| I challenge you as a coach to look deeper into the "process" as the true measures of success of any program. The difficulty is that it is easy to evaluate the outcome of a performance and much more of a challenge to actually evaluate the process which lead to the successful performance. Sixty-two home runs is better than sixty-one. A Gold medal is better than a bronze medal. However, coaches and athletes should begin to challenge themselves and begin to find markers of success within the process of training and other areas of preparation. That is not to say that wins and losses are not important; they are! It is just that the outcome should be an extension of the process, not anything more or less.
The "process" primarily includes both mental and physical training. The question is how can coaches and athletes focus on the training and preparation rather than the wins and losses in any sport. This challenge is expanded due to the fact that everyone else seems to be overly concerned with the idea of winning and losing.
There are several things we can do to help us with our efforts. First, as coaches, we should consider our philosophy of coaching and the general philosophy of our program. As we begin to de-emphasize the outcomes and put the emphasis on the "development" of the athlete, this will begin the process.
The next step is to begin to establish goals for you and the program that would begin to reflect this philosophy. It is okay to have outcome based goals such as winning a conference or district championship, however this should not be the only goals for the program.
Goals such as practice attendance, practice performance, delayed gratification, classroom performance, grades and even leadership should be evaluated and rewarded.
The third step would be to assist athletes in setting goals that are not all outcome based goals. Teaching athletes to establish goals that are process oriented will assist them in becoming better team players and better students in general. Especially, short-term goals could be directed toward showing emotional control after being beaten in a practice situation. Basically, a goal could be established for any aspect of athlete's performance or personal life. Of course, the big challenge is to make sure that there is some way to make the goal measurable. As we know, a useful goal must be realistic, measurable, and put within some context of time. Both athlete and coach could establish all of these components with the goal with a little thought.
I would like to offer one last though about establishing a priority for the process over the traditional concept of outcome based evaluation. To put it simply, you as a coach have only 3-4 hours a day to spend with your athletes. What takes place in the other twenty to twenty-one hours of the day have a tremendous effect on determining the ultimate success of the athlete. Focusing on the process again will assist the athlete in making the right decisions when crucial times present themselves to the athlete.
It should be the goal of every coach to teach each individual athlete to someday become his or her own coach. It athletes, and coaches for that matter, are so hung up on the wins and losses, athletes have a little frame of reference to provide insight to solid decision making.
Assist your athletes in making good decision is a matter of practice. Each athlete should be encouraged. We have to understand as coaches that athletes won't always make the decision that we would like them to make. However, if we encourage athletes now, they will most likely will be able to handle difficult decisions when the tough times come, if they have had the experience in making some of their own decisions.
|
