Motivation Part 1. How can we create optimal learning environments?

Canoe B&amp;W

Photo by Lizzie Canoe


Motivating others

I think it is safe to assume that those of us who coach, lead or instruct other people would like them to leave each session they have with us feeling happy. Buzzing even. Keen to come back and do more with us. Motivated to go and practice what they have learnt, and enjoy it in their free time. I also think that we would all like to be able to influence our own motivation too. We would like to recognise elements that are supporting or thwarting our motivation and be able to change them or at least understand and accept them.

The statistics available on regular participation in sports make rather sobering reading, and numbers are consistently lower for women and girls, and minority groups. According to a Sport Wales statement from 2017, “Currently 576,000 women in Wales report not participating in any form of activity, while just over half (54%) of women say they’ve done at least one sporting activity in the last four weeks compared to 63% of men. Research shows a lack of confidence, fear of judgement, a perceived inability or no one to go along to something new with are common factors that prevent women and girls from getting more active”10. Can we, as practitioners, have any influence on the motivation and continued participation of those do come along to our sessions? Are we able to help increase the number of people who will get hooked on our sports and continue to participate long term, including ourselves?

My interest in motivation was particularly influenced by the way my son responded to the learning environments he experienced when he was young. At the age of eight, he asked if he could go to the local canoeing club with his best friend from school. I thought it was a great idea. He had played for years in boats with me and really enjoyed it, surely it would be so much more fun with his friends! I went to pick him up after the club session expecting a happy excited little boy. But he had hated it. When I asked him why, he told me that canoeing was boring; they were not allowed to play like he did with me, they didn’t let him do the things that he was good at, or be with his friend. Not only did he not go back to the club, but he also lost interest in coming to boat with me too. Continue reading “Motivation Part 1. How can we create optimal learning environments?”


A fresh look at the role of instructions, demonstrations and feedback in learning.

Movement variability and an external focus of attention

Recently I observed an interesting paddlesports coaching session*. It was on sheltered water, but at the limit of the remit due to the wind. The coach had two clients whom they had just met. After a detailed conversation about ability and goals for the day, they agreed to concentrate on forward paddling in kayaks for the first session. Both clients were experienced and were already coaches at a lower level, however, there was a big difference in their self-evaluated ability and confidence.

The coach moved to the most sheltered spot available, which was still a little windy, and set the two paddlers the task of paddling around three buoys in a triangle. This triangle gave a great view of the learners from all angles and the coach proceeded to individually give them very specific technical information about their forward paddling each time they completed the triangle. Lots of different explanation examples were used. Information was given verbally and visually and there was a good use of flags and markers, however, it was also all very prescriptive, detailed, and form based. The instructions, based on the position of body parts and the blade, internalized the focus of attention to create an idealized forward paddling technique. I watched and I listened.

Two things jumped out at me. The first was that if I closed my eyes it sounded like the session could have been run in a gym and on an ergo. There was no mention of the environment or attempting to adapt to it. There was no inclusion of outcome measures, learner decision making, or any motivational or psychological elements of performance. The second was that the less experienced paddler was becoming progressively less competent if you measured the outcome. Continue reading “Developing Skill Part 3. They say you can’t learn feel…!”

Developing Skill Part 2. Information, autonomy and playing in the ‘ugly zone’.


Dan Soana

Dan Wilkinson nailing a boof on the Soana River, Val Aosta. Photo by Richard Watson

Becoming Skilful

Like many parents, I owe so much of my learning to my son, Sam. The sheer intensity of my passion and love for him, and the resulting attention I paid to him and his experiences have taught me a lot. Watching him learning and exploring adventure sports was both terrifying and exhilarating. I tried to stop myself telling him to ‘be careful’ and I revelled in our shared experiences and his sheer joy and ability, despite him becoming more proficient than me at everything except horse riding by the time he was just 18 years old. Adventure sports are a precious experience that we still share, and I am fortunate to be writing this article at the end of an awesome skiing holiday with him. Continue reading “Developing Skill Part 2. Information, autonomy and playing in the ‘ugly zone’.”

Developing Skill Part 1. Listening to the elite.

A fresh look at the information we need to become skilful; the role of instructions, demonstrations and feedback in coaching.

Sam Davies KGB-1644Sam Davies skilfully reading the rock on KGB at Willyabrup in Western Australia. Photo by Siu On.


Do coaches need to understand coaching and learning theory?

Fluid dynamics, weather systems and coaching adventure sports

olly pics2 063 

Rolling clouds over a snow-capped Craig Megaidth. Moving skillfully and making decisions on a Winter ML Assessment. Photo by Olly Sanders

Adventure sports coaches typically support individuals to operate confidently and competently in changeable and complex environments. To do this it would help to understand how people learn to interpret their environment, make decisions and move skillfully.

An ecological dynamics (ED) theory approach to coaching and learning views human movement as an interaction between the individual, the activity and the environment in which the activity is taking place. This approach emerged from the application of dynamical systems theory and ecological psychology6 to motor learning and is the underpinning theory for the ‘constraints’ led approach to the way we structure practice. All of you who coach or participate in adventure sports will be familiar with aspects of this approach already. You will intuitively recognise and understand it even if you have not used it to understand movement and learning. This is a brief introduction to the concepts and theories behind an ED approach to coaching and learning. In the following articles, armed with this understanding, we can look at the implications that this approach has for coaching adventure sports. Continue reading “Do coaches need to understand coaching and learning theory?”