Jill Walker is a level 3 swimming coach with Lowestoft & Oulton Broad Swimming Club, and has been involved in the Countys mentoring programme since December 2004.  In this time she has mentored two coaches a level one coach and a level two coach who is considering working towards her level three qualification.

 

 

The level one coach entered into the mentoring relationship having no coaching experience at all, and has progressed to become an extremely competent and confident level one coach who can relate to groups of varying abilities and adapt what she are doing with them. This coach has built on their basic knowledge by use of textbooks, video material and observations of other coaches. Skill-wise, she started with accurate demonstrations of stroke technique, and has gone on to gain many strategies for capturing and maintaining the attention of their group, and knowing how and when to intervene with coaching points.

 

The level two coach also began with no experience or background knowledge. She has worked hard to acquire these, using similar methods to the coach above, and is particularly good at picking things up from other coaches and adapting it as necessary. She is now very confident with the swimmers she works regularly (she now has her own two lanes of swimmers on a permanent basis, and also still does some teaching for the Learn to Swim scheme). She is now working alongside other coaches for sessions with older swimmers to expand the range of ages and abilities that she feels comfortable with, with a view to progressing onwards and doing the level three course in the near future.

 

 

The factors in these relationships have been the listening skills and the mentor focusing on the positive. By encouraging coaches to fully understand the nature of any problems and exploring possible answers, it has allowed the coaches to find their own solutions to the challenges faced. The mentor has also worked to build confidence in the coaches own abilities through praise, helping with problem solving and constructive criticism.

 

Jill has feels as though she has gained as much knowledge as the coaches have, and that it has been a very worthwhile experience watching them grow as coaches.

 

 

"I learned that I was not seeking perfection - only to be better than I was"