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Cambridge University Canoe Club |
Course Leaders' Pack
This is a 'starter pack' for course leaders to help with running the course. It consists of:
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A Course Register - get everyone to fill this in, so you keep track of email addresses. By the second session everyone should have joined the club. You should also collect the £15 course fee as soon as you can. Use the register as a 'tick list' to keep track. Once course attendance has stabilised, could you please get a copy of the register, and any membership forms, membership fees and course fees to me, either in the pub or via UMS.
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A copy of the club safety policy, for your information. This outlines the club approach to safety, your responsibilities as a coach and, crucially, the responsibilities of those on your course.
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A duty of care statement, outlining the legal position on this topic.
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An incident report form, to be used to report to me any incidents or injuries (including near misses) occurring during coaching.
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The course outline - please make sure that students have a clear idea of what the course involves and what additional club activities they should be participating in.
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A copy of the relevant star test syllabi.
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A set of theory notes for the 1 and 2 star or 3 and 4 star tests.
If you have any problems/questions on coaching, club admin, duty of care, safety etc, etc, do ask me. Remember that the key objective of any course is for everyone to enjoy it enough that they come back to the next session.
Two things that you might want to think about:
Balancing the course: 3 aims of equal importance:
Enjoyment, fun: silly games, getting to know new people etc.
Challenge - of learning new skills, of completing difficult tasks etc.
Learning - acquiring skill.
Teaching skills: IDEAS
Introduction - why is it useful, preferably relating to their own experience (e.g., you capsized in that last game, so I'll teach you to low brace)
Demonstration of the skill - make your demos perfect, repeat if necessary.
Explanation (of the demonstration, probably followed by another demo). Give them a maximum of 3 key points, 2 is better, and 1 is a maximum if the skill is difficult or scary (e.g. high brace)
Activity - they do it
Summary - say some words about what they've just done, move onto next progression etc.
PROBLEM: IDEAS places far too little emphasis on ACTIVITY, which is by far the most important element of the progression. Aim to speak for as short a time as possible and get the students doing as much as possible!!
Teaching specific strokes - ask me if you want to know how I do it, but ask other people to see if they have a better method.
Have fun!!!!