A sports coach plays a fundamental role in the life of a teenage sports fan. In this article, we take this issue under the microscope and ask ourselves if a good coach is one who only teaches their charges proper technique?
As already mentioned, the coach plays an extremely important role in the life of every child playing sports. This is due to the fact that it is often the second person after parents who spends most time with a child. The coach not only teaches sports discipline. He also participates in shaping the child’s character. A lot of parents judge the coach by the results that the child achieves. This is a mistake! It is worth realizing that training has a number of practical functions, such as learning to win and lose, as well as mental development.
A significant number of sports clubs are focused on profit, which is brought by professional teams that achieve the best sports results. In our country, the highest amounts are invested in older players. However, it is worth realizing how big a role young sportsmen play. Coaches of children’s groups often face the problem of inability to convince club authorities of the potential that the youngest players have and that such an investment will pay off in the future. It is obvious that every coach would like to have under his care a player who achieves success both on a national and international scale. Unfortunately, such players are rare. Every day coaches have to face the pressure of both club authorities and parents.
How can you tell if you are dealing with a good, trustworthy coach? The key issue here is that he loves his profession and is able to infect his charges with passion. The most important qualities of a trustworthy coach are passion, patience and enthusiasm. A small sportsman is able to quickly sense the attitude of the coach and whether he or she is really involved in the activities or just present.
It is very important for the coach to have both professional and general knowledge, and to be able to communicate this knowledge in a skilful manner. Parents should be aware that a sports coach has the opportunity to become a role model for a small sportsman and have a significant impact on his further development. An extremely important issue is his technical skills. Only then will he be able to show you how you should perform a particular move.
Sometimes coaches use the help of instructors, whose task is limited to presenting a given exercise. The coach is then able to focus on correcting any mistakes made by their charges. Being a coach is not an easy profession. Controlling a group of several people, and sometimes even a dozen or so, is quite a challenge. Consequently, leadership skills are essential. A good trainer is someone who knows how to set boundaries, and at the same time knows when to allow his charges a bit more freedom.
What else should a good sports coach have? Another inseparable element of his work are organizational skills. It concerns both setting dates for general development, sports and mental trainings, medical examinations or massages, and organizing trips to various sports competitions. A hard-working coach can count on both sympathy, listening and mutual respect. A good coach is able to adjust the goals to the individual skills and potential of the small player. At the same time, he must not put pressure on him. In this way he can only discourage him from further training.
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