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We're off and running on the winter sports season. If you've a
team, you're probably too busy to even be reading this, let alone
worrying about evaluations and such. But there's plenty to be done,
even at this busy time. On the other hand, if your sport is not
"in season," you can look over the information at your
leisure and give them a good critical think.
On the practical side, we'll take a look at some issues that can
help with some critical issues. Parents are always a "hot button"
with coaches. Keeping perspective is too. Both come in for
a look.
Remember to drop me a line with ideas or comments.
Mike
Clark
Coaching Section
Editor
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Many sports require the athlete to run. But most coaches don't
understand the process very well. "The
Art of Running" can help you in this area. It may be a
tough read, and it certainly would benefit from some video and/or
illustrations. But helpful nevertheless.
An interview
with the author of a new book, "Just Let the Kids Play"
can help with keeping things in perspective. The focus is on youth
sports, but scholastic sports come in for consideration as well.
The idea is to not allow things to get out of hand so early, so
quickly. Included are proposals for everyone involved in sports
to keep a lid on the ridiculousness that sometimes develops.
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Coaches often feel they are in an adversarial role when it comes
to parents. While there may be instances when that is the case,
much more often the issue is one of a lack of communication and
understanding.
One possible resource for both coaches and parents, and one that
may make life easier for both, is the Center
for Sports Parenting site. The stated goal is:
". . . One goal of the Center for Sports Parenting is to become
the national clearinghouse for
information on sports parenting, providing parents, coaches, educators,
administrators,
officials, referees, umpires, and all other individuals involved
in youth sports a single resource to find answers for their sport
parenting questions."
Included among the "Resources" section are looks at such
topics as: "A Story of Sports and Religion….Of Winning, Losing,
Sportsmanship and
Common Sense," "The Value of Winning and Losing,"
"Are Supplements necessary for my student-athlete?" and
"How do I get my child to eat breakfast?"
Check it out and share the info with your athletes' parents. Everyone
may come out a winner!
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An old favorite, but one that keeps adding new material! Sports
Coach provides excellent introductions to a wide variety of
issues important to coaches. And even if you've visited before,
hit the "Site Updates Page" and you'll find a detailed
chronological listing of what's new. For example a recent addition
is a good, short introductory look at "How Can I Stay Focused?"
(You can also get there by clicking on "Psychology" and
scrolling down.) Other recent additions include "VO2max from
Nonexercise Data," "Curl Up" and "Press Up"
tests of athletic performance, and "Skill Classification."
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An interesting thought for the times from the late Commissioner
of Baseball A. Bartlett Giamatti:
". . .The playing of the game is a restatement of the promises
that we can all be free, that we can all succeed.
"So games, contests, sports reiterate the purpose of freedom
every time they are enacted--the purpose being to show how to be
free and to be complete and connected, unimpeded and integrated,
all at once. That is the role of leisure. . ."
Words worth remembering--and applying to all our games!
Click here to join the
Bulletin Board
for PE & Health Teachers
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An incredible resource--although only a few activities are covered--is
available from the Amateur
Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. They have available downloadable
coaching manuals on several sports: volleyball, soccer, track and
field, cross country. These touch on everything from managing try-outs
to fundraising, parents, practices, training and conditioning, and
skills.
The site also includes an excellent introduction to
coaching, entitled, "Coaching Athletes. A
Foundation for Success." This is at once an excellent refresher,
an outstanding resource, and a solid introduction.
These files come with the following warning, however:
You need a fast connection, lot's of free--albeit temporary--memory,
and Adobe Acrobat to print them.
Taking these points into account check out these materials!
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Questions to Ask, or
Thoughts to Share?
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| If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions
about particular topics, please email one of the following Coaching
Section Editors: |
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One of the "givens" about evaluating coaches
is that the process is very like evaluating teachers. Thus, there
is something to gain from looking at the ideas currently being discussed
related to that process.
Probably the simplest (at least the shortest) review of evaluation
is in the ERIC database.
The essentials for evaluating coaches are:
- Coaches should be involved in creating the system.
- Whatever
evaluation techniques are used have to reflect the needs of
coaches, athletes and the athletic program.
- Administrators have
to commit the time to do effective evaluations.
- The process
has to be consistent with the goals and needs of the program.
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An effective debriefing/follow-up procedure designed to improve
coaching is essential.
Any number of articles support these general ideas. A few that
might be worth your time include: "Evaluating
Teachers' Professional," "Making
Teacher Evaluations Work," and "Teachers
Face Up to Standards." Just replace Teacher and Teaching
with Coach and Coaching.
Another note to save for a later date: We haven't
even begun to address the issue of involving athletes and parents
in the process. And there are very good reasons for doing so. We'll
address these issues at some future point. Also, next time, we'll
outline a process that reflects some of this thinking. A process
that can be used to evaluate improve coaching.
For some lighter reading, see the comments of a community college
basketball coach on administrators and evaluation.
(Scroll down to "Evaluating Athletic Success at KVCC.")
Next time, we'll get substantive and make some recommendations
about what to do to change how coaches are evaluated. Be forewarned,
it WILL involve time and effort. But I'm convinced that the pay-off
is worth it.
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A series of quick, one paragraph looks at common sports injuries
can help any coach. A
good one can be found here. This site also has more detailed
looks at common joint injuries here.
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