PositiveSports.net

Survey finds limited awareness of concussion issue among coaches

A survey by Korrio and Axon Sports showed that 75 percent of 250 youth coaches surveyed were aware of sports-related concussions in youth sports, with 80 percent of respondents indicating their organizations have protocols for handling concussions in their athletes. However, 49 percent of them, according to the survey, were not familiar with baseline testing. 

“We were certainly encouraged by the high-level of concussion awareness, but with one in four coaches still professing a lack of awareness regarding serious brain injuries to young athletes, we believe there is still a lot of work to do,” said Korrio CEO Steve Goldman in a press release. 

Read the full National Soccer Wire article here.

Parental Expectations of Coaches: Closing the Communications Gap

By Steve Horan

 

Ask a group of coaches to identify their coaching challenges, and parent relations will probably show up on the list.  Ask a group of parents to identify their concerns about their kids in sports, and the issue of coaching is just as likely to be listed.  Parent / coach relationships are important because they can have a powerful impact on the positive development and performance of individual athletes and teams. Individuals and teams are much more likely to thrive when there is a positive culture of parent / coach relations.

One way to strengthen parent / coach relations is to seek understanding of what parents expect from coaches.  Candace Barton and Craig Schwartz of Montana State University conducted a combination literature review and parent survey to identify key expectations of parents for coaches.  They found the three things parents value most include:

• fairness and honesty in dealing with athletes
• commitment to the development of sportsmanship, and
• ability to teach well.

The researchers also found the three things parents value least include:

• commitment to winning
• improving a player’s chances to play at a higher level, and
• experience as a player.

Parents also shared important insights about how they evaluate the quality of communication and teaching by coaches. 

The study results provided important information for parents and coaches who aim to create the best possible environment for positive development of young athletes.  As a practical measure, it is a good idea for coaches to work hard at proactively communicating with parents about their coaching philosophy, views on sportsmanship, teaching methods, competitive goals, thoughts on athlete development, etc.  This will allow parents to make informed judgments about whether the program is right for their child. 

Coaches are also encouraged to invite parents to bring any significant concerns about their child's development to the attention of the coach.  This creates a culture of trust in which most issues can be effectively addressed with a good faith commitment to the good of the athlete from both parent and coach.

 Read a full summary of the study here... 

 

Emotional intelligence and athletic performance

The field of leadership studies has produced a wealth of research showing that individuals with high emotional intelligence are better equipped to perform as part of a team, especially in pressure situations.  Mathilde Clements, a psychologist with the South Australian Sports Institute, asks whether emotional intelligence can help athletes manage their emotions in competition, and whether coaches can actually help athletes develop emotional intelligence.  She provides a set of practical tips to help coaches help their athletes build emotional intelligence and improve their performance.  Parents can also adapt these tips into their parenting strategies.

Read the full article here...

 

 

Teaching Your Athletes How to Talk to Themselves

  Sarah Otey, PositiveSports.net

We all know that physical skills are essential for athletic performance.  What is less well known is that mental skills are just as essential. 

One of the most important mental skills is 'self talk', a term we use to describe the mental dialog athletes have with themselves about their performance.  We know from sport psychology that the athlete’s style of self talk is an important mediator between events that happen on the field and the athlete’s physical and emotional response to those events. 

Coaches and parents can help young athletes improve their performance and have a more enjoyable experience by teaching positive self talk as a fundamental skill.  Here are four steps to follow.

1. The first step in changing an athlete’s self-talk patterns is awareness.  Ask your athletes to keep a self-talk log on one practice day and one competition day.  Ask them to indicate their thoughts prior to, during, and following both practice and competition.
2. Identify, in their logs, irrational or distorted self-talk.  Examples of harmful self-talk include perfectionism (“I must do this perfectly”), personalization (“if I had made that play, we wouldn’t have lost”), blaming (“if it wasn’t windy, rainy, etc”), and one-trial generalizations (“I never play well at night”).  None of these examples of self-talk help the athlete improve for future performances, and oftentimes this negative self-talk may even impair performance.
3. Help your athletes replace irrational self-talk with more productive self-talk.  Athletes should be taught to identify when they are engaging in negative self-talk and encouraged to use a “buzz word” to stop those negative thoughts.  They can also be taught to change negative self-talk to informational self-talk.  Coaches and parents can achieve this by “countering assumptions”; demonstrate to the athlete why their negative self-talk is inaccurate (“you can’t say you never play well at night when we have only had one night game”). 
4. Finally, coaches can pair imagery with verbal cues to facilitate positive self-talk.  Ask the athlete to imagine certain on-field scenarios, and discuss possible responses to those scenarios.  Identify “buzz words” to remind the athlete to think positively and productively in response to certain situations.

Self-talk is an often overlooked but exceedingly important psychological skill for athletes.  Most young athletes are not aware enough to identify and overcome negative self talk on their own, so it is up to coaches and parents to teach and guide the process.

 

A Winning Edge: Emotional Intelligence for Coaches

By Steve Horan, PositiveSports.net

In 1998 Daniel Goleman published a groundbreaking article in Harvard Business Review titled 'What Makes Leader?'  In answering the title question, Dr. Goleman made the case that:

IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.

The original article (available here) was recently re-published in the Harvard Business Review's OnPoint periodical, and it still resonates. And what is true for leaders in general is just as true for coaches as leaders of young athletes. 

The Five Core EI Skills

 As summarized in the article, what distinguishes great leaders from merely good ones is emotional intelligence (EI).  EI includes a group of five skills that enable the best leaders to maximize their own and their followers' performance.  The EI skills are:

• Self-awareness - knowing one's strengths, weaknesses, drives, values, and impact on others
• Self-regulation - controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods
• Motivation - relishing achievement for its own sake
• Empathy - understanding other people's emotional makeup
• Social skill - building rapport with others to move them in desired directions.

EI Skills Applied to Coaching

As leaders of young athletes, it stands to reason that coaches can elevate their impact by developing strong emotional intelligence skills.  A good way to start is to do a quick self-assessment of our own EI skills, and pick one to work on starting now.  Here is a five-question self-assessment:

• Q1. (Self Awareness) Do I have a good idea of my strengths, weaknesses, drives, values, and impact on my athletes?
• Q2. (Self Regulation) How adept am I at controlling or redirecting my disruptive impulses and moods when I am involved in coaching?
• Q3. (Motivation) Why do I coach? How much am I motivated by winning as compared to enjoying he coaching experience for its own sake? Do I have the right balance?
• Q4. (Empathy) How well do I understand the emotional makeup and needs of my athletes? Do I take this into account in my relationships with my athletes?
• Q5. (Social Skill) Do I have a positive rapport with my athletes? Am I able to move them in desired directions?

Our answers to these questions can give us solid insight into our emotional intelligence as a coach.  As with any skill set, perfection is not an option.  The good news, as Dr. Goleman notes, is that we are each born with certain levels of EI skills, but we can strengthen these abilities through persistence, practice, and feedback from those around us.   Each of us has to decide for ourself whether EI skills are important enough to develop.  But the research is clear: leaders (including coaches) with strong EI skills are better able to maximize their followers' performance.

Thank you for promoting positive youth development through sports! 

   

7 Strategies to Help Your Athlete Be More Confident

  

In this article youth sports psychologist Dr. Patrick Cohn concisely defines some common causes of performance anxiety, and lists seven practical strategies parents and coaches can use to help their athletes be more confident.  The context of the article is hockey, but the strategies apply to every sport.

Click here to read the full article on on the Phoenix Coyotes Care website.

How to hold a 'crucial conversation' with an athlete, parent, or coach

By Steve Horan

From time to time in sports we find ourselves having challenging conversations with athletes, parents, or coaches.  The conversation might be about performance, attitude, playing time, proper development, modes of communication, or any other factor affecting the relationship between coach and athlete, coach and parent, or athlete and parent.  These kinds of conversations are never easy, but they need not be destructive if we use the right strategy. 

In their book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High,Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler provide a set of proven techniques for holding challenging conversations.  These techniques can help all of us involved in youth sports have productive conversations.  The techniques are summarized below using an example (based on actual events) of a parent starting a conversation with a coach about an athlete, but the same techniques can be used coach to athlete, athlete to coach, athlete to parent, etc.

Improved Coaching (and Parenting) through Emotional Intelligence

Author: Galli, Nick (University of Utah)

Source: Association for Applied Sport Psychology

Emotional intelligence is a trait of individuals who understand and utilize their emotions to be effective leaders. The more emotional intelligence a coach has, the more successful they will be as a leader for their team.  And the more EI we have as parents, the better we can support our athletes.  Nick Galli of the University of Utah explains five components of emotional intelligence and how to put them to work for athlete development.

Click here to view full article at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology's website.

Coaching Through Conflict: Effective Communication Strategies

Author: Hedstrom, Ryan PhD

Source: Association for Applied Sport Psychology

Resolving conflicts through effective communication is a key skill for any coach (or sports parent) to possess. This article by Ryan Hedstrom on the Association for Applied Sport Psychology's website provides four principles to follow for conflict management through communication, as well as some pointers of what not to do. This is an excellent article for the coach or parent aspiring to provide their athletes the most positive experience possible through sports.

Click here to view full article at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology's website.

Eight Tips for Communicating with Adolescent Athletes Immediately after the Game

Author: Lauer, Larry PhD

Source: Association for Applied Sport Psychology

A child's athletic experience is not only based on performance, but on the reaction and approval of loved ones. This article, from the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, provides some points to consider.

Click here to view article at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology's website.