TBA Coaches Learn From Some Of The Best

Tenpin Bowling Australia (TBA) teamed up with Kegel Training Centre in the U.S.A last week in delivering development sessions for our Bronze and Silver level coaches.

Due to the limited opportunities for coaching this year, TBA organised the initiative to thank our coaches for all the work they do.

Prior to the COVID shutdown, TBA had plans to hold another National Coaching Conference, similar of two years ago, where international guest speakers would be in attendance. With COVID cancelling a lot of plans for 2020, TBA developed the concept of holding two coach development seminars using Zoom technologies.

Held over two days, the sessions would cover four prime topics presented by three different leading coaches in the industry. The aim of the sessions was to keep our coaches trained and current with the best information from around the world.

The first session was led by USBC Gold level coach Randy Stoughton who boasts 40 years of experience in the coaching field.  Joining Randy was Ruben Ghiragossian who is a teaching professional and was inducted into the World Coaching Hall of Fame in 2008.

Their session largely covered two topics. The first surrounding the subject of coaching two handed bowlers. The other topic looking at coaching women vs coaching men and the difference involved. The session originally scheduled for two hours from 9:30pm, stretched out to a marathon session of four hours till 1:30am.

“I really enjoyed the chance to talk to these experienced coaches from the US” said an attendee. “It was very valuable and informative”.

The second session on Tuesday night saw another leading USBC Gold level coach take the reins with a presentation. This time it was no other than previous PBA athlete and current VP of the Kegel Training Centre, Del Warren.

The focus of the second session was delving into the two topics of creating team culture and customising an arsenal to match the style of the athlete. Yet again, the session would go over time with the Del more than happy to share all he could.

The two sessions covered four prime and relevant coaching topics run by three key coaching figures in the industry. High Performance manager Mike Griffith was pleased with how the two sessions ran and the value it provided our accredited coaches.

“The feedback and responses have been extremely positive” said Griffith. “The sessions were long and lasted into the night, but all agreed it was worth the sacrifice and were very grateful for the opportunity”.

A total of 55 coaches experienced the two sessions at some point by joining the sessions last week. Both sessions were recorded and have been shared for a limited time to those that could not make it to the live sessions.

Griffith believes the success seen from the sessions warrants the creation of ones to follow.

“From a Kegel perspective, this was the first time they have been asked to present a conference in this format. I know they are keen to continue in the future and provide future sessions to explore many of the topics in more depth”.

TBA thanks the presenters from Kegel Training Centre for their time in teaching our accredited coaches about some key topics surrounding our sport.

In conjunction with the coach development sessions, members of the National Training Squad have also been involved in some closed Zoom sessions over several weekends.

With the aim to keep our NTS athletes in touch throughout the COVID shutdown, Zoom technologies have been utilised to achieve togetherness in a tough period that has not involved bowling. To help maintain development opportunities for our players, special guests were organised to chat to some of our groups.

Athletes and coaches from the Adult and Senior National Training squads were treated to a session with Dr Dean Hititz. An expert on sport psychology who works with USBC, US National teams, Kegel and the US Olympic committee. Dr Hintitz conducted a two-and-a-half-hour session on the topic of mental game training with the athletes.

This session followed several other successful Zoom sessions with our NTS athletes. TBA ambassador Jason Belmonte had a few sessions with our junior, youth and women athletes, while Verity Crawley also had a session with our juniors.

We thank all the presenters for their time and efforts with these presentations.