| Set an Example
Do you approach your work seriously? Do you show up to practice, film sessions, team and individual meetings on time and ready to go? Are you prepared for what you will be teaching? If you approach any instruction with a lackadaisical attitude, you cannot expect your athletes to do any differently. Like most students, athletes follow the lead of those they respect and want to learn from.
Give Clear, Precise Instructions
Hasty instructions often lead to confusion. Additionally, coaches will often assume that an athlete understands what they mean, when in fact an athlete may have no real idea what is going on, and they may be too timid to say so.
Be sure that you take the time to show your athletes what you mean. Too often the coaching jargon of our sports become so much a part of our vocabulary that we forget that not all of our athletes understand the language we speak.
Set Limits
Athletes rarely understand their own limits. They get caught up in the excitement of learning something new and want to keep working on it until they get it perfectly. However, the next day they are sore, or worse, they have injured themselves from overuse of a muscle. Often these overuse injuries won't show up for quite awhile. Overtraining can take place by simple overuse of a drill or by too many repetitions - not just by overall training.
Explain the Why
Learning for the athlete is often a dull, repetitious, and boring time. Strength training often adds pain to the boredom. Be sure that when you give your athletes an drill or exercise to practice that you explain why they are doing it and what you want them to learn from it. Not only does the athlete then understand the purpose of the drill, but they will often pick it up much more quickly because they are focused on the end result - what they are trying to achieve with the drill.
Reward Effort as well as Achievement
If your athletes feel that trying hard is important as achieving, they will be more inclined to work hard to achieve their goals. It will help them set a value on practice times, just as medals set a value on competitions.
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