Coach links (14 July 2012)

In this update:  a coach’s legacy to a USOC archer,  gut vs data, four principles for the open world, how to get your group to become a team and coaching women.

USOC’s Brady Ellison talks about his coach

USOC

Coaches often have a highly significant impact on the development of young athletes, but rarely does this get recognised in meaningful ways. In this short video the US Olympic team show that they understand and value the impact good coaching can have at the early stage of any athlete’s journey.

Gut vs. Data: How Do Coaches Make Decisions?

Sloan sports conference

If you have a spare hour and are really interested in comparing the relative value of intuitive coaching as opposed to databased systems then pull up a chair. This video from the Sports Analytics Conference in Boston earlier this year examines the interesting issue of “Gut feel vs Data – how do coaches make decisions?”

Identifying Excellent Coaching Practice along the Sporting Pathway

In New Zealand we long ago recognized the importance of adapting the style of coaching to match the development needs of the athlete being coached. But what does best practice coaching look like at each development stage? This piece of recent research into hockey in the UK (in PDF) examines what excellent coaching practice looks like at various stages along the coaching pathway.

Don Tapscott: Four principles for the open world

TEDtalks

One of the main challenges facing sports coaching today is how it adapts to such a rapidly changing world in terms of both technology and the way new generations think and act. Don Tapscott presents an uplifting and thought provoking insight into how these changes can be harnessed in a positive way for the world in general and it is interesting to think how these insights could affect sports coaching.

Coaching Myth Buster

Sports Coach UK

Want to understand more about how to coach women? This interesting article is part of the UK Coach ‘Myth Buster’ series that helps set aside some of the fact from the fiction.

How to get your group to become a team

ASC

Experienced coaches clearly understand how important team culture is but for many beginner coaches it is a bit of a mystery as to why some teams form into cohesive units while others remain disparate groups of individuals.  Matti Clements of the Australian Sports Coach provides some very practical and easy to follow guidelines to building a team.