Criteria and Advice for Managing
SA Schools Squash Teams
SA Schools Squash will look for a manager who is a qualified coach (ideally level 2, but level 1 may be considered). All appointments will be made by the SA Schools Squash Executive with input from the selectors.
Managers need to get on well with juniors and with other people, and also need to know the players. So they need to have managed at IPT’s and also attended several junior tournaments.
Managers have to understand the players and their needs well. Players must have confidence in their managers in order to relax and focus on their own responsibilities
Below is a list of what a player should expect from his/her manager.
Philosophy As a manager you should do everything in your power to ensure that the players are able to perform to their full potential during a tournament. It is not the managers who compete, but they have to ensure the optimum environment for a player to achieve.
Attitude
A positive attitude from a manager is always good for team morale as it puts the player at ease and gives him/her confidence in your abilities. If a manager has a positive attitude, it pervades the team environment and contributes to an environment in which players are comfortable and where they want to do well in the team competition, not only for themselves but for the team. If you are confident in your ability as a manager, the players will relax and concentrate on the tournament. If you are not confident or positive, the players will pick it up very quickly and will tend to avoid you.
Accessible
Always be accessible and approachable to your players.
An approach of “my way or the highway” is not appropriate and indicates that you are not listening to the players and that you do not take them seriously.
Try to be with your players as often as you can, but be careful not to smother them or give them the impression that you are “Big Brother or Sister.”
If you have to be away from the team for any reason, make sure you are contactable should any urgent matter arise with a player during your absence.
-1-
Take all the players’ problems seriously and try to deal with them - or bring in someone who can assist you in dealing with them.
Try to get to know your players as well as you possibly can so that you can find out who they are and what makes them function to the best of their ability.
When doing room lists, try to put compatible players together as problems can arise when players dislike their roommate and this could cause friction and lead to a player not being unable to perform on the court.
Be open to suggestions from players and always have two way communication.
Confidence
Be confident in your ability. If you are not confident, you cannot expect your players to be confident.
Know what needs to be done - by whom and by when
Know all the rules of the tournament in case a protest arises.
Know the process for doping control and offer to accompany an athlete, particularly one who is competing internationally for the first time.
Remember knowledge is power and can mean the difference between victory and defeat for a player and a team.
Communication
Always keep the players up to date with the latest news and happenings as players do not like to be kept in the dark – both before and during a tour.
Make sure that a player is happy with all his/her kit and that it fits well ahead of your departure.
Regular meetings should be arranged during the tour to discuss the programme for the day (or next day).
Try to have meals together as this helps to build team morale and will make your job as a manager easier.
Discipline
There is a very fine line between being a disciplinarian and a dictator.
Set rules with the players and agree to them collectively – they must apply to players as well as to management.
Be very strict with players who deviate from the rules.
Treat all your players the same when it comes to discipline. i.e do not treat a medal hopeful differently from a player who is not expected to win a medal
Never discipline a player in front of other players.
-2-
Free Time
Let your players relax if there are any rest days as it is good to get away - especially on a long tour with little privacy.
Make sure you know where they are going and be contactable.
A curfew works well. Pre-arrange and agree curfews with the players.
Remember that every player is different and you will get players that are loners and do not like to be part of the group all the time.
Understand individual needs and communicate them to the team and give those players the space they need within reason.
Organizational Skills
Go through the tour schedule with your players – if possible before departure.
Communicate times of departure, what to wear and when
Give responsibilities to different players if you do not have a big management team without this becoming a burden or a distraction.
Inform the players of a practice or training schedule.
Inform the players of the tournament schedule.
Ensure that everyone knows of important meetings.
Inform the team of important phone numbers.
Advise on activities for any free time.
Preparation
Make sure that the players are prepared for the upcoming events and where they are travelling to - language, culture, currency, food, cost of things relative to SA, weather, safety issues and sightseeing, etc.
Problem Solving
Try to foresee problems that may arise as players will look at you to sort out all the problems before they happen – so expect the unexpected.
-3-
Respect
Players want to be treated with respect. In turn they should treat you with respect.
Make sure through all your communication and other dealings, you carry this through. If you are having a bad day, do not take it out on the players.
Ensure that you also respect the tournament and convey this to your players as they must know and respect their opposition at all times.
Support
You are there as support for the players.
Make sure that you have everything in order for their tournament - their event times, practice times etc.
If there is doping control go with the player should they ask you to.
Be available to be with your player if there are media interviews after an event,
Get to know your players and put them at ease as soon as possible and understand their particular situations so you can deal with them on an individual basis.
Respect for persons
The most important thing is to treat others with respect and dignity.
The player has a moral obligation to show respect for his/her team mates, competitors from other clubs, managers, coaches, trainers and club official. This duty includes following the manager’s and coach’s rules.
A player who is continually late for practice and/or for meetings and/or departure times can have no cause for complaint if disciplinary action is taken against him/her.
A player has a moral duty not to not to say or do things that will degrade another, humiliate another or exploit another simply for his/her own purposes.
To show respect for others means that one accepts that one is part of a ‘community’ in which each person will be treated honestly, fairly, impartially and courteously.
The idea of “respect for persons” also applies to the coaching staff, trainer, team doctor, team manager, and other officials within the ‘team’.
A manager must apply one set of rules to the whole team – not just the ‘stars’.
A team manager who yells at and humiliates players (sarcasm, vulgarity, sexual innuendos etc) would not be showing the players respect.
In short the keys to the concept of respect are the twin notions of moral duties to others and moral duties to oneself.
Competing doing one’s best and winning are an integral part of the legitimate aims of sport. But these aims have to be achieved within the parameters set out and not at the expense of showing respect for oneself and for others.
-4-
The common good
Any code of ethics in sport should reflect the common good. This ethical position holds that the best community is the one in which the general welfare of all is maximized. That is what all individuals strive for, to make the community the best it can be.
Squash benefits from producing well developed players. Well developed individuals are the type who obtain good jobs, contribute positively to society, have integrity and possess the skills to function well in our increasingly complex society.
The common good is improved when the players learn (through clean, fair, vigorous competition and training) the value of doing one’s best and winning.
It is also desirable that players learn to play as part of a team, to make self sacrifices, not to think selfishly, to consider others and to appreciate the value of appropriate rules and discipline.
Sport can help individuals from diverse backgrounds to become bonded to one another and to form a feeling of community for the common good. The emphasis here is that sport itself, pursued with the guidance of morally sensitive coaches and managers, can be a strong motivating force in convincing players to take their professional preparation seriously.
Virtue and Integrity
Sport systems and society need citizens to be virtuous and to be persons of integrity.
This aim will promote the common good because the virtuous person will provide a role model toward which other people will aspire. Coaches, team managers and teachers and sport directors have a special responsibility towards players.
Good sporting competition teaches players a number of virtues.
Coaches, Trainers and players who play hard, but fair and clean, act in accordance with the following virtues:
Sport teaches the virtue of courage: it is not for the timid.
It teaches the virtue of self control. The player in self-control is a better player and a better person, and so is a self controlled coach a better person.
It teaches the virtue of generosity. The team manager or coach is often required to give of their time and energy, without due remuneration.
It teaches the virtue of honesty. A player should tell the coach when the pain is unbearable.
It teaches the virtue of friendliness. If one is to be successful in sport one must develop a cordial relationship with teammates and coaches.
-5-
It teaches the virtue of loyalty to the team, the coaches and manager(s).
It teaches the virtue of justice. One must play within the rules, be fair to opponents, and treat all persons with integrity.
It teaches the virtue of self sacrifice. Sometimes one must sacrifice individual achievement for the good of the team.
It teaches the virtue of humility. The opportunity to compete for one’s country/province is an opportunity for which a player should be thankful.
It teaches the virtue of community. Individuals should be in a society together, to make it work. An athlete who handles him/herself well in a team should do well in society.
As a manager, ask yourself these questions:
Am I treating each individual with respect?
Would we want to be treated the way we treat others
Would we want our child to be treated like we treat our players?
What are your goals and priorities?
What are you trying to achieve
Try to be aware of your values and how important each one is to you.
Try to understand what is motivating your behaviour
Why are you punishing, rewarding, ignoring, encouraging etc.
Then consider whether your motives are ethically justifiable.
Publicity for your team may be desirable, but in the hierarchy of values it cannot take precedence over honesty, protecting the health of your players, etc.
Are your means of accomplishing your goals justifiable?
Remember that the ends do not always justify the means.
Winning may be an acceptable goal but that does not provide blanket justification for any means of winning.
Your actions affect the development of players.
Coaches and managers should remember they are role models.
Their task is partially to help educate and shape the character of their players.
They should always consider the long term impact of their actions on the development of their players.
-6-
What kind of role model are you?
Actions speak louder than words.
Merely presenting lessons but acting in disregard of them is hypocrisy, and players readily discern and disdain that.
Do you use rules?
Do you enforce them?
Do you apply them fairly and consistently?
Do you advocate them?
Is your discipline fair?
Do you discipline consistently?
Are you too lenient or too harsh?
Are you biased or prejudiced?
Do you use rewards?
Rewards are more effective than punishment in controlling behaviour
Try to use rewards generously but appropriately
Try to be fair and unbiased
Are you adequately concerned about possible physical harm to your players?
Is their physical well being of significant concern to you as a manager?
Protecting the players’ health should be one of your main concerns
Take adequate precautions in training, practice, games and monitoring symptoms that players may or may not tell you about.
Do you place too much emphasis on winning?
Are you willing to risk injury to your players in order to win?
Are you willing to risk permanent disability?
Is rule breaking acceptable?
What about cheating?
REMEMBER -TEAM FIRST, TEAM SECOND and THEN THE TEAM.
-7-