Setting ‘homework’ for the people you coach can help them improve their skills. But what should home practice be like?
You’ll probably be familiar with the phrase: “work on that for next week.” It’s a throwaway line that concludes many a coaching session.
In uttering these words, coaches at elite level can be pretty confident they’re not wasting their breath; their athletes have the time, commitment and motivation to put in the practice hours, plus training partners and access to all the facilities they need.
But what about lower down the chain? When a grassroots badminton coach asks his Saturday morning junior to work on his smash, or a gymnastics coach wants a 12 year old to practise her landings, what can they do by themselves, without a court or a pommel horse in their back garden?