Expertise in Coaching and the Coach-Athlete Relationship - Assignment Example

Expertise in Coaching and the Coach-Athlete Relationship Expertise in Coaching and the Coach-Athlete Relationship Introduction Coaching is an act of nurturing talents among trainees. Skill development depends on the training environment and ability of the coach to train candidates. Coaching is an important exercise that involves developing an individual to nurture their talents vehemently. Therefore, coaching practice requires an expertise and committed person in the dispensation of coaching practice. Both formal and informal lessons influence coaching exercise. Coaching requires motivation and energy constraints in the course of training (Lombardo 1999). Motivational measures envision team building and setting of goals; upholding ethics at work and enhance teaching skill; developing physical and mental system. Competition works as a platform of evaluating the effectiveness of previous training. Expert Coaches have distinctive characteristics that will either make them win or lose competitions. Levels of expertise in coaching depend on the number of tiles athletes win and the period the Coach serves in the field of sports (McCarthy & Ahrens 2011). Coaches would take most of their times in areas with athletes to improve their performing standards. Coaches should be precisely smart in planning and executing their mandates. Development of an athlete relies on the behavior and beliefs of expert coaches. Core objective of this task is to ascertain the development process to qualify as an expert coach, establish the characteristic of an expert coach, and enhance relationship between a coach and an athlete (Gallo 2015). There are a number of theories explaining the significant of sporting and coaching in lives of the people and the society such as behaviorism (knowledge of coach), Dynamic and environmental changes (coach contexts). This article should stand toll in describing various critics surrounding the coaching expertise. It focuses on conceptualizing the whole notion of coaching expertise (Goldsmith, Lyons & McArthur 2012). Conceptual Models of Coaching Theoretical models are relevant variables that affect coaching course and the overall result of coaching. Various theories relate to coaching’s effectiveness and expertise. These theories are based on coaching contexts, athletes’ outcomes, and the coaches’ knowledge (behaviors, dispositions, education, and coaches’ experiences). First component of a conceptual model is the coaching contexts, which is all about dynamicity of the environment. This part explains settings that a coach would lay to improve performance of an athlete. Parameters are critical in effective coaching (Potrac, Jones & Armour 2002). Competitiveness of an athlete depends on the participation coaching and performance coaching. The participation coaching focuses on a short-term objectives, enjoyment, and health related matters. On the other hand, performance coaching is insensitive in detailed programs’ preparations in attempting to influence performance variables (Bloom, Stevens & Wickwire 2003). Apart from performance demand of a sporting atmosphere, coaches need to understand the changes in an athletes’ development spectrum from time of birth to adulthood. A coach should have a critical knowledge about his athlete’s background including his taste and preferences (Bellmetric 2015). The coaches should develop various flexible strategies to suit numerous changes in behaviors of particular athlete. Conceptual coaching model has integration contexts, which focus on entire developmental in appropriate sports contexts; that is, participating coach for children (sampling years). Next in this level is participation coach for adolescents (recreational years), Performance Coach for Young adolescents (specializing years) and the performance coach for older adolescents and adults (investment years). This typology explains major four generic contexts of participation-performance range and a growth continuum from youngsters to grown-ups. It is important for coaches to meet the needs of the athletes by using a particular coaching context (Bloom, Stevens & Wickwire 2003). The effective coaching integrates knowledge of Coaches, professionalism, interpersonal and intrapersonal qualities (Lombardo 1999). Success determination of an athlete depends on the competence, confidence, connection, and character (Four Cs) of the coach (Gallo 2015). The second theory of sport focuses on athlete result, which sees coaching effectiveness entirely from an athletes’ outcome. Athlete either scores a win or incurs loss during competition. Whenever an athlete wins, that would count on a coach as an achievement, and a loss reflects a negative notion of incompetence on coaching exercise involved (McCarthy & Ahrens 2011). Outcome of the athlete would depend solely on 4Cs (competence, character/care, connection, confidence). Integration of caring within character development literature in sport overlaps between caring, character and compassion within faculty of coaching (Bellmetric 2015). Athletes’ competence is one vital area in coaching that influences behavior and an athlete performance outcome. The athletes’ level of competence in sport depends squarely on performance indicators. Coaching assists the participants to develop confidence and self-reliance in sporting activities. Enhancement of capability is achievable by the extensive program and enthusiastic exercises. Research confirms that the behavior of a coach and that of an athlete affect the overall outcome (Goldsmith, Lyons & McArthur 2012). Athletes’ confidence, connection, and character play incredible role in developing the contestants’ psychological growth. A mutual relationship between the parties of interaction boosts performance of athlete and his trainer. Interaction that exists between a trainer and the trainee imposes a confidence in both of them and thus better result. Coaches develop athletes’ character toward becoming an essential member of the sporting team and the society in general. Competence involves possessing specific technical and tactical knowledge, Performance Arts, improved health, and fitness among others. Next is confidence that entails the internal sense of the general self-worth. Third outcome is the connection, which spells out social relationships with the people both outside and within the sporting fraternity (Bellmetric 2015).     Third conceptual model of coaching is a component of the Coaches’ knowledge. Coaches’ knowledge influences the behavior of both the athlete and the coach. This model also refers as Behaviorism theory. The widespread knowledge is a chief feature of anyone who may wish to become an expert coach. With the changes in the behavior of the client in gym, the coach would recognize any strange actions of the athlete, and should apply the skills like relocating the patient to some place with fresh air. During headache or fainting, the coach would apply tactics such as pulling the athletes’ legs up plus considering medical approaches. By reviewing, the teaching point would help the parties to avoid more injuries in course of action. Some teaching point may include, observing and having respect of the athlete’s health irrespective of yearning to have a win. He should ensure the training equipments are in good condition and that the environment is conducive to enhance the athletes’ health. Knowledge is a broader term that attracts various types. First, one is content knowledge, which relates to knowledge or skills acquired by the student. Second component of coaches’ knowledge is pedagogical knowledge, which supports an educational theory of students. Moreover, a pedagogical content is an exceptional way in conveying the content knowledge to learners in exact sceneries. Effectiveness of coaching in a holistic style not only requires professionalism in knowledge but also equally significant are the coaches’ interpersonal and intrapersonal experience (Bush & Silk 2010). The coach’s professional knowledge includes his declarative knowledge in sports science, sport specific knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge together with procedural knowledge. Under this category of coaching, the professional knowledge of training is applicable. Professionalism becomes critical in coaching because its application anywhere out of context would lose the relevance and the importance of interaction nature of real coaching (Rhodes & Beneicke 2002). The coaches’ interpersonal knowledge enables coaches to interact with other people effectively. Aspect interpersonal experience allows many coaches to access wider scope of ideas from other individuals who may have better information. Places where athlete and coaches interact are not only limited to the coaching fields but also an extension to a larger society.  Coaches should interact with an athlete, and assistant coaches, parents and other professionals. A coach should develop their coaching abilities to become experts by continually communicating with their athlete, and considering their social context. A third and very important form of knowledge is the coaches’ intrapersonal experience, which denotes to as the understanding of oneself and an aptitude for contemplation and reflection. A good expert coach is someone who has proper capability of transforming experiences into skills and knowledge. The intrapersonal knowledge makes one a master of his mind, who is someone with autonomous thinking, self-trust and courageous enough to recognize faults. Coach-athlete Relationship In the formal an informal approach of training and learning situations, the coach and the trainee both positively benefit in the process of application of the ideas gathered in class to the field and vice versa. For example, the coach would apply the techniques he gathers in training to the real life situation while practicing in the field. The informal learning technique provides much encouragement to the trainer by application of class and field experience; it instills the feeling of friendship and mutuality. A coach acts as a team leader in coordinating the sports system to meet the team’s goals and objectives efficiently and effectively. On the other side, the athlete refers to the vessel or player that actually participates in the physical sport or exercise. Coaches have a great impact on the athlete; they directly influence an athlete performance, hence, the need for a positive coach to manage the relationships with players accordingly is indispensable. Weak or inappropriate coach-athlete relationship leads to poor performance. Therefore, a mutual, conducive, and effective coach-athlete relationship is very significant as it enhances positive output in the sporting activity (Goldberg 2015). A positive coach often strives to win but not at the expense of a player’s safety and health. He should ensure the safety of the player in every aspect of routine or daily practice by ensuring proper functioning of equipment and appropriate decision-making. The coach should sacrifice wins when need be, in a bid to offer life lessons and advocate for good health of the players. Irrespective of how brightly the coach’s ambitions burns; no matter how badly he wants a win in a championship, the priorities should always be athlete safety and helping the athletes develop into productive, healthy and contributing members of the society (Rhodes & Beneicke 2002). When a coach consistently demonstrates leadership values to the players by character, conduct, management and communication skills, he wins the athletes over. When the coach finally attains the players’ loyalty and respect, the positive correlation inspires them to great heights in performance domains; they play harder, sacrificing for the coach and each other, which is the basis of a strong team. Maintaining a good coach-athlete relationship is significant for high performance. Once a coach has assembles his athletes, he should maintain good working relationships using the principle of giving respect in relational mutuality (Bush & Silk 2010). The initial model of tear them down so that you can build them up is no longer functional. It is better for the coach to build the athletes up in a humane manner, which is powerfully transformative. The coach and his athletes undergo less drama and enjoy a better sporting experience if he works toward the team’s interests and helps the players or athletes develop beyond sports as their coach. A coach should have decisively honest conversations than simple corrections. He should open to inform, yet patient if the athletes are not learning fast enough, or they seem to be putting less than the maximum effort. The coach can bench or cut the players depending on their delivery. The coach-athlete conversations should be private and face-to-face. However, if an athlete objects, the coach should hear him or her out. Even if the athletes are leaving the program, the coach should give them all the advice they require in order to have improved success at their next destination in sports or any other activities (Goldberg 2015). Irrespective of how the coach-athlete relationship may be, coaches must ensure discipline, order, and fairness. Coaches must be open and upfront in their relationships with the athletes or players according to the team rules and correctional frameworks. In order to maintain the relationship, the coach should be vigilant not to make rules and consequences that he cannot live execute. When the coach fails to deliver on a consequence, he loses attachment, attention, respect, and all the relational benefits he has with the players (Silk, Bush & Andrews 2010). Maintaining boundaries is also significant to enhance better performance. Despite seeking positive, enduring relationships with the athletes, it is important to respect and recognize the boundaries that he should maintain between his management and the players. It is highly recommended to avoid having players as part of the coaches’ social media circle of friends. Effective coach-athlete relationship is holistic in that the emphasis is placed on development and growth of the team. It entails empathy, understanding, honesty, support, acceptance, liking, caring, respect, and positive regard. However, an ineffective coach-athlete relationship is undermined by lack of emotion and interest. It is characterized with remoteness, deceit, exploitation, physical or sexual abuse, and antagonism (Jones, Armour & Potrac 2002). A coach-athlete relationship can be evaluated as either successful or unsuccessful. Successful coach-athlete relationship refers to a relationship that has reached a level of normative performance success, such as, world championship gold medal. An unsuccessful though effective coach-athlete relationship invariably has some positive outcomes for the coach and the athlete in terms of psychological health and well-being. Even though successful relationships are attractive and desirable, without being effective, they are likely to breach the codes of conduct formulated and implemented to protect athletes and coaches. Helping relationship entails the ability or desire to understand the feelings and meaning another person, an interest without being involved emotionally; and a growing mutual liking, respect and trust between the coach and the an athlete ( Lyle 2002). Having an effective relationship between the coach and an athlete facilitates self-actualization. Therefore, the coach is responsible to strive continually in order to develop his or her own potentials. In addition, an optimally effective coach-athlete relationship is depicted in the maturity and growth of both coaches and athletes. Conflict and communication are important pillars in the coach-athlete relationship. Conflict in the relationship is inevitable and the coach should be in a position to offer working resolutions. Communication is a unifying rational component, it promotes the development of understanding and shared knowledge about various issues; it forms the basis for maintaining, initiating, and terminating the coach-athlete relationship. Both coaches and athletes benefit from their positive relations. Beyond the normal gains of on-field fun and success, coaches and athletes enjoy long-term advantages from their relationships (Bush et al. 2012). For instance, later in life, players or athletes may make significant decisions based on their past learning experiences with the coach. The athletes may continue to touch and call on the coach for more advice. Coaches can learn from their players and take a great delight and joy in seeing past players succeed. In addition, they get a separate special kick out of knowing they had a role in helping the players along. Athletes’ motivators involve extrinsic and intrinsic factors. For instance, coach can motivate athletes by giving incentives to those who perform best to enhance performance. Coach has a duty of containing athletes to complete the course. Athletes need proper guidance and counseling in addition to other motivational factors to keep them on course. Extrinsic motivators would include such actions like issuing rewards following an excellent performance while intrinsic motivator entails such practices like proper treatment and offering demonstrative guidance. Discussing the Vignettes and Critique Expertise and Coach The Vignette At the beginning of the year, two boys, Alex and Denies were appointed to coach a rugby union under 21 representative team this was the second time Alex been appointed as a coach. Denis expertise was in coaching the forward pack while Alex was to select to coach the backline. The administrators were trying to get a coaching combination at the U21 level that would develop athletes who that could make a small house (Ong, 2013). They were unaware of each other well but Alex knew Denis by reputation for almost 25 years and played for tar national source. Denis played for three national team he had played for the national team for three games. Alex was involved in the game for 40 years and had trained on how to become a coach from watching other coaches, as an athlete novice coach (Bergmann Drewe, 2000). He attended coaching clinics as required by his employment with rugby union, While the coaches were happy at their appointment and were looking forward to the challenge, they were wary of each other. Alex was thinking that Denis was greener and Denis thought of Alex to be old–fashioned the athlete U21 some of them university student and the others tradesmen. Advantages and disadvantages of sporting to the society Sporting activities are vital to humanity in form of entertainment and exercise reducing the limit of various diseases. They also have setbacks within the society, which can interfere with the normal function of various activities. The formal benefits of participating in sports include increased physical and mental health and peer pressure of being part of the team. There are several demerits, however, that are associated with development of sporting activities from coaching of the sporting professionals to be fully engaged sporting (Bush et al., 2012). Time commitment Participation in sporting activities demands dedication. Consequently, it requires significant time commitment from participants. Continuous practises and travels from competitions are time consuming and, in most instances, expensive. Economic constraints Sporting activities are expensive to sponsor by individuals or the government probably encountered during the accommodation of players. The executive behind the management of the players are also cared for including the latest sporting equipment proving very expensive to purchase (Jones & Wallace 2005). The high revenue spent on sports is always costly to the economy of the state or individuals involved. Physical injury Athletes get injuries during practice or competitive events. They include bone injuries that can result from falls. The injuries such as tear of the anterior cruciate ligament occur more in young athletes because of rigorous practices and competitions (Lyle 2002). Qualities and the training necessary for an expert coach Good coaches learn or train on how to coach where they receive learning in different situations. Although participating in the formal coach education program is the only way to receive the certificate, most coaches indicate that their learning comes from the books or videos (Bush et al., 2012). The also incorporation of internet based resources interacting with others, including mentors and the observation of other coaches. It is evident that experience as an athlete directly influences the way in which coaches tackles their craft. Recent studies indicate that both primary and secondary socialization strongly influence an individual’s coaching philosophies and techniques. The primary socialization includes the family while the secondary socialization is like the sports and school. Most coaches attribute their learning to personal experience (Jones & Wallace 2005). Every coach development path is shaped by their unique set of personal experiences sometimes called the personal biography. Despite the idiosyncratic nature of the developing coaching expertise, there is a notion that common principles exist for creating environments for supporting coach practices. In his coaching plan, Denis identified learning outcomes he wanted to achieve. The coaching practice happens in stages, and the beginner coach stage typically corresponds to the new few years of coaching in a specific coaching context. The real context might be recreational, developmental or the elite. Each moment a coach enters a new coaching context there is a little period of socialization where they have to learn the dominant language, values, and norms of the specific setting. Most coaches start coaching and then seek out formal coach education afterward. The participation in the formal coach education, while the same time working and coaching, presents time challenges making the formal coach education be delivered in condensed manner. This type of coaching education is not highly preferable because of its lack of relevance to real-world coaching practice. There are different stages of coach training such as beginners, competent, proficient, and expert including various learning situations (Bowes & Jones 2006). Mediated learning situations This is the kind of the learning situations where coaches do not select materials to be learned, but other people control the context. An expert or a group of experts chooses the material of teaching and delivery format. For example, coach education program, seminars, and workshops (Bloom, Stevens & Wickwire 2003). Internal learning situations In is the condition of learning where there is no new material of learning coming from either a mediated or unmediated learning situation. The individual reorganizes what they already know sometimes called the cognitive housekeeping. Unmediated learning situations This is a learning situation where the coaches decide by themselves what information they need and the various sources to be consulted. The consultation might be done from the colleagues, books, and websites (Cassidy, Jones & Potrac 2009). The deliberate practice The practice focuses on the tasks above the current level of competence and comfort. The beginner’s coaches are considered dependent learners. It is highly likely that coaches consider reorganizing their knowledge internally at the phase of development (Silk, Bush & Andrews 2010). The second phase of the expertise development is the competent coach. The competent coach occasionally involves in mediated learning situations, such as workshops or seminars, when they need to accumulate professional development credits to maintain their certifications. Some coaches at within the phase of development might take some time to stop and think, but it seems to be rare and not done systematically. Coaches, during the competent phase of development, reflect on their coaching practice to identify mistakes and make adjustments (Goldsmith, Lyons & McArthur 2012). Because of the independent nature of the coaches at this stage of development they are free to select the kind of material to learn and from which source it comes from. The third and the fourth stages of coach expertise development are the proficient coaches and the expert coach. The two stages are similar in their aspects, and the coaches in these two stages are very knowledgeable. They are likely to mentor the beginners and the competent coaches taking courses to develop their coaching techniques. The coaches have the ability not to hesitate to learn even idea if it could change a great difference in their performance. Coaches have the ability to share ideas with other coaches, and their thirst for knowledge leads them to investigate literature outside the sport. Conclusion In many ways, most of the chapters that inherently interlink could be viewed as encapsulating the fundamental message. They contain the summarized case for coaching holistic while calling for the inclusion of sociological and the pedagogical principles within more reality- based coach education programs as a means of realizing such practice. The chapter contains examples of framework within which a holistic coach education program could be realized (Bergmann Drewe 2000). The strategies are underpinned by the belief that it would be useful for coaches to consider. The significant reason of the program is to get coaches to think cognitively and creatively about alternative ways to coach pushing back boundary of both coaching theory and the practice. Bibliography Bellmetric 2015, The Coaching Challenge. Retrieved May 6, 2015 from http://educatedsportsparent.com/coaching-challenge/ Bergmann Drewe, S., (2000). Coaches, ethics and autonomy. 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