The Physical Movement #205: The Skill of Coaching
Youth coaches are asked to do a lot but what is most important?
Welcome to edition #205. This week we get into filtering down to the most imporant part of youth sport coaching.
Let’s jump in:
The list of responsibilities heaped on youth sport coaches is be longer than ever.
Some of the tasks include:
· Coaches’ certifications and hiring of assistant coaches. Delegating responsibilities.
· Overseeing, administering, and communicating schedules which include tryouts, practices, exhibition, and league games.
· Managing and communicating with parents, including parental code of conduct.
· Organizing team equipment and travel schedules.
· Managing facility rental, collection of fees, fundraising, team apparel and uniform ordering.
· Don’t forget game/competition day and practice management: lineups, playing time and strategy.
· Getting to know and communication with players. Youth athlete management includes communication but also understanding and dealing with today’s young athlete. Today’s athlete has brought on requirements by coach not needed in the past: code of conducts, social media management, bullying, anxiety, and stress management are all front and center.
Let’s not forget at some point there is skill development! When delivered with strong communication skills and time on task in practice and games, this is where the rubber hits the road. Where the magic happens.
Unfortunately, it is often at the bottom of the list of all these coaches’ responsibilities, yet critical in influencing the athlete experience.
When you think about it, it becomes fascinating to define good coaching skills.
The basics. The fundamentals that will lead to a positive experience.
The fundamentals must start with the understanding & communication of the skills required to participate in competition. For example, the fundamentals in ice hockey include skating and puck handling. They also include team strategy on offense and defence, with and without the puck. While baseball starts with hitting, fielding, and throwing, a good coach must also include understanding the rules, strategy and team play. All sports have their fundamentals that must be taught by the coaches.
Sport competition and skill development thrives on errors. Making mistakes is what we all go through when we learn, and sport, even at the highest level, plays out based on player errors most of the time. If one player or team is highly skilled, then can force errors by the other players and teams. The errors create opportunities within the competition.
All this being said, let’s simplify: what is the art of coaching?
According to coach and author Dan John:
“It is the art of making people think that what they NEED to do is what they WANT to do. The art of coaching is taking something complex and giving the tools to make it simple and clear.”
Coach John breaks down 5 principles that make up the art of coaching. Consider this a guide to assist and support athletes for not only development of skills, which are the backbone to a positive experience.
Principle 1: Understand cost to benefit ratio to all that is done and planned. Coach John breaks down skill development into 2 categories:
A. Time you spend in the skill development. That would be the drills, the cues, the rehearsing of what is required to get better and be successful in competition. This could be individual and team related skills and strategy (in a team sport). Prioritizing the skills to be taught based on the level of young athlete under your guidance.
B. What you get back. The competence, the confidence the fun and the development of enjoyment of the activity. At the end of the day or season, are your kids having fun?
Having fun should be at the core of everything. This includes turning young people on to the sport, not only for the present but for the future.
2. When is enough enough? Building fundamental skills to enjoy and be competent without going overboard. Beyond a certain point there becomes a law of diminishing returns. How many hours a week should your young athlete be skating? Or how many months of the year should they be throwing (baseball), or playing in games? At a certain point rest and recovery has been pushed aside in much of today’s youth sport. Recovery in the form of taking care of the body to offset all the use of the activity. This includes the opportunity to develop the movement skills, mobility and strength that meet the demands of the activity. In an upcoming edition, we will examine what ailments young athletes are developing when keeping up with the joneses is pushing many to overdo it.
3. In every sport, there are things you can’t change. Good coaches KNOW this! Don’t focus on things you can’t change…focus on the things you can.
As coaches, we have young athletes of all sizes, shapes and abilities. Some are fast, some are slower. Some come late some are early, some speak up others don’t. Don’t try and get blood from a stone. Assessing the skillsets of your athletes early on and their abilities and working for progress is a great recipe in making sure the experience is positive. Catering to individual differences is required.
4. Clarity. I love this one. If we had to coach ourselves, all would be clear 100% of the time. However, when we have many young athletes under our watch, of a different generation with different cultural background, the emphasis on being clear with tasks and expectations is critical. We have covered the skill of communication in The Physical Movement. Clarity is a critical component to the art of coaching.
5. Enthusiasm transfer: When a young athlete starts the season or a sport for the first time, the coach maybe more enthusiastic that the young athlete, or at least than the athlete shows. However at the end of the season or as their time playing develops, the art of coaching is transferring this enthusiasm to the athlete for the experience to be a success. Too many times coaches have done the opposite. Unfortunately, so have parents, and this would be a topic for another day.
Coaching in youth sport requires multiple hats to worn. A strong coach is today’s version of super hero. A bad coach, today’s version of villain. Despite all the responsibilities a strong coach never, ever forgets the principles and skill required to make the experience positive. The above 5 tips will hopefully help in keeping the main thing the main thing.