SA School Sports

In the last 3 articles, I have offered a framework with clarifying questions that you can use to document a personal Coaching Philosophy.

The four pillars of the framework are:

1. Know Yourself
2. Know culture you want to build
3. 3.Know your context and your environment
4. 4.Know your athletes and your team

As you start finalising your coaching philosophy, I want to challenge you to consider what true success is? I do realise that many of you are coaching in a highly professional environment and that your job is on the line if you don’t bring home the trophies however it is important to pause and ponder and make sure that you don’t define an athlete or a team by one bad moment or a poor season. Imagine if the whole of life was measured like this?

Life isn’t measured this way – there are second chances and new beginnings. People can bounce back from a divorce or bankruptcy. I would like to suggest to you that if your players discern that you care about them on and off the field, their on field performance might go to a new level. Martina Navratilova, the woman who redefined women’s tennis said that she learnt more from a defeat than victory. Nikki Hudson former captain of the Aussie Women’s Field Hockey team played in 3 Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games and three World Cups, collecting 4 gold medals along the way. Her career highlight was a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she was the tournament’s leading goal scorer. She was asked:

Having been a world-­‐-­‐-­‐class athlete, how do you measure your success?

“Success is more about how you develop as a player and as a person on and off the field. It is more than just winning trophies and medals, because unfortunately no matter how well you play in a tournament, sometimes the factors are against you and you don’t always win. It doesn’t mean you are not successful. In a team environment, particularly at the highest levels, measurement of success tends to revolve around the team – how the team is performing – and sometimes the individuals forget to look at their own achievements and successes. You perfect a skill or role in your team but then forget to celebrate those small wins.

I restate that the topic of winning and success is a delicate and potentially highly inflammable one, however as coaches we are compelled to acknowledge that our                         mentorship spans beyond the field. Sports are the theatre of life! We are entrusted with young people who will retire from sport and go on to lead families and companies and possibly play a role in government. Are you a limited scope-­‐-­‐-­‐coach who is just prepping people for a game, a moment in time, or are you carrying a bigger picture in your brag book and preparing people for life? We coach a generation that is predominantly fatherless and not as connected to the nuclear family as previous generations were. As coaches we become surrogates and start assuming these foundational roles in people’s lives.

Brian Mackenzie a leading UK coach says, “In my opinion, every coaching philosophy should have a major statement on how the coach views the results of both training and competition. I cannot stress enough the importance of educating athletes that it is more important to focus on their process of development and how they performed in   competition rather than the results or outcomes that they achieved. In a race or game there can be only one winner. Does that mean everyone else is a loser? If you read the newspapers that is what you would think. Therefore, to build confidence and see measurable progress and to learn positively from mistakes made I urge all coaches to focus on the process and not the outcomes with their athletes. It is important for the athletes to do the same.”

I have listed many prompt questions, but they have been included to get you to try and think about every aspect of your personality, beliefs and approach to coaching. Start clustering your answers into different themes and summarizing your approach. I have included an example of a coaching philosophy to help guide you in the process.

Example of a Coaching Philosophy taken from the AFL Level One Coaching Manual. Introduction

My coaching philosophy revolves around my firm belief that I am privileged to help my players develop and grow as individuals – not only in Australian Football, but as people.

How I wish to be remembered as a coach

I would like to be remembered as having a significant impact on the quality of life of these players.

My Role: teaching and training

I coach at this senior level to educate people to appreciate the game of Australian Football as being one of the most skillful games in the world. Since the game is based on players solving problems and making decisions all over the ground, my training is based on increasing the players’ understanding of the game by teaching team rules