Coaching Portfolio: Philosophies, Communication and Motivation - Case Study Example

 COACHING Table of Contents Page Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 3 Coaching philosophies……………………………………………………………… 3 Season plan…………………………………………………………………………. 5 Communication and motivation……………………………………………………. 7 Purpose of a portfolio………...……………………………………………………. 10 References…………………………………………………………………………. 11 Introduction Principles of training and coaching are a course that seeks to explore and examine issues surrounding training and coaching of athletes in the broad spectrum of sport activities. It generally focusses on the coach and the plans they have for their teams. Therefore the contents of the portfolio and those of the course include such things like coaching philosophies, styles, and objectives of the respective coaches who are in charge of teams (Rock & Page, 2009). It also includes a season plan of a particular game and then finally information regarding motivation and communication skills applied by coaches in training of the various sport activities. The paper will address three segments which are coaching philosophies, styles, and objectives. Then it will be followed by a season plan of a soccer team and finally motivation and communication skills related to coaching. And then the conclusion will give an insight and reflections about the course and the portfolio in general. Coaching philosophies, objectives, and styles. Coaching philosophy is a statement of what a coach values and how he or she will approach his coaching role. Coaching philosophy covers the purpose of a coach and how the coach is likely to approach winning and player development in order to achieve his objectives. Therefore, coaching philosophies are a set of beliefs, major objectives, and principles that one clings to in order to realize set objectives (Smith, 2003). The values of a coach have dictates the kind of coaching philosophy likely to be displayed by a coach. It is this same coaching philosophy that dictates how coaches conduct themselves in terms of interaction with athletes and other people and their behaviors as coaches. Therefore, these philosophies should reflect what the coach is and what they aspire to be. Most philosophies are based on knowledge, experiences, opinions, beliefs, and values. Out of all these values are the greatest factors that dictate or have a greatest influence on the type of coaching philosophy one decides to follow. Coaching philosophies are important because they tend to help in various ways. A philosophy will provide you with guiding principles that will help you steer your goals and objectives towards a certain direction. In this case a philosophy will help in guiding your approach of coaching. This will help coaches know where they want to go and the techniques that they can use to realize their dreams and objectives. A clear philosophy also comes handy when one has to make tough decisions in a team (Maguire, 2004). Decisions such as making substitutions, bending rules in the team, punishing players, and dealing with injuries all require clear philosophy to help a coach steer through all these challenges and issues. Clear philosophy within a coach also helps in establishing consistency in the running of the team. This will help do away with uncertainties that revolve around player discipline, team rules, and style of play, competition, and long term objectives of the team. Personally I advocate for athlete development when it comes to coaching. This helps in instilling both social and moral values hence resulting to athletes who are morally upright and not those after material gain like fame, money, and popularity. Sports or athletics should not just be used for developing people physically, by adopting athlete development you tend to pass a lot of qualities to the players. Sports are known for its unifying ability. It does not discriminate but brings people together (Miller & Kerr, 2002). I remember back in my high school days my soccer coach used insist on praying before a match because he believed despite our best form there was always a supernatural force which determined a lot of outcomes on the universe, and this is none other than God. Through this we learnt not to be too much proud of ourselves but appreciated the gifts we had. He also promoted unity, by encouraging the use of one common language to avoid dividing players along ethnic lines. Loyalty and playing because of the love of the game is also another trait that ought to be passed to athletes. They ought not to be money minded but should play to enjoy and this way they will end up displaying good performance which will attract fans and in turn earn large amounts which they did not intend to. During coaching it is also advisable to be accommodative so as to get to hear from the players (Stamatellos, 2007). Players opinion do count a lot because they can decide to boycott or even refuse to take in your advice and this will render the coach a failure. Athletes are not machines, athletes are human beings, and their opinion ought to be heard for a successful display in the field. I remember at some point in high school our soccer coach kept on subjecting us to strenuous exercises. Most players did not welcome this and they quitted the team because the coach was not ready to listen and he believed he was the best and what he said was the right thing. Season Plan This section entails developing a season plan. The season plan will be for male soccer team participating in the national premier league cup. The season plan will begin in September 2015 all the way to May 2016. In the season plan the off-season is bound to be 8 weeks that is September and October. The preseason will be another 8 weeks that is between November and December. Early season will be between January and March. Finally the peak season will assume April and May. The off season is for the players to regain the form which they have lost in the previous season. The type of training in this stage usually tends to be general because pressure is still low and the athlete is still recovering from the previous season due to fatigue. The type of training here aims at developing flexibility of the players and building muscle strengths. Stretching exercises are the ones to take center stage in this case. This will help improve flexibility conditioning to enable easy movements (Spence, 2007). This will be done four times in a week. Strength conditioning will also be done to enhance the neglected muscles after the season. In this case weights will be put to use and they will have two sessions per week. Cardiovascular exercises will be done three days in a week. Preseason training will be based on developing technical skills and building maximum strengths in preparation for the season. Skill development band technical training will be done through playing games three times a week. This will be achieved through friendly matches and dividing the team in order to make another opponent (Jones & Wallace, 2005). Players will still carry on with stretching exercises which are meant to boost their flexibility. Strength and resistant training will still be offered alongside aerobics for maximum heart rate. Resistant trainings will also be incorporated in the training regimen and it will include such like squats and leg press. Come the early season the players will be in good shape physically and basically the training offered here will be focusing on skill development. Technical skills here include working on their ball possessions, attacking, and the likes. Anaerobic conditioning will also be essential for athlete’s development. Stretching will be maintained to ensure flexibility conditioning of the players is great. Strength training will still be incorporated and will be done twice in a week. The main aim of training in the peak season is to ensure that the bulk of the training that took place in the previous seasons does not go to waste. Stretching will still be maintained in this season. Endurance training will also be maintained and most game plays will focus on skill development. Ample time will also be given to athlete to enable them to rest and prevent fatigue from too much exercise. The table below describes the fitness activities according to season. Fitness requirement September October November December January February March April May Off Season Preseason Early Season Peak Season Aspect of body strength Develop strength Maximize strength Enhance power and maintain strength Maintain power and strength Consideration of pace or speed Enhance Maintain Notion of perseverance or endurance Aerobic Anaerobic Maintain Maintain Flexibility of self Maintain Maintain Maintain Maintain Connectedness of body mechanism or coordination Enhance Maintain Communication and Motivation Effective and efficient coaching requires someone who is good at communication skills. This entails knowing how to relate and conveying the desired information to your players. Good communication skills will allow easier communication of training messages which will in turn improve the team’s performance and allow them to train effectively. The coach may also use good communication skills in motivating their players. Some of the questions coaches need to pose to themselves to assess their communication skills with their players are those dealing with whether they are getting the athletes attention. Are they communicating in an easily understandable manner? Does the athlete believe and accept what am they are saying? Positive answers to the questions would mean that the coach is doing well and possesses good communication skills. To ensure effective communication between athletes and their coach, coaches need to consider a lot of factors because they are the one in possession of information that needs to be passed to the players. Coaches before communicating should consider what they want to tell the athletes, they should also consider who they are addressing, where and when the message could be best delivered and in what way they are going to communicate the information (Scholz & Binder, 2011). I remember when most players left our high school soccer team, most people left because of poor communication skills of the coach. There is a day the coach scolded the captain in front of the other player, the captain being an influential person in the team started rebelling and that’s how they ended up leaving the team terming the as being in considerate and not able to listen. Therefore, coaches need to employ these elements in their communication if they want a positive feedback from the players. They should ensure that the information is presented clearly. They also ought to be concise by being brief with what they are saying to avoid losing track or the message. They should also be accurate by not giving misleading information which will prompt disagreement. They should be courteous by being polite, avoiding conflict and non-threatening messages which may spark bad blood between them and the players. The coaches also need to be positive by avoiding negative messages and avoid being critical toward players weaknesses. This way motivating players will be easier and players will always be interested in the affairs of the team. Listening skills are also a requirement in coaching and training. Coaches should also listen to what their players or athletes have to say not every time being bossy. All athletes in the team should be given equal attention to avoid discrimination and division in the team along various lines. Coaches also ought to provide positive feedbacks during coaching sessions to help motivate athletes. Purpose of a portfolio From the course have come to learn that different coaches have different coaching philosophies and it is against this backdrop that different teams display various team culture, values and culture. If you came across a team with arrogant players, then this was a clear indication that those players were developed by an arrogant coach. There teams which will use all mean to ensure they have won (Grunig, 2013). All this is reflected in the coaching philosophy of such teams. They are those who will be involved in match fixing for the love of money and not game. I also learnt that effective communication skills are a prerequisite because coaching involves dealing with human feelings and emotions. For effective performance communication is the key because with effective communication coaches are able to pass information in a simple and understanding manner and this will enable receptive players to utilize it to give an outstanding performance. Through the season plan I also came to learn of the various forms of fitness exercise. In the past I only knew of running and stretching as the only forms of exercise. Have also come to learn that to manage a team, planning and sticking to the plan is the only way one can achieve good performance and realize set objectives and goals in coaching. References Grunig, L. A. (2013). Toward the philosophy of public relations. Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations, 65-91. Jones, R. L., & Wallace, M. (2005). Another bad day at the training ground: Coping with ambiguity in the coaching context. Sport, Education and society, 10(1), 119-134. Miller, P. S., & Kerr, G. A. (2002). Conceptualizing excellence: Past, present, and future. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14(3), 140-153. Maguire, J. (2004). Challenging the sports-industrial complex: Human sciences, advocacy and service. European Physical Education Review, 10(3), 299-322. Rock, D., & Page, L. J. (2009). Coaching with the brain in mind: Foundations for practice. John Wiley & Sons. Scholz, R. W., & Binder, C. R. (2011). Environmental literacy in science and society: from knowledge to decisions. Cambridge University Press. Smith, D. J. (2003). A framework for understanding the training process leading to elite performance. Sports medicine, 33(15), 1103-1126. Spence, G. B. (2007). Further development of evidence-based coaching: Lessons from the rise and fall of the human potential movement. Australian Psychologist, 42(4), 255-265. Stamatellos, G. (2007). Computer ethics: A global perspective (pp. I-XI). Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Read More