For 8 months this year, a group of twelve Year 11 and 12 Logan Park students have attended a coaching course which has been held every Thursday, at study time, called A.C.E. 

At the start of the year we had the opportunity to apply for this course because it had limited spaces, so we had to prove and explain why we really wanted to be there. 

This one year course is run by Mrs Frost and Ms Vella and is intended to teach students about different aspects of coaching and leadership. It has helped us develop skills to be a good coach. It has also provided us with ideas for what we can put in our own practices. 

Throughout the year we have had experts from the industry come in from a variety of sports, including basketball, handball and netball. They taught us about their experiences with coaching a team, which was excellent and super interesting to hear their opinions, as each of them had a different perspective on what they thought coaching actually consisted of. 

Though the coaches had different perspectives, there was always the same objective from all of them, which was to push their teams to do the best of their abilities and try their hardest. They showed us loads of techniques that help you with coaching. 

We had opportunities to peer coach and teach the entire group a skill or game and everything in-between. In the first half of the course there were theory lessons. Mrs Frost and Ms Vella would teach us the fundamentals of being a spectacular coach, for example how does a great coach act in tricky situations and how well do they create a plan and then execute it in a training session for their team. 

Along with theory work and practical work we also went on a one day trip to the Edgar Centre to participate with multiple other schools in attending a coaching session with different experts from different fields. This one day session took all the different aspects of coaching and divided them into different activities. From learning about the different skill level of the players in the team and why you should know what your players were doing outside your sport, to learning about the acronym S.E.E.D. and how it affects athletes ability to learn. We also learnt about taking a successful training lesson and how to give a wide range of warm ups for your team which can be used in all sorts of sports. 

The coaching course A.C.E really improves your skill and ability to coach and you can use everything you learn in it in a practical environment. It is a tremendously helpful course and gives you an amazing head start in coaching. 

We highly recommend you try this study if you get the chance!