THE ROYAL COUNTY OF BERKSHIRE BOWLING ASSOCIATION

Member of Bowls England

The Royal County of Berkshire Bowls Coaching Scheme

County Coach Vic Waite

This page has been a long time coming, the problem being the changes within the English Bowls Coaching Scheme who are the governing body we all have to work to.

The whole new syllabus is as yet still not complete but things are still being worked on to resolve this situation.

To clarify things I will explain below.

Prior to the changes we had three different levels.

• Instructor

• Coach

• Advanced Coach

Now we have five different levels.

• Level 1. Foundation Coaching

• Level 2. Club Coaching

• Level 3. High Performance Coaching

• Level 4. High Performance Advanced Coaching

• Level 5. High performance National coaching

To explain the levels up to level 2 are at this time is as far as the new levels are able to go because the main National body are still writing the syllabus.

Foundation Coaching :- What is it

• The Role

• Learning about Coaching / how to do it, under supervision

• The Process

• Part 1 = Overview Meeting.

• Part 2 = On The Green Meeting

• Part 3 = With Pupils, assisting a Beginners Course

Assessment over Two Modules.

• Practical

• Teaching a Pupil Casting a Jack & Delivery (line & length)

Paper

• 20 Multi Choice Questionnaire, timed with no back up material and not when Pupils present

• This will be done by the Coach Responsible for the Training of the Foundation Coach

• It will be done when the Foundation Coach is deemed to be ready

• The parts will be divided up but all the first parts will be done away from the green

• The Foundation level is the base the whole Coaching career is based upon and must be focused on the Foundation Coach gaining Knowledge

• This is a pure Training role and the Foundation Coach is unable to teach unsupervised

Part 1 Foundation Overview Meeting.

• Icebreaker

• Bowls Coaching in England

• The Coach as a Communicator

• The Need for Coaching

• The Coaching Process

• The effective coach

• Home study (part 3 Beginners syllabus)

Part 2 Foundation On The Green

• Working on the green, start

• Establishing an acceptable technique

• Selection of Bowls

• Other Equipment

• Logistics (health and safety)

• Sports Safety creating an injury free environment

• The Effective Planning Process

• Home Study, Beginners Course Plus Notes.

Part 3 Foundation Beginners Course

• First Pupil Session

• Second Session

• Third Pupil Session

• Fourth Pupil Session

• Delivery Analysis ( Coach Check List)

• Answering Questions

• Details on how to join a Club

• Beginners manual

• Glossary of Terms

• Things to do & things to not do.

Level 2 Club Coaching.

• The Role.

  • Supervision & Management of beginners Courses including Foundation Coach Training.

  • Assisting with Assessment of Foundation Candidates.

  • Coaching ( Club Bowlers) on Purposeful & Personal Practice.

  • Process & Assessment

Module 1 Practical.

• Beginners Course in its entirety including Foundation Training.

Module 2 Practical.

• (Club Bowler) Diamond & Square Exercise.

Module 3 Written.

• Child Protection Multi Choice Paper.

Club Coaching Syllabus.

• • Preparation, Introduction, Practice, Feedback.

• • Observation & Evaluation.

• • Giving Effective feedback.

• • Introducing a Beginner to Singles Play.

• • Introducing a Beginner to Team Play.

• • Practice Makes Perfect.

• • Analysis of a Bowls Delivery for a ( Club bowler)

• • Delivery without a Video camera.

• • Coaching Children.

• • Groups of children.

• • Child development.

• • Working with Children Guidelines.

• • Purposeful Practice Square & Diamond.

• • Personal Practice.

• • Child Protection.

Club Coaching Notes

• All aspects of the Beginners Course including Housekeeping plus good Foundation

• Candidate Supervision.

• Delivery analysis and corrective action for ( Club Bowlers ) plus satisfactory teaching of principles of the Diamond & Square.

• Ability to discuss and demonstrate knowledge of Child Protection guidelines without constant referral to notes.

• There is now a legislation we must use as a caution.

• You must not ask any question about race, religion, gender preference, health, disability (other than grade of sight)

• Keep personal notes safely filed.

• Beware of attempts of humour, perception is an individual thing.

Level 3

General Coaching.

• The Role

  • Training and Assessment of Levels 1,2 & 3.

  • Coaching in General, to all individuals, squad 7 team training at Club Level.

The Process.

• Module 1, Practical.

  • Freezing the Head & Phantom Four.

Module 2, Practical.

• Training the Trainer.

Module 3 Written.

• 20 Multi-choice Questions.

This is as far as we at present are able to go and as you can see I have included part of the expected level 3 syllabus.

You will still see the old type badges on the snowball jackets worn by the Coaches, this is because at present the main body does not still know what they are going to do about this.

You maybe now can appreciate the level we try to achieve with our Coaches. This is not to say we try to put people off becoming Coaches, far from it. This is without doubt one of the most rewarding experiences any bowler can try.

Please contact the County Coach if you are interested all these courses can be achieved over the winter at any of the Four Indoor Bowls Clubs in The Royal County.

As and when new additions are sent to me the site will be amended.

Any Coach wishing to include any thing to the site please also contact me.

Good Bowling, if not try some Good Coaching.

Vic Waite

County Coach