Coaching
Throughout my experiences in coaching, I have come to realize how challenging a job it is. Technical skills are required in order to teach players the proper way to play the game and interpersonal skills are necessary to have a close relationship with your players. This independent study has enabled me to be a part of the coaching team with Mo Harb for our school's junior girls' volleyball team. This summary will explain my experience as a coach from when I first met the girls during tryouts to the last game I coached them. The events the players as well as I went through will be described. How I coached and the important lessons I learned from being a coach are two other important points that will be discussed. I started off by first becoming knowledgeable about the sport itself, volleyball. To achieve this I talked to some volleyball players within the school and read about the rules and strategies of the game on the Internet. In order to learn how to develop athletes I took a National Canadian Coaching Program (NCCP) level 1 coaching course at Mohawk College for a few days. This course was quite beneficial, and working in groups improved my social skills. Finally I went to the "coach" meeting at Westdale High School to gath
So far during my coaching term, I have learned that coaching the right way does not necessarily mean your team must have an unbeaten record. It means that your players respect you, listen to you, and obey you, and that they will learn to play to their full potential. These are the greatest achievements any coach could want. I never put any pressure on the girls to win because I know that I am not coaching professionals, but rather to see the girls apply what I taught them in their competitive situations would make me really happy. I just want to see them make their best effort to try to learn more from me and from their own teammates. The lessons I have learned made my experience as a coach worthwhile. They will for sure be of great value to me in my future. In addition, during the practices, I would continuously communicate with the girls by constantly asking for their suggestions on how to improve their own strategy as a team and what they feel they should work on. For example, after our two losses against Ancaster and Westmount, I brought the team together to sit and identify the problems they had. They told me that they had a bad game and that no one was communicating on the court, that they needed more practice with their target bumping, and that they wanted constant encouragement when they make a mistake or a good play. This idea allowed the girls to be more involved and develop their own thinking habits, and allowed Mo and I to focus on what we needed to practice with the girls. In addition, during practices I would do my best to provide good corrective instructions. Sometimes I would pull the athlete aside and correct their mistakes either by a demonstration or by examples from other players to help them pick up the skill. For instance, when I saw one of the girls having trouble spiking the ball because it would deflect off her pinky finger. I went up to her and showed her another way to do it. Since she would spike with an open hand, I advised her to spike with a hard closed hand. Then I made her practice aside, spiking the ball on to the wall. Without a doubt, her spiking improved. However, sometimes some of the girls would take the criticism I give them personal, like yelling sarcastically, "I KNOW". As a result, I tried to put my words together the right way to prevent something like that from happening again. After many practices, the team was ready to play and compete, and I felt that t
Some common words found in the essay are:
Mo Harb, Ancaster Westmount, Westdale School, Highland MacDonald, , Mohawk College, Program NCCP, team mo, sometimes girls, mo harb, addition practices, girls team, junior girls', experience coach, forearm passing, spiking ball, lessons learned,
Approximate Word count = 1631
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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