PROCESS OF FORMULATING A COACHING PHILOSOPHY:
WARNING!!! This is not an easy process!!! It takes time and critical reflection. At times during the process you may feel “exposed” or vulnerable as you are authentic with yourself, and reveal and discover your philosophy—a reason why this assignment is valuable. Do not leave this assignment until the last minute. My advice is to write a little bit each week as we cover the topics outlined below.
Critical Reflection skills you will practice throughout this assignment include,
exploring thoughts underlying feelings and feelings underlying thoughts
developing confidence in reason
refining generalizations and avoiding oversimplifications
developing one’s perspective: creating or exploring beliefs, arguments, or theories
questioning deeply
examining or evaluating assumptions
evaluating evidence and alleged facts
recognizing contradictions between values and beliefs and behaviors
START HERE:
Answer the questions below to write your coaching philosophy. Label each section (i.e., all the bolded headers above…self awareness, philosophy of life, leadership etc…). Your philosophy should be and will be graded based on comprehensiveness, and reflective critical thinking that demonstrates integration of course concepts (meaning I should be reading your philosophy and be able to tell if you took this course or not) and learning over the course of the semester. Integrating course materials is encouraged but you don’t need to “cite” (i.e. Wilkinson, 2014, Vealey, 2005). Name in upper right. Double spaced. There is no page minimum to this assignment but I would not write less than 4-5 pages double spaced.
It is not expected you will answer EVERY question, but you should have a thoughtful section for each BOLDED section below. The title of your paper should be your 5 word or less coaching philosophy. What is your philosophy summed up in 5 words or less? You will then elaborate/dive deeper into this philosophy throughout the paper but the phrase/words should be the title of the paper. Here is a quick video to give you some inspiration!
What is your philosophy of life?
Who am I? What do I want in life? Where am I going? What are my goals? Is my behavior consistent with my beliefs? Is my behavior driven “by the right reasons?” Am I proud or ashamed of who I am? Am I happy or unhappy? What are my core values? How do these values influence my coaching? Where did these values come from? Have I questioned by beliefs and are they working for me? What does an ideal coach look like? How far/close are you to matching that imaginary picture? Why do the gaps exist?
What is your philosophy of coaching?
Why do I coach? or Why do I want to coach? What level of coaching do I aspire to? What level of coaching fits my philosophy?
What do I get out of coaching?
Am I coaching for the right reasons?
What are my goals as a coach?
How do I define success?
What kind of climate am I, or do I, create or want to create for my athletes (mastery-ego)? What would they say about me? Do I regularly solicit feedback from athletes, and my coaching peers to help me be more effective?
What makes a good/effective/quality/credible coach?
What would make me a better coach?
What are you coaching objectives?
What kind of culture and climate do you create or want to create for your team and athletes? Is it mastery or performance based?
How important is winning to you?
How do you balance optimal athlete development and experience with winning/performance?
What role does athlete development (physically, emotionally, psychologically, socially) play into your objectives? How do you hope to accomplish athlete development?
Do you link your worth as a person with the wins and losses of your athletes? (if your team wins its because they had good coaching, if they lose-its your fault, you could have done more)
When it is all on the line, which is more important-winning or athlete well being?
What level and age athlete do you coach? How does the athletes’ developmental level dictate your objectives?
Leadership:
What style of leader are you? Are you power-over or power-with? Do you have a transactional or transformative style and why? What is your process of decision making? When and if do you involve athletes in decision making? How much voice do you give athletes? How much control and voice should athletes have and under what conditions? How do you balance developing rapport and developing respect? Are you an effective communicator? Do you feel it is important to be “close” to your athletes? In what ways? How do you develop your athletes’ or captains’ leadership?
How well do your project your real self to your athletes? How much are you willing to appropriately self-disclose to your athletes so they can know you? How do your athletes view you? (you can’t truly know this) Is important to you that you are liked by your athletes? Why? Which is more important to you- to be liked, feared or to be respected? How do your gain athlete respect and trust? Imagine yourself as the best coach you can be….what does that look like? What does your team climate look like? What do athletes leave your team with? What would they say?
What is your responsibility in developing your team’s/athletes’ character and sportsmanship? What is your process in teaching these concepts…what do you do (if anything)? Under what conditions does character develop in sport besides “modeling” from the coach?
Conclusion:
Write a couple of paragraphs about your experience writing your coaching philosophy. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about the aspects of effective coaching and the challenges of becoming a coach? Did you find the assignment this easy/difficult? Why or why not? Is this an important or worthwhile activity? Why or why not? Reflect on the process of writing your coaching philosophy.
