Skip to main content

What sort of coach are you?!?


Hey guys, so for this post I thought I would talk about coaching styles and how you can develop as a coach. For any of you who are coaches, in any sport, this may be interesting for you.

When we think of a coach we think of a leader, a person whom we look up to, a role model. But what is a coach? Who decides to be a coach? How do we become successful coaches? Well, for any coach the main thing is that you develop a philosophy, but not only developing a philosophy. You need to OWN it. The thing is anyone can coach. But successful coaches own their philosophy. They trust themselves to get the best out of their athletes. A successful coach in my opinion is one that develop's a good relationship with their athletes. They communicate and let the athletes have their say. The athlete needs to feel like their opinion is valued. I quite like the philosophy of 'Athletes first, winning second'. This focuses on the development of the athletes rather than winning at all costs. There are infinite coaching styles in the world but here's the main three:

  1. Autocratic/Command Style: This style of coaching is where the coach makes all the decisions. The athletes listen, absorb and comply with what the coach says. The coach believes that they are always right and they don't value any input. This style of coaching can be compared to the army. The main problem with this style is that it may stifle motivation of their athletes. 
  2. Submissive Style: This coach provides minimal instruction and guidance. They tend to lack competence, are lazy or they are misinformed about coaching. This style of coaching isn't usually seen that often as it wouldn't be regarded successful. They are simply coaching for the sake of it.
  3. Co-Operative style: This coach shares the decision making with their athletes. The challenge with this style of coaching is deciding when to direct your athletes and when to let them direct themselves. This style is the most utilized style and would be seen as most effective when it comes to coaching. The athletes feel valued and they are happier in the environment in which they are training in. 
These 3 styles are not the only coaching styles, there are so many, far too many to list but these are the main ones that we refer back to. Coaching styles are open to interpretation, depending on the person who is coaching they could decide to take up a mix of the autocratic and co-operative styles to work to their advantage. 

Finally, there are three main qualities of successful coaches:
  1. Knowledge of the sport: Knowledge is important for success and fun, protecting athletes from injury and frustration, and gaining credibility for teaching life skills to athletes. Coaches can acquire knowledge of the sport by playing the sport, completing coaching courses, joining a coaching association, using books and videos and also learning from other coaches.
  2. Motivation: As a coach, you need to be able to motivate yourself, making time for being a successful coach. 
  3. Empathy: The ability to understand and convey sensitivity to athletes. This can be done by listening to your athletes and expressing your understanding. You don't want to belittle your athletes or diminish their self-worth. Coaches who communicate respect for athletes receive respect. 
As a young coach myself, I find it important to surround myself around a variety of different coaches so that I can take as much knowledge as I can. From my first year in college I have learn so much about coaching and what it takes to be a successful coach and I am only going to learn more. If you are looking to gain more experience and knowledge coaching, then I recommend that you start reading some books, watching videos and just surrounding yourself in different environments so that you can learn more. The main thing you want to see as a coach is that your athletes are having fun and enjoying themselves. Every coach should have their main objective as striving to win. In the words of Vince Lombardi: "Winning isn't everything, but striving to win is". 

Thanks for reading guys. Feel free to share.

Talk soon, Kate. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to get a 6 pack?!?

Hey guys, for this post I will talk a little bit about training our abs and how we should do this. It is something quite interesting that a lot of people tend to be misinformed about.  When we look to tone our abs and get that 'summer body' that we all want we tend to go straight into working the ab muscles only by doing sit ups and crunches. However, research has found that directly training our abs like this is not what makes our abs more defined. Unless you are very lean and your ab muscles are under-developed. Working the abs only does not make them show better! This is a huge myth because we cannot just work the muscle and expect the fat to be spot-reduced. That's not how the body works unfortunately.  If toned abs is what you are looking for then you should try focus on a diet specifically for fat loss around your waist. Your abs are there, they just happen to be covered by a layer of fat so a fat loss diet around the waist may be something that could wor
Post a Comment
Read more

Warm ups 101

Hey guys, welcome back to my blog. For this post I am going to talk about how we should warm up before a training session and I will also give you an example of my warm ups. Hope you enjoy! Warm ups in my opinion are a vital component of training. Every athlete,in every sport should do a warm up. The point behind warming up is that it gradually warms up our body temperature which decreases risk of injury. Skipping a warm up completely can be extremely detrimental not only to your performance but you can also pick up an injury easily because your muscles aren't warm. A warm up should last roughly 15-20 minutes. Dr Ian Jeffreys developed the framework RAMP protocol which allows for activities to be easily classified into a warm-up sequence. 1. R aise 2. A ctivate and M obilise 3. P otentiate (or performance) Phase 1: Raise The aim of the raise phase is to increase our body temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, blood flow and joint viscosity. This first section of t
1 comment
Read more

National's Week!

So, as many of you know my sport is badminton and this weekend is the Irish National Championships. I go into the weekend after some good results at the weekend in Essex where I played on the Leinster senior team against Essex and Ulster. Beating Ulster 7-4 and Essex 6-5, this leaves us second in the table going into the final weekend which is in March where we will hope to qualify for the play-offs for promotion to England's top league. With National's this weekend, I have been very focused and excited to play after being selected to represent Ireland at the European Women's team championships in 10 days time. So I am really looking forward to this weekend and my preparation has been going well. Leading up to a tournament I try not to put too much stress on my body while still training at the same time. Looking after your body is a crucial factor in being able to perform at the highest level in competition. This includes diet, sleep and training. Eating a balanced, healt
Post a Comment
Read more