All posts by aagtarap

About aagtarap

Father, husband, former professional engineer, CSCS, weightlifting coach, community builder, and problem solver at Engineered Bodies Strength & Conditioning in Port Moody, BC

Thank you, Next

Year One Reflections Leave a comment

As I wrap up year one and write down my reflections of the graduate certificate part of the MHPCTL program, I’m filled with a sense of gratitude and accomplishment. This was the first time I’ve been back at formalized school since 2001ish so I was nervous going into it.  Year one of this program really pushed me to dive deep into learning a more holistic approach to coaching and facilitating a means for deeper, more meaningful, personal development for my clients and I was very happy with how it’s gone so far.

I have to start off this blog with giving Dr. Shaunna Taylor her flowers. It was this slide from Shaunna’s lecture during orientation week which illustrated ISPARC’s Indigenout Holistic Model that really caught my attention so I made a point to talk to her after class to learn more.

Our conversation after class turned into a 30min discussion which then continued on in a 90min Zoom meeting a few weeks later. Shaunna encouraged me to connect with ISPARC and I eventually did. ISPARC became my mentor and I experienced so much learning and growth this year personally because they welcomed me in with open arms and filled my cup so to speak. Shaunna really pushed me to integrate what I was learning with ISPARC into my KIN586 assignments, mainly the Innovation Practice assignment. This assignment was very eye-opening and gave me insight into how to incorporate holistic interventions into that assignment and eventually all the programs in my business moving forward.

Lara Mussell Savage is the Executive Director of Sport at ISPARC and my main mentor at ISPARC. Lara was instrumental in quarterbacking my development by connecting me with other Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge keepers and ISPARC program leaders. We met regularly and I’d often open up to her about challenges with discrimination I would sometimes experience as a board member of our PSO. She helped me navigate through these challenges and I’m so grateful for the connection I’ve made with Lara which I know will continue into the future well past this program.

Next up was Dr. Andy Van Neutegem’s KIN515 class. This class was by far the most technical one of the four mainly because the GMP assignment. Our NSO has never developed a GMP so this assignment forced me to design a GMP for weightlifting and support it with research. This assignment brought me back to some engineering tasks I had to do in my previous career where I was required to develop dashboards and scoring matrices that have never been designed before to guide design and program decisions to solve problems that haven’t been solved before. I was very grateful to Andy for his analytical approach to coaching and program development. He forced us to ask the right questions and I think that’s why this course really resonated with me.

The Integrated Training Plan assignment in Dr. Anita Cote’s KIN585 class forced me to summarize an entire training plan in the context of coaching an athlete in our weightlifting program. By this point in the year, through the lessons learned in KIN586, ISPARC, and KIN515, I had a really good handle on a holistic training model so this assignment was a nice way to tie it all together. Planning an athlete’s year with key competitions is important however I’m still not convinced on the efficacy of planning physical, technical, tactical, and mental parameters into a spreadsheet YTP where none of the parameters are connected to each other and with the unpredictability of people’s lives. Like Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” 

KIN597 introduced the LPI which was something I’ve never seen before and a great way to identify gaps in my own leadership practice. The initial mentorship meeting with David and Lara was very helpful in developing specific objectives to achieve specific outcomes and tie that into my PIP that addressed the gaps in the LPI. I’m very grateful to David for guiding this process and I personally found the Portfolio of Evidence assignment to be a very enlightening. I put my reflections on my Portfolio of Evidence in this blog post.

Finally I’ve got to give flowers to each of my classmates in this cohort. It’s been a great honour and privilege to read your reflections on your blog posts, listen in on your presentations, engage in discussion in our lectures, and connect over WhatsApp over this year. As a small business owner and weightlifting coach, I never would’ve thought I’d be connecting with high-performance and sport leaders as each of you. I’m grateful to you all for helping me raise the bar this year. I’m really looking forward to continuing on into the Masters part of this program and continuing on building connections with you all too.

Bring on Year two !

My Portfolio Of Evidence – A Reflective Journey

Portfolio of Evidence Leave a comment

For this blog post, I’m writing about my KIN597 Portfolio of Evidence assignment for your reading pleasure. Lucky you!

The Portfolio of Evidence assignment requires students to define a specific outcome and purpose, then identify action-oriented objectives for achieving that specific outcome, document their progress with supporting evidence, and finally reflect on both the process and results.

The Problem:

The problem as I see it involves two interconnected failures: First, the sports ecosystem’s pervasive “culture of winning”—reinforced by all LTAD framework implementations—has created numerous harmful outcomes. Second, school-based PHE compounds this issue by failing to provide students with either the foundation for lifelong physical health or the proper preparation for sports participation, worsening the system’s existing flaws.

For one of my KIN586 assignments, I wrote a paper called “Leadership Effectiveness Project:Community Level Intervention to Address the Consequence of the Culture of Winning on the Physical Health Education and Sports Ecosystem in Canada” where I present the research that provides evidence of the shortcomings and consequence of the problem I’ve observed over the years as a strength coach. I encourage you to read it as I include interventions I’ve successfully implemented in my small business and where I discuss the challenges to scale those interventions for the masses. It’s quite an undertaking to come up with a solution to change that culture but one that I believe drastically needs to be addressed.

To summarize my paper, the literature recommends several solutions to these shortcomings and negative consequences all of which point to one common theme: that more education and training for PHE teachers, sport coaches, trainers, and parents is required. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that simply improving the written curriculum or the education level of PHE teachers, coaches, and parents is enough to make positive change in the global landscape of the PHE and sports ecosystem since the culture of winning makes it impossible to focus on successful short-term winning and long-term development simultaneously.

The Outcome:

I believe coaches, sport leaders, and PHE educators need to look at this through a different lens. A lens that isn’t based on short term results like winning the championship year after year. My outcome for this Portfolio of Evidence outlines my proposed solution to this problem:

To develop a holistic teaching model that integrates mind, body, and spirit with a heavy focus on physical health education that prioritizes teaching principles of strength training and movement. This approach replaces the culture of winning with developing a growth mindset culture as it prioritizes holistic, long-term personal development over competition through the participation of sports only.

My mentor Lara Mussell who’s the director of sport from ISPARC helped me establish my objectives to achieving this outcome. In a previous blog post, I wrote how these objectives were developed:

I will now present the evidence demonstrating engagement for each objective below.

Objective #1: Engaging in Indigenous centred training

The purpose of engaging in Indigenous centred training is to continue my personal journey of learning as I continue to decolonize my mind, my coaching practice, and my small business as I work towards meaningful reconciliation. For this graduate certificate year, I’ve attended the following Indigenous training:

ISPARC Inclusive Coaching Workshop – July 20, 2024

The Inclusive Coaching Workshop, focused on tools and information on inclusive coaching specific to 2SLGBTQ+ & Gender Identity and creating inclusive and safe spaces.

ISPARC Aboriginal Coaching Module (ACM) – Oct 26, 2024

I hosted the ISPARC ACM workshop at my gym and it included three modules of training featuring traditional/holistic approaches to coaching, dealing with racism in sport, and Indigenous-centred health, lifestyle and nutrition information that can applied to create inclusive and safe spaces.

ISPARC Pathways Indigenous Gathering – Dec 6, 2024

I attended the Pathways Gathering delivered by both I·SPARC and BC Regional Sport Alliance partners where I had the opportunity to engage in the Athlete Mental Wellness/Performance and Concussion Management breakout sessions.

ISPARC Indigenous Cultural Safety Training – Feb 19, Feb 20, 2025

The Indigenous Cultural Safety training included:

  1. Pre-ZOOM gathering
  2. 2-3 hour online curriculum
  3. Special video by Elder Alex Nelson
  4. 2-day in-person training that included the Kairos Blanket Exercise
  5. Post-ZOOM gathering and reflection

I shared my transformative experience when I participated in the ISPARC Indigenous Cultural Safety Training in this blog post.

After each workshop I attended, I’ve taken what I learned and applied the lessons to my MHPCTL program assignments, coaching, and business leadership practice.

Objective #2: Networking and Meeting with Sport Leaders

The purpose of networking and meeting with sport leaders, sport coaches and sport organizations was to discuss gaps within their context and brainstorm solutions to address those gaps.

The two-day ISPARC Indigenous Cultural Safety Training gave me the opportunity to connect and meet with progressive PSO sport leaders, coaches, ViaSport board members, and staff from the BC Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. I also had opportunities throughout this year to connect and meet with:

  • Lara Mussell, Executive Director of Sport, ISPARC
  • Kim Leming, Manager, Participant Pathways & Cultural Safety Training, ISPARC
  • Dwayne Roberts, Project Manager, Indigenous Programs, Schools Physical Activity & Physical Literacy, Master Facilitator (MF) for ISPARC schools’ physical activity and physical literacy (SPA-PL) project
  • Teagan Johnstone, Manager Physical Literacy and Community Action, Pacific Sport Fraser Valley
  • Justin Hamade, junior high-performance baseball coach and former Baseball BC board member
  • Ben Saxton, 2016 Olympian Beach Volleyball, high-performance coach, small business owner VolleyDome in Calgary
  • Mischa Harris, Strength & Conditioning coach, volleyball biomechanics educator, small business owner Arm Swing Academy in Victoria
  • Jonathan Thompson (JT), basketball skills coach, small business owner Nxt Generation Athletics in Surrey

Every individual on this list I connected with concurred with me on the problem I stated above and that there’s simply not enough time within their context to “do it right”. For example, sport coaches – who are also small business owners – feel pressured to get their athletes into as many high-profile tournaments in a season as possible as their parents are paying for it and demanding their kids play at a high level as much as possible. PHE educators feel pressure to keep their students entertained and resort to playing random games that have no progressions. Sport leaders feel pressured to get funds each year to keep their members satisfied with quality competitions and funding high-performance athletes.

My conversations provided me with evidence that the problem is real and the solution requires a different approach.

Objective #3: Shadowing and assisting with ISPARC School Physical Activity, Physical Literacy (SPAPL)

Over the last 13 years, I’ve taught may PHE classes at elementary, middle, and high school in my community as a guest educator. I would typically be brought it to teach no more than 4 classes (typically 2x/week for two weeks) where I emphasized teaching principles of movement and strength training rather than the typical sports model. I would always be shocked at how little the students knew about movement and the basics of strength training but by the end of the 4th class, their feedback provided me with evidence that focusing on movement and strength training principles was more inclusive and engaging to the students compared to teaching random physical activities and sports.

The one thing missing from my approach was that I didn’t place any emphasis on mind and spirit in my teaching. The purpose of this objective then was to shadow, assist, and observe MF Dwayne Roberts as he facilitates the SPAPL program at Edith McDermott Elementary School. I wanted to see how he introduces principles of movement, physical activity and how he incorporates mind, spirit, and Indigenous culture to those lessons.

Shadowing ISPARC SPAPL Session at Elliot McDermott Elementary

The sessions I shadowed and assisted were 45-minutes in duration. The kids were grades 2-3 and grades 5-6 and we saw each set of grades once in the classroom, once in gym, and one last time outside on the field. MF Dwayne Roberts did a great job of saying “take your time” as he coached kids through patterns using an agility ladder. He also talked in the first lesson about how movement helps your mind become more focused. That was the extent of talking about the connection of mind and body when it comes to movement. He also introduced an Indigenous game in second and third sessions. Since each class was so short and because the scope of our visit to the school was more of an introduction, my sense was Dwayne may have felt pressured to entertain the kids with as much activities and movement as possible. It would be interesting to see how the pedagogy would be adjusted if Dwayne had more time with the kids and the teachers.

Teachers for each class were provided with SPAPL material to help them develop lesson plans for future classes however I’m not convinced the teachers have the necessary knowledge of movement and strength training principles and the necessary amount of time to ensure their students would actually learn anything and progress.

Objective #4: Examine and Apply Academic Literature

I already mentioned my KIN586 paper above where I examined the literature that provided evidence of the problem I highlighted. For another KIN586 assignment, I created a presentation entitled “KIN586 Innovation Practice, High Performance Coach Assignment: Training Interventions to Develop Cognitive Skills for Weightlifting Athletes to Create Conditions for Deliberate Practice.” where I presented my idea of implementing appropriate Decision Training and Self-Regulation interventions in order to develop my athlete’s cognitive skills of “problem solving” and “focus concentration”. The purpose here is to promote learning through an information-integration (i.e. holistic and implicit) approach and to create training conditions that resemble competition atmosphere and promote diligent practice and learning.

The literature review in my presentation provided evidence that a holistic teaching model would be more effective than the current model because:

  • learning through an information-integration (i.e. holistic and implicit) structure can be more effective in preventing choking under pressure compared to rule-based (explicit) learning (Markman et al., 2006)
  • The Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement (CEYE) defines engagement as the meaningful participation and sustained involvement of a person in an activity, which has a focus outside of her or himself, and that full engagement and learning consists of all of these aspects (head, heart, feet, spirit) (Pancer et al., 2002)
  • Youth engagement experiences can be an important context for the exploration of spirituality (Scott, 2003).

The results of the 4-step implementation plan I conducted in this assignment was a clear indication to me that the interventions worked and made a positive impact in my athlete’s training. Many of my athletes saw application of these interventions that could be applied to other aspects of their lives as well. This information provided me with further evidence that a holistic teaching model can be more effective at developing long-term personal development as the lessons learned during training or practice are not exclusive to the sporting activity.

Reflections

The graduate certificate year of UBC’s three year MHPCTL program has given me the push I needed in my personal and career development. I entered the program to challenge myself to work on starting the process of fixing a major problem I’ve observed working over 15 years as a strength and conditioning coach, physical health educator, and small business owner in the health and fitness industry. I’ve worked closely with my professors this first year and I’ve done my best to ensure that as many assignments as I could work towards that process. After this graduate certificate year completes, I hope that I’m accepted into the Masters program so I can continue to work alongside my mentors, professors, and my new network of sport leaders to continue the work I’ve started. I’m confident by then end of the Masters program, I’ll be able to refine an inclusive and holistic teaching model and provide a structure to teach that model and its principles to coaches, PHE educators, and sport leaders. Looking forward to the challenge.

The Value of Establishing Core Values

Valuing Leave a comment

For my 5th blog post, I’m writing about the NCCP core competency “valuing” which the NCCP defines as the ability to use clear moral reasoning in making judgements or decisions within one’s coaching/leadership context.

Moral reasoning is the process of evaluating and determining what is right or wrong in a given situation based on ethical principles, values, and societal norms. I believe one’s core values serve as the standard for determining what is right or wrong as they act as internal guidelines that shape that critical thinking process. When faced with ethical dilemmas, individuals who have established their core values can more effectively evaluate their choices based on how well those choices align with their core values. In other words, if the thing aligns with your core values then do the thing. If the thing doesn’t align, don’t do the thing.

One of my first business coaches over twelve years ago introduced me to the practice of establishing my short list of core values and I remember the first time going through that process to identify my top 4.

My top 4 core values then were:

  • Integrity
  • Commitment to quality
  • Commitment to continued education and growth
  • Commitment to building a strong and inclusive community

For the next twelve years, these core values served as a filter for me when making important decisions in my professional life including hiring and firing staff, managing my staff and helping them grow and develop, business development projects to take on, choosing strategic business partnerships, PSO director duties, and coaching in the trenches. There were many times I was faced with ethical dilemmas and my core values helped guide me to make the right decision for me, my clients, my business, and my community.

One leadership example I’ll share is when I first started Engineered Bodies Strength & Conditioning, I paid $3000US a year to CrossFit HQ to be a CrossFit affiliate at the height of CrossFit’s popularity. I offered CrossFit group classes under our CrossFit affiliate name “CrossFit Port Moody” and after some savvy SEO, business was going really well for several years. In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. What followed was a global call for justice and a demand for accountability with protests and rallies all over the world. CrossFit HQ remained silent and that silence did not align with my core values. I made the decision to disaffiliate from that organization. My company was the first in Canada and quite possibly the first in the US to disaffiliate during this time. Colleagues and friends who were also gym business owners told me I’d be losing out on lots of money but that didn’t matter to me at all. Separating my business from CrossFit was the easiest and best decision I could make. It was easy because my core values guided that decision and since disaffiliating from CrossFit, my business is thriving, our community is more inclusive and diverse

Fast forward to the start of 2024. I felt that my journey as a coach so far had been leading me to something bigger than coaching the sport of weightlifting or running a strength & conditioning business in my community. I was getting bored and I didn’t feel challenged any more. I think I randomly saw an email newsletter from CSI Pacific or something where I first heard about the MHPCTL but it sounded like the challenge I needed.

A fun fact about core values is they will evolve over time. At least that’s my experience with my own core values. I don’t mean they completely change or leave the list entirely but in my case, based on where I’m at in my journey, a few new ones rose up the list and made the top 4. Dr. Shaunna Taylor’s KIN586 course and the Leadership Challenge book really inspired me to remix my core values. This time around, I had my coaches go through the same exercise with me so that they can see the value in establishing their own list. We also came up with our team’s shared core values. I found that doing this exercise with my team really brought us closer together and it made it easier for each of them to help talk through ethical dilemmas they were facing.

My top 4 core values (the remix)

  • Cultivate a growth mindset
  • Embrace adversity
  • Challenge the status quo
  • Commitment to building a strong and inclusive community

I brought my remixed core values list to several meetings with my mentor from ISPARC and we came up with a plan to help me develop a holistic (mind, body, spirt) model to teaching physical health education to youth. Through this holistic model, my hope is that youth will have an improved understanding of physical health and strength training, stronger mental well-being, and a deeper spiritual connection to their peers and nature.Youth are more likely to participate in activities that align with their identities and values and right now, with the current model, many kids are don’t have a sense of their identities and values as much as they could. It’s a big gap and big challenge to address that gap. This is definitely challenging the status quo…

Part of that plan we developed includes taking several ISPARC training courses so three weeks ago I had the privilege of participating in the two-day, Indigenous Cultural Safety training by ISPARC held at the Musqueam Cultural Centre. It was one of the most powerful and emotional learning experiences of my life and I’m truly grateful to my mentors at ISPARC for the opportunity.

It was an honour to learn from Indigenous elders, ISPARC leaders, and non-Indigenous teachers and facilitators as they shared the detailed history of the colonial “Canadian” government’s genocidal acts on the Indigenous people of Turtle Island to steal their land and how that history is directly connected to anti-Indigenous, racist policies that continue to oppress and marginalize Indigenous people today. We participated in the Kairos Blanket Exercise which was a powerful way to tell the true history and an experience I truly felt and will never forget. Every non-Indigenous immigrant on these lands needs to experience the Kairos Blanket Exercise at least once.

It was amazing to connect with and learn alongside progressive PSO sport leaders, coaches, ViaSport board members, and staff from the BC Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. Their empathy and commitment to acknowledge and address the gaps makes me hopeful that through the vehicle of sport (both coaches and leaders), we can more effectively remove barriers as we collectively work towards reconciliation.

So I’m definitely not bored any more and I definitely feel challenged in the best possible way.

Leading Effectively So Everyone Wins

Leading Leave a comment

For my fourth blog post submission and the first one of the New Year, I’m writing on the NCCP core competency of leading which is defined as “the ability to strategically influence change and to enable positive behaviours in others”.

Last year was a challenging year in my small business as my coaching team consisted of only myself and two other coaches. One of them is very green (less than a year in the industry) and the other is very experienced and has been a great teammate of mine for seven years. When either of them got sick or needed vacation, I would be the one who needed to step in and pick up their coaching hours. I was already coaching 26+ hours a week not to mention the 16+ hours a week of business development, team management, and community outreach involved when owning your own small business. Then throw on top of that the 6 hours/week of HPCTL online lectures and the hours required to complete the assignments and blog discussions (which is NOT 6-9 hours/month as advertised David LOL!).

Then in mid Oct, my long time, experienced coach decided she was going to quit the industry completely and try photography for a career change! I wanted to make sure she felt supported in her decision as I know from my own experience, embarking on a career change is a scary thing. I also needed to act quickly because finding good coaches is tough and I only had two weeks to fill the massive void her absence was leaving. Luckily I have a friend who’s an experienced coach who has been away from the coaching game for a few years to raise her daughter but was looking to get back into the coaching. I connected with her and with a couple of days to spare, found a solution that was mutually beneficial for both us. My friend has already made a positive impact on our community with her personality, energy, and knowledge. She’s also great at handstands and loves teaching them so I encouraged her to teach a handstand class for our members. She took the opportunity right away. Positive outcome but I still only had two coaches…

Any small business owner will tell you, you just got to do what you can to make it all work and that’s what I was doing however I knew it wasn’t sustainable. I needed to hire two coaches. My plan was to hire one generalist coach that is a bit newer and one experienced weightlifting coach. My strategy to hire a newer coach is to give my less-experienced coach someone to take under his wing and mentor. Teaching and mentoring someone is a great way to learn and grow one’s own leadership skills so providing him this opportunity was going to be important long term. My strategy to hire an experienced weightlifting coach was to free up my plate without the requirement of a time-consuming new-hire intake process. An experienced weightlifting coach could immediately take over the reigns to program and develop the senior and masters athletes while allowing me to focus my efforts on developing the youth and junior athletes in our weightlifting club and to grow the entire weightlifting program (and my overall business). Our club is growing and many of our members compete so having an experienced weightlifting coach who I can split up the coaching workload at competitions would also be a major asset.

So I knew the gaps I had to fill and my strategy made sense. All that remained was finding those individuals who met the criteria and aligned with my business core values. Seems easy enough but going into my 12th year of business, I can tell you that it’s never as easy as it seems on paper. I couldn’t find a single coach to fit the bill for several weeks and the year was quickly coming to a close.

It wasn’t looking good but then fortuitously a friendly guy dropped by the gym one Saturday morning while I was locking up, asked me if I was looking to hire, and handed me his resume. He was very green but he was very keen to learn and be given an opportunity. I decided to give him that opportunity, took him through our new-coach intake process, and partnered him with my newer coach so he can take him under his wing during the in-take process. It worked out much better than I would’ve expected as they fed off each other’s energy, he picked up things quickly, and quickly began connecting with the members. My not-so-new coach leveled-up during the intake process too which was very positive. This new coach is also pretty good at calisthenics so I encouraged him to put on a workshop so he can help our clients get a bar muscle up. He was really excited for the opportunity so I gave him some tasks that would get it all set up so we can market it to our members. His calisthenics workshop is scheduled for next Saturday, Jan 18th. Not too bad for officially starting his employment this past Monday, Jan 6th.

One of my weightlifting members heard through the grapevine that an experienced weightlifting coach from another gym was looking for new opportunities for work. Apparently she wasn’t getting enough hours in her current gym and it’s far from where she lives. I know this weightlifting coach too but I assumed she was busy and happy at her current gym. I decided to reach out to her and test the waters. Turns out she’s looking for greener pastures and was open to meeting with me in person. We really hit it off in our meeting and she was excited to hear about the opportunity (and the level of autonomy) I was providing for her to develop our adult weightlifting program. She accepted my offer two days after. She started Jan 6th as well and is already killing it with our members.

The start of 2025 is already a massive improvement from 2024. The energy level in the gym is high and each coach is happy doing what they love. I’m really excited for what lies ahead for all of the coaches on the team. KIN586 in particular this past 6-months has really helped me learn the importance of leading effectively using a combination of listening to each teammate’s core values, developing a shared set of core values, developing trust in each of my teammates, and providing opportunities for individual growth and development. Looking back over the past 11 years in my business I can confidently say that whenever I’m leading my teammates in a way that effectively supports their ability to thrive individually, everybody wins.

Critical Thinking >>> Yearly Training Plans

Critical Thinking Leave a comment

In this blog post, I share my thoughts on the use of a Yearly Training Plan (YTP) and the importance of critical thinking.

A YTP is a planning tool used to communicate an athlete’s competition calendar by highlighting key competition dates and specific phases of their training program leading up to each competition. The tool is meant to assist coaches in designing appropriate micro and meso training cycles within training phases that will best prepare the athlete for success throughout their competition year. Fundamentally the YTP is meant to be a project management tool but is the YTP (typically developed using a spreadsheet) really that useful of a tool?

As a professional engineer, a detailed and accurate project plan is essential for complex projects to be successful. In my previous career, I had the opportunity of leading many high-profile projects for the companies I worked for and every one of those projects required me to develop and manage a detailed and accurate project plan. Engineering projects have many moving parts and include several different disciplines including mechanical design engineering, mechanical drawings, electrical design engineering, electrical drawings, software development, etc.. Within these disciplines, there are many elements and oftentimes those elements were dependent on each other. I no longer have images of the project plans I used to develop but this image is a typical example of a dependency Ghantt chart often developed in complex engineering design projects.

As the name implies, a dependency Ghantt chart, typically developed using project planning software like MS Project, is a project plan where elements of the plan are dependent on each other. For example, the procurement of mechanical components could not start until the mechanical design engineering drawings are complete. If the date of the mechanical design engineering drawings takes ten days longer than estimated, the procurement is delayed by ten days and if other elements were dependent on procurement of parts, then those elements would be delayed by ten days as well. Delays like this happen all the time and it’s important for engineers to be able to assess the situation and make critical decisions to ensure the project continues to move forward and be successful. To assist with the constant, critical decision making process, a dependency Ghantt chart is used every day throughout the life of the project and is constantly being updated and communicated to the team.

By comparison, a YTP is typically made using a spreadsheet is easy to make if the user has average spreadsheet skills. The competition dates don’t typically move and none of the elements within the YTP have any dependencies with each other. For example, if an athlete decides not to participate in a particular competition, the result of that may just provide more time for the athlete to prepare for the next one. Training volume and intensity is meant to be included on the YTP but it really doesn’t need to be because an individual’s life circumstances can throw all of that out the window. One year I developed a YTP with one of my junior athletes leading up to a qualifying competition. I had the training program volumes and intensity locked in and everything was ready to go. The kid then became overwhelmed with the demands of school and I found myself having to assess the situation daily and adjust the training volume and intensity ad hoc since there were several days in a row where he couldn’t make it to the planned training sessions. Ultimately I was able to coach him through the process leading up to the qualifying event where he performed great and successfully qualified for Nationals. In the end, the plan and program I used to help him achieve that didn’t look anything like the initial YTP spreadsheet.

In an individual sport like weightlifting, individualized planning and programming is the norm and the reality is people’s lives are complex and dynamic. I found myself going off the YTP script more often than not simply because life tends to be far less predictable than working through an engineering project. There were also times where I decided I wouldn’t create a detailed YTP for athletes other than to identify which competitions were important to them and putting those dates on a calendar. Even without an YTP, I coached them successfully to competition PR’s. I certainly would never use a YTP to plan my own personal improvement plan (PIP) simply because it’s a static spreadsheet and there are many calendar programs available that integrate directly with my mobile device far better than a spreadsheet ever could. For my PIP for KIN597, I identified and planned several continuing education course for the remainder of this year and into 2025. I included those dates on the YTP I submitted but only because it was a requirement of the assignment. I haven’t looked at that YTP since.

As a business owner and coach who works with community level and high-level competitive athletes, I believe the ability to use critical thinking skills is far more important and useful than making nice YTP spreadsheets.

Critical thinking as defined by the NCCP is “analyzing the athlete’s performance to identify critical program decisions that have to be made and to interpret results of assessments to design or modify individualized plans”. More broadly, critical thinking is the process of actively analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and processing information to make reasoned judgments and decisions. It involves questioning assumptions, recognizing biases, considering alternative perspectives, and using logic and evidence to draw conclusions. Critical thinking skills are essential to the success of an engineer and essential for coaches as well. Assessing an individual to determine their weakness (mental and/or physical) and deciding the most appropriate course of action in the present happens all the time and in my experience, never seems to align with any YTP. The examples I described above provide evidence where I used critical thinking in an engineering and coaching context.

So in conclusion using a spreadsheet YTP is a bit overrated and not that useful in my opinion, especially in the context of coaching people with unpredictable lives. Having said that I believe coaches ought to learn how to develop date-driven programs for their clients but using critical thinking, I wouldn’t use a YTP spreadsheet to do that as there are far better project management tools or strength & conditioning programming tools available online that I would use over a spreadsheet.

Personal Improvement Plan: Problem Solving

Problem Solving Leave a comment

For my second UBC blog post submission, I’m reflecting on assignment #2 for KIN597 and how it relates to the NCCP core competency of problem solving.

The purpose of assignment #2 was to assist us in developing a personal improvement plan (PIP) based on gaps we identified from the results of our online  Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI). We were tasked to identify at least ten observers who we’d send the online LPI to and would then score me on questions related to each of Kouzes and Posner’s five leadership challenges:

  1. Model the way,
  2. Inspire a shared vision,
  3. Challenge the status quo,
  4. Enable others to act,
  5. Encourage the heart

The observers I selected to complete the online leadership assessment consisted mostly of clients who I’ve coached in the sport of weightlifting or general health and fitness over the years, one senior coach staff member, and one fellow board member in our provincial sport organization. After receiving the results, we then completed the LPI workbook which was designed to assist us in reflecting on the results and help us hone in and identify any gaps or areas of improvement. The final task of the assignment was to figure out an action plan to address the gaps and perhaps use the Yearly Training Plan (YTP) as a tool to assist with project planning.

The following image is a table taken directly from my PIP assignment which summarizes my average observer’s scores for each of my leadership practices and highlights the lowest rated behaviours for the lowest rated leadership practices that my PIP focused on improving.

At the same time, KIN597 requires students to identify and connect with a mentor who would help us with our current coaching practices or PIP. For me, my challenge was that I wanted to find a mentor who would be able to help me with my research question which is:

“how can re-centring Indigenous knowledge, culture, and holistic perspectives transform physical health and education (PHE), health & fitness, and the sports ecosystem to be more inclusive, more accessible, and sustainable for everyone?” 

For me, this research question is my whole reason for joining the UBC HPCTL program so I need to ensure that every assignment I would do would tie into helping me answer (or get closer to answering) that research question. Ensuring that created a slightly more involved problem than the scope of assignment #2.

In fact, this entire assignment of receiving results from an online questionnaire, reflecting on those results, identifying gaps, weaknesses or areas of improvement, coming up with solutions or an action plan on how to address and improve on those gaps, and figuring out how to tie it all into my research question is all about problem solving and why I chose this core competency as the one I’d reflect on for this blog post.

Ultimately the gaps I identified as a result of my LPI would easily be addressed in my PIP with business-related interventions. That was the easy part and I was able to start implementing some of those business-related interventions the following week.

To help me with my research question, I was fortunate enough to have connected with Lara from the Indigenous Sport Physical Activity & Recreations Council (ISPARC). We met a couple of separate times over ZOOM and she later agreed to be my mentor for this program! In fact, she would be my lead mentor and would periodically bring in other knowledge keepers and ISPARC program directors to mentor me as well to help me with my research question. We then met with David who then acknowledged that my research question was quite a big one to tackle and advised that I break it down into more manageable objectives and deliverables.

Some deliverables ISPARC and I have established so are:

  1. Engage in continuing education courses through an Indigenous lens for my personal development (e.g. ISPARC Aboriginal Coaching Module (ACM), ISPARC Indigenous Cultural Safety Workshop). I’m currently scheduled to host the ISPARC ACM at my gym on Oct 26th. I’m also going to attend the Indigenous Cultural Safety Workshop sometime in February.
  2. Networking and information gathering where I’m conducting interviews with different sport leaders (ISPARC, PSOs, Regional Alliance, ViaSport)
6-8 informational interviews,
  3. Collaborating with ISPARC Master Coach Developers (MCD) in providing culturally relevant PHE to the Indigenous community

The whole purpose is to eventually learn and understand the Indigenous holistic model and to apply that model to a long term development framework that is PHE focused curriculum rather than sport-driven. I believe doing so will provide a more solid foundation to support not only sports but all physical activities in life.

Kind of a big problem indeed but one I’m very excited to be working on solving.

Thanks for reading!

My Reflections After UBC Orientation Week

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The last time I took formal classes at a university was over 20 years ago after graduating from the University of Manitoba in Mechanical Engineering. I never thought I’d return to school after being out and working in the “real world” for so long but after learning about the UBC High Performance Coaching & Technical Leadership (HPCTL) graduate certificate program and how taking it would challenge me to grow and develop, I applied last minute and was thankfully accepted into the program.

As I mention in my home page, I’m a life-long student and constantly looking to challenge myself to grow mentally, physically, and spiritually so I was excited to return to academia again. I was also very excited and keen to make new connections in my cohort and to interact and learn from them as well. I wasn’t excited that I’ll eventually have to write research papers. I’ve read many research studies since becoming a full-time strength coach and I always found them very dry and not that inspiring. I also didn’t know what an APA citation was and I had to ask my eldest daughter what it was. She told me she could help me and show me how to use Zotero (which of course I didn’t know about either). I also haven’t been in a library for as long as I can remember. All I know academically is how to problem solve, do calculations, design and build cool stuff, manage projects and programs, and write technical reports. What did I get myself into?

Needless to say, I found myself a little nervous going into the in-person orientation week at UBC.

I live in Port Moody which according to Google, takes over an hour to drive. The commute would kill me so luckily a family friend of ours who live a 15-minute bike ride away from UBC was away on her book tour the same week of orientation week so I got to house sit for them while they were away. I arrived to their house Sunday evening and didn’t sleep very well at all. On Monday morning I woke up, made breakfast, packed my things, and rode to day one of orientation week.

Day one started off as expected where we went around the room introducing ourselves with some ice-breaker questions. It was really cool to hear each student’s answers and I was excited and honoured to be in the same room of such an accomplished and experienced group of coaches and leaders. Shortly after introductions, we were joined by Learning Design and Digital Innovation (LDDI) who had planned to help us set up technology to support our online learning experience (e.g. orientation with canvas, creating and uploading videos, and designing our UBC blogs). We were told that since UBC had switched to a new student registration system and were still working out the kinks, none of us were officially registered into the HPCTL program. The result of that was none of us had access to the Campus Wide Login (CWL) setup or anything else. After lunch, UBC library came to assist us in how to access online research but again, that didn’t work for us either because no one had access to UBC library.

Being a “tech guy” I was a little annoyed that UBC hadn’t figured out their new registration system to get each of us set up into the HPCTL program before orientation week started. I felt all the in-class troubleshooting that was going on took away from the learning experience we could’ve all had together on day one. We then ended off the day listening to two masters students who each presented their research question over Zoom but by that point, I remember feeling discombobulated from the first part of the day so I was disconnected from the presentations. I knew I needed to lift some heavy shit to reset my mind so I hit the UBC gym and got in a great training session before riding home.

The remaining three days of orientation was a significant step up from a learning, interacting, and engaging perspective compared to day one as we spent the time learning from each other while being taught and guided by Dr. Taylor in KIN586 and Dr. Van Nuetegem in KIN515. The topics taught were relevant and interesting and the breakout sessions allowed us to get to know each other and connect. This slide in particular that Dr. Taylor put up really caught my attention and I was happy to hear that she applies this Indigenous Holistic Model into to her practice.

I made a point to talk with Dr. Taylor at the lunch break to express my gratitude to her for sharing this and to share what I ultimately want to accomplish with the graduate program (and eventually the masters).

My main reason for joining this program is to challenge myself and the status quo with how sports, health, wellness, and fitness have been viewed and taught since I as long as I can remember. I really believe we’re looking at the whole thing through the wrong lens and this is why the same problems exist today. In some cases, from the research I’ve read and from being on the front lines of youth sports in my community, the problems have only gotten worse (e.g. youth sport participation dropping, youth injury rates increasing, burnout, etc.).

Interacting and connecting with each of the experienced coaches and leaders in my cohort during orientation week confirmed that we’re all facing similar challenges in our respective communities and roles. It would seem from our collective experiences, I’m not convinced we’re going to solve those challenges with more technological advancements (like AI or wearables collecting data) or striving for even higher performance excellence.

I believe we need to learn how to decolonize the entire process and look at developing a pathway that teaches people (starting with the youth), how health, wellness, fitness, and sport are simply vehicles that are used to develop an individual’s mind, body, and spirit and how everything (and everyone) is connected to each other in the universe. As Dr. Taylor said in one of her lectures, we need to interact with the person first and the athlete second. I know from my coaching experience from martial arts, weightlifting, basketball, and strength & conditioning, the most influential impact I’ve had on my students wasn’t from me providing a fancy new technical coaching cue. It was from being fully present with my student and interacting with them on a deeper level. Interacting with each of my colleagues and professors in and out of class during orientation week was definitely the highlight.

I don’t know exactly what the solution is or how that system or learning pathway looks like yet of course but I believe, as Dr. Van Nuetegem said, by asking the right questions, we can remove known barriers to entry for everyone, we can help people learn to understand how to develop “growth mindset”, and help them figure out how they fit in to the whole process. If people are striving for high performance excellence in sport, they’ll be better prepared for that journey as they will have the capacity (mind, body, spirit) to contribute to their success even after they retire from competition, become coaches themselves, or simply be happy being “active for life”.

I’m looking forward to continue to learn from my colleagues and teachers in the program as we challenge each other to move the needle in the direction that will make a positive change for the collective.

Let’s go!