Coaching Stragegy
Running head: REFINING MY COACHING PHILOSOPHY 1
REFINING MY COACHING PHILOSOPHY 5
Refining My Coaching Philosophy
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Refining My Coaching Philosophy
Coaches are entrusted with the task to help players explore their potential. Effective coaches apply basic coaching principles that guide them in decision making. The following issues clearly explain my coaching philosophy.
Issue 1: Winning versus Participation
Position B: Whether the team wins or loses is far less important than my players' participation in the contest. By playing, regardless of winning or losing, they will not only have fun but also learn valuable lessons that will benefit them throughout their lives.
Assisting every player to realize their potential is more important than focusing on winning or losing. Through this, every sportsman enjoys playing and learns some teachings applicable to their day to day lives. My goal as a coach is to identify each sportsperson's development areas and support them to grow. Again, I work to build on their strengths to enhance performance. This way, I would develop a team culture where everyone performs at their best level. Having the best player play every time demoralizes others. This philosophy also does not support team spirit in sports.
Issue 2: Athlete Centered versus Coach Centered
Position A: I like to share the decision making with my athletes to the extent that they are prepared to make such decisions. The team is theirs, too, and sharing the decision making increases their commitment to the team.
In sports, decision making should be a shared responsibility between the coach and the players. The coach brings his or her players on board, exploring all the practical options during planning. This improves team performance by creating ownership of ideas, as indicated by Lyle, (2005). When a coach assumes that he or she knows everything, they tend to face challenges while implementing their decisions.
Issue 3: Ends versus Means
Position B: I'm aware not only of the letter of the rules but the spirit of the rules, and although I want a winning team, coaching ethically is more important to me.
Observing coaching rules and working within coaching ethics creates a happy and motivated team with high-performance potential. Therefore, I believe that a coach should follow the rules and ethics even if this does not translate to winning. On the other hand, stretching of rules or working outside the ethics could reduce the team morale. It could also create legal challenges that could lead to the dissolving of teams and even termination of contracts (Gill, 2014).
Issue 4: Family versus Sport
Position B: During the season the demands of coaching require me to give the team more time than I give to my family, but after the season I'll give my family more time. And, of course, a problem or emergency at home is always my first priority.
The art of balancing between sport and family is a key skill that has been useful to me as a coach. My family always comes first. I create quality time for them then focus on my responsibility at work. Through this, I have earned my family's support in everything I do, giving me the ability to concentrate on my job. Sports seasons may take longer than anticipated, and if one only pays attention to the family when offseason, the family bond may weaken.
Issue 5: Quantity versus Quality
Position B: Well-organized, efficient practices that focus not just on repetition of the skill but on mastering it through carefully designed drills is far better than practicing too much. We get more done in less time, and the athletes don't get burned out.
A well-structured and result oriented training that aims to understand skills through the proper plan is better than doing more practice, as Lyle (2005) stated. The team gets to learn more skills quickly, thus building a team with diverse skills for better performance. Doing many practices may not address the key areas of development of individual players.
Issue 6: Coach versus Guardian
Position A: I'm responsible for helping my athletes both on and off the field (court, track, pool, and so on). That's why we have team policies with regard to their behavior not only when they are involved in the sport but also when they are in school and elsewhere.
It is beneficial to me to take responsibility for my athletes only during games and advising them on issues outside sport if there is a need. It grants me time to offer quality training to every player. In line with Martens, (2012), being a guardian to players can be overwhelming. As such, I may miss out on my key responsibilities as a coach, which will translate to poor performance.
Issue 7: Sport for All versus Sport for the Gifted
Position A: I will find a place for every young person who wants to be a member of my team.
Every young person willing to join my team should be allowed to do so. Some athletes may not be gifted now, but they will outperform the gifted counterparts when given proper training. In the case of limited resources, I would recommend splitting teams into two; the talented group having full access to the resources while the less gifted being trained on the basics. The approach offers the less gifted an opportunity to move to the main team to replace less committed but gifted players. Cutting off the less gifted will deny the team the chance to explore the less gifted potential.
Additional Issues
Issue 8: Individual versus Group Training
Issue 9: Coaching Players from Own Country versus International Players
Coaching international players expands my cultural diversity experience, which is a key area in formulating training plans. However, training local players to narrow my experience limits me to perform best when working with players from my local culture only.
References
Gill, A. (Ed.). (2014). Foundations of sports coaching. Routledge.
Lyle, J. (2005). Sports coaching concepts: A framework for coaches' behaviour. Routledge.
Martens, R. (2012). Successful coaching. Human Kinetics.