My blog is about the different roles and responsibilities that coaches have in sports and the skills needed in order to be a successful coach. I will be using three successful coaches to help explain the components needed in order to be a successful sports coach.

Roles of a Sports Coach

• Teacher/Instructor
• Trainer
• Motivator
• Role Model
• Leader
• Innovator
• Friend
• Manager

There are many roles that sports coach has to fulfil in order to be a successful coach, however some of the main roles include being a role model, teacher, leader and a friend whether its to an individual athlete or to a team.

A successful coach needs to be a role model to the team or individual, a role model is someone who serves as a model in a particular behavioural or social role for another person to emulate. So in sport this would be showing that you have a positive attitude towards the team and others so that they imitate a similar behaviour within their sport, making them a better performer/athlete in the process. A coach would need to conduct themselves in a positive manner whilst with their athletes in order to provide an example of how they should behave. Another role of a sports coach is being a teacher, it is important for a coach to not only train their athlete but to also educate them about the sport and factors that play an important part within their sport. As a teacher you would pass on the knowledge you have on that sport and allow others to pass that information on themselves. A great example of a coach who displayed all of these roles during there time as a coach was Phil Jackson who was an NBA coach (Lakers), he not only taught his players respect, he also showed discipline and criticised his players after every game in order to help them improve. Jackson also lead them through a great season and won several titles during his career, his players looked up to him and one even became a coach after his playing career.

To be a successful coach you need to be a good leader, this role involves taking charge of a group and not only leading them but also helping them along the way by being supportive and encouraging. as a leader you need to take responsibility for your team or individuals actions, which is why a elite athletes tend to have a good leader who has had a positive impact on there behaviour and how they conduct themselves within their sport. The last role a coach plays that is one of the most important especially in individual sports is a friend. Not only does a successful coach educate and be a role model, they also play the role of a friend to an athlete, they are there if the athlete ever needs to talk whether its about the sport or something personal that may be affecting there performance. The coach will do the best they can to be supportive of the athlete and help in any way they can.

Skills of a Sports Coach

• Management
• Organisation
• Communication
• Teaching
• Analysing
• Problem Solving
• Evaluating

There are several different skills a coach needs in order to be successful, the ones i think are most important are communication, organisation and analysing. These skills help a coach be the best they can and these skills constantly need working on, meaning a coach is always getting better due to the increase of knowledge within specific skills.

A successful coach needs communication as it is one of the most important skills that both coaches and athletes need within sport. Coaches need to be able to direct athletes down a certain path and athletes need to be able to share their opinion with their coach, which is what makes it such a valuable skill. Communication is the basis of all skills especially in sport as it is a key understanding needed in order to have a successful athlete or team. For a coach another key skill is organisation because without it three are so many factors that can affect how you coach and how well your athlete or team perform based on the organisation of the coach alone. The coach needs to be prepared, for example a training session has to be planned out and has to have a particular focus based on the individuals/teams performance previously. If it isn’t planned then it can cause serious issues and have consequences on the athletes in the future due to performance and lack of improvement. A coach also needs to have good analysing skills because they need to be able to critique their athletes in order to make them a better player/athlete in the future. Without it athletes wouldn’t be able to improve and neither would coaches so it is a key skill for coaches to have in order to benefit the athletes performance in the future.