Background on Myself:*******
4 yrs. HS Varsity Bowling TeamGraduated 2012
Didn’t know what I really wanted to doCommunity College
Volunteered to be JV Girls Coach *found what I want to do for the rest of my life.
For me this is more than coaching. This is my legacy. I want everyone to remember me as the coach who built amazing strong programs with even stronger athletes. I want my athletes to look back at their time with me and think “this was the point in my life where I realized my potential as an athlete.” You see there are bad coaches, there are good coaches and then there are great coaches. But I think there is one more level beyond great coaching that includes those who leave behind legacies. And that’s what I want to do. I want to build my legacy. And to do that as a coach it starts with my athletes. Now, I can stand here and say that these few years volunteering as a coach were all I needed to persuade me to follow a career path into coaching but that would be a lie. ******
You see, 2 years after I graduated high school I was recruited to bowl for this small school called Olivet College and you might think Olivet College? Where is that even at? It’s about 30 min south of Lansing. A town so small we have only one stop light and our fast food is subway. I started looking into Olivet and realized there was no bowling program! How was I supposed to bowl with no program? I started talking to friends and family and the coach at Olivet and a plan started to form in my head. This was my opportunity to get back on the lanes and compete collegiately, before I began my coaching career. One thing I’ve noticed over my 3 years at Olivet is the differences between competing, then coaching and then moving back into competing. The mindset is completely different. I’ve caught myself a few times thinking “okay if I was coaching me what would I say right now?” getting the opportunity to compete again really solidified my decision to become a coach. I know what it’s like to be an athlete trying to motivate yourself and I know what it’s like to be a coach motivating your team. The balance between the two is what has sparked my curiosities about coaching the mental side of athletics. I’m now completing my senior year of college and will be graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in Sports Psychology while Minoring in Coaching.
I get lots of questions asking what is Sports Psychology because I’ve never heard of it. What I always tell people is I’m basically a counselor for athletes. I focus on the mental aspect of athletics versus the physical component. As I enter my last few months of college I’ve been asking myself what type of coach am I going to be? How am I going to teach my athletes the skills that I’ve learned over the years? Sports to me mean more than just winning. I want my athletes to be successful on and off the field. I also want my athletes to be confident enough in their own abilities that they won’t need me. And I know you’re thinking: “Bailey, that doesn’t make any sense. If your athletes don’t need you then you’re out of a job.” Fear not because I plan on coaching for a very long time. What I mean is I want my athletes to be self-reliant. I don’t want bowlers turning around to me asking how many boards to move their feet for every spare. I want my athletes to be confident in their own abilities and actions. So, how do we do that? How do coaches coach confidence? I started doing some research on this topic and came up with a few ideas on how we, as coaches, can build our athletes’ confidence levels through our own behaviors and actions. ********
OVERVIEW
What is Confidence?
Definition throughout my presentation this is the definition of confidence that I will be referring to.
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At the beginning of every season we as coaches lay out our expectations for the year. Usually, these expectations are universal for everyone on the team; however, as the season progresses our personal expectations of certain athletes develop.
I came across a paper written by MageauVallerland that described how coaches’ expectations can influence self-confidence in every athlete. Within their paper they explained that low expectations (from the coach) will result in low performance from their athlete.
When we as coaches watch or evaluate our players; we develop an expectation of what that athlete can accomplish within the season and beyond. This expectation that develops is sufficient enough and sometimes strong enough to change our behavior toward that individual athlete. Examples of coaching behavior manipulated by low expectations include:
Nagging small detailsemphasizing mistakes
Question commitment of athlete to team/sportignore successes
The perception of low expectations (from the coach) will begin to affect the athlete. This individual begins to adopt behavior that we would see common of a low-performance athlete. They know the bar is set low and instead of trying to reach past they settle for what is expected. ** Important to note within the context of their paper MagaeuVallerlanddescribe that despite the actual potential of the athlete the perception/expectation from a coach weighs heavier on behavior than their real potential ** Behavior of an athlete participating in a low-expectation setting include:
Feelings of “never being able to do anything right”no motivation
Fighting to prove worthpreoccupation with coaches opinion = distraction from task … they realize that they aren’t expected to do much so they don’t focus as much attention on the task at hand.
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In contrast to low expectation = low performance MageauVallerland concluded that a coach with high expectations will see high performance from that athlete. Again, this is regardless of actual potential for that athlete. Our high expectations toward an athlete can result in our behavior changing around that individual. Behaviorsof a coach with high expectations would include:
Increased amount of verbal communicationencouragement (V&NV)
Constructive criticismone-one help
These high expectations will influence the behavior of an athlete. Behaviors of athletes who participate in these high-expectation settings include:
Pride in accomplishmentsrelaxed approach to mistakes (more willing to learn from them) high confidence/motivation eagerness to be @ practice & put in time and effort
Expectations from both athletes and coaches can interfere with confidence and communication on both sides. We need to be aware of what our expectations are and how it may impact athletes. *******
Another study that was done compared coaches’ feedback and their athletes’ levels of self-perception (perceived competence, expectancy for success and self-confidence). As we give feedback our athletes will internalize the information and use it to evaluate their actions. 100 junior high softball players and 5 coaches participated in this study. The results yielded some interesting information. The effectiveness of coaching behavior depends heavily on the situation in which the behavior was given. Practice behaviors were more influential and important to athletes than game day behavior. This means that athletes are most likely paying attention during practice; even though some days I’m sure it does not feel like it. Our practice behaviors carry a lot weight with athletes more so than game day behaviors.
The second part to this study requested that the athletes rank themselves from most skilled to least skilled on the team. The players who were rated as having the most skill saw greater gains in their self-competence than those listed towards the bottom (as having little skill or ability). This is important because coaches’ positive responses’ were identified as negative behaviors toward competence. Constructive feedback from coaches was more positively associated with gains in competence. I’m not referring to a simple “good job” being bad. The study noted that praise in excessive amount was perceived as demeaning to low skilled athletes. A perfect example would be when a new bowler hit pins or keeps the ball on the lane instead of throwing in the gutter their coach may start yelling good job! Basically that coach is saying “good job you didn’t fail”. As coaches we tend to give our highly skilled players more constructive feedback than those perceived as having little skill. Low skilled athletes saw excessive praise as inappropriate and not helpful because the praise given carried little to no informational/constructive feedback. *********
So, let me ask you this. By a show of hands: how many of you have used one or more of these phrases in your career as a coach? WAIT Alright, so most if not all of us have said something like these. *********
READ FIRST BULLETwe need to make sure that we are giving all our athletes the same constructive feedback especially the athletes we perceive as low skill (freshman, new bowlers etc.) How do we make sure our feedback to an athlete is constructive so they don’t feel belittled or to keep things equal between every athlete? *********
There is a method called “The Sandwich Method” that was designed to improve performance through coaching feedback. We start with the bun which would equal our opening statement. We want to start feedback with a positive statement. READ HITTING MARK. The “meat of the conversation is the constructive feedback we want to teach the athlete. READ KNEES BENT. To finish the “sandwich” we end with another positive statement. READ FORM. By following this method we will have greater success with giving feedback to our athletes that will be more constructive and positive.
This method works really well in practice environments because we have enough time to work through every “layer”. During game situations there may not be enough time to go through this whole process. Simply going straight to the positive/constructive feedback will be okay. Things change so quickly during game situations that quick conversations are better to keep athletes focused on the current frame/game. Even though our feedback is verbal our athletes are going to pick up on our non-verbal (physical) behaviors. ******
Physical behavior has more influence than we realize. As coaches we use body language to communicate with our players and can even convey our emotions without having to say a single word. While displaying these emotions,through body language, athletes will perceive and interpret our behavior. ******** While watching and absorbing our behavior an athlete will try to recall if he/she has experienced/seen this behavior before. Whether or not an athlete is familiar with the given behavior he/she will interpret the meaning behind the gesture and react accordingly. After said athlete reacts to the physical behavior we as coaches interpret/evaluate our athletes’ reaction. If we like their reaction (deem it appropriate) we will continue to encourage and help the athlete. If we dislike the reaction we are givenwe will sometimes interpret the response as distrust or disrespect from the athlete. Most often this disrespect will result in punishment or an emotional wall will be built between us and athlete. This wall can prevent further encouragement which can result in low levels of confidence for the athlete.
This cycle of physical behavior, perception/recall and reaction was developed into a flow chart by Frank Smoll & Ronald Smith. Smoll & Smith have created a diagram that physically shows the relationship between a coaches’ physical behavior and their athletes’ reaction/interpretation. **********
Explain: coach behaves = athlete perceives/recalls = evaluate & react = coach perception of attitude = physical behavior
The cycle of communication between the coach and athlete happens quickly and we often don’t realize we are responding to one another. When we communicate with one another we “code” our messages with meaning. When I ask an athlete “did you hit your mark?” it’s a coded message of “did you do what you were supposed to?” the person receiving the message (in this situation the athlete) has to “decode” the message and answer/respond to the original message. Sometimes there are variables that interfere with how these messages are coded and decoded. To effectively understand each other’s messages we need to know what variables could interfere. These variables or interferences include:
The coaches’ individual differences
The athletes’ individual differences
The situational factors (circumstances of play)
Coaches’ Individual Differences:- Coaching goals/motives – every coach has different goals and motives. Sometimes these can interfere with communication
- Behavioral intentions – we as coaches behave in ways to help our athletes sometimes our intentions are not perceived the way we want them to be thus causing misinterpretations
- Instrumentalities – influence over entire team
- Perceived coaching norms/role conception – every area/school/program has norms for their coaches that may not be the same in other programs. Being around others who have different norms may result in perceptions being different
- Inferred player motive – as coaches sometimes we think players are part of the program for specific reasons. Sometimes our reasoning for a player being part of the team is not the same as their reasoning for being there.
- Self-monitoring – also known as self-awareness: being aware of our own actions while coaching
- Sex – men and women have different ways of communicating and that can interfere with perception
Athlete Individual Differences
- Age/Sex – male vs female and young vs older athletes all perceive things differently
- Perceived coaching norms – if any athlete has competed under the same style of coaching they will expect that type of coaching wherever they go. This can cause miscommunication if they move to another program or school where the coaching norms are different
- Valence of coach behaviors – emotional compatibility with coaching behaviors. If an athlete is more quiet they would not communicate well with an outgoing/loud coach
- Sport-specific achievement motives – some athletes expect to achieve certain accomplishments within sports arenas. Sometimes trying to achieve these goals will interfere with communication
- Competitive trait anxiety- trait anxiety is the athletes’ genetic traits regarding anxiety. This would be what they are predisposition to
- General/athletic self-esteem – how confident is an athlete in themselves on and off the field?
Situational Factors
- Nature of sport – some sports are fast paced, others physical and others mental all will change communication abilities
- Level of competition – younger athletes may not communicate as well as older athletes
- Practice vs. game – practice situations are more open to communication than game day situations
- Previous success/failure – previously succeeding or failing will impact the ability to communication effectively because emotions may get in the way if they are strong enough
- Preset game/practice outcomes – there may be specific outcomes that we as coaches want accomplished
- Intra-team attraction – how well does the team get along with one another?
What all of this boils down to is that perception of behavior is (coach or athlete) is more impactful than the behavior itself. ******
In order to assess athletes’ perceptions on selected/specific coaching behavior Kenow and Williams developed a Coaching Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ). This questionnaire uses 28 statements concerning five different aspects of coaching behavior and measures an athlete’s perception and evaluative reactions to both positive and negative coaching behavior. When taking the questionnaire the athletes rate the statement on a 1-4 scale (1=strongly disagree / 4=strongly agree)
READ PPT!!*****
Kenow & Williams put the CBQ into application. They assessed female basketball players from non-scholarship programs. The athletes not only completed the CBQ but also measured the athletes … read ppt
trait=genetic / state=situational / somatic=physical.Athletes who scored high in trait/cognitive anxiety and low self-esteem were more likely to perceive their coaches’ behaviors negatively.
Athletes who scored low in trait/cognitive anxiety and high self-esteem are more likely to perceive their coaches’ behavior positively.
Despite our actions being right/wrong every athlete will perceive our behavior differently. Athletes who have high anxiety (either genetic or situational) may need additional attention when it comes to communicating effectively. One time while I was coaching during my first year I had an athlete refuse to talk to me for an entire practice. I have no idea what had happened but there was no communication going on between us. Once practice was over I called this athlete over and asked them if I had done something to upset them? Immediately, this athlete broke down and said No! I thought you were mad at me because I did so bad a practice yesterday.” Now I’m really confused because not only was I not mad but this individual was shooting above their average the day before. I asked why do you think I’m mad at you. And you know what their response was? They said I waved at you in the parking lot and you didn’t wave back or say hi to me when we got inside. Okay, now I’m really surprised because I never saw them in the parking lot and we didn’t get a chance to say hi before practice began. Needless, to say lesson learned about behavior and perception. This athlete thought I was mad yet I was just going about my daily routine. As coaches we need to be aware of how what seems normal and passive to us may come off and anger or being upset because athletes will perceive it incorrectly. **********