Summer are in full swing. It is time for sports camps, open gyms, and travel teams. For some sports, it's a slow time. Time for coaches, athletes and parents to pause and reflect. In others, the most competitive season is here. In baseball, softball, track and field, tennis and the like, there's precious little time for reflection.

Pausing, taking stock and moving on are critical elements in anyone's career. Coaches especially need to find time for reflection. By nature, we are "doer's." We plan practices, coach contests, get ready for the next tournament. There's not enough time for everything. But this cycle does an injustice to our athletes. And keeps us from being as good as we might. 

Evaluating coaching performance affects everyone involved--coaches, athletes,  parents, program administrators, schools and communities. So as we wrap up our look at evaluating coaches, find the time to reflect on your coaching. Look for ways to exploit your strengths. Discover how to improve your weaknesses.

Mike Clark
Coaching & Sports Section Editor

Elsewhere this issue, we've an extended list of resources on sports specialization. A related topic is burn out. A quick look from a coach's perspective can help.

Over-training often is cited as a major cause of burn out. A quick look at one way coaches and athletes can detect over-training uses a simple form.

A more detailed look at the topic incorporates tips for avoiding burn out.

And for something completely different, check out the young athlete's perspective on burn out and pressure.

Coaches have a hard time figuring out where--and how--to get information. Especially "hard facts" that can help them in their coaching. Used properly, SportsLink can help. This site provides a directory of resources, especially in the sciences, that can help coaches. 

Various journals are covered. But often only abstracts are available. Thus, the coach searching for information may have to follow up with a library visit. But this site will definitely speed up learning.

So far, we have two elements of an evaluation package. The first focuses on what is taught to the athletes. The second, teaching style.

Admittedly, two assumptions are involved. (1) Playing sports is an educational experience and (2) Positive coaching increases the likelihood of learning.

Now for the third part of the package: the coach's organizational skills. The reality is that coaches have day-to-day administrative responsibilities. No one of these is necessarily critical to success. But if they don't get done, the program suffers.

A partial "To-do" list for coaches includes: 

• A season plan
• Daily practice plans
• A pre-season meeting with parents and athletes
• Roster and eligibility lists
• Medical emergency plan
• Uniform and equipment inventories
• A system for maintaining records
• Budget requests
• Continuing education

The final piece in evaluating coaches considers how well they function within the system. Questions include whether the coach. . .

• Knows, understands and supports the "mission" of the institution
• Follows the "chain of command"
• Cooperates with other coaches and educators
• Works within guidelines provided by program administrators

I will be putting all this in PDF format to make available to pelinks4u readers. Watch for an up-date in the near future. (My goal is to get the evaluation form down to 4 pages--3 of which will be "check-offs.")