Quote dholli12="dholli12"Think all this Coaching Qualification stuff is becoming stupid. The other day i helped out two former superleague academy coaches get their qualifications. They've been coaching for what 20 years at the highest level and they are being told they must pay to have an assesment to prove they can coach!'"
It's always difficult when a new(ish) policy comes in and it has to apply to the ones who are qualified by experience.....but I like the fact that they are making coaching harder from an academic point of view.
It's the same as being a teacher in a school. There are plenty of older teachers who are the best you can get and don't have a degree. If they had to reapply for their job they would be bottom of the list or pay for a course to 'catch up and prove they can teach'
......but by making the new teachers/coaches complete courses and achieve certain criteria, you bring the overall standard up.
I had to help a friend of mine with his coaching course recently too, but he's an ex player who is a new starter to coaching. I thought the course material was quite good, and if nothing else gives a professional impression of our national coaching setup.
Gone are the days in any career (or at least should be) when you can just be the longest serving guy and be the best.
In coaching terms, this is one area where Australia jumped ahead. They have intelligent academics taking up roles in rugby league rather than (excuse me if this sounds patronising) just ex players who are there because they were physically good at something. They fly off to find out what is going on in other sports, American Football being popular, and bring the learnings back to their own sport. Sports Science is a big part of our game now that wasn't heard of 20 years ago
Don't get me wrong, if our game was filled with geeks and boffins it would be worse, but there needs to be a balance.
Take the military as an example, bravery and physicality is the centre of what they do, but you would not have a very good army unless you had strategists and technical IT experts defining the game plan.
The days of Alex Murphy (who was a proven great player and coach) swearing and shouting in the dressing room (on tv!) may not be completely gone, but they are only a very small part of the coaching manual now.
Now I've previewed my post it sounds like a bit of a rant. Didn't mean it that way, just wanted to support the 'updating' of the approach to coaching. Think I need to go to the pub at lunch today!?