Hello,
and welcome to this month's Coaching & Sport section! We are
all aware of the challenges of the teaching, coaching, and athletic
administration professions. This month, pelinks4u has asked
section editors to reflect on the past academic year, and offer
suggestions and ideas for success in the next academic year. This
is also a good opportunity for you to reflect on your program strengths
and areas of need. Congratulate yourself on a job well done if the
welfare of your athletes remains the priority of your program!
To assist in preparing for next season,
this month's Coaching & Sport section is honored to have Herb
Appenzeller and Ron
Barron, sport law experts and editors of From
the Gym to the Jury, an online newsletter dedicated to
educating parents, teachers, and students about injury liability
and litigation in sports. Read their suggestions below on Starting
a New Season for athletic administrators and coaches.
Next, I provide a list of legal duties
(NIAAA) athletic programs are accountable for, and discuss the essential
role high school coaches have in academics.
Next, NASPE's program administrator for
sport, Christine Bolger,
highlights the 2007 National Coaching Educators' Conference, which
many of you may already be registered to attend!
Next, Dave Cisar, an award winning youth
football coach, author, and clinic speaker with over 15 years of
youth coaching experience, offers suggestions for coaches to reflect
on the organization of their programs. His Web
site is full of free coaching tips, and his books and DVD's
are also available.
Best of wishes to everyone on finishing
the academic year strong.
Deborah
Cardorette
Coaching & Sports Editor
|
STARTING
A NEW SEASON by Herb Appenzeller
& Ron Barron
Athletics directors and coaches face many demands on his/her time
prior to the start of a new season. Good planning is essential in
making sure no detail is overlooked. By being proactive, the athletics
director and his/her coaches can make certain nothing is left to
chance.
It is important to document in writing that proper steps are always
taken to ensure a safe program for the student-athletes. The following
check list, which can be used as part of an institutions risk-management
plan, can assist athletics directors and coaches in meeting their
responsibilities.
 |
Document
in writing that a preseason staff meeting was held. Keep a copy
of the agenda, and list the staff members in attendance. Keep
minutes of the meeting. |
|
Update
all department policies and procedures. |
|
Review
eligibility rules, pre-participation physical examination, insurance
coverage including pre-existing physical conditions, HMO and
PPO policies, catastrophic insurance, and liability coverage
for all personnel. Discuss exclusions with athletes, and notify
parents of exclusion. |
|
Discuss
warnings (waivers and agreements to participate). Designate
who will meet with individual teams to discuss and implement
the agreement. |
|
Computerize
all requirements prior to issuing equipment (eligibility, insurance
coverage and pre-participation physicals). |
|
Require
certification in emergency first aid and CPR of coaches. |
|
Discuss
with coaches the procedure for a medical emergency plan. Discuss
the coach's role, and have them sign a statement that they understand
the emergency action plan. |
|
Meet
prior to the start of the season with local EMT's and discuss
protocol for treating injured athletes at practice or during
athletic contests. Make sure the athletic director, coaches
and athletic trainers understand the protocol. |
|
Check all first aid kits, walkie-talkies and on-site telephones
to determine that they are operative. Plan to check prior to
every practice that all are in working order. |
|
Have trainers provide contact cards for each sport in the event
of an emergency. |
|
Inspect
all facilities and equipment, and document the inspection. (Do
not let athletes modify equipment). |
|
Have
a plan for administering accident/injury reports and claims. |
|
Discuss
your transportation policy with staff. |
|
Check
Title IX compliance. |
|
Check
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. |
|
Schedule
regular inspection dates of facilities and equipment. Designate
who will conduct the inspections. |
|
Develop
a due process policy for student athletes and staff. |
|
Develop
a plan for disruptive action prior to the start of athletic
contests. |
|
Review
catastrophic plans for bomb threats, fire, earthquake, and tornado. |
|
Review
proper signage in areas that need signage. |
|
Discuss
blood borne pathogens and policies that will be in effect. |
|
Discuss
crowd management procedures. |
|
Discuss
alcohol policy (Dram
Shop Law). |
|
Design
a policy for security/ejection from facilities. |
|
Review
catastrophic injury protocol. |
This check list, while not inclusive of every issue that confronts
the athletics director and coaches, nevertheless covers many potential
problems and strategies that need to be addressed. Adherence to
the policies and procedures will ensure to a judge and jury that
your department did everything it could to protect the participants
of your sports program.
The Gym
To The Jury attempts to send these important guidelines
periodically to subscribers. We believe in the importance of the
preseason checklist as a risk management strategy.
(Editor Note: This website
provides an opportunity for all sport personnel to subscribe to
a newsletter published six times a year that is a valuable resource
for keeping with current trends in sport litigation!)
|
| GRANT
RESOURCE INFORMATION |
|
 |
|
With the importance of Physical activity in schools,
through all levels being even more emphasized, should
schools start introducing sports like cricket to the syllabus
to go along side the typical basketball, baseball, football
and soccer lessons? This surely would be beneficial to
everyone, both teachers and students, in being able to
implement different skills of practice? Please share in
the forum. |
|
COACH:
A POWERFUL CATALYST IN STUDENT-ATHLETE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT! By
Deborah Cadorette
A priority concern that Athletic Leadership
Minor Degree students address at Clemson University is how to track
and motivate high school athletes in academics. The Athletic Leadership
Minor Degree prepares undergraduate students to be cognizant of
their responsibilities as interscholastic coaches and athletic administrators.
In addition to the fourteen legal duties
coaches are expected to acknowledge, interscholastic athletic coaches
and athletic administrators must make academic tracking and motivation
a priority with athletes. Coaches who prepare their students athletically,
and neglect to prioritize academic preparation, are failing to prepare
student-athletes for life.
Student athletes are people first, students second, and athletes
last. Recognize them as such. Coaches are in a powerful position
to influence athletes, parents, and community. Make positive use
of this power to prioritize academics in your athletes' lives and
community. Each student athlete should be striving to reach his/her
individual potential. All too often there are personal reasons students
do not perform well in the classroom. Athletic programs and coaches
can help make a difference by planning now to incorporate the following
practices into a yearly regime:
| 1. |
Remind
EVERYONE academics are important: |
| |
a) |
Visual signs; T-shirts;
Orientation; Team Meetings; Message Boards; Mission; Team Logo |
| |
b) |
Provide recognition
for academic improvement |
| 2. |
Develop
academic monitoring system with faculty: |
| |
a) |
Get feedback from
faculty regarding how they prefer to communicate with you; how
often (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) in and out of season |
| |
b) |
Be consistent with
the process selected. |
| |
c) |
Make time to meet
with teacher and athlete when there is problem reported. |
| |
d) |
Develop a plan and
follow up with the plan. |
| |
e) |
Provide feedback to
athletes about faculty reports, and recognize individual progress
to make these reports meaningful. |
| 3. |
Communicate
with athletes about their grades and academics: |
| |
a) |
In person or email;
whatever method works, but DO it. |
| |
b) |
Learn what each athlete
is capable of achieving, and raise the bar. |
| |
c) |
2.0 is minimal; expect
more from your athletes. |
| |
d) |
Get knowledgeable
about learning styles (National
Standards for Sport Coaches). |
| |
e) |
Evaluate your athletes
learning styles & communicate them to faculty. |
| 4. |
Honor circumstances
that require academic preparation/planning or priority |
| |
a) |
Examinations |
| |
b) |
SAT / ACT testing |
| |
c) |
Athletes needing to
meet with faculty after school for assistance. |
| 5. |
Remind athletes of their obligation
to provide a scholar-athlete reputation if they are planning
on pursuing intercollegiate level athletics. A 2.0 GPA is a
minimum requirement, not a guarantee. College admittance decisions
are based on the college's interpretation of an athlete's academic
performance history. The college admittance office has the right
to refuse admittance if they have reason to believe a student
may struggle at their institution academically. |
|
| THE
BEST KEPT SECRET IN COACHING EDUCATION by Christine
Bolger
"The Best Kept Secret in Coaching
Education" - that's what people have said about the National
Coaching Educators' Conference. This is no surprise when one
considers the powerful partners of this conference: the National
Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United
States Olympic Committee (USOC), and the National
Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE).
These national leaders in sport and
coaching are proud to bring a conference full of valuable presentations
addressing research-based studies, program delivery, and advice
on providing quality, cost-effective programs.
The seventh annual National
Coaching Educators’ Conference will be held June 7 - 9
at the Omni Severin Hotel in Indianapolis. This is the most important
conference of the year for coaching educators. Anyone involved in
coach training and education needs to attend this annual event,
which is the only of its kind, in order to strengthen their coaching
philosophy, expand and enhance their training program, maximize
the use of technology in coaching education, and build good working
partnerships with others across the country who deliver successful
programs.
Representatives from USA Swimming, the
Institute
for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University,
the US Anti-Doping
Agency, American
Volleyball Coaches Association, Rutgers
Youth Sport Research Council, USA
Football, US
Ski and Snowboard Association, and others will present on topics
such as using technology in program delivery, coaching education
requirements yesterday and today, recreation and volunteer program
information, and much more. |
|
|
| ARTICLE CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS COLUMN |
|
All
conference attendees will receive a copy of the Quality
Sports, Quality Coaches: National Standards for Sport Coaches,
2nd edition, complimentary with registration. In addition, all attendees
will receive a 1-year complimentary subscription to the new online
professional Journal of Coaching Education, which will
keep you abreast of quality coaching information long after the
conference is over. Vendors, including the American
Red Cross, Big Rig, and Dartfish
will provide attendees with information about programs, products,
and services to assist in program delivery and quality education.
Don't miss your opportunity to network
with people from across the country and to learn new techniques
and technology to train your coaches. You can find out more information
here,
or call 800.213.7193 ext. 417. Hope to see you in Indianapolis!
|
| COACHING:
REFLECTION DURING THE OFF-SEASON by Dave Cisar
Most youth coaches carefully consider
what their players should be doing in the off-season to improve
as players. Unfortunately, most of these same coaches don't take
the time to figure out how they can improve as coaches during the
same time period. Coaches ask players to improve, but what are we
doing ourselves to improve as coaches?
Our studies show 70% of youth football
players playing today will never play football in High School. Why
do they quit in such high numbers? The reasons most quit are as
follows, in order of most to least important: poor coaching, non-competitive
teams, lack of playing time, not having fun, too much practice time,
and poor sportsmanship.
The first step is to ask yourself
what your goals were for the previous season, and how you performed
against those goals. For many youth coaches those goals are somewhat
nebulous. If you don't have written goals maybe it's time to sit
down and brainstorm what they should be?
A simple exercise for setting these
goals is to visualize how you would like your team to be remembered.
If someone was eulogizing your team in a perfect world, what would
other teams, league officials, players, and parents say about your
team? Once you've obtained this perfect team vision, work backwards
to set your goals to reflect that vision. Make sure the goals are
measurable and are well defined.
I'm the founder and President of a
large youth sports organization that has a large competitive tackle
football program. We think goals are important, and we have an overall
goal or "mission statement." This overall guiding goal
helps remind us of what we are trying to accomplish and keeps our
actions on track.
Our individual coaches set goals for
themselves and their teams in the areas of: sportsmanship, playing
time, organization, teaching fundamental skills, teamwork, execution,
retention, and competitiveness. Each coach scores himself against
these goals at the end of the season, along with his peers and the
organizational leadership. Quite often self scoring by the coach
is very revealing, and is all he needs to reset his priorities and
improve as a coach.
THE GOALS:
|
Sportsmanship:
How well did the coach and the team comply with the standards
of good sportsmanship? |
|
Playing
Time: How well did the coach comply with the playing
time standards required by the organization? |
|
Organization:
How well organized and concise were the practices and games
of your team? |
|
Fundamentals:
How well were the basic blocking, tackling, and individual skills
imparted to the team? |
|
Teamwork:
How well did your team play together? |
|
Execution:
How well did your team execute the base offense, defense, and
special teams' schemes of the organization? |
|
Retention:
What percentage of players made it through the entire season
as part of the team, and how many of those are signed up for
the following year? |
|
Competitiveness:
How well did the team compete in relation to its true potential?
|
We find that every year our competitive
teams retain far higher numbers of players than our teams that aren't
competitive. Our program is an inner-city program that comes with
many benefits well beyond what the players learn on the football
field. Most of us believe the game itself helps teach players about
self control, teamwork, sacrifice, commitment, hard work, overcoming
obstacles, and sportsmanship; to name just a few. If the player
quits, he doesn't get the opportunity to learn these lessons. So
to improve the probability of a player not quitting, it is imperative
that our coaches coach well, and that they coach well enough that
their teams are competitive.
Now before you get the vision of the
"win-at-all-costs, crew-cut headed, screaming-drill sergeant
coach " in your heads, let me assure you that you can have
fun, play all the kids, have concise practices, and be competitive
all at the same time. These are not mutually exclusive goals.
My personal teams over the last six
years, of which five were totally different teams, have won 97%
of our games, while retaining over 90% of our players. We also have
the absolute best reputation of sportsmanship in the football crazed
state of Nebraska. We have played in national tournaments and have
won at the rec, "B" and "Select" levels across
the state. We have lots of fun, and practice less than our competition.
How do you help your teams compete
and improve as a coach? The best way is to tag along as an assistant
to a head coach who scores high in the goals you set as part of
this exercise. You can get no better training than being at the
side of someone who has learned the ropes over time. In our organization,
we pair younger coaches with the ones that "get it," and
have a number of head coaches that have "spawned" four
to five other head coaches.
If you don't have this luxury, the
first thing to do is admit you need help. Most youth football coaches
today played football 20 years ago. Playing and coaching are different
things entirely, and what you did 20 years ago in High School, with
an 18 year old body and 6 days a week practice time, does not apply
well to young kids in most cases. Take the time to go to a youth
football coaches' clinics put on by people like MEGA
Clinic and NIKE Coach
of the Year clinics.
You can also go to your local library,
bookstore, or the internet for books, DVDs, and advice from others
who have accomplished what you are trying to do. You will save an
incredible amount of time by doing so, and will make the season
much better for both you and the impressionable kids you are coaching. |
|
