Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, the end of many regular fall sport seasons, and the beginnings of the playoffs. It also marks the time that coaches, particularly those who have just ended a season, take stock of their accomplishments and evaluate their performances. Whether your team performed beyond expectations or you lost all of your games/matches, it is important to look beyond the wins and losses when evaluating your performance. Just as great athletes set goals other than “winning” to evaluate their performances, coaches need to identify the behaviors associated with being a great coach and then evaluate themselves on those dimensions.
So what are some of the behaviors associated with great coaching? Sport psychologist, Dr. Sean McCann, asked Olympic coaches what it took to be a great coach. Here are a few of their answers:
1. Plan, plan, plan – be prepared in ALL areas
2. Be consistent, reliable, positive and dependable – with your athletes, assistants, in everything you do
3. Be creative, innovative and adaptable – be able and willing to change your plans to overcomes obstacles in training or competitions
4. Work your system, but motivate the individual – care about your athletes and learn what motivates each one to be his/her best
5. Be stable, confident and organized – be a role model for everyone who works with and for you.
6. Be a student of your sport – always be willing to learn
7. Keep your sense of humor – being a coach and preparing for competition is serious, but having fun while doing it can benefit everyone
What other behaviors might you add to this list? Think of 3-5 other behaviors that are key to being successful in your sport and, with these lists in mind, honestly grade your performance as a coach. You also might have one of your colleagues grade you as well so you can get some objective feedback on your performance. From this evaluation, you can determine the areas in which you are doing well and the behaviors you may want to change in the upcoming year.
At the Center for Sport Psychology and Performance Excellence, we have a trained staff of sport psychology consultants who are more than willing to assist coaches in improving their performances, and help them reach their goals. For more information on how we can assist you, your team or athletes this season or off-season, please contact us at 940-369-7767 or sportpsych@unt.edu or visit us at
www.sportpsych.unt.edu.
As always, we leave you with our sport quote of the week:
“Winning isn’t everything, but striving to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
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