Supporting Athlete Learning Through Play
This webinar replay features top youth coaches Charissa Barham and Grant Porter. Co-founder of Player Development Project & experienced football coach, Dave Wright hosts Charissa and Grant for a comprehensive discussion on how coaches can ensure game day is an extension of the training week, providing opportunities for athlete development through play.
Charissa, Grant and Dave tackle four key themes:
- Connection & Culture
- Redefining Success
- Training Design
- Coach & Parent
This conversation will leave you with practical ideas around establishing team culture, athlete leadership, outcomes beyond the result, learning transfer, communication and much more.
Time stamps:
0.00 – 4.16 – Welcome and Host Introductions
4.16 – 5.09 – Housekeeping
5.10 – 5.30 – What we will cover…
5.30 – 9.25 – Connections & Culture – Understanding your players
9.28 – 11.05 – Establishing culture – Direction setting and athlete centred coaching
11.08 – 14.43 – Coach control and leadership: Are there risks around too much athlete ownership?
14.43 – 16.05 – Modelling & vulnerability – When coaches get it wrong…
16.09 – 18.09 – Coach behaviour between training and game day
18.11 – 19.16 – Open communication and coaches making mistakes
19.16 – 20.36 – What players want from a coach and how that fits into your context
20.37 – 23.12 – Redefining success – outcomes beyond the result
23.12 – 25.12 – Team values & creating outcomes within your context
25.15 – 27.30 – Individual development of players within a team: Constant conversation
27.30 – 29.08 – Coach behaviour: Imitating elite coaching in grassroots context
29.08 – 31.01 – Demands on the players
31.06 – 32.40 – Individual planning – ensuring autonomy
32.41 – 36.41 – Learning transfer: From training to game day
36.42 – 38.42 – Regular season vs tournament settings
38.54 – 41.30 – How do I know I truly have connection with my players?
41.43 – 43.39 – Training design: When and how to reflect after the game and before training
43.40 47.00 – Reflection systems, curriculums and programmes
47.12 – 49.14 – Managing difference & peer to peer learning: How do I support players of different abilities?
49.20 – 52.25 – How do I work with a team where some players are very competitive, and some are more social?
52.54 – 54.56 – Demands on the athlete between school, club and representative environments
54.57 – 59.16 – Coach and Parent: Communication and engagement with parents
59.16 – 1.01.20 – Coach and parent: Transparency and clarity
1.01.21 – 1.04.30 – Key takeaways and final thoughts
About the guests
Grant Porter
Grant Porter is a Wanaka based hockey coach. His bread a butter is coaching teenagers in school, club and rep programmes across Otago and Central Otago.
Grant comes from a sport obsessed family, and while he has siblings and wider family that might have gained ‘higher’ coaching honors (such as coaching international cricket and netball teams) he reckons he has more fun.
Grant’s coaching is based on the school of hard knocks. With no formal coaching education, other than that ‘one’ workshop. After 15 years of graft as a coach of youth, he is more steadfast in his beliefs than ever that sport for young people is about the kids, and that fun and fairness need to be put above results.
When not coaching Grant runs a 11,000-hectare sheep, beef and viticulture property in Central Otago.
Charissa Barham
Charissa is a Regional Sport Development Consultant with Sport New Zealand. She has worked various roles in the sport, education and fitness sectors. Prior to Sport New Zealand, she was youth development manager at Netball New Zealand and has been coaching netball for 32 years pre-dominantly at Secondary School level at national, regional and school level.
Dave Wright
Dave Wright has over 20 years football coaching experience across three countries at all levels. He holds several qualifications including The FA UEFA A License and The FA Youth Award. Dave spent five years coaching in the Premier League academy system at Fulham FC and Brentford FC in London supporting world-class youth players in their transition towards professional football. Following his time in England, Dave moved to Melbourne where he worked for Melbourne Victory, coaching the U20 team in the Victorian NPL.
Dave is Co-Founder of online coach development platform, Player Development Project (PDP). PDP supports organisations and coaches to create better environments for young people through content creation, community and online courses. PDP is a partner of both Sport New Zealand and Oceania Football Confederation.
Dave returned home to New Zealand in early 2020 to work as a High Performance Athlete Development Consultant at HPSNZ, supporting sports across the Olympic system with their HP athlete development programmes. Since returning to Auckland with his young family, Dave has stayed connected with football as a coach through the NZF U17 Men’s RTC Programme and in mid-2022 joined Birkenhead United AFC as the Head of Coaching to oversee coach development and programme design.