Unit 5: Sports Coaching

Roles and responsibilities of a sports coach

Sports coaches are vital to the success of a number of programmes across a range of sports. They are at the heart of participation and performer development; whether they coach an after-school club or are a top international coach with support staff.At the end of this module you should:•understand the role, responsibilities and skills of a coach•understand the techniques used by coaches to improve the performance of athletes•be able to plan a coaching session•be able to deliver a coaching session.

The role of the coach

• A role can be defined as: - the list of jobs that a coach needs perform. They may need to adopt a variety of roles when coaching to include; a manager, trainer, role model, group control etc...

• Effective coaches tend to find new ways of improving existing practices or theories

• Performers who work with innovative coaches speak about how they are never bored and always trying something new.

• What roles do coaches have?

Roles of a coach

Trainer, educator and instructor

Role model

MotivatorFriend

Manager

Design a poster• Students are divided into small groups of 3 or 4. Each group has a

particular theme or topic to learn about using resources and/or through their own research. Each group member must take on a separate role (i.e. drawer, researcher and thinking).

• Students must design a poster. The aim of the poster is to present the information of the topic that the students have researched. Each poster must have only – A maximum of 10 words – Pictures (to represent words) – Symbols and numbers

Learning marketplace activity 1

Group tasks

• Group 1: Trainer, educator & instructor ( fatou, paul seb)• Group 2: Motivator (Gail, Hayden, Kyhri) • Group 3: Role Model (Albert, Marlon)• Group 4 : Manager (ferrao, klausen)• Group 5; friend (Jordan, marcel )

10 minutes for the task – important that you use your time wisely, be concise and get to the point

Task 1.2: Present your poster & feedback

• One student from the group then stays behind to explain their theory to other students

• Without the main notes (just the poster with your key information)

• Remaining students ‘visit’ each of the other tables to learn about their theories, whilst taking a notes of what they are learning about.

• The researchers then return to their original group and feedback what they have learnt until all the theories have been covered.

Trainer, educator and instructor• The difference between a teacher, educator and instructor is

hard to distinguish. Teaching implies a transfer of learning through demonstration, modelling or instruction. Coaches can also teach emotional and social skills.

• Young performers in particular can be encouraged to increase their social awareness, learn to cope with losing and winning, and develop self-confidence.

• Good coaches will be aware that people learn in different ways. They then adapt and use a range of techniques to ensure that learning takes place.

• A sound knowledge of anatomy and physiology and fitness theory is essential for coaches. In the role of trainer, you might be expected to design and implement training programmes for your performers.

Motivator

• Motivation can come merely by providing a stable environment in which to learn, in a positive and safe atmosphere. Performers who constantly find negativity are certain at some point to become despondent and suffer a reduction in self-confidence and improvement.

• Evidence suggests that performers who receive praise and positive feedback are likely to get more from their performances. When providing feedback to performers you would employ the following techniques: KISS, KICK, KISS.

• When communicating with performers, the emphasis with this technique would be to start your feedback with a positive comment. Second, a corrective comment can be presented in as positive a manner as possible. Finally, leave the interaction with a positive comment and possible an action plan

• KISS - 'Good positioning prior to the shot and you watched the ball well'

• KICK - 'You should consider your upper body positioning when connecting with the ball, you should ensure that you follow through your shot'

• KISS - 'If you practice these changes, you will almost certainly improve'.

Role model

• In almost every coaching situation players will look mostly, if not entirely, to the coach as their source of inspiration and knowledge, never more so than when working with children. Children often imitate the behaviour and manner of their coach. For this reason it is vital that coaching is safe and responsible, and that behaviour is considered good practice. The coach can influence player development in a number of ways.

• Social• Personal• Psychological• Health• Performance

Friend

• Coaches will inevitably end up spending a lot of time with their performers, it is therefore very important that a friendly and respectful environment is created. As performers and coaches may go through many positive and negatives situations together, if the coach can act as a 'friend' it may make the performer more likely to discuss any issues/ideas with them.

• Acting as a friend may be more motivational to the performer too. The stronger with coach/friend relationship the more likely the coach is to understand why the performer takes part in sport and what factors affect their motivation.

Manager• The role of a manager is not necessarily as simple as managing the

players during coaching sessions. It could involve managing training programmes and a number of administrative tasks such as the accounts, club subscriptions, health and safety documents etc...

• The main role of the manager is to often pick the team for competition, however in high level performance it is likely there will be other people such as specialist coaches and support staff that can work it.

• Managers should always be striving to get the best ability out of the players, ensuring all training programmes are tailored to the individual and extra support is provided where needed, to help optimal performance to be achieved.

• They should have a range of skills, to enable them to do this. To include excellent leadership and the ability to delegate roles and responsibilities to others working on the same team. This is turn will affect the success of a manager

Responsibilities of a coach

Professional standards

Legal obligations

Personal standards

Child protection

Health and safety

A responsibility can be defined as: - the things a coach must consider in order to carry out their role effectively.

Group task

• You will be split into 4 groups with each group covering a responsibility of a coach

• Professional conduct • Legal obligations • Child protection • Health and safety

Professional conduct

• Coaches should demonstrate model behaviour at all times. Their influence should always be positive and would usually mean working to a code. They must act in the most ethical and professional manner, showing a degree of honest, integrity and competence. They should be considerate of all individual needs and do their best to accommodate for everyone.

• It is not enough to achieve a coaching qualification. Coaches should have a commitment to continual and on-going learning or professional development. This could include:

• Attaining higher-grade qualifications• Attending workshops and seminars• Being aware of changes to their sport.

Legal Obligations

• All coaches need to be aware of their legal responsibilities. We are all governed by laws in every day life and there are also many extra laws governing our actions and professional conduct on the field of play.

• A coach must be aware of what is and what is not allowed in their sport, and also how the laws can affect their coaching practice

Child protection

• Coaching will spend a lot of time working with children and young performers so are likely to develop a closer relationship, becoming maybe a parent figure or friend. Therefore they need to be aware of what is considered inappropriate contact or behaviour that may breach child protection guidelines.

• All coaches should undertake a Criminal records bureau (CRB) check, which goes through police records to see if any offences have been committed.

Health and safety • A good coach should do a full health and safety check of the

surroundings and participants before any activity starts. This can include checking for jewellery, appropriate clothing, ensuring participants are fit to take part e.g. not under the influence of alcohol/drugs.

• They should also perform a risk assessment to ensure there are no hazards around that may cause harm to the performers such as glass on the court. As well as these checks, coaches should also follow a safe training structure when delivering their sessions.

• These include having a warm up and cool down to make sure the body is fully prepared for activity to reduce the risk of injury. A cool down will also aim to return the body back to a resting state as quickly as possible to reduce the effect of muscle soreness etc...