A fellow coach and blogger shared a piece by Dan Abrahams, who is a sports psychologist. It’s a list of “8 practices that may help to improve your coaching”. Here are those eight items in brief.
- Reflect
- Read widely
- Read scientific journals
- Get a mentor
- Get a coach
- Uncover best practices
- Engage in mini experiments
- Put (bio)psycho-social first!
Dan fleshes out each of the eight, so I encourage you to give the full article a read.
I’d like to take a moment to focus on #7 here. My feeling is that coaches don’t do enough experimenting. It’s too easy – and less scary – to just stick with standard practices. And admittedly, as #6 notes, we should have an understanding of best practices. Within that framework, though, there is room to experiment. Doing so offers us the opportunity to learn things about our players, our teams, and even ourselves.
