By Patrick Morrison

AS a coach, our top motivation will always be to pass on our coaching knowledge to help improve our players.

Our players trust us to have the knowledge they need as well as the systems and methods to help and implement that knowledge.

Gaelic games are constantly evolving both internally and externally via the influences of other sport, and so coaches in general must be constantly looking for ways to help them evolve alongside.

It is also important for the coach to first know themselves before they can know the sport they are coaching. Once they fully understand who they are as a coach, they can then understand how exactly they want or need to coach.

There are many ways to develop your coaching ability, and some are very simple that any coach can perform. Below is a list of areas that you can consider when looking for ways to help you improve as a coach:

Coaching Philosophy: – have you got one? are you keeping to what you have philosophised?

If you don’t have coaching philosophy now would be a great time to set time aside and create one for yourself. These are your coaching principles that you will live by in every coaching decision you make.

My advice is to start simple and as time passes you can always update and add to your philosophy as you go along.

If you already have one, again this is going to be a great time to evaluate your philosophy and see if it is still relevant to your coaching ideology.

Performance Reviews: – review the performance of your players thus far and ensure that you feed this back to the players themselves.

Discuss with your players what they done well and what you would like to see them improve as well as how you plan to use them for the coming year. With this openness and transparency, it will create a strong bond between you and the player which will be crucial for the coming season.

“Players don’t care about what you know until they know you care,” so also make sure to ask how are they coping with the current situation and assure them that you will assist them in any way that you can should they need it.

Goal Setting: – take the time to set some personal and team goals or re-evaluate ones you have already made for the rest of the season.

Ensure that the goals that you make are SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Recorded and Time framed) and you review them regularly to ensure they are being met.

Also taking time to help your playing set their own personal goals for the season will keep the team focused as a while for the entire season.

Resources: – this would be a fantastic time to create or add to a drills library where you keep all the drills and game plans that you have used are would like to use in the future.

Creating a library like this gives you a valuable resource that you can regularly refer to whenever you are planning sessions or looking for inspiration when creating new drills.

Also, you can look at your resource library and look for any gaps in coaching materials that you feel you have.

You can also look for new coaching books or resources that you feel may be of use to you and your playersteam moving forward. Building a good library of resources is vital for any coach looking to progress their coaching ability.

Inventory: – it can be prudent to take stock of the equipment that you currently have.

Check all of your equipment by setting it out in front of you and count everything you have and record it into your coaching journal, so you know what exactly you have available to you.

Count every cone, every pole, every football and I guarantee you will find something that you forgot you had or something that you have not used in a while that you will be looking to use again.

Alternatively, it will also allow you to consider what equipment you feel you need or would like to obtain to assist you with your coaching.

Future Learning: – plan out future courses, workshops and conferences that may be of use. Learning for any coach is never done and is also ever-changing.

With the exponential evolution of our games it is important to try and keep up with the most recent and best coaching information available. When in attendance always make notes and record any ideas you may have during each course, workshop or conference, make a note of any coachesspeakers you would like to get speaking to and either speak to them at the event or get a contact for future correspondence.

I hope you find some of these ideas useful over the coming weeks and I do hope that they help you improve yourself as a coach overall.

The time is now to ’Isolate Your Needs.’

Email:
pmgoalkeeping@hotmail.com
Facebook: @MSoG11
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