Every coach wants to be the best they can be, and they spend endless amounts of time and money educating themselves on their sport and the latest in techniques and tactics that will benefit their teams and athletes. Could you even possibly list all the conferences, coaching clinics, conventions, books, videos, lectures, coaching courses, and online blogs you have read or participated in with your sport?
Now, list all the time and expense you put into looking at HOW you coach athletes with all that knowledge you have. Would it be very much in comparison? You are the conduit between the athletes and all that information you have about your sport you want to share.
I would recommend you begin to spend more time and resources on studying yourself.
Before you can properly coach your athletes, you need to study yourself first and make sure you are being an effective coach. We spend so much time studying our athletes and trying to identify ways in which they can improve before we look at ourselves.
There are many ways to study yourself. Have someone video you (and record your voice) during practices and matches. No one else needs to be aware of this except the person filming you and maybe not even them. Just film the full court so you can watch yourself and listen to what you say to your athletes and how you say it as you move around throughout practice or on the bench during a match and during timeouts.
Think about what an ideal coach should be doing or saying.
- Talking less and asking more questions of the athletes…
Ideally you would like the athletes to hear everything you say, but if you are constantly talking, they will tune you out. When I was coaching volleyball at Florida State University, I had several graduate students in the communication department record my voice at practices for a research study they were doing. I wore a microphone and a recorder fastened to my waist. It recorded the amount of time I spent talking, at what level, and if I yelled or spoke above a certain level two lights would come on. During the three- hour practice they discovered I was talking 2:45 minutes. It was shocking to me to realize this. There was only 15 minutes I was quiet. I want to take it all back and start over.
