David Hill has dedicated his life to Sport and helping people become better teachers and leaders. He envisions a world leading coach education program that would be accessible to any coach around the globe who wants to further their skills and experiences in order to help athletes reach their full potential. A lofty goal for sure, but one that David could pull off if given the proper amount of time and resources needed. A true visionary, Hill will offer up some great coaching insights and philosophies at the 3rd Annual BC Sport Conference on January 14, 2017 in Burnaby, BC.

With over 20 years of coaching involvement, he plans to share his thoughts on how coaching has changed over the years and also the importance of decision-making training. Hill has contributed to the Coaching Association of Canada in Ottawa and the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific. He has also been heavily involved in the development of the National Coaching Certification Program which continues to improve and progress our coaches into the future. There is no doubt that the way coaches go about coaching nowadays has changed from the past,

“The biggest change has been the movement between the art and the science of coaching,” says Hill. “As we’ve progressed with technology and science we have been able to add that into our coaching.”

Of course, finding those resources can at times be problematic but the tools are definitely out there for coaches. A lot of times it’s just whether or not they choose to apply them in the right way.

“The toughest challenge now is balancing the art and the coaching together.”Hill explains, “The best coaches are the ones who can use science to back up their intuition.”

Another new component of coaching that Hill will focus on is Decision Training, which he believes can play a major role in a coach’s progression.

“The element of decision training is really getting the coach to think how they design practices so that the outcome of the practice is not about changing the mechanics of a skill but it really comes back to the decision the athlete needs to be making.” Hill

This concept of “Decision Training” was developed by Joan Vickers. Here theory is that skill execution improves as a part of part the decision, or cognitive training. According to Hill, what is interesting is that Vickers has seven cognitive skills that underlie the decision. In her work, she suggests that the coach needs to identify the cognitive skill to be trained as the type of intervention or “cognitive trigger”.  All of this and more will be discussed and examined at the conference.

The BC Sport Conference is leadership conference designed to help you become the best coach you can be for each of the athletes you work with. Check out this year’s speakers and read about their presentation topics.

Register early for the BC Sport Conference to be held on Saturday, January 14, 2017 at the Michael J. Fox Theatre.

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