Year 9 News

Remote Learning Reflection

Going back into remote learning was not something that any of us wished for, but at any rate, we had to reset and readjust once more to staring at our screens and sitting at our desks. It has been hard, but we are getting through it. Personally, I have endeavoured to just complete the tasks. Just do them. It makes for everyone feeling better- and good well-being as well as a positive mindset is important, especially during this time. Through continually making sure we do our work, not only do we feel better with less stress, but so do or teachers with not having to chase up anything left unsubmitted. We need to keep up the good work, stay on top of our learning, and remain hopeful that on the 26th of October, we may be able to see one another again and return to normality.  

Good luck everyone.  

Jessica Randall

Year 9 Captain

Sports Coaching

Year 9 Sports Coaching students were set the task of writing an essay on the topic "What Makes a Good Sports Coach".  The students were asked to prepare an essay plan then complete their essay.  We are very proud of the outstanding standard of work that was produced.  Following are some examples:

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SPORTS COACH?

By Harley Boles 

9D

"There are many good qualities that a good coach has. In my opinion these are the most important characteristics they must have.

A good sports coach needs to build a relationship and trust with the athlete they are coaching, to do this they need to show good characteristics such as a good knowledge/experience of the sport/area that they are coaching. Another characteristic that is vital for a sports coach is being able to motivate and encourage their team when needed. The most important characteristic a sports coach needs is being a good communicator to not only their players but parents and everyone involved. These skills are vital for a coach to be successful with their team. 

 A good sport coach needs to be motivational and be able to encourage their players when needed. Teams need someone that can inspire and motivate them to have a great performance. A coach that can do this can change an outcome of the game and be the reason for a miracle comeback depending on what they say to their team. My football coach from last year was the most passionate coach I have ever had, he cared for all of his players and wanted the best for us. We were playing the top team and desperately needed a win. We were 6 goals down going into the last quarter. We had no hope, however our coach believed in us and had the most inspiring speech we have ever heard, he made us believe when no one else did and we won the game by 2 points in a miracle comeback. This shows that a coach needs to be able to motivate and inspire his team because until the siren goes anything is possible. My team proved that in our comeback win. That would have never happened if it weren’t for our coach believing and inspiring us. 

For a team to be successful the coach must be able to communicate with their players on their goals and their ideas and tactics. The reason a coach needs to communicate is because players can and will get frustrated if the coach is not telling them their goal/vision and can send mixed messages to their players that will cause confusion and give your team little chance of winning. I have had positive and negative experiences with coaches and communication. My basketball coach this year was terrible and one of the big reasons for this is he failed to communicate with us, which led to our team not wanting to play for him as we were getting smashed every week. We were unsure on what he wanted us to achieve and his coaching decisions were very questionable. He was not approachable so we could not communicate our concerns with him, he was not open to feedback which is something a good coach will listen to. A positive experience with a coach I have had is Mr Pinkett. During lessons Mr Pinkett has a great understanding of what he wants us to do and explains the task very well, this makes the lessons engaging and very clear on what is expected of us. Communication is an essential characteristic to become a good sports coach. 

A good sports coach is knowledgeable and has experience in the sport they are coaching.  A good coach needs to have years of experience of the sport not only coaching but playing the game. Having a coach that experienced playing the game in their youth gives them vital skills to help develop their team. One of my basketball coaches Avi is an American that played division 1 college basketball. He has game experience at one of the highest levels and is an incredible coach that knows everything about the game. He makes you work hard and pushes you to be the best. He is by far the best coach I have ever had for any sport ever. This shows why a good knowledge and experience of the game they are coaching helps them become an excellent coach. 

There are many qualities a coach needs to become a good sports coach. They need to be able to motivate and encourage their team when they are down and needs to be able to communicate effectively with their team. They also need to have quality experience of playing the sport to be able to understand how to coach their team in the best way possible. These in my opinion are the most needed characteristics a good sport coach must have." 

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SPORTS COACH? 

by Zoe Hade

9F

"This essay will explore the idea of what makes a good sports coach. The definition of a sports coach is be involved in the management and vison of a sporting team or individual sportsperson. I believe there are endless skills and traits that a coach must have but I am going to only speak of three. The points that will be elaborated on include, communication, organisation and must have knowledge in the field. The main goal of a sports coach is to mentor and encourage their team or the individual.

My first point of discussion is about communication. To be a successful coach one must be able to talk to a crowd. By this I also mean to be able to speak to fans, press and parents depending on which level the team is at. An example I have is a coach that my uncle had when he was a kid, and he stills talk about to this day. When my uncle was playing football when he was aged 7-16, he had a coach called Tim, who was an older man and did not have any children of his own on the team. He was the type of coach that would explain to everyone exactly what needed to be done in a way which everyone could understand. He could also speak well to the parents, perfect showcase of this is when my uncle was taken off the pitch during a game with a broken nose. My grandparents had no idea what was going on, but Tim explain carefully explained what had happened and made sure that my grandparents understood. With good communication comes trust, the parents trusted Tim with their kids as he would tell them when something happened, the children trusted him as he would get to their level and explain things simply. Having a high communication skillset leads to stronger connections with the team players and that also comes with trust. This is the first step into becoming an excellent sports coach as well as being organised.

Another point I wish to bring into play is about organisational skills. A good sports coach will be clear on what they wish for their team or athlete. It is vital for a coach to be highly organised to keep the team successful. These skills include aspects such as; having lesson plans organised, equipment in place for the session and having team charts prepared. My own Sport Coach, Mr Pinkett, is known for his high ability to organise and train a team. He always has his lessons planned out and uploaded for students to see, is never late for a class and has equipment ready for his students. Having an disorganised coach leads to stress on the team which is not necessary. If a coach is planning drills during the session that leads to less time training, and more time messing about trying to organise everyone. I can say from example watching my older brother win football games because his trainer had all the equipment out when we would drop him off. Being organised is an important and needed quality to becoming a successful sports coach. A sports coach will have good organisation skills, high communication, and knowledge in the field. 

Another crucial aspect of being a good sports coach is about having knowledge in the field which one is appearing in. For example, if you are a coach for a volleyball team when you have more knowledge in basketball, that isn’t the best fit. A coach must be clear on everything to do with their sport to help their team grow and thrive. Chuck Noll is a perfect example. Noll was the coach for Pittsburgh Steelers from 1969 to 1991. He himself had gone to the University of Dayton in Ohio where he accepted a football scholarship. In 1960 he became an assistant coach for the Los Angeles team then later the San Diego Chargers until 1965. In 1965 Noll became the assistant to then head coach, Don Shula of the Baltimore Colts. He stayed in that position until 1965 where he was asked to become head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. As coach for the Steelers, Noll was seen as an understanding and knowledge man who the players could rely on due to the fact that he was so well educated on American Football. Chuck Noll having high knowledge and experience in the sport helps the team see his views for team improvement in a better way then if there was a less knowledgeable coach in this position. It is an advantage to a team if they can have a coach who has these skills to create a stronger, more successful team. 

In conclusion I believe communication, organisation and having knowledge in the sport are the most important parts of being a sports coach. A coach must have lessons planned out, be able to tell their team where they are headed, and to have a high understanding of the sport. there is not a law in what sports coaching can and cannot do, but I believe following the ideas which are stated above will lead one to becoming a good sports coach. 

Today I will be stating and signifying the main attributes and qualities of an adequate sports coach. In my very own opinion and from my personal experience a very good sports coach should most definitely have acquired the following specific set of skills… The skill of being a good encourager/ motivator this will help up the players moods and devotion to the game, the skill of having an exceptional understanding of the game he/she is coaching this will help give the players a clearer understanding of the journey ahead, the skill of being a good leader and having the traits that help lead the players on to later success. These are all the things that I think are compulsory for a good sports coach.

An acceptable sports coach must be a good encourager and motivation to his/her athletes. Having a coach as a good motivator just brings out the competitive fire and flame in the athletes that brings them the need to go further in the sport, to push harder in that extra set of burpees, to run that extra mile. Having a coach that encourages and motivates you is what makes the team and the single athlete better. One of the benefits of having a coach that is a good encourager/motivator is that they uplift the team on gameday and in training, this is a benefit by the fact that the coach giving positive, inspirational feedback can be the difference between winning the championship that the team worked so hard for or losing it all and finishing last overall, it can have that of a big impact. The reason I say this is that when I was playing soccer at around the young age of eight my nine aside soccer coach Nathan was one of those quality coaches that just had that encouraging spirit. And we won and kept winning, our team was not even that talented, but we somehow just kept winning. At the time it was unclear to why we kept winning like we were, but now, it is clear as crystal. All our success was because of Nathans encouragement. And that just motivated us to play harder and better, and interesting enough the harder we played the more we enjoyed playing the game of soccer, and the more we were satisfied at the end of each game we played out. Yes, being a good encourager is very important in being a decent sports coach, but without the base there is no rest of the cake, the base of the cake is having a good or in depth understanding of the sport, and without that being a good encourager is useless."

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SPORTS COACH?

By Connor Brown

9M

"The finest sports coaches I ever encountered are the ones that have an exceptional understanding of the sport and they know how to share and portray their knowledge of the sport back onto the team. Having a sports coach that has a good understanding of the sport benefits the team by giving the athletes more opportunity and ways to improve from the basics and stretch out to further heights. Even when a team is starting out from scratch, having a coach that knows the basics of the sport helps the players to learn the basics of the sport and then the players will exceed further. Once a coach has taught the basics of the sport this is when the average coach get separated from the good ones, and this is what leads to later development in the team that causes wins, trophies, and overall enjoyment. One of my best and favourite sport coaches I ever had was a man named Cameron or Cam for short. Cam was my best coach because he had the best understanding of the sport of soccer I had ever witnessed, I was ten at the time he started coaching us. The way he gave us constructive criticism was unmatched at my age group and any age group in soccer I had been through. After each drill he would tell us to “bring it in” and would give each of the midfielders, defenders and attackers their own thing they mad to work on for the rest of the day, we didn’t know it at the time but working hard in those trainings and listening to the instructions that Cam gave us in training gave us a huge benefit on gameday and what I honestly think was the secret to our unbound success. Even at that age having a coach with that understanding of the sport had a hugely positive outcome on the team.  Having a good understanding of the sport is one of the most important attributes to have as a good sports coach, but it also helps if the coach can portray that knowledge using good leadership skills and traits.

The best sports coaches are the ones that use the abilities I have already talked about but also to be able to guide them to success with their leadership skills and traits. A positive from having a sports coach that has good leadership skills is that the athletes in the team have someone to look up to, as a person and a coach. Having someone to look up to helps the players performance dramatically, it encourages the players to train harder and smarter. It also motivates the players to play better in game situations and their drive to win. Winning or losing you can enjoy a sport either way, but I (from personal experience) think that it is more fun winning. Having a leader to look up to all it really does is reek out benefits for the team. From my encounters and introductions of different sports coaches over the years of playing soccer, I can definitely say there was no single coach that was quite as a good of a leader as my 13/U soccer coach Jim. He was the very definition of a leader, whenever our team was down by one goal, he was the one to huddle us up and tell everyone exactly what to do. I remember he used to say, “Messi wouldn’t have scored as many goals without Suarez and Pique.” Suarez and Pique are Midfielders by the way, they are basically the support behind Messi. And this quote made perfect sense, Jim was basically implying that we all needed one another, but it was his leadership that bought us that idea. And with our teams “togetherness” and bond that not only lead to success for the team but it also gave each of us individuals more happiness and fun when we played together, and I know for a fact that I made for friends on that team than I have on any other sports team that I have ever played on, that’s why I think being a good leader as a sports coach is so beneficial. As a sports coach being a leader is very important to lead the team to success and the players overall enjoyment but its when the sports coach has all of the attributes I have talked about today, that is when you know that person is a good sports coach.

From personal preference and experience the greatest of all the sports coaches I have had are the ones that have all the skills I have talked about: being a good encourager/motivator to help encourage any and all players on the field (or whatever surface), having a really good understanding of the sport they are coaching to help the players clearly vision the work that needs to be done and finally to have really good leadership skills to guide the players and team as a whole through the tough times ahead. And those very qualities are in my opinion what I think an exceptionally good sports coach should have."

Lockdown Legends

Year 9 students who are doing such a fantastic job with their school work during remote learning.  So many of you have been receiving from your teachers ‘Positive Behaviour’ posts for your excellent attitude and effort during this time.We would like to congratulate you all on a job well done but also celebrate those students who received so many positive posts.