I’ve noticed:
Welsh Bacc students ask to come into sports clubs to coach as part of their studies.
I wonder:
This presents an opportunity to use what already exists. Sports clubs develop their coaching culture. Coaches develop their mentoring skills. Welsh Bacc students develop their coaching.
Young Ambassadors from the Youth Sport Trust can play a role in this too.
What if:
Sports clubs in Wales work with schools to implement early coaching experiences. Mentors make thinking visible. They name the identity-practice gap. They create space for authentic reflection. This takes us a long way forward.
After all, we wouldn’t be asking Bacc students to do anything different, just to do it better.
For the sake of simplicity, I offer this as an example:
The Pro-Active Five (Planning)
What do you intend to do?
What other ways could you do that?
What will make you choose a certain way?
What would make you choose another option?
What will you do if it doesn’t work?
The Reactive Five (Reflecting)
What did you intend to do? (Recall the plan)
What actually happened?
Why do you think it happened that way?
What does that tell you about your coaching/the players/the learning?
What will you do next time?
This recommendation leverages a simple observation: telling someone else what to do is far easier than doing it yourself.
If we want coaches who are open, curious, and willing to learn, then perhaps we should ask them to teach those skills to someone else.
Nathan Walker: https://nwalkerpe.wordpress.com/2025/10/19/a-summary-of-my-thesis-how-mentors-influence-teachers-developing-professional-identity-beliefs-and-practice/