Coaching Case

My coaching philosophy is very basic and straight forward that has to do with my morals and values. When it comes to coaching I think there is a right or wrong approach event though every coach handles situations differently. I will go over my philosophy that I believe in. The first aspect of my coaching philosophy that I want to explain about first is the definition of what is a coach, by definition a coach in sport terms is "A person who trains an athlete or a team of athletes" I think a coach is more then that it should mean a person who outlines their expectations for there athletes to succeed and learn great values and beliefs. Also, they should strive to maximize the positive benefits of sport participation for their athletes.

For me as a coach, I understand that I should let my athletes know from the start what I expect of their behavior, athletic ability, and morals in order to fulfill the maximum standards. These expectations will reflect to my athletes that I demand they will learn respect for the game, respect for people, respect for their opponent, hard work , and practicing good ethics. Good ethics includes good sportsmanship, fair play, and respectable behavior on and off the playing surface. If my players don't want to take responsibility for them selves outside of athletics then they will be disciplined or removed from the team no questions asked. The most important aspect of them being apart of my team is that they will have to maintain good grades and they need to keep themselves out of trouble, especially with schoolteacher and the law. At the same time outside of the classroom my efforts as a coach I hope to teach the value of hard work and responsibility in my athletes.

I want them to walk away from athletics knowing that hard work and responsibility is important not just in athletics, but also in school and at their jobs.

My old high school coach, Stephen Everette who was a huge part of my life in the sport of football and apart of my college choice taught me that, "A Coach should identify, model, and teach positive values learned through sport participation that will help you later in life." This means that as a coach I focus on teaching and demonstrating positive values gained through participation in athletics. I should also focus on demonstrating these values that should be applied outside of athletics too. In order to make these values possible, I must set a good example for my athletes first and foremost.

I must teach them the value of a hard work ethic that can be gained through athletics. A hard work ethic will be a huge valuable tool for them to obtain in the future when they begin their college career or enter the working world. Another value that I plan to demonstrate to my athletes is that although winning is a goal worth reaching, losing can be a positive experience. I feel you need to learn how to lose before you can win because losing provides us with an opportunity to grow and improve. Also why losing is a good experience is because it helps you fall back to earth and see where you are as a team.

The last value and very important that I want to demonstrate to my athletes is the value of problem solving and teamwork. By teaching my athletes problem solving and teamwork abilities, my athletes will learn what brotherhood and it is like to work together with another person to obtain the same goal. At the same time, it will help them to respect each other and mature faster.

An aspect of my coaching philosophy that is a personal aspect of myself is building a trust with my athletes which means that as a coach I need to create a meaningful learning experience for my athletes based on what I know about them individually and as a team and the only way to do that is with trust if there is no trust between me and my athletes then there is no respect.

To be able to have these standards, I need to learn about my athlete's strengths and weakness on the field and off the field. I should learn about their hobbies, interests, home-life and by receive all this information by doing my best and trying individually to meet the needs of all my athletes at a personal level. By doing this I create a positive environment in which my athletes absorb good values and a good work ethics.

My last aspect of my coaching philosophy that I would like to touch is evaluating how am I doing as a coach? If I were to be evaluated as a coach what would my peers say honestly about me? To tackle these questions, I simply have to constantly evaluate the effects of my decisions and actions on my athletes, the parents, the administration employing me, and the community. I need to always remember to handle myself in a positive way on and off the field. As a coach I always want to demonstrate to my players my work ethic, my values, and good decision-making. I need to, and will, set good examples on and off the field. Not in any way do I want to embarrass my team, my employer, or the parents and the community I'm involved in. Also, in order to evaluate myself, I will constantly ask for feedback from my athletes, co-workers, employer, the parents and the community. I would love to hear feedback so that I could improve on my coaching skills and provide my athletes with the best environment and as many benefits as possible.

I had a conversation with my old head coach, Stephen Everette just recently when he came to my last football scrimmage as a Wolverine against Widener University and I explained to him about this coaching philosophy paper I was writing to see how I might improve my philosophy I asked him some basic questions.

The first question I asked Coach Everette was, "How do you define and rank these 3 main objectives of sports participation? Fun, Development of Athletes, and Winning. Also, what is the importance of these 3 objectives to you as a head coach?"

"The order that I rank the objectives is Fun, Development of the STUDENT/Athlete, Winning. Hopefully my definitions and rationale will explain their importance. ‬

Fun: Is the essence of sports. Sports, almost all of them, come from kids' games. They are supposed to be fun. I think that that has been forgotten in our society. Parents start pushing their kids to be the starting quarterback or to make a certain travel team; in reality it is to earn a scholarship. Not realizing that it's a game. As young people get older sure it can help to give you opportunities.

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