Observation of a Track and Field Coach
I chose to observe the practices at State College for Track and Field. I primarily focused on the distance team with John as the coach. When I arrived at the first practice I observed Coach John talking to the team at the beginning of their practice. He was going over what they should focus on during their first track meet, which was coming up. His positive attitude stood out the most. He put his emphasize on having fun. He stressed the importance that they work as hard as they can to achieve their best performance but his final words were, "Have fun!" I started to realize what he stressed most for his team and that was to achieve the goals they set for themselves.
For both practices I attended the athletes started out with a warm-up run. They then met as a group and had the team captain lead in their stretches. I noticed strong team cohesion as they stretched talking about their activities from the previous weekend and the work out that they were going to have. After the stretching Coach gathered them together to explain the workout (both days a speed workout). As he explained he made sure each of the team members understood the exact instructions for the speed drills. One of the athletes had a question and he patiently answered it and encouraged more questions to make sure the team knew the exact workout. He had the lone male distance runner do 2 sets of 4x200 meter sprints on the track. He had the women's distance team go out to the pond's to run a 20-minute fartlek in which they ran a minute hard and a minute easy. I observed the male distance runner and when he finished his second set of 200's, Coach suggested he run one more set of 200's. Chris was tired and was he...
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...en a coach and a friend and he recognizes that there needs to be a level of respect from the athletes.
Reflecting on my interview with Coach comparing and contrasting his stated philosophy on coaching and what I have observed from practices and meets I saw that his goals as a coach are being met at practices and his interactions with his team. He knows what he wants to get out of his coaching experience and he achieves that by working hard at demanding respect and hard work from his team while still ensuring that they have fun.
From what I have observed from Coach it seems as if he has taken this class. He knows so much about performance strategies as well as athlete motivation techniques and coach and athlete issues such as respect, safety, and personal relationships. Overall I was very impressed with Coachs coaching strategy, and his team performance.
This constitutes the single largest barrier to successful coaching. Common barriers to
... and motivation to prepare athletes for competitive events and gain strength to get back to competing. Many times, they will conduct training camps, skill improvement courses, clinics, preseason workouts and tryouts, and training programs based on teams and individuals in specific sports.
As I have asserted, coaching is far more than winning or losing. A coach is an essential cog in shaping qualities such as sportsmanship, competitiveness, self discipline, and work ethic. A quality coach can build a player up while a bad coach can tear them down. My goal as a coach was to always leave the player striving to be the best they could be. A good coach
However, this is not really a direct correlation to the coach’s effectiveness in a particular sport, being that there are many other factors in coaching a team other than game records. The coach’s job is to enhance the athlete physically, socially, and psychologically, winning is only considered a by-product of that job (Gillham, Burton, & Gillham, 2013). Gillham, Burton, and Gillham (2013) focused on developing a Coaching Success Questionnaire-2 to allow a means of evaluating other aspects of a coach’s interaction with their athletes as both a research and coach development tool. A sample group of athletes at the varsity and club level ranging from ages 18 to 25 was used to develop the questionnaire by asking their perceptions of their coaches.
Gray Collins also focuses on how to evaluate coaching potential. The evaluation form is mending to help potential coach to make a decision on the possible success of a coaching relationship. A coac...
The effectiveness of the coaching method depends completely on the coach, his personality, and the needs of the student-athletes. Each program and institution is unique and has different institutional goals and objectives that attract different student-athletes compared to other colleges or universities (Koivula, Hassmen, Fallby, 2002).
The emotion is intense. Everyone in the gym is on the edge of his or her seat. Time is expiring as the final shot for the win sails through the air. The buzzer sounds… Athletics are a critical element of high school lives--whether it be playing for or supporting one’s team. In order to accomplish success in a season, these supporting individuals are forced to rely on a select few of premier athletes. From day one of tryouts, these athletes are crafted and molded based on their hard work as well as their ability to play in accordance with the coach’s style. At a varsity level, where victory has his or her job on the line, coaches should not be required to play every member of the team equally.
...ng basketball, that the reason he sticks firm to his own values for coaching his team. He never deviated from his values and remains firm with his expectations from his team. Evan when everyone was against his decision when he locked up the gym because he stand up for what he believe best for his team. If one fails, everyone fails. If one doesn’t show up to train or didn’t show up on time then everyone suffers. He made everyone accountable for each other’s and this makes them understand that teamwork is important for making things easier and quicker to reach the goal in life that they cannot reach that goal by trying on their own. The positive attitude towards his team and remain focused to achieve his aim of transforming the team to having a successful carrier or future not only in basketball also in studies, and therefore remain consistent in his leadership style.
Growing up I was extremely blessed having an incredible coach at every level of sport I participated in. From those experiences I know how much a coach can make a difference in your life. For that reason my dream job is coaching college basketball at any division. It does not matter to me what level, because kids at the D-3 level need just as much guidance and help as student athletes at the D-1 level. During my coaching career I hope to blend two leadership styles in particular together in order to make my athletes better men, but also to keep the game they love fun to play. I feel by taking the Charismatic Leadership style’s enthusiasm and loyalty and mixing it with a Transformational Leaders innovation and emphasis on change, I can be an extremely effective and power leader for my student athletes.
Coaching, however challenging, is a great way to influence the lives of others while also building their character. For as long as there have been sports, there have been people teaching the sport to the players and making them better at it. Coaches must have certain qualities in order to obtain success. One must also look at a coach’s motivation for his job, his passion for what he does, his methods for coaching, and how he became a coach in order to fully understand him. There are many questions someone may want to ask a coach about his profession if they are interested in coaching.
“A coach is someone who is equipped to aid individuals or groups and organisations to maximise their performance in pursuit of their desired goals.” (Dexter et al, (2011) p.4)
The start of the 2002 track season found me concerned with how I would perform. After a disastrous bout with mononucleosis ended my freshmen track season, the fear of failure weighed heavily on my mind. I set a goal for myself in order to maintain focus and to push myself like nothing else would. My goal for my sophomore track season was to become a state champion in the 100 meter hurdles. I worked hard everyday at practice and went the extra mile, like running every Sunday, to be just that much closer to reaching my goal. The thought of standing highest on the podium in the center of the field, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, overcame my thoughts of complaining every time we had a hard workout. When I closed my eyes, I pictured myself waiting in anticipation as other competitors names were called out, one by one, until finally, the booming voice announced over the loudspeaker, "...and in first place, your 2002 100 meter hurdle champion, from Hotchkiss, Connie Dawson." It was visions like these that drove me to work harder everyday.
Flaherty, J. (2011). Coaching: Evoking excellence in others (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Another concept I have learned from my participation in running is teamwork. No matter how hard we try, we cannot live our lives without others' help or without helping others. We must work together to succeed on the road ahead. This is the essence of teamwork. I know that even my personal success in cross-country and track is not solely mine. I know that my three district titles, one in cross country and two in track, in the 800 meter and 1600 meter runs, could not have been accomplished without my team's unequivocal support and for that, I thank them.
“People are remarkably bad at remembering long lists of goals. One may have learned this at a professional level when trying to get my high-performance coaching clients to stay on track; the longer their lists of to-dos and goals, the more overwhelmed and off-track they got. Clarity comes with simplicity.” As a child he always looked at being able to play or coach a sport at the professional level. For the reason of me just loving the game of Basketball. Also i know it will make an impact on lives because people look up to you and the money in make will give back to communities and change lives around you. The career of a Professional Coach is a challenging and fun career,because of the level of competition and it’s a dream job. The research will describe the career of