Coach Educator & Skills Specific Trainer Assessor Clinic Report

The EWA Coaching Advisory Panel held a very successful and well-attended Coach Educator (CE) and Skills Specific Training Assessor (SSTA) Updating Clinic at the State Equestrian Centre in June.

The presenter was Darryl Durham a Consultant, Coach and Officiating Educator Specialist with ‘Optimum Edge’ from Canberra that specializes in professional training and coaching.

The content covered Mini Presentations, Vark Learning Styles (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write & Kinaesthetic) Role Plays and Case Studies. Some of the principles of facilitating learning were not necessarily equestrian but were well balanced and covered universally appropriate activities, interaction with other coaches, revising and improving communication skills, body language versus spoken words and discussion on methods of assessing coaches. Also discussed was the importance of making sure that the client actually understood what was being taught.

Everyone agreed that these types of updating clinics are very important for updating skills for coaching and assessing, collaborating with their peers and colleagues, and open discussion on training manuals and more standardization of the syllabus.

Those present had to do presentations on a variety of topics, which were then discussed and feedback given. In the following discussion, everyone learned some weakness in their presentation as well as a positive aspect.  It was interesting that the individual was much tougher in their own comments than the other members of the group. One of the presentations required an individual to make a 2-minute video of their choice on a subject of their choosing. A couple of the more memorable ones were ‘making a cup of tea’, 'flying a plane' and ‘a tame Pekin Duck called Wack Wack’.

I would like to thank Zoe Harrison for her assistance in writing this report.

Diane Bennit
Chair EA Advisory Coaching Panel 2018