Practical Sports Coaching

Christine Nash, Christine Nash

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000552966
• Edizione: 2
• Argomento: Biological Sciences
• Categoria: Sport & Exercise Science

Practical Sports Coaching is a thorough and engaging guide for all sports coaching students and practitioners. Drawing on real-life case studies and examples, the book is designed to develop practical coaching skills and provides readers with the methods and tools they need to become an expert coach. Structured around all facets of the coaching process, the text comprehensively covers topics such as: Preparing to Coach, the Role and Philosophy of Coaching, Coaching Environments and the use of Modern Technology in Coaching.

This new and fully updated edition includes several new chapters that examine new and critical research areas such as the Coaching Professional, Coach Wellness & Mental Health and Performance Analysis for Coaches.

The book's practical approach allows the reader to consider common challenges faced by coaches, suggesting solutions to performance concerns and preparing students for the realities of professional sports coaching. The contributors draw upon their practical coaching experience as well as an understanding of coach learning and development.

Practical Sports Coaching helps to bridge the gap between theory and practical coaching skills, and is an essential text for coaching students looking to deepen their understanding of sports coaching and experienced coaches developing their own practical skills.

Section I

DOI: 10.4324/9781003179733-1

The book structure is designed to help sport coaches develop their practical sport coaching. Chapters in Section I are intended to address issues that coaches may face in the non-intervention phase of coaching.

The authors believe that these are the most important chapters to consider as part of the pre-coaching process. Coaches at every level and sport should consider aspects of planning and philosophy and how that relates to their role as a coach. The benefits of a coaching philosophy can be evaluated by long-term coaching effectiveness and are a key component in becoming a professional in sport coaching. Understanding how your team or individuals need to compete provides a clearer picture of how to structure sessions and the content to include in a season. This demonstrates the necessity for planning, allowing for flexibility depending on the immediate needs of performers. As a result, the role of the coach in this process becomes clearer as do the goals pursued by teams and individuals.

1 The role of the coach

Kristen Dieffenbach and Melissa Thompson

DOI: 10.4324/9781003179733-2

Not only is sport a major part of modern culture, historical artifacts and accounts demonstrate sport has been interwoven throughout human history. While foot races are probably the oldest sport on record, cave drawings of wrestlers have been dated back to 3000 BC (Šiljak, 2016), and early Mesopotamian cultural artifacts depict boxing matches. Sport has been used as preparation for war, for recreation, to promote health and well-being, and as a source of entertainment. While the origins of sport may seem like interesting stories in history books, the importance of how we play and engage in sport has influenced and been influenced by culture should be acknowledged. It is also essential to recognize that sport is always changing. New sports emerge, like snowboarding, reflecting innovation in equipment and generational changes. Game rules are adjusted regularly to adapt to changes in play and how we participate as athletes and consumers like basketball’s three-point rule and the inclusion of TV time-outs into many modern professional sports. Recognizing that sport is not static is essential for understanding not only sport itself but how athletes are best prepared and supported and the profession of sport coaching. To be effective in their field, individuals who coach need to understand how their own sport has evolved to best understand how to prepare athletes for the game today and for the game tomorrow. As the demands of the games continue to change, so do the requirements and expectations of the professional sport coach.

This chapter will explore the foundation of sport coaching, the modern definition of sport coaching, and the essential roles and responsibilities of professionals who coach.

A Brief History of Sports and Sport Coaching

The evolution of modern sports began in the 1760s and picked up steam in the 1800s as the industrial revolution’s global transformation of how we lived and worked took hold through Europe and America. Table 1.1 provides a snapshot of the ‘modern’ sport timeline. The scientific breakthroughs of the time changed machinery designs, power sources, medicine, and manufacturing processes, and this time has been credited as a pivotal moment in human history. This evolution led to major shifts in public policies on universal health care, schooling, and the suffrage or women’s rights movements in many countries. These changes influenced how and where we worked, how we played, and who was allowed to play as people moved into cities and industry leaders began to provide support for recreation and sporting activities for their work forces. Legislation and changing attitudes about children’s rights and education, as well as concerns over their development, led to scholastic and club sport programming that provided guidance and a foundation for youth sport programs. The expansion of roads, the popularization of the bicycle and then the automobile, and the introduction of trains facilitated easier, faster travel and increased mobility, expanding access to sporting events as entertainment along the way. As the ‘science of sport’ had not yet begun to emerge, early sport coaches often functioned more as managers. Any formal training was largely based on handed-down ideas although new ideas and practices shaped by modern scientific and medical practices were slowly beginning to influence both general health practices and sport training. Some aspects of training, like the evolution of gymnastics in Germany (Pfister, 2009), were positive while others, like the use of strychnine and arsenic for performance (both well-understood poisons now) enhancement in both racehorses and humans (Dimeo, 2007), were not. Regardless, the role of the coach or trainer as an essential support to athlete performance was beginning to emerge.

Table 1.1 A sample timeline of modern sport

776 BC-393 AD Ancient Olympic Games

1715 First modern rowing race

1866 First modern track and field championships

1877 First Wimbledon Tournament

1896 First modern Olympic Games

1852 First intercollegiate rowing race

1902 First professional ice hockey game

1930 First men's FIFA World Cup soccer game

1930 First Commonwealth Games held in Canada

1939 First Final Four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's basketball tournament

1903 First Tour de France

1960 First Paralympic Games

1967 First American Football Superbowl

1968 First World Special Olympic Games

1982 First Final Four NCAA women's basketball tournament

1991 First women's FIFA World Cup soccer game

1995 First X-Games

2014 First Invictus Games

As sports moved from pastime to profession, the roles and responsibilities of those participating changed as well. In the early days of modern sports, adult participation in some sports, such as rowing, swimming, tennis, and golf, was often afforded only to those with the leisure time, resources, and appropriate social status. In other sports, like athletics, soccer, American football, boxing, and baseball, adult participation and competitive opportunities were more accessible to a wider range of people, with many sports gaining a working-class reputation and popularity. While opportunities for intercompany competition existed (for example, factory leagues), few athletes were financially compensated. During the early years of many professional sport organizations, athletes had primary or secondary jobs to make a living wage. The coaches of these teams and athletes continued to function primarily as competition schedulers and managers. Rugby League, beginning in mining areas, broke away from Rugby Union in England, Australia, and New Zealand and implemented payment for all players (Fagan, n.d.).

For children worldwide, and throughout time, participating in play and games is an essential part of human development. Adult-led sport and recreation experiences began to expand through in- and after-school programming associated with the changing cultural expectations about youth education, concerns about youth fitness, and laws against child labor that left many children unsupervised outside of school hours while parents worked. In New York City, after-school sport programs were created to keep youth off the streets, out of trouble, and physically active to address these concerns. In response to the growing demand for such programs, a demand for teacher-training in physical education grew. Depending on the location, youth-based recreational activity programs grew in schools, in community clubs, and as private businesses. The evolution of the adult-driven and defined competitive youth sport model moved into high gear as the global appetite for adult, mostly male, sports for entertainment grew after World War II. This trend continued into the mid- to late 1900s, fueled by the expanding popularity of first radio and then television coverage of professional games.

Culturally, as the entertainment value of sports led to skyrocketing salaries, collegiate educational opportunities, and global ‘Hollywood star’ status, youth sport has been increasingly commercialized and monetized into a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide. Fortunately, supported by growing research on holistic youth development best practices in the late 1900s and early 2000s, youth sport opportunities are increasingly being valued for the contribution they can make to a healthy childhood, supporting positive youth development, physical literacy, and the foundation of healthy lifestyle habits (sportscotland, 2019). Unfortunately, despite the mounting evidence that supports the value and importance of youth participation in well-designed physical activity and sport programs, the requirements and expectations for coach preparation have not always kept pace.

Landscape of Modern Sports and Coaching

As the global obsession with sports continued to grow, the lines between amateurism and professionalism continued to blur. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee officially began allowing professional athletes to compete, increasing the opportunities and incentives for peak performance. In 2021, the NCAA, the organization that governs and supports collegiate sports in the United States, ruled college student athletes can receive compensation for their NIL (name, image, likeness), further shifting the amateur/professional conversation. As sport opportunities, sponsorships, and salaries have grown for athletes, so too have the opportunities for coaching across all levels of sport.

While the first Little League World Series baseball game was played in 1947, most youth sport opportunities were low-key and local until the 1980s. The growing profile of collegiate sports in the United States and the perceived opportunities for scholarships, as well as a growing global commercialization culture, drove a boom in youth sport programming that reached $24.9 billion annually in 2019 according to a report from Wintergreen Research, Inc (2021). Initially centered in local clubs, YMCAs and municipality recreation departments, independent nonprofit and for-profit organizations began offering sports training programs, and a thriving youth sport travel industry was born. Although most youth sport programs are still reliant on volunteers for both program administration and coaching, there is a growing movement to create better support and training for youth and developmental sport coaches (Lauer & Dieffenbach, 2013) as well as an increase in overall support for the professionalization of the coaching field (Dieffenbach, 2019; Duffy et al., 2011) (see Chapter 4).

Often overlooked is the growth of opportunities for a mature adult participation supported by the aerobics boom of the late 1970s that led to the birth of a fitness industry aimed at the ‘everyday person’. Aerobics classes, running races, triathlons, and fitness-friendly gyms that catered to working out over training skyrocketed in popularity. This launched an industry of fitness trainers and sport coaches marketing thei...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• About the contributors
• Preface
• Section I
• Section II
• Section III
• Section IV
• Section V
• Index