Successful Coaches in Sports
Sporting involves all games and physical activities that are performed either casually or involve organized participation such as football, baseball, and the Olympics. The purpose of sports is to improve or maintain the skills and physical abilities of the participants as well as providing enjoyment for the participants or spectators. In games, there exist coaches who offer instructions and training for the participants. Sports coaches develop the skills of athletes in acquiring their maximum capabilities by analyzing performances, guiding the skill enhancement, and encouraging them. The role of a coach is diverse and can be considered as a mentor, adviser, motivator, planner, counselor, and a source of knowledge. Coaches in sports ensure that there are appropriate conditions for learning and use various methods to motivate the sport participants in the generation of excitement and enthusiasm.
Being successful can be defined as the ability to gain a desired or favorable outcome. To achieve success, it requires people to a particular skill or talent needed in accomplishing a specific task. Athletes chose a specific sport as a career with clear goals and objectives. Achievement of the goals requires the athletes to possess the particular knowledge and skills about the game as well as someone to introduce them to the set of skills and knowledge competently. It is essential to determine the characteristics of successful coaches to ensure that these characteristics are promoted in achieving the goals of the athletes and allow the beneficial transfer of information.
Successful sports coaches possess the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities required in their particular fields. The coaches should have a clear understanding of the sport they guide and always be an example to the trainees. The coach must possess the fundamental skills and advanced strategies and tactics in a game. The coach must continue learning and developing new training techniques to ensure they remain relevant in guiding the participants. An effective coach should lead by example by adhering to the same rules that he/she expects the athletes to follow to ensure the development of mutual respect. Scotty Bowman is a successful coach who ensures that he adjusts actively and trains the teams to change with the changing teams. He understands professional sports to enhance his great achievement. A successful coach is possessing a positive attitude and enthusiasm for the athletes and the game. He/she should have the ability to inspire and motivate in the progress of gaining success. The coach ensures that despite training to achieve the performance goals, the athletes enjoy themselves in the sport. Vince Lombardi is a football coach who is recognized for demonstrating heroic traits of inspiring his team from poor performance to a dynasty. An effective coach has excellent communication skills and displays competence, authority, and credibility in providing information. Effective communication involves setting well-defined goals, giving feedback, and ensuring reinforcements of the set strategies. Language plays a vital role in coaching and ensuring that everything is kept simple and quickly understood, defines a successful coach. Joe Paterno is a great coach who provides that the players work hard in the classroom as they do in the field through effective communication.
In the development of the skills of the athletes, I would recommend the coaches to encourage the athletes to make and have confidence in the decisions they make. Decision making in sports is integrated with the achievement of success upon the professionalization of sports. An excellent coach should involve the team and empower them to create creative training activities. The players can come up with new training tactics and strategies that will enhance the efforts of the coaches. A successful coach should develop training periods that have unfamiliar situations to ensure that they create solutions to various problems.
A coach is vital in sporting activities to prepare the athletes for training programs and ensure that they develop new skills. The coach should communicate effectively and monitor the progress in training to predict performance. Coaching is a diverse and challenging task that requires a special person with particular characteristics and capabilities. The achievement of specific performance goals improves the overall performance of the athletes, which is a representation of a good coach.
References
Ertmer, P. A., Richardson, J., Cramer, J., Hanson, L., Huang, W., Lee, Y., … & Um, E. J. (2003). Critical Characteristics of Professional Development Coaches: Content Expertise or Interpersonal Skills?.
Jones, R. L., Edwards, C., & Viotto Filho, I. T. (2016). Activity theory, complexity, and sports coaching: An epistemology for a discipline. Sport, education, and society, 21(2), 200-216.
Kjaer, J. B. (2017). Preparing Sports Coaches for the 21st Century: A Qualitative Case Study of A Graduate Sports Coaching Education Program. ProQuest LLC.
Light, R., & Harvey, S. (2019). Positive pedagogy for sports coaching: Athlete-centred coaching for individual sports. Routledge.
Rollnick, S., Fader, J., Breckon, J., & Moyers, T. B. (2019). Coaching Athletes to be Their Best: Motivational Interviewing in Sports. Guilford Press.
Wolfe, C. (2018). Successful Coaches Influence Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors. Professional Coaching: Principles and Practice.