Instructing Vs Coaching Vs Mentoring

In freediving, terms such as these three are thrown around quite liberally! Let's look closer at what they mean and how they can fit into the sport of freediving.
​Firstly some dictionary definitions:

INSTRUCTOR:

• 'a person whose job is to teach people a practical skill'

• An instructor is a teacher. One can be an instructor of just about anything, but it usually applies to teaching hands-on skills, like a water-skiing instructor'

• 'An instructor is someone who teaches a skill such as driving or skiing.

COACH

• ''someone whose job is to teach people to improve at a sport, skill or school subject'
• 'one who instructs or trains'
• 'a person who trains an athlete or a team of athletes'
• 'someone who trains a person or team of people in a particular sport.'

MENTOR

• 'an experienced person in a company or educational institution who trains and counsels new employees or students.'
• 'an experienced and trusted adviser.'
• 'an experienced person who gives advice to less experienced people to help them in their work​.'

As you can see from the definitions, not all instructing involves coaching, and not all coaching involves mentoring!

Klasen and Clutterbuck (2012) define the roles of coaching and mentoring as:

Coaching includes: "determining and specifying an individual's learning needs and objectives in relation to work issues; working out how the individual is going to improve performance deficits; helping the individual to explore the problem;, develop alternative solutions and decide which one to implement and how; and using appropriate and timely feedback".

Mentoring includes: "supporting individuals in discovering and defining their own development needs and setting their own objectives; fostering independent learners; allowing individuals to raise and talk about their issues, occasionally clarifying, reflecting back and challenging; helping individuals to reflect on their beliefs, feelings, thoughts and behaviour". 

At One Breath Freediving David has been a freediving instructor since 2012 and is one of AIDA Internationals most experienced instructors with over 500 student certifications. Also holding an Honors degree in Sport & Exercise Science with core modules on sports coaching and he is a member of UK Coaching in The Charted Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences. Since creating a specific teaching and coaching philosophy and dedicating his business to small group and personalised learning he is in the ideal position to offer freediving instruction and coaching using mentoring as a key foundation.
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By David Watson, Owner, Founder & Head Instructor / AIDA Instructor Trainer at One Breath Freediving ​