A Winning Combination...

Learning for understanding could be the key to top level athletes

By Case van Wyngaarden (SPARK Student & MJC President)

Former Olympic champion Cari Read understands what it takes to be a top-level athlete, but she isn�t going to tell her students.
����� After winning a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta games, Read has taken on the task of coaching some of Canada�s most talented, national-level synchronized swimmers. While Read�s successful history as a synchronized swimmer has lead her to coaching, it�s the uniqueness of those coaching tactics that has opened the door to a master�s research project in the Faculty of Kinesiology.
����� Instead of a coach telling an athlete what it takes to win, Read says �a true winning combination also includes athlete input; this involves thinking, reflecting, and asking questions.�
����� The critical thought of an athlete has traditionally played a more important role in open sport. This is competition that requires an athlete to respond to an opponent�s actions, such as in football or hockey. Read�s research involves a qualitative assessment of how �learning-for-understanding� coaching methods will impact the success of closed sports (pre-prepared performances) such as synchronized swimming.
����� The demand for this type of coaching is at the national level. An extensive survey of coaches that found one of the most desired qualities in a national-level athlete is self-reliance. A great attribute for just about any profession.
����� Read believes the importance of the research is to develop an educational model to prevent people from becoming dependent on outside leadership.
����� �To understand your actions in a larger context, to be self-reliant, and to be able to critically think and reflect instead of relying on outside leadership are powerful attributes,� she says. �These are qualities that I would want my own doctor or lawyer to possess.�
����� The students participating in the research, aged 14 to 21, keep extensive journals on their progress, feelings, and frustration levels as they progress through their training. It�s the feelings expressed in these journals that serve as the results for the research.
����� Although the study is too short to make any statistical matches between coaching methods and athlete success, Read explains the ideal follow-up would involve interviewing each of the athletes again in five years to see how these coaching techniques affected their careers.
����� Cultivating this critical thought has been a difficult road for both the coach and her athletes, says Read. But despite the student�s frustrations, the importance of the teaching model is beginning to have an influence.
����� One of Read�s students recently presented her with a quote by British novelist E.M. Forster that she felt accurately captured the importance of her research: �Spoon-feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.�

Case van Wyngaarden is a masters student in civil engineering and writer in the University of Calgary SPARK program (Students� Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge). He is also the President of The University of Calgary Medical Journalism Club.

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