British Canoeing Awarding Body is pleased to announce Doug Cooper as the first keynote for the 2022 Paddlesport Coaching and Leadership Conference, taking place on the 19th and 20th November at Eastwood Hall, Nottinghamshire.
Putting the ‘YOU’ into coaching:
Knowing ‘who’ you are as a coach to support, understand and enhance all you do
When was the last time you paused to take stock of ‘you as a coach’? Do we put all our efforts into our learners and groups, then run out of time to indulge in ourselves as coaches/leaders? Allowing time to consider what you believe is important in how you coach/lead and whether you consistently bring this to life in your coaching and leading interactions is essential. Knowing ‘who’ you really are as a coach (your values, behaviours and what has shaped all you do) is at the heart of supporting how you plan, the relationships with those around you, how you reflect, and most importantly of all; understanding why you do what you do.
In this session Doug will get us to ‘press pause’ and consider ‘you’ as the coach, and from this share thoughts on ‘how’ we bring our coaching values and behaviours to life. Coaching is not easy though, so Doug will discuss how appreciating what might challenge our values and behaviours is important.
Doug will encourage us to ask critical questions of ourselves; How ‘sophisticated’ is your coaching/leading philosophy? Is it embedded in all you do or is it transient depending on context? To support this, he will explore how our bias’s may influence what we do, how heuristics could affect being true to a sophisticated philosophy and whether at some stage, we all need to accept a level of satisficing?
Doug hopes this interactive and thought-provoking session will leave us understanding ourselves as individual and unique coaches/leaders a bit better, and from this in an exciting place to indulge in developing our coaching and leading practices.
Doug Cooper…
Doug is based in the highlands of Scotland where he spends his life playing, coaching and leading in the mountains and on the water. Currently this is in a freelance and consultant capacity, but prior to this he worked full time at Glenmore Lodge for over 25 years. He is happiest when in the great outdoors helping others develop their skills or becoming coaches and leaders themselves. In doing this he has created a strong coaching/leadership ethos and philosophy which has the learner/participant at the heart of the process and is focused about empowering them to be all they can, in a supportive and inspirational way.
His current lifestyle allows for quality personal time (with wife Lara and dog Loki), alongside his coaching/leading & consultancy. His personal time is usually spent exploring and journeying to new places in remote and beautiful locations. He is also passionate about sharing his knowledge through books, research and online. This seen through authoring sea kayaking instructional and guide books, a website (www.scottishseakayaking.co.uk) and articles/chapters in a range of other books, periodicals, magazines and online resources.
Doug is also actively involved in supporting and developing the Adventure Sports Coaching sector. Working closely with many NGB’s, in particular Paddle UK, Mountain Training and Snowsport Scotland, with the development and delivery of their awards. With an MSc in Performance Coaching from Stirling University he has developed plenty of thoughts to share, aiming to learn from theory but contextualize it in a practical and applied way. This has included publishing papers in academic journals and supporting other written/online material linked to coaching/leading in the Adventure Sports Coaching world. He is an active practitioner at heart but believes in furthering knowledge through action-based research to then contextualize in the real world to support leaders and coaches.
In essence if he’s having an adventure and supporting others achieving their dreams, he is a pretty content person!
