George - Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference

George Selleck, Ph.D., M.Div., M.A.

2007 Coaches Choice. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Coaches Choice. Throughout this book, the masculine shall be deemed to include the feminine and vice versa.

ISBN: 978-1-58518-009-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006938220
Cover design: Roger W. Rybkowski
Book layout: Bean Creek Studio

Coaches Choice

P.O. Box 1828
Monterey, CA 93942
www.coacheschoice.com

To my wonderful partner and wife, Barbara, professor of early childhood education, whose love and companionship nourishes my life far beyond what words can express.

My deepest appreciation to the following people who contributed, directly or indirectly, to this book: my youth and school coaches, George Shorty Kellogg and Ed Moore, who helped me more than they will ever know; my teammates, for their friendship and support; and my college classmates for their continued inspiration and encouragement. Special thanks to Tom Danley, Anaheim Unified High School District Athletic Director, who has provided opportunity and support for my work over the years, and Jim Peterson, publisher of Coaches Choice/Healthy Learning, whose vision and commitment to sport is exemplary. A very special thanks to Wendy Fayles for her editorial excellence and creativity.

Whether you are a new or experienced coach, Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference is designed to be a resource that can help you improve your coaching effectiveness and help you become the kind of coach who makes a positive, lasting impact on the young men and women with whom you are working. Based on the premise that sport has real consequences, real merit, and real potential, this book offers coaches at all competitive levels a roadmap for successeasy-to-understand, easy-to-use, and easy-to-apply advice and guidelines on how coaches can truly make a difference.

Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference is designed to be a companion text to the coaching education program, Coaching for a Solid Foundation, that helps coaches meet basic coaching certification requirements. Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference provides targeted, up-to-date information on such essential coaching fundamentals as:

Developing and maintaining your coaching philosophy

Understanding how your athletes learn

Communicating with and motivating your athletes

Effectively teaching sports and life skills

Designing fitness and training programs specifically geared toward the needs of your athletes

Building a cohesive team

Effectively managing your time, your team, and yourself

In addition, Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference also features insightful and expanded information on other critical elements of coaching success, including:

How to turn prickly parents into eager allies

How to power up your practices

How to avoid coaching pitfalls that can trap even the most knowledgeable coach

How to create a vibrant, vital team community

Without question, coaching demands a lot of time. As such, Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference is designed to provide you with what you need to know without having to wade through exhausting amounts of information. Featuring a simple, easy-to-use format, this book offers bite-size chunks of information in an engaging style; furthermore, the sections in the book are organized to allow you to quickly find what you are looking for when you want it. Finally, blank pages are included at the end of each chapter to give you extra space to note down your own insights and ideas.

With Coach Sense: Coaching to Make a Difference, not only will you improve your coaching proficiency, you will also set your feet firmly on the path to becoming a coach who makes a difference. As you have probably noticed, the sports world is currently replete with countless examples of athletes, coaches, parents and fans who exhibit poor, dispicable behavior. Sadly, too many people try to rationalize such behavior as merely an inevitable reflection of what is happening in society.

In one sense, their misguided rationale may be somewhat logical. On the other hand, sport doesnt have to be this way. Sport has the potential to be a beacon for society, not just another example of its failures and weaknesses. Such a change, however, cannot occur in a vacuum. It takes individuals who arent afraid to stand up to the status quo. It takes coaches who get into coaching not just for something to do, but rather to do somethingto help kids grow and develop, to help bring people together, and to help strengthen families and communities.

A recent article in a national magazine carried the following alarming statement: Across the country, millions of children are being chewed up and spit out by a sports culture run amok. With pro scouts haunting the nations playgrounds in search of the next LeBron or Freddy, parents and coaches are conspiring to run youth-sports leagues like incubators for future professional athletes. Prepubescent athletes are experimenting with performance enhancing drugs. Doctors are reporting sharp spikes in injuries caused by year-round specialization in a single sport at an early age. And all too often, the simple pleasure of playing sports is being buried beneath cutthroat competition.There is a terrible imbalance between the needs the kids have and the needs of the adults running their sports programs, says Dr. Bruce Svare, director of the National Institute for Sports Reform. Above all, kids need to have fun. Instead, adults are providing unrealistic expectations and crushing pressure. (Whos Killing Kids Sports? Parade