Delivering Physical Literacy Through Holistic Coaching

It’s UK Coaching week! And with that, the theme this year revolves around the notion of holistic coaching practice. Developed by friends at StreetGames and UK Coaching, holistic coaching has been captured by i) developing physical, mental, social and emotional skills; ii) Appreciate the value and wider impact of sport and physical activity; and iii) Be inspired, feel connected and develop a love for being active over time. The definition resonates with us a Boing, and we want to explore how we can unlock young people's physical literacies through the notion of holistic coaching. 


Holistic coaching can provide coaches, teachers and practitioners a broad framework in which to justify, rationalise and build their teaching or coaching philosophy. The notion of ‘being’ holistic is in reference to the appreciation of the person's full lived experience, including their social, emotional, cultural, physical dimensions. In this respect, we can not separate the learners we are supporting from their history and identity. Individuals' decisions are shaped by these interacting forces, where larger social, cultural and historical forces shape how individuals engage with the worlds around them. This poses a difficult problem for coaching - how do we find a way to appreciate each learner and the breadth of their histories? 

Coaching (used here as an inclusive term for all teaching, coaching, education activities) is inherently complex, social and relational. As coaches we have to navigate a landscape of interacting variables, all interlinking and influencing the space that we are working within. Particularly in the midst of the Post COVID-19 landscape, and the current cost of living crisis, sport and physical activity is still very much in recovery as illustrated within the latest Active Lives figures. More, now than ever, is a requirement for coaches who show compassion, empathy and support, and extend their roles beyond the x’s and o’s of coaching practice. Our starting point is reimaging young people's physical literacies, extending them from the body, to the body-in-its-environment. Such a repositioning of physical literacy is important, as we extend young peoples development, and consequently the role of the coach, away from simply providing the learner with a broader movement repertoire. Physical literacy has traditionally been viewed as the end point, or final destination that a person achieves as they demonstrate physical competency. Yet, the power of physical activity extends far beyond the physical competencies demonstrated by a person, and instead accounts for a number of other developmental domains. If we view physical literacy as a continued negotiation with the world, opposed to a brief window of opportunity, we can begin to lay the groundwork for a holistic approach.

The importance of physical literacy across the lifespan provides us the opportunity to engage in broader multi-domain development, including that of confidence, competence, knowledge and understanding. These broader domains of learning are the first steps towards a holistic model of education, we now need a mechanism in which to deliver them!n The 6C’s of Boing is our model of alignment to ensure we are always trying to provide a learning environment with as much fun, meaning, and engagement as possible!

Captivated and Smiling Learners

One of our primary goals as practitioners within the sport and physical activity workforce is to provide engaging, enjoyable and meaningful learning environments. Central to this, is capturing the engagement of young people - and what better way to meet this criteria by ensuring every person within our session is captivated by the tasks and challenges set, and every learning is smiling. I always tended to get a feel for this based on the noise in the game, if its buzzing, you can hear laughter and shouting. This for me always gave me a sense for how capturing the game was. 

Challenging Problems

Skill learning aside, we want to provide challenging problems to solve to support learners in developing a greater breadth of domains. Challenging problems encourage individual and collaborative decision making, helping learners share problems, communicate, experiment and stretch their own boundaries. A feature of setting challengin problems, opposed to the repetition of particular movements and skills, is to provide meaning in how each individual explores their environment, helping them to understand what their body is capable of achieving in respect to the world around them. 

Constant & Active Play

I always challenge coaches to maximise as much as possible the amount of time spent playing. Reflecting with partners over the years, more than other subject areas, Physical Education and physical activity both within and outside of the school are often faced with significant time constraints. When delivering Boing in Primary Schools in the past, after the children had walked from the school to the sports centre, and left early to go back we had roughly 20 minutes of our hour lesson available for PlayGames. We have to push ourselves to allow as much active learning time, and be deliberate with our interactions. Can we spent more time interacting whilst their playing, with drive by interventions, quick check and challenges, and most importantly, a quick check in with every learner. 

Collaboration

Traditional additive models of physical activity have often been delivered in isolated silos, where a learner is required to repear certain skills to achieve a level of assumed proficiency. We want to challenge this! In conversation with coaches, teachers, practitioners and community workers on our courses over the last few years, one consistent theme has been the impact of the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Supports people in learning to play, to share, and to collaborate became a key developmental focus of many of our partners. We want to set up PlayGames where learners are working and collaborating with those around them. Our challenge is to design games that shine a greater light on the skills needed to collaborate, opposed to competition. This way we can start to support learners in navigating challenges collectively, without the inherent additional complexities brought upon by direct competition. 

Creative Decisions & Imaginative Solutions

Creativity and imagination are integral to the development of the domains of young people. We want to act in a way that supports creativity, and encourages learners to experiment with moving in different ways and exploring how their body works. Learners need a supportive coach to provide the scaffolding around them, allowing the learner to have the comfort and safety in which to explore the world in different ways. This might require a more flexible and fluid set of behaviours from ourselves in supporting our learners, giving the learners the space to engage in play their way. Could we bring the learners into the construction of the game, allowing them to co-create the game, design their own rules, or add their own elements to the story. The PlayGame is their game, they are the owners of the space, so lets give them the reigns to drive their own meaning into it. 

Celebrating Being Unique & Kind

Our final C, and a broader ethos for the environment we create is the celebration of every individual learners own experience. If we are to appreciate that every learners moves differently, then we must celebrate those novelties in every learner. If every learner has their own histories, cultures and social interactions written upon them, we have to accommodate that within our environment. Can we provide opportunities that allow for the successful engagement of tasks in as many different ways as possible, and not just by being the fastest, biggest or strongest. If we can design this feature into the game, we can be sure that we are celebrating every individuals unique ability to move and experience the games. 

This is of course not an exhaustive list, and we challenge practitioners to always find their own ways to capture holistic practice within their own coaching identity. However, we believe the starting point is always grounded within the relationships that we construct with the people we work with. Our understanding and celebration of our learners will help us to foster an environment that accommodates exploration, autonomy and meaning. Our actions can help provide meaning to young peoples learning experiences. And embracing our own vulnerabilities, and releasing control to accommodate for co-creation and design to afford the learners opportunities to tell their story. 

Embracing holistic coaching,

Ben