Coaching Theory
Three Objectives to Coaching
• 1. To have a winning team
• 2. To help young people have fun
• 3. To help young people develop:
• physically (sport skills, conditioning)
• psychologically (controlling emotions, self-worth)
• Socially (cooperation, appropriate behavior in
sport settings)
What is your Coaching Style?
• Command (Dictator): coach makes all the decisions,
athlete’s job is to listen, absorb, and comply
• Submissive (Babysitter): roll the ball out coach,
makes few decisions, lazy with little instruction
• Cooperative: Shares the decision with athletes (to a
point)
• Coaching is like a wet bar of soap, too much pressure
and it will shoot out of your hand and fall to the
ground, too little pressure and it will fall out of your
hands onto the floor, but with just the right pressure,
it will stay in your hands and not fall.
Three Keys to Successful
Coaching
• 1. Knowledge of the sport: knowing the rules, tactics, and sports
skills needed to properly instruct the participants
• 2. Motivation: A coach has to be able to properly motivate the
athletes, and be motivated enough to put the time in to be prepared
to coach
• 3. Empathy: Having the ability to listen to the athletes, understand
their feelings and thoughts on things, and respond positively
Negative Approach to
Coaching
• 1. Bad Habit: They are used to telling their athletes what they
do wrong, rather than what they do right
• 2. Unrealistic Expectations: Coaches may forget that 14
year olds are not the same as 28 year olds, and that even
players of the same age have different skill levels
• 3. Short-term Success: can work initially, but usually
interferes with long term goals and success
Using Rewards
• Reward the performance, not the outcome
• Reward for the effort rather than the success
• Reward little things on the way toward a larger goal
• Reward the learning of emotional and social skills, as
well as sport skills.
Reward Frequency
• Reward frequently when youngsters are first learning
new skills
• Once skills are well learned, you only need to
reinforce them occasionally
WHEN SHOULD YOU
REWARD?
• As soon as possible after the correct behaviors
• Reward athletes only when they have earned it.
Types of Rewards
• Tangibles: trophies, ribbons, certificates, decals, money and T shirts
• People Rewards: praise, smiles, pat on the back, publicity
• Activity Rewards: playing a game rather than doing drills, taking a
trip to play another team, getting to take a rest
Dealing with Misbehavior
• Extinction: ignoring the behavior.
Sometimes the attention you pay towards the misbehavior is what the
player wanted in the first place, behaviors like clowning, grandstanding,
and other mischievous behaviors.
DEALING WITH MISBEHAVIOR
• Punishment: use it in a corrective way to help athletes improve now
• Punish in an impersonal way
• Once the punishment has been agreed upon by the players, give it to
them if they break the rule
• Usually give one warning before delivering a punishment
Dealing with Misbehavior
• Be consistent
• If you cannot think of an appropriate punishment at the time
of the misbehavior, tell the player you will get back to them
with the consequence
• Make sure that what you perceive as a punishment is not
perceived by the athlete as a reward.
Dealing with Misbehavior
• Do not punish athletes while they are playing
• Never use physical activity to punish
• Punish sparingly
Fearing Failure
• When the emphasis is on performance, not learning
• Unrealistic goals: examples
• Extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation: what is the
difference, and can one become a problem?
Three Stages of Learning
• 1. Mental: beginning stage that required a great deal of mental activity
to put the steps of the skill into the proper order
• 2. Practice: This stage emphasizes practicing the skill over and over
again. You will spend more time in this stage, but your mental activity
will be less
• 3. Automatic: You free up even more mental capacity, which you can
use to focus on achieving superior performance.
Four Steps to Teaching Skills
• 1. Introduce the skill: make sure the team can see and hear
you, speak clearly and in plain language, and try to keep it under 3
minutes
• 2. Demonstrate: and briefly explain the skill
• What if you cannot demonstrate it properly?
• The demonstration should be performed from several angles,
and several times.
• If the skill is complex, demonstrate the major parts separately
• 3. Practice the skill: whole versus part practice, what is the
difference?
• Part is best for complex skill acquisition, whole is better for
simpler skills
• Practice should be short, but frequent when teaching new
skills
• Practice should also occur in game-type environments, why?
4. Correct Errors: provide feedback that the athlete can use
to try and fix the errors in the skill being performed
Ten Principles of Training
Athletes
• 1. Readiness: Speed, strength, stamina, etc are largely based on
maturation with regard to prepubescent, and pubescent boys and
girls. Neuromuscular skills can be honed regardless of age
• 2. Individual Response: Athletes will respond to the same
training in different ways (i.e. heredity, nutrition, rest and sleep,
illness, level of fitness, etc)
• 3. Adaptation: the body takes a while to adapt to training
(what does that mean for your athletes)
• 4. Overload: Pushing the body harder than it is normally
pushed
• 5. Progression: Slowly increasing the demands that you place
on the body
• 6. Specificity: Train the muscles that you use the most related to
the skills you use during the sport
• 7. Variation: vary workouts from hard to easy, use different
types of drills/activities, cross training, etc
• 8. Warm-up & Cool Down: A warm-up does what? A cool
down does what? How are they performed?
• 9. Long-term Training: It typically takes years for athletes to
perform at very high levels, do not expect great things in a short
amount of time
• 10. Reversibility: Fitness can disappear quickly if not maintained,
a off-season training program can help the athletes come into the
season better prepared.
TOPICS FOR TEAM RULES
• Player’s language
• Attendance at practice and games (what will your policy
be)
• Behavior at practices and games
• Interactions with officials
• Discipline for misbehavior
• Behavior when traveling
• Locker room behavior
Topics for Team Rules
• Dress when practicing, competing and traveling
• Protecting valuables
• Drug and alcohol use
• Curfews
• Criteria for awards
• Trouble with the law
Managing Relationships
• Assistant coaches
• Use their strengths
• Make their responsibilities clear
• Help your assistants prepare for their duty
• Let your assistants be involved in the decision making
• Provide formal and informal evaluations
Managing Relationships
• Teammates
• Support your team in a positive manner
• Hold teammates accountable
• Trust teammates