The Art of Coaching and Its Effect on Performance: Becoming a Better Coach

2. The Art of Coaching and Its Effect on Performance: Becoming a Better Coach Brian Gearity, PhD, CSCS, ATC, USAW, USATF Assistant Professor, University of Southern Mississippi NSCA Mississippi State Director Assistant Football Coach/Strength and Conditioning Coach, Purvis High School

3. Foucault’s Theory • Truth > truth • Gaps in logic • Not fully rational • Ways of knowing are battlefields • Critique • Control/freedom

4. Strength and Conditioning Coach’s Knowledge • Physiology • Sport psychology • Pedagogy

5. Coaching Knowledge • Coach as expert/authority • Coach as scientist • Coach as disciplinarian • Coach as planner (periodization)

6. Power-Knowledge Produces...

7. Effects of a Typical Strength and Conditioning Program… • Injury • Burnout • Under-performance • Apathy • Coach-athlete conflict

8. Theory • “Any empirical or quasi-empirical theory of social and/or psychological processes, at a variety of levels (e.g., grand, mid-range, and explanatory, that can be applied to the understanding of phenomena” (Anfara and Mertz, 2006)

9. Foucault’s Theory • Knowledge (theory and practice) • Identity (coach’s and athlete’s) • Power (exercised with knowledge to create identities/bodies) • Identity constructed by others • Technologies of discipline • Who decides effective strength and conditioning practices?

10. Discipline & Punish in the Weight Room? • “Societies of Control” • Space • Time • Movement • Efficiency

11. The Art of Distributions • The way a space is organized • Enclosure - specific places where specific things are to happen • Partitioning - each individual has a specific place • Function - specific spaces have to be “useful” • Rank - bodies can be judged and classified according to abilities • Note: Spaces that supervise, hierarchize, reward, and measure. Rational classifications (of all and any things) can now be established

12. Athlete Name – 206lbs Strength (B) Stronger than most freshmen, but still continue to improve lower body strength and explosiveness. Extra abs and low back work must become a priority. Speed/Conditioning (B-) Running technique (hands and arm swing) needs to improve. In average shape, needs to increase threshold of work and pain while running. Effort/Extra (C+) Aside from your weight training class, how much extra work do you spend lifting? Abs? Running? I know I haven’t seen you in the weight room beyond group times much, although you were in more when school started. Nutrition/Weight (B) Putting on weight well, will you continue to gain muscle mass? I hope so. Flexibility (D-) Needs a lot of improvement. Considerably below average—contributing to your back pain? Lack of speed? Probably. Spend time stretching on your own. Attitude/Leadership (B) Workouts in morning went well and you never complained, that’s a sign of leadership—being positive and accepting what is asked of you. You need to get with older athletes/younger athletes to work with them more.

13. The Control of Activity • The way time is used • Time table - time is divided into smaller units • Temporal elaboration of the act - movements essential for production can be broken down into more precise elements • Correlation of the body and the gesture - each gesture should be the most precise/efficient as possible • Body-object articulation- efficient/specific uses of objects • Exhaustion - wasting time is now impossible • Note: Maximum efficiency is the aim

14. The Organization of Genesis • The efficient organization of movement • Successive or parallel segments- or more simply “one bit at a time” • Analytical(plan) - segments re-organized of increasing complexity • Examination - testing progress • Series of seriesof exercises- suited to individual needs; “a disciplinary polyphony of exercises defining rank” • Note: Each stage of development is subject to meticulous control and intervention, and gradually acquired

15. The Composition of Forces The total combination of units Discipline is combining forces (of smaller units) in order to develop an efficient machine The individual (one unit) is now defined as part of a multi-segmentary machine Note: The performance of each individual must be held in perfect time with the performance of all the others to ensure the maximum force of all parts of the machine

16. 3 Means of Correct Training • Normalization • Hierarchical • Observation/surveillance • Examination

17. Normal Planning • Athlete as cog • Normalization

18. “Normal” Strength and Conditioning Practices… • Efficient • Rational/scientific • Controlling • May lead to athlete docility and unintended, negative effects

19. Research Support Problems with too much discipline and control Barker-Ruchti and Tinning, 2010 Chapman, 1997 Gearity and Mills, in press Denison, 2007, 2010a, Denison, 2010b Denison and Scott-Thomas, 2010 Denison and Avner, 2011 Denison, Mills, and Jones, in press Halas and Hanson, 2001 Heikkala, 1993 Johns and Johns, 2000 Jones, Glintmeyer, and McKenzie, 2005 Markula and Martin, 2007 McMahon, Penny, and Dinan-Thompson, 2011 Phillips and Hicks, 2000 Shogan, 1999 Tinning, 1997 Tsang, 2000

20. Application Activity • As a coach or athlete, how have your practices been controlled? • Space • Time • Movement • Progression/flow • What were some of the positive and negative effects?

21. Application Activity • Where else do you see the technologies of discipline operating? • Space • Time • Movement • Progression/flow • What were some of the positive and negative effects?

22. Application Activity • How can a coach reduce the use of discipline/control? • How can a coach alter the use of time, space, movement, and order?

23. Disrupt Discipline • Art of distributions • Enclosure • Partitioning • Function • Rank • Control of activity • Timetable • Temporal elaboration • Body-object relation • Efficiency/production • Organization of genesis • Successive segments • Analytical • Examination • Series and series of exercises • Composition of forces • United into machinery • Surveillance • Normalization • Examination