Youth Sport Coaching

1. Youth Sport Coaching • Who’s coaching our children? • 3.5 million coaches in the US • 2.5 million are volunteers • 90% lack the necessary formal preparation to coach - 9 out of 10 volunteer coaches are men

2. Youth Sport Coaching • Why do people volunteer? • Involvement of coach's child in league • In Canada – 54% of coaches had 1 or 2 children playing in the same league • Personal enjoyment • Skill development • Character development • Personal challenge

3. Youth Sport Coaching - Education • The annual turn over rate for coaches is 50 % • Rising number of lawsuits! • directed toward youth sport coaches and organizations because of alleged negligence during practices and games

4. Youth Sport Coaching - Education • Injury care and prevention • Risk and safety management • Knowledge of growth and development • Training, conditioning, and nutrition • Social/psychological aspects of coaching • Skills, tactics, and strategies • Teaching and administration • Professional preparation and development

5. Youth Sport Coaching • Arguments AGAINST mandatory coaching certification • Already a shortage of coaches • Demand for coaches exceeds supply • Programs may have to be cut • Certification process is expensive

6. Youth Sport Coaching • How do we judge if a coach is any good? • Evaluating coaching effectiveness • Coaching Behavioral Assessment System • Instrument designed to evaluate the behaviors of coaches in an actual game setting • “Unannounced observers” watch coach for • Reactive behaviours to players • Spontaneous behaviours by the coach

7. Origins of the Research Tharp and Gallimore (1976) - Educational Psychologists • Observational Instrument: • Initially used to evaluate teachers in the classroom • Coaching behaviours recording form

8. John Wooden • Coached UCLA Bruins for 27 years (1948-1975) • Won 20 NCAA titles, 7 in a row • First person to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player and a coach

9. Coaching Behaviors Recording Form (CBRF) • Instructions • Praises • Scolds • Nonverbal reward (i.e., clapping) • Nonverbal Punishment (i.e., shaking head) • Modeling-positive ( show the move) • Modeling-negative ( show what they did wrong) • Scold/re-instruction ( not this way, do it like this) • Hustles (let’s go!) • Other • Uncodable

10. Findings • 75% of coaching behaviour consisted of instruction

11. Intensity of practice sessions • Wooden’s players • “Games seemed to happen so slowly, because the pace in practice was so high”

12. Wooden’s approach • Meticulous planning of practice – often as much time planning it as conducting it. • Players were always active, either engaged in drills or shooting free throws. • No one was permitted to stand around watching • Kept detailed records of every practice session in a notebook “I could tell you what we did every minute of every practice in my twenty-seven years at UCLA.”

13. The Coach’s Role • Constructive use of time • Often responsible for constructing majority of athlete’s practice time

14. Figure Skating (Deakin, Starkes & Allard, 1998) • Skaters’ intentions for practice sessions Elite skaters estimated - immediately prior to stepping on the ice: • seven double jumps • twenty triple jumps The Reality: • 30 doubles • Six triples

15. Team Sports Team sports, even under supervision of a coach, often suffer from the same underutilization of time • Starkes (2000) high-level junior ice-hockey players • Time-Motion analysis- active 52 % of practice time • How do expert coaches construct a practice environment.

16. Coaching Behaviors • Case study – Expert volleyball coach (Deakin & Cobley, 2003) - 70 % of behaviours “instruction” • Time-Motion analysis - Athletes active 93 % of practice time • Practice more, or smarter? Expert coaches more efficient in use of practice time

17. Canadian National Team Coaches • 5 National Teams (Basketball, Soccer, Wheelchair Basketball) • Systematic Observation of practices, Interviews with coaches/athletes ( find themselves to be teachers first) • Results - Heavy emphasis on instruction

18. Interviews • Importance of Simulation ( as close as possible to a game like situation ) “That’s what you need to do, as a coach…you have to create game-like situations, whatever it may be. Constantly making adjustments, making drills increasingly complex and more game-like, so that guys see the situations in practice that they’re going to see in a game.” “Get them to that place mentally, so that they feel that same type of pressure and energy and excitement…if they can close out in practice against the top player on their team, then chances are they’re going to be able to close out and defend the top player on the other team in a game.”

19. Wooden’s practice philosophy • “In every facet of basketball, we work on pressure. The opponent provides that during the game. I tried to provide it in practice with drills that re-created game conditions.”

20. Praise – Scold Ratios • How often should you compliment players? • How often should you ream them out? • When you crossed the line?

21. Dealing with players…. • Professional Soccer Coach –England premier league • “Most of them are insecure, and most of them are frightened to death 5 minutes before they go out for a game….whether you’re a professional football player or a kid, you need plenty of encouragement” • Roger Federer - Upset stomach, hands shaking before big matches

22. Dealing with players…. Professional Soccer Coach • Players need a ‘kick in the ass’ from time to time • Done privately, away from the group • Publicly berating players seen as totally counterproductive ( did not work at all)

23. Praise/Scold Ratios • How often should you praise? • Mindless overuse of praise can be problematic as well • Specific praise of specific behaviours

24. Coaching Research • High of 35 praises for every scold • Low of 1 to 1 Ratio • Wooden- 1 to 1 ratio • What is the message here? • Wooden allowed his players to feel as part of his family

25. Wooden on court • Noted for stern manner on the court • Never used physical punishment (running laps) in practice sessions. • Wanted players to enjoy coming to practice • Stern on-court manner balanced by grandfatherly image off the court. • Didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t swear, on or off the court. • Known for caring deeply about his players

26. Wooden on court • Asked about his praise- scold ratio • Wooden -Emphasis on instruction constituted the positive approach • “I believe that is the positive approach. I believe in the positive approach – always have”

27. Wooden on winning Jamaal Wilkes Played on teams that won 73 games in a row “Not once did I hear him talk about winning. All he ever asked is that we left the floor at the end of the game with our head up”

28. Wooden’s career 27 seasons as head coach 10 NCAA titles First one came in his 16th as head coach All 10 titles came in the last 12 years, retired after last title

29. Continuous learning Wooden believed he improved as a coach every year “I hope that I was learning the very last year that I coached. I don’t think I learned as much in the last season as I did in my first year, but I hope that I learned a bit each and every year.”

30. Continuous learning Each off-season Wooden researched a part of the game he felt he could learn more about ( reboding, shooting) Library research Reading Discussions with other coaches/players he considered knowledgeable

31. Deliberate Practice and Coaching Success in last phase of career does not seem to be accidental - Continuous improvement in his coaching knowledge and abilities “When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur….not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time.”