Improve your coaching with these 8 practices

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.

  1. Reflect
  2. Read widely
  3. Read scientific journals
  4. Get a mentor
  5. Get a coach
  6. Uncover best practices
  7. Engage in mini experiments
  8. 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.

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John Forman

John is currently the Strategic Manager for Talent (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England. His 20+ years of volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries.

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