The Role of a Coach Part 105!
This is a tricky area. A coach may view the role of a coach very differently from that of a student or player. The coach is looking to improve performance or improve the players enjoyment. This could be reflected by the students, but they may want more. To some, players winning is enjoying. To others, playing their best in a real ding dong game could be their enjoyment.
We are straight into the role of the coach. They must be able to adjust their coaching to reflect the students desires and needs. Some players will want to achieve a level of play and others will always be chasing the perfect performance. Coaching these two categories can be tricky let alone the grades in between the two.
One lady, during a game, asked me why I was squat pointing. I told her, it gave me a better view of the piste, made my boule come out lower on a fast rolling piste and I could see every twist and turn the boule may make on its way to the jack. I offered to show her how it was done, after the game if she wanted. Her response still makes me laugh. She said. “I ain’t that sad mate!” I have left out a few swear words in this sentence but you get the idea. It was a match, it was not coaching. They were a poor team and some may say the attitude was the main problem they had.
As a coach you need to recognise the needs and wants of students. These students will need to step towards a coach. We cannot tap players on the shoulder and tell them they need coaching. This is not how coaching works. Players need to acknowledge they wish to improve their play or an aspect of their play. The coach can then set a plan in motion and work towards a common goal. Sometimes the coach can take a player on a journey and as they improve the targets of performance change. Wanting to shoot better is a common request. The first question a coach should ask is…………. Why?
The player can then give examples of games won or games lost because their hit rate was poor.
It may turn out that tactics and not hit rate was the limiting factor, maybe pressure was the limiting factor. There are so many reasons why a player loses games. Not many players step forward to improve their game because they regularly win competitions. That is seen by them as performance. If they lose, they were just having a bad day.
The role of the coach can be confused by lack of direction or desires from the player.
The role of the coach. Is to generate thought. Hopefully this small article has started the grey matter moving.
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