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Progression Through The New UKCC Coaching Scheme
My name is Sara Kaikkonen. I am one of the first five people, along with Oli Jordan, Alex Seager, Celine Millour and Dave Spelman to become a UKCC Level 2 Coach. In fact, we are the first people to have gone through the “new” Level 1 and then the “new” Level 2 - ever. I have been asked to describe this process…
First of all, lets backtrack to where I was introduced to paddlesport.
I went to a fantastic taster session run by the Canoe Club at the University of Wales, Bangor. The enthusiasm of the guys in the club was phenomenal. You could really tell they loved paddling, and it was catchy. So I joined up; soon after, I found myself kayaking two, three, even four times a week - in the pool, out in the surf or on some classic white water of North Wales. I was hooked.
Three years later, I finished my degree in Psychology and wanted some sort of Gap year job before further study to become a teacher. PGL seemed like the ideal job. I could work with children and paddle! 
So, I now work at PGL Boreatton Park in Shropshire, and I’m having the time of my life. The kids are great, the work is fantastic, and the lifestyle is just like being back at Uni. PGL has completely met my expectations and lives up to its good reputation.
Winter Paddle School
Before I became an activity instructor at PGL, I was sent to Boreatton Park for “paddle school”. So, in December, I was trained and assessed for my 2*. The “new” 2* is now assessed in canoe and kayak, and focuses on the similarities within all paddlesports. At first I found the new syllabus so frustrating – I wasn’t a canoeist! I loved playing about in kayaks, because that’s what I was good at. However, my trainers kept telling me that learning to canoe would actually help my kayaking. I only half-believed them, and I can safely say that I would probably never have learned to canoe if it weren’t for the new system. I also got to try wild water racers, touring boats and slalom kayaks, which were all good fun.
UKCC Level 1
The UKCC level 1 course is an introduction to coaching “SEL” (Safe, Enjoyable, Learning) sessions. Level 1 Coaches can run taster sessions and assess BCU Paddlesport Start and Paddlepower Start awards. These awards are mainly aimed at kids, and cover very basic paddle skills. What I think is great about the new scheme is that as a level 1, if you already have personal experience of, say, white water paddling, you can also assist a BCU level 3 or above on white water trips.
I was very lucky with the coaches for my level 1 course. Leo Hoare, Ray Goodwin, Dave Luke… They were so enthusiastic, and were constantly giving me feedback and handy hits and tips.
They taught us all how to plan and review simple sessions and introduced us to the concept of Long Term Paddler Development (LTPD).
UKCC Level 2 training
In January, I was trained and assessed for my 3* kayak. This now involves simple moving water skills as well as good flat-water technique. You don’t actually have to be a 3* in the other discipline to become a level 2 coach – you just need to show 3* competency. So I went straight on to do my level 2 training, a four-day, intensive course. Again, we were lucky to have Ray Goodwin, Leo Hoare, Phil Russell, and Darryl Shaw coaching us – they never tired of my incessant questions that led us into deeper discussions about the topics than we actually needed for the course. Instead, they encouraged curiosity and made the theories easy to understand by using personal experiences and anecdotes.
I think the moment I realised how in depth this course was in comparison to the level 1, was when we spent a whole morning just watching people paddle up and down the lake in different boats. It makes sense. How are you going to be a good coach if you can’t see what is going wrong? However, at the time, it was probably the most difficult thing for me to get my head round. We were using flags and markers to make holistic, analytical, and deductive observations, yet the paddler wasn’t doing anything wrong! I didn’t fully understand why we did most of the things on the course, until I had coached people for a couple of months – but that’s a good thing, because it made me want to get out there and start coaching!
From early February until my Level 2 assessment at the end of May, I managed to log about 130 good coaching hours in different crafts. This is far more than the minimum requirement of 20 (10 in canoe, 10 in kayak), which I really don’t think is enough. I think that the Level 2 training gives you a massive box of tools you need to become a good coach – but you won’t know how to use those tools until you get enough experience.
I know this because with each week of coaching I’d dig a little deeper into my little box of knowledge, until I caught myself doing things without even thinking.
For example, I found myself asking kids on a taster session whether they had done much swimming. How is this relevant? Well, watching kids pick up a paddle for the first time is fascinating. Some seem to be attracted to the bushes, or spin round in circles, and others just “get it”. Because of the Level 2 course, I was interested. I started asking kids what sort of sports they had done before. Nearly always the ones that “got it” were either good swimmers or had done lots of varied sports before.
It works with adults too. It took some coaching hours to remember to ask people what their hobbies were when they were younger, and then it took more experience to judge how it might be affecting their ability to learn to paddle. This LTPD thing is amazing. It basically reminds me that it’s not enough to know a paddlers learning style “now”. To coach them even better you need to relate skills to previous learning and experiences. Common sense, right? But a lot of coaches forget this.
It is impossible to describe the course content in any depth – I’d have to write a book. However, some of the other topics we covered in detail were:
- Learning styles,
- Teaching styles
- Feedback
- Memory
UKCC Level 2 Assessment
The last few weeks before my assessment were hectic. I must admit that I underestimated the sheer volume of paperwork we had to complete for our portfolio. There had to be evidence of researching child protection issues, learner’s needs, access to different venues, and countless other things that you would naturally do, yet wouldn’t necessarily have any evidence for a portfolio. It all had to be cross referenced, and had to include session plans, reviews and health and safety checklists, as well as risk assessments for the venues. That’s a lot of paper right there – and it’s not just something you can “blag”.
In addition, before we could do our assessment, we had to sit a CPD (Continued professional development) module. Ours was on Coaching Young people. The CPD was well presented by Phil Hadley, and I did enjoy it; however, having already worked at PGL with children for a few months, I felt that a different CPD would have been more enlightening.
The assessment itself was quite informal. We did our practical assessment on a slow moving part of the River Severn – still within our remit as level 2 coaches. It involved coaching peers in canoes for 30 minutes, then coaching a group of 2* canoeists in kayaks for 30 minutes. We also had to demonstrate competency in rescues, and we sat a written paper to show our theoretical knowledge.
What do I think?
In a quest to understand the role of a “new” level 2 coach, paddlers have compared it to the old scheme, describing it as a “flat water level 3”. However, I think it’s very difficult to compare the two. The old scheme produced some fantastic level 3’s, but they were only level 3’s in that specific discipline. Before, coaches were taught how to coach canoe, or how to coach kayak, to a high standard. Now, we are taught to coach to a high standard, no matter what the craft – or, even, no matter what the sport!
Furthermore, we are now more capable of critically reviewing our own sessions, as well as other people’s sessions. This is something our examiners picked up on in our assessment – we weren’t nice – we picked each other’s sessions to pieces and learned from it.
Next…
I like to keep learning. So I think I’ll get some coaching experience of working in different environments. Then I think I’ll go for my 4* in both disciplines. When the new level 3 comes out, I’ll work towards it. I’d recommend the new scheme to anyone – it’s given me infinite possibilities and skills for the future!
