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Growing the sport by mentoring the next teacher crop.

Posted: August 6th, 2020, 8:17 pm
by kajmk
Copied from another thread on a different topic.
Purpose: To give an example on what the combination of a good mentor and a talented and committed student can yield.
Dean acknowledges his mentor, as all honest, competent, and confident people do, no matter what the endeavor be. Case in point, Bill Hall often paid homage to those who mentored him.
I think the best teachers are gifted at birth. One mark of a greatness is to pay it forward so to speak. Dean is doing this as written below.
The pebbles we toss in life, ripple in eternity ...

Many of you know of Dean Champ.
deanchamp wrote: August 6th, 2020, 1:48 am I've been studying bowling for about 12 years now, and yes I only got my USBC Silver level in 2016 so I could coach Australian teams as it is a TBA requirement. I didn't learn anything new in the process of doing the Bronze and Silver courses, but I guess they give you some credibility. I would like to obtain Gold level status one day but in no hurry. Having the piece of paper doesn't make me a better coach. I learnt more on BC from Jim and Mo, and from reading and watching. FWIW, I'm mentoring some other up and coming coaches in Australia, and have my mentor Patrick Birtig in Melbourne as well who has guided me since I started.

I'm an educator by profession and it certainly helps having done my 10000+ hours in the classroom to have total confidence on the lanes as a coach. I've given talks at conferences about the similarities between coaching and teaching, which were inspired by an article on John Wooden called "What a Coach Can Teach a Teacher" by Gallimore and Tharp. I've also written about this for BTM, and there is a new BTM article soon to be published on the coach/ bowler relationship, which I also find fascinating.

Sorry for changing the thread topic, but I've had plenty of time to reflect on all this as there's been no bowling or coaching here in Melbourne since March.



Dean