Building yourself up to start coaching
I have done a few sports leadership qualifications along with sport specific teaching courses. Yet I still used to worry about having to take a derby session. Previously when coaching I have taken children or martial artists so there is an amount of respect, whereas coaching a group of bolshie derby girls can be a very different kettle of fish...
I started off by just taking warm ups or the occasional few drills within a session. This gave me the chance to get used to the derby environment. I'd recommend asking your coach(es) if you can do something similar if you don't want to just jump straight into take a whole session. Hopefully your league has some sort of coaching development plan that you can get on board with if you are really interested in coaching. If not, why not suggest it? Someone in our league did that and it has really helped people develop their derby skills and taken pressure off our main coaches.
Having someone you know who has the coaching experience to give you advice throughout your session can be comforting. As long as they are not just breathing down your neck - but hopefully someone will give you the space you need to make your own mistakes without making you more anxious about it. But knowing that if you panic or something goes wrong, they are there to help sort it out can help to relieve some of the nerves about coaching knowing you are not just on your own.
I'd always recommend looking over your session/drill plans just before you leave for derby or take them with you. This way if you panic and forget everything you still have a plan with you to fall back on to relieve those anxious nerves. I have been coaching for a year now and always take my plan with me even if I don't look at it, it will be under my water bottle.
Break down each drill, when you start coaching don't expect to be able to easily convey complex derby drills to your league. I'd suggest starting simple. Still to things you know the league has all ready covered so there is less explaining of new things to do, initially you might want to teach this fab new move you've seen that looks amazing - but if you can't yet convey it as you haven't developed the necessary coaching skills that might not be advisable. If you do want to do a more multi-layered drill as time goes on, call people in and explain one part send them away to try that out, then build on it over a few group call-in's rather than all in one go. As this can confuse the other skaters and you, and if you're confused, you can be almost certain the skaters will be.
So overall my key suggestions would be:
I started off by just taking warm ups or the occasional few drills within a session. This gave me the chance to get used to the derby environment. I'd recommend asking your coach(es) if you can do something similar if you don't want to just jump straight into take a whole session. Hopefully your league has some sort of coaching development plan that you can get on board with if you are really interested in coaching. If not, why not suggest it? Someone in our league did that and it has really helped people develop their derby skills and taken pressure off our main coaches.
Having someone you know who has the coaching experience to give you advice throughout your session can be comforting. As long as they are not just breathing down your neck - but hopefully someone will give you the space you need to make your own mistakes without making you more anxious about it. But knowing that if you panic or something goes wrong, they are there to help sort it out can help to relieve some of the nerves about coaching knowing you are not just on your own.
I'd always recommend looking over your session/drill plans just before you leave for derby or take them with you. This way if you panic and forget everything you still have a plan with you to fall back on to relieve those anxious nerves. I have been coaching for a year now and always take my plan with me even if I don't look at it, it will be under my water bottle.
Break down each drill, when you start coaching don't expect to be able to easily convey complex derby drills to your league. I'd suggest starting simple. Still to things you know the league has all ready covered so there is less explaining of new things to do, initially you might want to teach this fab new move you've seen that looks amazing - but if you can't yet convey it as you haven't developed the necessary coaching skills that might not be advisable. If you do want to do a more multi-layered drill as time goes on, call people in and explain one part send them away to try that out, then build on it over a few group call-in's rather than all in one go. As this can confuse the other skaters and you, and if you're confused, you can be almost certain the skaters will be.
So overall my key suggestions would be:
- Don't be afraid to ask to take a warm up
- Investigate if there is a coaching development plan or similar
- Ask someone more experienced to give you space to coach but be there to help out if needed
- Have a session plan
- Use that session plan
- Start simple when explaining