By Lindsay Reynen
Have you been asked to coach a sport that you don’t know much about? Maybe you are hesitant to get involved because you aren’t an expert in the sport you are being asked to coach. If the main goal as athletic educators is to increase participation and get more students involved in sports, we need to be able to offer a variety of individual and team experiences – but in order to do this, we may need to step out of our comfort zones and take a risk. Read on for some tips on how to create a positive learning experience for your athletes as well as yourself as you coach a sport you’ve never played.
Be confident
Open and honest communication with your team is important. You should be upfront with your players. Tell them that you are new to the sport and you are excited to take on a challenge. Does the team need to know you’ve never done a particular drill, or you don’t know the best strategy to use in every situation? Absolutely not. Do your research and then have confidence in your decisions. You will earn more respect from your athletes if you are purposeful and confident in your actions than if you constantly second-guess yourself. For example, let’s say you want to work on blocking in volleyball. If you ask experienced volleyball coaches what the best drill is for learning blocking technique, they will all give you slightly different tips and ideas. There is no one right way. Have confidence in picking the drill you think will work best and present it to your team.
Get online
You can find warm-ups, skill breakdowns, drills, strategies and more online. There is almost too much information – it can be overwhelming. Guidebooks can be helpful but looking at x’s and o’s on a page can be confusing. So, what’s the best approach? You can try watching YouTube videos. Watching athletes move across the playing area while listening to the coach’s directions will show you exactly how to implement the drill. Listening to the videos introduces you to the sport-specific lingo that goes with the sport. You’ll be able to tell your team to “shag” the volleyballs or complete a “fartlek” run. Slowly, as you watch the videos and plan your practices over the season, you will begin using this language without even thinking about it.
Browse the internet for practice schedules posted by other schools. It may not be exactly what you want to use but it will give you an idea of how to plan your season. When I first took on the cross-country team, I didn’t realize there were so many ways to practice running. After researching workouts online, I gained a better understanding of how to build a runner up using a variety of runs including hill repeats, tempos, long slow, interval, and race pace runs.
Find a mentor
Although you can find everything you need online, it can help to have an expert on hand to learn common training routines. This can be a retired teacher, graduated student, parent volunteer or a teacher from another school.
I was lucky enough to work with a retired teacher who came back to volunteer with the teams she used to coach. At the beginning of the season, she came to every practice and I observed and assisted. After practice, I recorded everything we did. The handover of the team was a smooth transition where I gradually took on more of a role until, I learned the routine. Once she felt I had a grasp of the training program, she came to practice only a few times a week. At first, the team members would always ask if the other coach was coming. It took some time for them to gain confidence in me. I had to prove to the team that I had the ability to lead them to success. Finding a mentor that can come to a practice here and there can be valuable to your development.
Keep in mind that it is important to find a mentor whose goal is to develop you as a coach. All too often, an expert coach will come in and take over the team. This will reduce the authority of the true coach. Choose your mentor carefully and make sure to communicate what you hope to accomplish together.
Rely on your leaders
Identity the players on your team that have participated in the sport before and have a good rapport with the team. Pump up your potential leaders and reward them with praise for leading the group through simple tasks such as warm-ups or tracking jersey numbers.
There are several benefits to encouraging leadership on your team: They will have your back in tense situations. They may say, “I think we’re out of rotation, maybe you should call a time out?” or “Jacob’s getting frustrated – he’s going to foul out soon!” Your leaders will also help take the load off you and allow you to concentrate on fewer tasks. Having a group of students set up the flags for the championship soccer game will give you the time to greet the opposing team and double check your line up.
Developing student leaders will help you raise team players that aren’t dependent on the coach. Your players will be able to think for themselves and use each other to problem solve. If a player is constantly looking to the coach for direction, they are not using critical thinking or teamwork skills to get through a situation. In this case, having a coach that doesn’t know everything about the game will make for stronger, more independent, confident players.
You’re the coaching pro
As teachers, we have all received years of formal education focusing on how to effectively manage children. You may feel intimidated taking on a team with experienced athletes but the chances are, the athletes don’t know as much as you think they do.
I was nervous about coming up with some effective basketball plays when I took on the senior boys’ basketball team. I thought the team would have a bunch of complicated plays they already used in previous years and they wouldn’t think mine were good. It turned out that they didn’t know a single play and were eager to learn. They completely soaked up everything I had to say. Students can tell when you are working hard and putting effort into the team and they respect you for that. You might not be able to do the skills you are having your athletes perform but you are the pro at teaching, encouraging, managing, organizing; you are a pro at coaching!
The next time you are offered the chance to coach a sport you’ve never played, consider taking on the role. Have trust in your ability to lead. Learn as you go. Not only will you gain confidence through tackling a new challenge, you will have given a group of young people an unforgettable experience.
