Our last activity for the 2017-2018 year took place 10 days ago. The athletes will continue to attend lifting and some optional running sessions, however as far as the team is concerned, we are not in our off-season.
If you’re a coach involved with at the high school or university level, the word off-season may sound like an oxymoron. Between clinics, recruiting, season planning and conditioning programs, many coaches barely have time to catch their breath before a new season starts. No matter how active you are during the fall and winter, it’s important to make sure both you and your team are prepared for the upcoming season. Here are some thoughts from experience that might help you best use the off-season to rest and prepare. A coach’s willingness to use "last season" as a springboard for the next one says a lot about his or her commitment and dedication. Examine yourself and your team. How can you improve? Are you simply concentrating on game fundamentals, or do you take the time to build good character in your players? Good coaches are not focused just on skills and drills, but on opportunities for life lessons and character development in kids through sports. Personally, beyond wins and losses, I want to focus on the bigger picture, providing a great rewarding experience and always trying to view everything as a learning experience. One big aspect of the off-season is planning for tryouts as the new competitive season kicks off. It involves evaluating the current returning players, identifying the team's needs, what kind of new players do you want to add to the group, but also planning out the type of training session that will best allow you as a coach to evaluate the players individually and the team as a whole in a relatively short period of time. Let each candidate know what you expect up front, since most are already apprehensive about trying out. If you know a particular kid probably won’t make the team due to lack of conditioning, or some other factor, don’t be afraid to discuss it before tryouts. You’ll probably get more value out of an athlete who takes your feedback to heart and is faithful in coming putting in the training effort every day and show a real passion for the sport than one who doesn’t seem as interested or prefers another sport. The off-season is also the time to plan any equipment purchases that might be required. This can include team apparel to training equipment. Nothing creates a team identity than that moment when an athlete gets their kit. Having all the required items on time, shows that you as a coach are organized and prepared. The off-season is also a good time to plan how you as a coach will deal with situations that will undoubtedly arise during training camp and the season as a whole. If you use the past seasons as a learning tool, review details, memories and situations you might need to refer to in the future. It doesn’t have to be complicated, a little journal where you can jot down thoughts and notes. Take notes on how you handle a player’s performance during a practice, or what strategies worked and didn’t work in a game. The off-season is a great time to document your thoughts without the pressure of dealing with the time constraints of the competitive season. You will never be able to prepare for every eventuality and as a coach, one of your biggest strengths should be the ability to adapt quickly, however planning out how you want to deal with different situations will establish a foundation of your coaching style. One important aspect of planning forward is not to create an environment that is bogged down with hard rules which regulate every aspect. If you try and control every situation with predetermined rules and consequences, you limit your flexibility to manage situations which might have exigent circumstances. As an example, if your are a team that has fitness testing as training camp starts, and you set a rule that says " anyone not obtaining X on the fitness test Y will be barred from training", you might find yourself in a situation where your best player fails testing for a very specific situation ( like sickness) and now you find yourself having to either bar him or her from training, or breaking your rule which ultimately will affect your credibility. The off-season is also a good time to go over practice schedules, team rules, contact information, and other documents, and update as needed. Consider organizing all materials in a team handbook that can be distributed to players and other team personnel. Try and get out all relevant information to your athletes will in advance of their arrival for the first day or training. Give them the time and chance to review the material and come back with questions or comments. This will create a sense of shared involvement in creating the environment under which the athletes will train. The flip side of this of course is to demand individual accountability from each athlete. It is their responsibility to go through the team rules and expectations and prepare accordingly. For me, there is no frustrating response from an athlete than " I didn't realize that ..... " when they have been in possession of our team code of conduct for months. However, most importantly, just as players need down time to play another sport or allow their bodies and minds to rejuvenate, coaches should also recharge their batteries. Take some time to remember how much you love the game, how much you love the athletes you serve.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
January 2023
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