KORIŠĆENI STEROIDI KOD SPORTISTA

Fundamental movement skills development is vital to make sure that correct movement patterns are learnt and mastered in a safe and relaxed environment to ensure optimum and safe performance of complex movement patterns at a later stage. Defined as “the basic abilities and skills of a child to perform an organized series of basic movements that involve various body parts” by Basman(2019), fundamental movement skills should typically be the focus of any physical development program for young children to develop their motor skills. More specifically fundamental movement skills should be focussed on from ages 2-11, however they should not be forgotten about after these ages and should be present throughout one’s training life in order to develop as an athlete as inefficient movement is not only less optimum for high level athletes it can also lead to injury.

Another cause of injury that directly relates to fundamental movement skills is the use of a warm-ups, mobility and activation for athletes of all abilities, whether it be hobbyists or Olympic sprinters. These key factors of training not only warm up the muscles but prepare the body for the movement patterns that they are going to perform thus reducing the risk of injury and increasing performance, this can be called potentiating. Common misconceptions of resistance training include stunted growth, children cannot increase in strength and that weightlifting is inappropriate for young children (Faigenbaum, 2008). Malina, Bouchard & Bar-Or have said that strength gains occur throughout childhood and adolescence due to growth and maturation (Malina, Bouchard & Bar-Or, 2004). Most strength gains in children however are mostly due to neural factors rather than hypertrophic factors due to the increased motor unit recruitment and activation, this is due to the lower levels of testosterone present in a child before adolescence to stimulate increases in muscle size and therefore in order to develop a high level of athlete movement patterns and resistance training must be started from a young age.

Basman, A.J (2019) Assessment criteria of fundamental movement skills for various age groups: A Systematic Review. pp. 1

Faigenbaum, A (2008) YOUTH RESISTANCE TRAINING: UPDATED POSITION STATEMENT PAPER FROM THE NATIONAL STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING ASSOCIATION. Pp. 2

Malina, Bouchard & Bar-Or (2004) Growth, Maturation, and Physical Activity. 2^nd ed

Much like the play of athletes the behaviours of coaches can be heavily analysed, observed and adjusted according to the requirements of the athletes and the coach themselves. Certain athletes respond better to certain coaching behaviours as well as some coaches being more effective at using certain behaviours.

The key to knowing what coaching behaviour to use and when is to know three key elements and their relationship. The first of these being: “Who are we coaching?”, understanding the learners needs and wants is a key to knowing what coaching cues are appropriate such as the nature of investment of the athlete, does the athlete want to learn? The second element is: “What are we coaching?”, there must be a certain level of understanding of what you are coaching in order for you as the coach to communicate the information in an effective way and for the athlete to feel like they are being coached by someone who knows what they are talking about. The third and final element is: “How are we coaching?”, understanding of the learning environment and knowing the structure of the activity are key for effective information transfer, as well as to boost confidence and morale in team settings.

Dartfish Tagging is a way of analysing such behaviours when coaching, it can be used to tag key instructions, praise and feedback. This can allow us to observe what makes an effective coach and a bad coach in order to learn for the future, many things can be tagged based on what coaching cues we are looking for specifically and can be changed at will. In turn we can make sequential and frequential notation systems or trees, these allow us to analyse passages of play in order to better understand how to coach them in the future.

Many of us have had that one coach that stands out to them as the figure that got them hooked on that one sport or got them interested in the world of sport, this coach for me is the very person that kept me interested and motivated in Olympic Weightlifting and CrossFit©, which eventually led me to this degree course.

Firstly, a great coach must possess a strong background of education (Trudel 2016), this is generally the first thing that may attract a client or athlete to the said coach. My CrossFit© coach had qualifications in CrossFit© itself backed with a degree in Sports Development and various other qualifications that aid in not only having the information, but also aid in the acquisition and application of information that has not already been learnt. Examples of this can be seen in any coach, when the coach has to make a decision that they have never made before in a circumstance that they have never been in before, if the coach has the ability to do this at a world class level there should never be a situation that cannot be handled.

A great coach must be able to form an exceptional and personal bond with the players that they are coaching, whether it is a team sport, such as football or rugby or in an individual sport such as weightlifting or athletics. They must be able to use the correct coaching behaviours at the right times in order to motivate the athletes to perform at a higher level. Martin, S.B., Jackson, A.W., Ricahrdson, P.A., & Weiller, K.H. (1999) states “Athletes preferred coaches who developed warm interpersonal relations with team members and created a positive group environment.” One particular coach who was famous for doing this well is Sir Alex Fergusson as he would make sure players kept their feet on the ground and acted as a friend to motivate players.

Martin, S.B., Jackson, A.W., Ricahrdson, P.A., & Weiller, K.H. (1999). Coaching preferences of adolescent youths and their parents. Journal of applied sports Psychology, 11, 247-262.

Kyle Paquette, Pierre Trudel, and Tiago Duarte. (2016). Participating in a Learner-Centered Coach Education Program: Composite Vignettes of Coaches’ and Coach Educators’ Experiences