Several months ago I received an email from a young lady who had done some of our training many years ago. Amy was now National Education Manager for England Athletics and was an avid reader of my Juicemail.

It was after reading one in particular she wanted to meet up and discuss an event she was organising with her colleague Paul Moseley, Coach Development and Education Manager.

Paul is one of those characters you will always remember. He is sharp and funny and makes you feel at ease wit his sense of humour and yet its clear he takes his role very seriously with in the organisation. His role was to create a workforce that offered the best education programmes in sport.

So the reason for us meeting was because they wanted me to deliver a session for their teachers on how to deliver a session with creative facilitation skills, to offer a more memorable experience for their learners and therefore generate a greater positive impact on the wider audience.

After a few emails had gone backwards, I kept asking Amy questions about exactly what they wanted…..I mean being asked to teach teachers how to teach…really?!! But as you know, embracing a challenge is something I advocate to my learners.

As I did more research into their present tutor training syllabus I started to realise how tough this gig was going to be because they were already doing such an awesome job of it!! The content was already packed with all of the regular content you would expect for educating teacher training. So what on earth was I going to bring to the table?

So I went back over my old Juicemail’s, pulled out all of my DTLLS paper work and assignments and started to consider what kind of session I could run. It needed to be different, memorable and bring something new to the table for these already skilled professionals.

After months of planning Amy started to email me about having the resources printed out and ready for the session. This is an important part of teaching and the learners experience, to have great resources for learners to utilise during teaching sessions.

My handout was virtually a manual!

Paul had agreed that it would be great to actually deliver some practical content into my session which would give the coaches something they could actually use with their athletes AND then my plan was to re-visit HOW it had been taught for that learner lead environment with lots of connection that Paul and Amy were looking for.

However I developed an idea to create a deliberate environment to highlight an important point and so if they had a resource well..

1). They would be able to read about it prior to my session which would reduce impact.

2). I didn’t want them to be distracted by such an extensive handout.

So I created 2 handouts, one very short one for the session and the bigger one for afterward the event with masses of content.

As the day drew near and everything was arranged for the timings of the day I saw I was up first and the line up was incredible!

What on earth was I doing amongst these other super qualified professionals? My old insecurities about being the ‘non-academic’ crept back as I was realised I was going to be amongst qualified teachers, professionals with psychology degree’s and a whole bunch of very experienced coaches. As I discussed these feelings with my colleagues they reminded me of the things I tell my learners about stepping into the unknown and being uncomfortable, the place where we expand and grow, the place where we discover knew abilities and explore areas we might want to work on and realise skills we maybe didn’t realise we had.

The pressure was being felt and so I had practiced, rehearsed and changed my mind on serval occasions but basically knew what I wanted to do in my session. My idea was to be different and so I had an idea but having never done it before it was certainly going to be a gamble.

The day before Amy called to check I was all set and I was actually quite excited, while still anxious, but had my colleague, Kate, coming along to assist in the practical section since there was to be 60 x people! I had my bag packed, my presentation and just wanted to be able to finally see the room to allow me to imagine the session and how I would manage the practical stuff in a conference room.

As usual I arrived mega really to gather my bearings, see the room, see Paul and Amy and get set up. As it turned out there were 43 coming which meant things would be a little easier for managing the session.

It was great to see Linda Low who was presenting a session later on about team teaching and whom I had met some 18 months ago in Jersey at The Performance Movement Summit and I felt relief when Kate arrived.

As the 43 sports coach, tutors and others started to filter into the large conference room, I felt really excited and anxious at the same time about my shock opener. I had warned Paul and Amy not be worried when I began, but that there was a point being made.

Paul began the day with a welcome and then introduced me. So I walked to the front, turned my back to the group, slowly took a drink of water, turned and stood pan faced barking orders to cross one ankle over the other, change sides, speaking monotonously while looking upwards with no facial expression, that if they were asymmetrical then there was a good chance they had pelvic dysfunction.

Some smiled, realising that I was making a point, others muttered to their neighbours but they did as they were told and I turned my back again and took another drink of water hearing them still quietly questioning what was going on.

The discomfort I had wanted to create is what many, maybe most, if not all learners feel stepping inside the classroom. Going into the unknown, like me in this session we were all feeling awkward, unsure, questioning what would happen next and wondering what everyone else was thinking!!?!?!

My point here was that teaching is not simply passing on knowledge, telling people what you know or how to do a practical skill like this 4 sign pelvic function screen I had just taken around 40 seconds to TELL them.

So I turned, smiled and introduced myself properly, also asking them to consider how they had felt during my opener.

Did they wonder what on earth was going on?

Why was I asking them to do that movement?

What was the point of this?

Who is this strange woman and why have they asked her to teach us?

I went on to deliver a section of our education programme that TEACHES the background, they how’s, they why’s and the details of this simple practical skill to connect better with the learners, enhance their experience, create relevance to them individually (as much as possible) and hopefully empower them to go on an autonomous learning experience beyond the classroom. Using direct questions, asking names, sports, professional background amongst other things.

Part of my ‘lesson’ is about being in your element, which is something I experience when teaching and is clearly defined by Ken Robinson’s 2014 book THE ELEMENT which I have mentioned in a previous Juicemail. The Element is when you are unaware of time, feel most passionate, are enjoying what you are doing and revelling in the moment.

SO here I am in my element and suddenly I look at the clock thinking “Oh no, time has gone quick, I only have 10 minutes left!”.

My panic sets in that I haven’t got much time to connect the points of my teaching methods having done the practical stuff. So I organise the group to take a seat, flick through my remaining slides, annoyed at myself for not checking the time more effectively, and I round up my session.

The applause was slow to come and I thought “oh crap they hated it!”, as Paul came up seeing I was finishing and stated “actually you have another 20 minutes Rachel…”

WHAT?

I had mistimed the wrong way and UNDER timed it!!

DOH!

I was gutted to say the least but Paul handled my massive error superbly and summed up the purpose of my session suggesting we open the floor for a Q&amp;A session to finish off.

Hands went up, questions came in and it was clear they had enjoyed the practical session very much as their questions all related to the topic and were fantastically relevant and showed their interest.

Under the table I was mentally kicking my self and then Kurt Lindley spoke. Kurt, who is Development Lead Officer (Coach Developer) at Sports Coach UK, asked me to elaborate on my experience as a ‘non academic’ and how, and at what point, I overcame the anxiety that I was not smart enough or intelligent enough to be able to run an eduction company AND stand in front of people presenting.

His question put me back into ‘my element’ of being as honest as I can be about insecurities and that it is something we all face at times. This gave me the opportunity to explain my meeting with my lifelong teacher and mentor, Martin Haines, who believed in me and my capabilities way before I did.

Kurt also went onto suggest that there is a good chance my insecurities are connected with my schooling and being told I was not academic but he pointed out that chances are it was translated in MY head as not intelligent/not good enough thus making it understandable that my teaching style and methods will reflect this.

My final Q&amp;A session came to a close with me explaining what an honour it feels to be in a teaching role and how vital it is we all respect this position of responsibility. Soon I had a queue of people lining up at the front with yet more questions and offering business cards and sharing their experiences.

What a great opportunity and experience this was!

I had desperately wanted to stay and experience Kurt’s workshop session about asking yourself “…whether you can hold two opposing views at one time without bias…?” Also Georgina Williams’ (a development practitioner amongst other things) ‘Emotional Intelligence’ session looked fascinating and of course my friend Linda Low and her colleague Jamie French were offering their insights into ‘The Art of Co-Delivery.’

The point to be raised here is we can all make a mistake and step outside our comfort zones but this is what the learning environment is like.

It is ok to ‘fail’ so long as you take something from it.

It is ok to feel uncomfortable if this expands your knowledge/learning experience.

Life is too short to stay with the zones you are most comfortable…

TAKE A LEAP…Who knows what might happen? You might even enjoy it!

You might even discover YOUR ELEMENT!!

It could be Biomechanics Coaching!

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