The coronavirus pandemic, potentially the world's worst pandemic in 100 years, characterised the year 2020. Most national policies have been built on social distancing and case isolation. These repressive policies elicit significant financial and general disruption. The virus has impacted almost every part of our lives and its threat forced global adaptation. From work and education to daily activities such as grocery shopping and exercise. Many industries were forced to adapt during this phase, with many collapsing into administration. Sport has also been severely impacted by the pandemic lockdown around the world, with professional and amateur sport being suspended for prolonged periods of time.
Fortunately, due to technological advancements some businesses managed to take their services online. Including the educational and sports sector. With schools closing around the world many teachers and students were forced to engage in online learning (Pragholapati & Putri, 2021). This is a completely different way of learning that many institutions have had to embrace and adapt to. Many strength and conditioning (S&C) professionals and sports clubs took a very similar approach by delivering online sessions. For many athletes and sports clubs S&C was the means of continuing training and staying connected to the sport and each other.
My experience during this period consisted of coaching over 150 youth athletes on a weekly basis, ranging from 3-6 session a day. Primarily athletes from a swimming club setting with multiple squads with swimmers ranging from 8-19 years of age. As well as school athletic development and individual multi-sport sessions. There were many challenges presented along the way, but many positives which can potentially be transferred and applied in S&C practices post pandemic.
This new method of training possessed its own unique set of challenges as seen in table 1. The obvious one included lack of training equipment. Many clubs, gyms and organisations attempted to get around this issue by lending out any equipment available to members and athletes. However, this was not a possibility for many and the demand for equipment saw a rise in fitness equipment sales by 170% (ltd, 2021). With that being said many people were left with a limited number of tools to train with, meaning that coaches were forced to adapt and implement creative strategies. Catering for squad S&C sessions with limited equipment can be an interesting challenge. The implementation of a progressive systematic tiered exercise approach was the primary solution to this issue ultimately providing a framework to refer to which allows individualisation to occur. In addition, the manipulation of training variables such as tempo, type of contractions and movement complexity are some of the methods which can be utilized to ensure progression is achieved.
Table 1: Potential problems vs Solutions of coaching through a screen
In regard to squad organisation, without the influence of external skills sessions (swimming) timetable a reformulation of squads based on experience, athleticism, psychological characteristics and growth/ maturation can be implemented to reduce discrepancy of type of work amongst individuals (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Lockdown squad structure and goals
Delivery methods and motor learning
Motor leaning and skill acquisition is a very important factor in coaching independently of the environment (Till, Muir, Abraham & Ashford, 2020). It is important to recognise that the way we may coach in person may differ to the way we coach via a screen. The most significant factor which we as coaches need to be aware of when coaching online is the fact that all of the participants can hear what the coach is saying, making it extremely challenging to give specific feedback and near enough impossible to do it privately in a practical manner. Meaning, we are left with 1 voice for approximately 15 athletes.
So how do we overcome this and better yet, thrive in this environment?
Firstly, it is extremely important to understand the concepts feedback/ instructional factors behind motor learning and skill acquisition. Individuals will learn in differing ways therefore it is crucial that our practice acknowledges this. The two primary methods of feedback and most frequent in this environment are verbal and visual. In regard to verbal feedback, it is important to consider the use of analogies, external vs internal cuing, implicit vs explicit and augmented feedback (Niznikowski, Sadowski & Mastalerz, 2013).
It is also important to understand how training may differ from a novice and advanced athlete/squad. Research suggests that novices require more feedback than advanced athletes and that novice athletes will benefit more from seeing what a movement should look like whereas advanced athletes may benefit more from seeing poor technique (Magill & Anderson, 2012).
Quantity and frequency of feedback are somewhat more challenging elements to adhere to in this setting. Research suggests that too much feedback can be detrimental for retention and performance (Winstein & Schmidt, 1990). Implying that terminal or delayed feedback is more indicative towards retention. This can be a difficult challenge when coaching online, as in a normal gym based setting the coach has the ability to address each individual and provide feedback, whereas online feedback is (personally) given to the group as a whole based on what the coach sees to avoid social anxiety as mentioned in table 1. It is normal for the coach to feel the need to constantly be felt present in the online setting, ultimately resulting in more verbal output than usual. This communication can be to utilize to praise and motivate, thus not always with the aim of enhancing motor learning/ technique. When this is the aim a bandwidth strategy can be utilized to avoid the trap of overcoaching. This is where the coach only intervenes when the athlete deviates beyond an undesirable point of the technical model. In addition, prioritising correction pointers is also an important factor, an example of this would be to address a neutral spine as opposed to knee angle in a hip hinge movement.
Benefits of online training
One of the best tools available with online coaching is the ability to share screen with the participants. This particular strategy enables the coach to pull up exercise videos from the internet/ device, thus providing the opportunity to talk through particular movements and break down technique in much more detail by slowing videos down or pausing at particular points. Similarly, the whiteboard tool also allows for a different method of getting information across, ultimately it is up to the coach to get creative and use these advantages to get the most out the athletes.
The isolated nature of training from home enabled young participants who typically do not perform as well in a group environment to thrive and see massive progression during this period. There are several reasons as to why some athletes may not perform to the best their ability in a group setting, with the most common including fear of failure/ judgement and being easily distracted. Suggesting that this method of training may be more suited to these types of people.
Training from home also means that from a financial perspective swimmers/parents and coaches save money on travelling, with the club also saving money on facility hire. Thus, from this perspective it may make it more visible for sports clubs to integrate strength and conditioning sessions.
In addition, it this method of coaching provides an excellent opportunity to show case and educate parents on the value of strength and conditioning. Many people still see S&C as just a fitness session, with no real understanding of all of the potential benefits and what it entails. Remote training literally brings the coach to people’s homes, whereby parents in many cases will be in the same room as the athletes watching and listening to what goes on. In my personal experience, this has been a game changer. The general feedback has been excellent is this regard, where many parents stated that prior to lockdown they did not see the value in S&C and that now they will ensure their child is as involved as possible.
Of course, I am not suggesting that this method of coaching should replace in person coaching, rather it should be used alongside it. It is perhaps more suited towards novice athletes, where the primary focus is on movement literacy and minimal equipment is required. It will also vary from sport to sport. In the case of swimming, some S&C sessions are typically conducted pool side or in a studio with minimal equipment. In this case, virtual sessions may be a suitable replacement. In addition, this also means that strength and conditioning training can be more flexible, in the sense that it does not need to be done pre or post pool. Potentially allowing load to be distributed more optimally. A combination of online and face to face learning may be a visible option for many clubs and coaches, by combining the particular strengths of each method to compliment the overall training experience.
References
ltd, R. (2021). Fitness Equipment: COVID-19 - Research and Markets. Retrieved 24 April 2021, from https://www.researchandmarkets.com/issues/fitness-equipment-grows-170pct?utm_source=dynamic&utm_medium=BW&utm_code=m6djfc&utm_campaign=1386770+-+Fitness+Equipment+Sales+Grow+by+170%25+During+Coronavirus+Lockdown&utm_exec=joca220bwd
Magill, R., & Anderson, D. (2012). Skill acquisition in sport: Research, theory and practice (2nd ed., pp. pp.3-22). London: Routledge.
Niznikowski, T., Sadowski, J., & Mastalerz, A. (2013). The Effectiveness of Different Types of Verbal Feedback on Learning Complex Movement Tasks. Human Movement, 14(2).
Pragholapati, A., & Putri, S. (2021). Blended Learning In Nursing Education: Literature Review. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Till, K., Muir, B., Abraham, A., Piggott, D., & Tee, J. (2019). A Framework for Decision-Making Within Strength and Conditioning Coaching. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 41(1), 14-26.
Winstein, C., & Schmidt, R. (1990). Reduced frequency of knowledge of results enhances motor skill learning. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, And Cognition, 16(4), 677-691.
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