Showcase of Graduate Work

Coaching is teaching, just not in the regular classroom setting. Coaches are instructing and developing athletes on the playing surface just like teachers are instructing in the classroom. During this assignment our instructor wanted us to create a digital learning environment. We had to use technology to teach our lesson through storytelling. This assignment was very interesting to me because it put into perspective that there are many different ways to teach your students or athletes. Some athletes are visual learners and some are audio, during this project I was able to combine both of those and give some valuable feedback.

Providing feedback to athletes or students can be challenging, especially because all individuals have different ways of learning and comprehending information. Often times coaches will use images or videos of professional athletes (or athletes performing a skill correctly) to help showcase a particular skill or movement. Throughout my graduate courses, I continually worked on improving the way in which I provided feedback.

Up until this point I have never had to think about my role as a coach. What did I want to accomplish as a coach? I learned that as a coach I wanted to teach, mentor, and educate my student-athletes. How would I do this? I would need to encourage my student-athletes through hard work, dedication and teamwork. Developing my role as a coach was something that really made me think about what I wanted accomplish not only for me but more importantly for my student-athletes.

Coaching is not all about the X’s and O’s, there are also administrative issues that go along with the job. Legal and administrative issues for coaches allowed me to think about scenarios and how I would handle them as a coach or administrator. Along with what steps I would implement to make sure that the scenario(s) wouldn’t happen again. Administrative issues are things that coaches don’t necessarily think about when taking the job yet they are constantly involved with them.

Creating a flyer for an open tryout was very interesting to me. Not only did I have to think from a coach’s perspective but I also needed to think from a medical and administrative outlook. As a coach, you need to know very little personal information about an athlete but from a safety standpoint; you need to know all of their medical information. Creating an open tryout helped me take my coaching hat off and look at a tryout flyer from an administrative and legal point of view.

Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport

What's your role as a coach??

Below I have provided a brief overview of work that I have completed within my graduate program to further showcase how my course work has influenced my professional career. My graduate studies had a focus on sports leadership and coaching, as this information would correlate directly with my professional career working in intercollegiate athletics. My showcase has been organized into three categories: Coaching, Administrative Operations, and Educational. These three categories are major groups that make up intercollegiate athletics.

Athletics is surrounded by legal and administrative issues. Which not all of these issues have a clear, right from wrong answer, and intent often plays a big part in negligence during athletic events. This assignment challenged me to find out if there was any intern or negligence committed during the injury. These intent or negligence scenarios make you question your moral obligation and also what you believe is right from wrong. Intent or negligence issues were very eye opening for me because it is difficult as an administrator to judge someone’s intent during an athletic contest.

Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches

Tryout Flyer

Trashed Locker Room

Intent and/or Negligence

Coaching

Administrative Operations

Educational

As a coach, you sometimes expect your athletes to know or understand a certain term, key word or aspect of the game. While often times they do not understand what you are explaining or talking about. Knowing that not every athlete’s knowledge of the game is the same, allowed me to look at how I was instructing and teaching these skills. I was able to breakdown every aspect of a fundamental basketball shot to provide detailed yet comprehendible instruction to my athletes.

Fundamental Shooting

Administrative Operations

Educational

Coaching athletes is just more than the X’s and O’s on the playing surface. These athletes need to understand their bodies and what they put into them. Recovery and nutrition are big factors in athletics and developing players. In class, we completed two different assignments where we needed to make handouts for our athletes and their parents. The first handout was on recovery and nutrition, what an athlete needs to put into his body before, during, and after competition. The second handout was information on supplements. The pros, cons, and nutrition about supplements in an athlete's diet.

Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches

Photo Credit: https://library.uoregon.edu/node/3144

Photo Credit: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/01/nutrition-month-2013_n_2784552.html

Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches

Recovery Nutrition

Supplement Handout

Physical Bases of Coaching Athletes