Monday, December 22, 2014

Athlete - Coach Relationship

Here is a clip from the Open University and their level 3 course E313 'Exploring psychological aspects of athletic development'. (This is a very good course).

Note the 4 x C's for these concepts in the model. Do these apply to your training relationships you have now or in the past. Think about the successful and less successful coaching relationships you have had and ask yourself if these were there or absent ?


  • Complementarity
  • Commitment
  • Co-orientation
  • Closeness.
(Do you have to have closeness ?).


Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Sunday, July 27, 2014

6 seconds of insanity exercise ? A straight blast for the elderly?


This link below is interesting as it tells us about research that advocates a 6 second blast for older people being beneficial vs normal exercise. 
"A pilot study involving 12 pensioners showed going all-out in very short bursts, reduced blood pressure and improved general fitness over time." (BBC News 2014).

This type of rapid burst of activity and its benefits were the subject of an Horizon documentary about 2 years ago. A BBC reporter used this and had a minor stroke but we will ignore that.
I think this looks interesting and worth following up. The shock to the system probably blasts the cob-webs!



Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Credentialism - you can either can or you cannot. The certificate isn't the point.

In this scene between the King and his speech therapist a good point is raised. Can you teach and be credible without formal qualifications?

The therapist, Lionel does not have any formal qualifications it turns out and his credibility is questioned.

The response is strong - 'look at my results from my experiences in therapy they are my credentials'.



In martial arts having a formal qualification is designed to show you can 'do' and have studied. This is designed to prevent abuse and fraud. The other side of this is, if you do not have not passed over these hurdles you can exclude gifted people. Also, the qualification can be an excuse to charge big money for that certificate, it can be like an industry in its own right.



The motive was not money here. In the final scenes you see the issue is friendship at the core here. Not having any then finding a friend, through the therapy. The therapist was a guide here leading the future King away from his fears as a 5 year old when he developed his stammer. It was the fear of developing that was the key. They physical method of change they called 'mechanical' issues in this film, were seen as secondary: breath techniques, etc.

This is a good film as it has transformation of the self at the core, with genuine contact with others..

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Mysteries & Their Solving

This is the Mystery Machine:

When doing adult learning, (where you are there by choice), the discipline you are in for a novice often presents itself with fun-puzzles.


  • How did they do that?
  • I watched X do this but still can work that out?
  • How do you do this ... I have attempted this 100s of times but still cannot - it must be magic!
The skills involved look like they are magic as they transform one state into another state.

If you do not know the mechanics of this then the mystery creates awe and arousal - which can be addictive parts to adult learning.

Even once tasks are broken down and shown, adopting the skills are hard.

This is how a learning - as mystery typology looks, (source http://www.mysterynet.com/learn/why/ : accessed Feb 2014)


All Stages of Bloom's Taxonomy

As presented in Bloom's Taxonomy, mysteries can be used to achieve higher levels of thinking in these ways:
  • Knowledge: Students arrange characters and events in the mystery.
  • Comprehension: Students classify events, describe characters, and explain precisely what has occurred.
  • Application: Students apply existing knowledge to the mystery by illustrating, dramatizing, and writing their interpretations.
  • Analysis: Students analyze, categorize, and differentiate characters and events.
  • Synthesis: Students collect and organize facts to form hypotheses.
  • Evaluation: Students appraise, argue, assess, and evaluate their opinions in the process of solving the mystery.
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I was thinking about this in relation to some moves Slippers showed me once. The moves are new and they look mysterious - a knife disarm ... but could be a guard pass, or block, or defence to kicks .. anything ...Working down this typology you can see the mystery unravel and be less ... mysterious .... you break it down even more - the synthesis gets involved when you locate the new mystery move in relation to familiar moves you know.Then you evaluate and weigh up this new strange move. (It probably is still 'a mystery', as a sensory motor skill takes ages to hone and 'own' in order to 'apply' usefully.

But the point is the sense of mystery is the key to keeping going. There are loads of mysteries in adult learning asking to be solved. I wonder if you could amend Blooms typology to fit with the mentalities of the Scooby Do crew.




  • Are you like Fred ?
Fred is adventurous and pro-active and tries to take immediate proactive solutions to mysteries. 

  • Are you like Velma?


Velma is very cerebral and thinks and reflects on how to solve mysteries. She takes her time and is not the most physical of people, but wont be put off because of that. Even though she is short sighted and loses her glasses - her other senses compensate for that. Many roads lead to the solving of a mystery. Notice how she often gets separated from Fred and Daphne in the solution of a mystery. Some types collaborate better with others for mystery solving.


  • Jyyyyikes ... Are you like Shaggy and Scooby?

These two are risk averse.
These two would be the last to pick up an injury in training as they take care of themselves too much. (But that is not a bad thing, but some sense of adventure would not be harmful, always).
When they solve a mystery it is by being in the right place place in (their) wrong time, via serendipity.
These two are not in the business to solve mysteries, they want to fill their stomachs really. Their motivation is not really pro-mystery solving.

[NB no Scrappy-do here, as I don't think he should have been created. He does not add that much to the mix].