In this day and age of mega salaries for professional athletes in any sports, it is not surprising that many still consider the talented players key to any successful sports team. Owners of professional teams and fans commonly forget that the effective sports coach is the most important person. Instead of spending obscene amounts to lure the best players to the club, owners of sports franchises should invest the most optimum money in the effective sports coach.
He will determine the success or failure of the team. But what exactly does an effective coach possess? How does an effective coach deal with his players? How can the sports coach plan and conduct his campaign such that his players and team ultimately reach their peak performance in sports? These are some of the questions we will explore in a good coach in this article. If you were to study the history of effective coaching, you would not fail to notice that very often, these coaches produce very cohesive teams.
Teams with a common goal and players put the team and others before themselves. There is something magical about a team build on successful team spirit, and all effective sports coaches know this. That is why it is paramount from the on start that the coach builds this strong team spirit and cohesion right from the start. More than anything else, it is a team that knows the true value of teamwork, team spirit, and team cohesion that will produce the most successful results and performances at the end of the day. Sports coaches do not need star players who play for themselves. They need players (not necessarily the most talented) who will die for the team. With these players, the coach can do wonders. Hence, for any aspiring person who wants to be an effective sports coach, build a team first before you train a team.
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When teamwork and team spirit are no longer an issue, the sports coach can turn his full attention to preparing a solid team for competition. To be successful, thorough preparation for sports competition must be the main aim of a coach when it comes to training the team. Thorough plans must be made for the season, right down to when and where the team breaks for their off-season. No details must be spared to prepare the team for competition. In every training session, the effective sports coach must let everyone know his own personal goals for that session. He must also dictate down to the number of repetitions each player must do for their drills. In effect, he is reducing practice and competition to a science. As in science, the more certain input is, the more obvious will be the result. So when he decides even what time players must sleep before games, he is not overdoing it. The effective sports coach does his job well by merely being thoroughly prepared on all fronts.
One of these fronts that sports coaches must ensure that it is at its optimum is in sports psychology. He must include in his plans target setting as a group, mental imagery practice, relaxation training, visualization training, mental psyching methods, and constant affirmation training, and so on. All these sports psychology training must become part and parcel of a player’s regime that he breathes, eats, and sleeps on them. He must ensure that players believe this aspect of training. Players who do not believe in this form of approach to sports must be weeded out right from the start. Which explains why the effective sports coach must begin preparing by building the best team with the most common goals and perspectives in sports? Sports psychology, more than anything now, will determine whether the effective sports coach can produce results.
Knowing and executing the fundamentals of the game is also important. No matter how simple these skills are, players must understand their importance and perform them to their best. The sports coach must strive to ensure that his players master these basics fast until they become habits to the players. He will always have these skills practices regularly included in his training plans. If at any time these fundamentals are forgotten or taken for granted, then he must return to the beginning and tell the players about the very basics of the game, without which peak performance in sports will not be possible.
Another important thing that sports coaches pay attention to is their opponents and their team. Only when the effective sports coach understands his opponents and his team will he come up with the right game strategies to win the game. In this respect, the coach must consider his job to seek out scouting opportunities of his opponents and their strengths and weaknesses. Once that is known, he can then derive the most creative and effective tactics from overcoming his opponents and ensuring that his team is on top. The old maxim of “know thy enemy and thyself, and victory is assured!” holds all the time under these sports situations.
And finally, part of knowing his own team is the management of his own players. Every team will be different. Therefore the effective sports coach needs to be able to handle his players individually under differing circumstances. The job will no doubt be easier if the team has been first built right at the start. That is why the first factor is so important for the effective sports coach. To be an effective sports coach requires not just a passion for the sport or game. The sports coach must build a team from a bunch of individuals, prepare them thoroughly, instill sports psychology concepts in the players, work on the fundamentals, study his opponents and his team, and manage his players effectively. Only when the sports coach masters these few areas will he be successful in achieving peak performance in sports.
Jimmy Tong has been a Physical Educator for 13 Years in Singapore, with a degree in sports science and physical education from Loughborough University in the UK. He has extensive coaching experience in soccer, floorball, and rugby teams in Singapore Schools. He is currently a sports development officer in Singapore schools and an active contributor of sports training articles to improve sports performance in athletes. He hopes to enable people’s success by inspiring them with true sports motivational and inspirational stories.
