This section is a "Coaching Clinic" devised to help you be the best coach you can be.

A coach has to "wear many hats," these articles and tips will help you to be effective in each area of responsibility as you coach, train and relate to your team, assistant coaches, parents, administrators, fans and the media.

The Art of Positive Coaching, Part I

The Art of Positive Coaching, Part II

The role of a coach is similar to that of a parent or teacher. Our common goal in these roles is to prod, motivate, and cajole youth to be all they can be.

Asset of Leadership

Due to the intensely competitive nature of sports, effective leadership may be the most critical factor in determining success. Failure to hone leadership skills is opportunity lost.

Great coaches refuse to limit their role to controller or instructor. Instead, they spend their time trying to figure out better ways to unleash their best performers' distinct talents.

Being a Good Listener

Are you a good listener? Listening is a vital part of communication and is essential to coaching.

Be Positive Coaching Tips

Part of the goal of coaching is to replace the "win at all costs" mentality with a culture that honors the game and provides each athlete with a positive, character building experience.

Being A Positive Coach

Being a positive coach does much for the athlete - it promotes self-concept, it builds confidence and it builds a strong team. If we really care about the kids and the sport we coach we need to look for positives and praise them for it.

Coach 'em for Life

In a day and age dominated by selfish greed, we have produced the likes of Anderson Consulting, Enron, and WorldCom into society. Sadly the acts of a few affect many. Fortunately, as coaches we can take a positive step forward if we chose not to coach just for victory on the field, court or mat, but for victory in life.

Coaching is Coaching

USA Wrestling National Coach, Mike Duroe writes, "Whether you are coaching kids or Olympians, individuals or team sports, there are certain qualities that help make a coach successful. Helping athletes to develop life skills and confidence are as important as explaining any game plan or teaching a technical skill."

Coaching Code of Ethics

This Ethic Code developed by the U.S. Olympic Committee is intended to provide general principles to cover most situations encountered by coaches.

Coaching Conduct with Female Athletes

By being a male coach of a female team there are several important guidelines that may prove helpful in avoiding difficult situation during the course of a season.

Coaching Female Athletes

The key to coaching female athletes is the use of positive reinforcement in participation motivation. Positive, constructive feedback and praise is extremely important...

Coaching Leadership

Due to the intensely competitive nature of sports today, effective leadership may be the most critical factor in determining success.

Coaching Truths - NEW COACHING DEVELOPMENT ARTICLE

Coaching is gratifying, but it can also be humbling. There is always more to learn.

Coaching with Honesty

Is honesty always the best policy - even in coaching?

Communicate to Win!

The ability to communicate with your athletes is critical in your role as a coach. It is a skills that involves two major aspects; speaking and listening.

Connect with your Team

Whenever you coach, you deal with a diverse group of individuals. To build team you need connect with each member of the squad - find common ground and develop an understanding of each team member.

Coaches don't need to eliminate challenges for their athletes, but instead create new ones.

Don't try to perfect each of your athletes... instead do everything you can to help each athlete to cultivate his or her talents.

Delegate!

A head coach may posses all the necessary personal characteristics to be a championship, hall of fame coach, but if he does not learn the art of delegation, then he will never find himself coaching a "dream team."

Coaches play an important role in the lives of champions, particularly during the middle and elite phases of their careers. These elite athletes describe their coaches as "like surrogate parents, had a good bond, provided an adult-to-adult relationship, and was a good friend." Overall, six main areas of coaching influence are noted by these champions that can help you develop champions in sport and in life.

Developing a Coaching Philosophy

A coaching philosophy is simply the how's and why's of everything you do as a coach. What is yours?

Earning Respect

Without respect, a coach will never be able to get their athletes to do what they ask. Respect must be earned over time. There are no shortcuts...

Effective Feedback

Effective feedback is vital to learning. In sport, feedback is the information athletes receive about their performance.

Emergency Situations

Fortunately most injuries do not result in emergency situations, however, when emergencies do occur, prompt proper care is essential. With advance preparation, everyone is prepared to deal with emergencies when they do occur.

Enjoy the Process

Mike Hagerty challenges coaches to look beyond the wins and losses, to focus instead on the "process" of developing the true measure of success of an athletic program.

Essential Qualities in Coaching

What is it that makes a good coach? Is it a person who is a great technician, it someone who was an elite athlete, is it someone who came out of a powerhouse program? No, not necessarily. One or two competencies do not make an effective coach. There is a great deal involved in coaching effectively...

Ethics and Sportsmanship - Part I

Ethics and Sportsmanship - Part II

Ethics and Sportsmanship - Part III

Ethical considerations pervade every aspect of a coach's behavior. Any act that can be evaluated in terms of moral principles has ethical significance.

Feedback - A Key to Development

Coaching feedback serves as a very important form of reinforcement by providing athletes with information about their progress towards goals that they are trying to achieve.

Focus on Individual Strengths

Coaches who begin to work with athletes on their development, often gravitate to weaknesses rather than strengths. The results can demoralize and sabotage the results you are seeking.

Four Fundamentals of Coaching

There are dozens of important truths and fundamentals of coaching, but here are four that even the best coaches sometimes overlook.

Give 'em Encouragement

Too many coaches expect their athletes to encourage themselves, but most athletes require outside encouragement to propel themselves forward.

Here are some proven tips and techniques to help you are the coach to get your athletes to play the best they can.

What you can do as a coach to help your athlete who has an eating disorder.

How can you as a coach help your athletes increase their self-awareness, to differentiate between pushing through a needed hard workout, and knowing when enough is really enough and more recovery is really the answer?

Increasing Your Athlete's Self-Esteem

Increasing your athlete's self-esteem is not that simple, but there are countless ways that a coach can foster self-esteem in their athletes.

Legal Duties of Coaches

The risk of injuries in youth sports will never be eliminated, but it can be managed. Coaches who practice risk management by fulfilling the nine legal duties can take a significant step in reducing the risk of injury and liability in their programs.

Legal Rights of Coaches

During the past few years there have been several incidents involving the integrity and character of coaches. What legal rights do coaches have when accusations are made by parents, players or school officials?

Normative Cheating

Issues pertaining to games and practices are rarely what lead to most coaches to quitting or getting fired. Usually it is what we have called "the other stuff" - the behind the scenes stresses facing all coaches at all levels. One way that some successful coaches deal with "the other stuff" is through a process known as "normative cheating.

Path to Excellence

From the viewpoint of Olympians, find out what they believe are the critical factors, the key areas to athletic success.

Planning Effective Practices

Practice should be well organized, safe and fun. There are seven elements to a good practice. That sometime and develop a practice that uses all seven principles.

Positive Coaching

A Positive Coach has power, they affect how athletes see, think and react.

Post-Loss Honesty

In the sports world, post-loss honesty from coaches often is trumped by empty cliches and defensive whining. I have tremendous respect for those coaches who are confident enough not to have to convince anyone of anything...

Practice Planning

The tools for effective coaching are: 1) proper planning and organizing, 2) teaching and meaningful activities, and 3) evaluating the coaching after each session.

Problem Solving

Problems are always lurching over the coaches shoulder. This article looks at how to deal with problems in the areas of athletes, preparation and competition.

Prioritize Your Life....Sleep!

In this fast-paced, get-as-much-done-as-possible coaching world we live in, we have allowed our schedules to become crammed as much as possible. Sleep is a non-priority for many of us - and yet is the one thing that may be holding us back from doing our best.

Rehabilitation Coaching

So what exactly is the coach meant to do during the rehabilitation period? Here are a few pointers to get your athlete safely back into competition.

When an athlete maintains high expectations especially if they have had past success, when they don't meet these expectations, frustration, irritation, anger, or feelings of failure emerge.

Respecting the Referee

In the face of increasing amounts of abuse from players, coaches, and fans, many officials are leaving the profession. But there are steps you can take to help keep them around.

One of the most critical aspects of risk management is knowing what the standards are for all the sports and facilities you oversee. Just as important is keeping up with them as they change.

Skills, knowledge, and talent are distinct and different concepts. These distinctions are critical for coaches eager to tap their athletes potential.

This article addresses five strategies that can be used to bring quality to training on a consistent basis. Use of these and other strategies will enhance athlete performance at practice, and such quality training will ultimately enhance competitive performance.

Every coach a girl has will undoubtedly leave an impression on her. Here are some suggestions to get you on the road to creating a positive experience for blossoming athletes.

Time and Energy Management

The most effective coaches wisely manage both their time and their energy to maximize their teams' performance.

When an athlete doesn't maintain high expectations, especially if they have had past successes they can express frustration, irritation, anger, or feelings of failure

Your Public Coaching Image

Each piece of you (appearance, communication skills, etc.) contributes to your overall image - and perception that the public has of you. Building a positive image to the media and the public is important is sports today.