How to be the best coach you can be…Diary of an Intern

Posted On Friday, 01st April 2011 at 06:51

Do you have aspirations to do something bigger, better or just different? I think to be a successful coach you have to have these aspirations.

These days it is very easy to get too comfortable within your job. Yet you can end up becoming ‘a product of the environment you work in.’ I believe once you’re in this mould it is very hard to break out, and many people don’t want to break out!

However I think to be a good coach you have to try and avoid this. I think the following qualities make up a successful coach:

• Be inventive/original
• Be experimental (don’t be afraid to try new approaches)
• Be a student (continual learning)
• Be an educator (passing on that knowledge)
• Be a communicator (be approachable)

Please feel free to add more qualities to this list! I also think good coaches need to continually question things; don’t just do something because the England coach does it!

Learning from the Best!

I recently attended the Active Devon coaching conference where I and the other excelsior interns were lucky enough to hear from some very experienced coaches including England Netball coach Maggie Jackson and Andy Jones – Tom Daley’s Coach.

One coach, Malcolm Cook from freeflow coaching was very interesting. He adopted a very logical coaching philosophy.

“Who knows your body better than yourself? No one so don’t instruct or tell people how to do skills, let them learn for themselves. This way skills will be remembered for a lot longer than just the hour long session they learnt it in!”

It was great to have the opportunity to hear from these experienced individuals.

A Little Millfield update!

For the field and track athletes that we train the season is just about to begin!

We have been working on strength and power during the winter months which should help the guys run faster, jump higher and throw further.

A little fact for you all ‘Did you know that no high jumper has ever been able to stay off the ground for longer than 1 second!’

I am lucky enough to be continually learning new coaching techniques and philosophies that I can actually apply at Millfield, helping me become a better coach.

Please add comments and you can also follow excelsior  and me on twitter and hear what we are thinking every minute of the day!

Fran Low