Last month, I suggested one way that a youth organization could raise the funds to pay someone to nurture, develop, assist and train volunteer coaches. I speak to organizations on a regular basis, and most acknowledge a need to offer coaches more assistance, but then they rattle off the excuses as to why they cannot improve the coaching in their organization. Read the rest of this entry »
Youth Leagues: Director of Coaching Development
September 27th, 2011How do we show our values in youth sports?
August 29th, 2011Every time that I speak to a youth organization, they emphasize the constraints that they face to improve the coaching in their organization. The two primary constraints are finances and volunteer coaches. These seem to be fate de complis for youth organizations. Read the rest of this entry »
Is coach education important to improve basketball development?
August 25th, 2011A fraction of coaches are insulted any time that anyone (me) suggests that changes are necessary to improve the basketball system or environment, especially when one of those necessary changes is more coach education. Coaches argue that great coaches like Bob Hurley demonstrate that there are plenty of great coaches, yet conveniently ignore coaches like Joe Keller who illustrate exactly why reform is necessary. Read the rest of this entry »
ACL Injury Epidemic – The Solution Starts with Coach Education & a Change away from Peak by Friday Mindset
July 15th, 2011ACL injuries have become a politicized issue, as evidenced by Wendy Parker’s latest column. While pundits and activists battle, the larger issue is muddied: the rhetoric has no effect on changing the epidemic of injuries. Rather than writing about rehabilitation or prevention programs, the injury issue creates a gender war.
The epidemic boils down to two issues: (1) Lack of education and dissemination of information to coaches and (2) the Peak by Friday mentality. Read the rest of this entry »
Impressions of Coaching
May 19th, 2011I am in the midst of teaching “Introduction to Coaching” as an online course this summer. I started the class by showing this video. I thought some of the responses to the video are revealing, as they are the impressions of college students who are not too far removed from their playing days. Read the rest of this entry »
Feedback for Teachers and Coaches
April 13th, 2011Last week, I did a presentation on teacher feedback, but I used coaching concepts and an article by Ronald Gallimore and Roland Tharp titled “What a Coach Can Teach a Teacher, 1975-2004: Reflections and Reanalysis of John Wooden’s Teaching Practices.”
Here are the slides for the presentation: Read the rest of this entry »
Becoming a Coach
April 8th, 2011A good video form Ontario on becoming a coach, reasons for certification and a coach’s purpose: Read the rest of this entry »
Good Coaches, Bad Coaches
March 2nd, 2011The February 2011 Spirit magazine features an article by Bob Sutton, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss who highlights five ways to be a good boss. While coaching is and is not like being a boss, the five concepts offer good advice to coaches:
- Protect your People
- Throw out Bad Apples
- Mind the Spotlight
- Get out of the Way
- Fight Fair Read the rest of this entry »
Coaching by the Book
February 28th, 2011The March 2011 Wired features an article title “Mad Science” about former Microsoft CTO and current cookbook author Nathan Myhrvold. In the article Myhrvold says:
“If all you want to do is follow recipes, you don’t need insights…if you want to do new things, you have to understand what the hell you’re doing.” Read the rest of this entry »
Assessing your Coaching
February 1st, 2011Last week, I videotaped a lecture that I gave to my Intermediate Weightlifting class to use for an assignment for an Education class on college teaching. I had to watch my teaching, use a self-evaluation form and write about the experience.
Simply looking at the self-evaluation form reminded me of several things that I like about other coaches that I often forget to do myself: Read the rest of this entry »