Assessing Your Communication Style

1. Assessing Your Communication Style • This exercise will help you explore and think about how you are delivering messages to your athletes. Circle the appropriate letter for your personal communication style.Use the following code: • Always……..(A) • Often………(O) • Sometimes. (S) • Never……..(N)

2. As a coach I: • A O S N Clearly state what I mean. • A O S N Act in a way which shows that I believe (or mean) what I have said. • A S O N Know what messages I transmitted. • A S O N Communicate a consistent message from day to day. • A S O N Communicate a different message in different situations (from practice to game)

3. As a coach I: • A O S N Allow for open give and take communication with my athletes. (coach to athlete & athlete to coach) • A O S N Listen well and understand the messages of others • A O S N Encourage athletes- to coach communications. • A O S N Draw out athletes feelings on various issues.

4. As a coach I: • A S O N Check to find out whether my intended message gets through to my athletes. • A S O N Am aware of the effect of my gestures and the use of my body language. • A S O N Work to ensure that my body gestures are in harmony with my words.

5. SEEING YOURSELF AS YOUR ATHLETES SEE YOU • WINNING • How do you feel when your teams wins? • What do you say? • What message (s) might the athletes pick up from your feelings and actions? • Are they getting the message (s) you want them to get? • How can you be sure they get the constructive message you’d like them to get?

6. Losing • How do you feel when your teams wins? • What do you say? • What message (s) might the athletes pick up from your feelings and actions? • Are they getting the message (s) you want them to get? • How can you be sure they get the constructive message you’d like them to get?

7. Mistakes • How do you feel when your teams wins? • What do you say? • What message (s) might the athletes pick up from your feelings and actions? • Are they getting the message (s) you want them to get? • How can you be sure they get the constructive message you’d like them to get?

8. Competition • How do you feel when your teams wins? • What do you say? • What message (s) might the athletes pick up from your feelings and actions? • Are they getting the message (s) you want them to get? • How can you be sure they get the constructive message you’d like them to get?

9. Coaches & Athletes must devise accurate means of measuring performance. The means of measuring performance must be clearly understood by your athletes for two reasons: If your athletes do not know how their performance is to be judges, how can the athlete know what direction to move. Your athletes must take equal responsibility for analyzing performance as their coach because this develops an internal locus of control which enhances self concept & motivation. 9/2/2014 9

10. Keep the sport fun for both you and your athletes! 9/2/2014 10

11. Coach’s Questions • Why are some athletes motivated and others unmotivated? • How do we motivate our athletes to be the best that they can be? • What are the two important needs of athletes: • To have fun & To feel worthy

12. How Winners Think 1. Success-oriented athletes- use failure to increase their motivation to try harder. 2. Success-oriented athletes take credit for success & accept responsibility for failure.

13. How Losers Think • Failure-oriented athletes attribute failures to lack of ability. • Failure-oriented athletes attribute success to luck or to weak opponents. • Failure-oriented athletes feel powerless to change their plight.

14. Teamwork • Mutual agreement to combine and unite for a common cause • The merging of one’s person’s talent with another’s in a project that is jointly accredited • Marked by exceptional unity, solidarity, collaboration and allegiance • Slang: close ranks, join forces, band together, stand together

15. Teamwork Is the collective talents of many individuals, working together toward a common goal

16. Great teams are made up of athletes who have given up their quest for individual glory, who have willingly and wholeheartedly accepted the character traits of a team player and who have fully committed themselves to the group effort. This is a coach’s greatest legacy

17. Teamwork “Coming together is beginning; Keeping together is progress; Working together is success.”

18. Teamwork One part of a machine cannot possibly produce a worthwhile product or result. All parts working together, however can produce unbelievable results.

19. Teamwork • When gifted team dedicates itself to trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, it is ready to climb to the top.

20. Nobody trips over the mountains. It is the small pebbles that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

21. When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

22. The greatest oak tree was once a little acorn who held its ground.

23. Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. ~ Newt Gingrich

24. It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. ~Albert Einstein

25. Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.

26. Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

27. Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. ~Robert Schuller

28. Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~ William Feather

29. You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all. ~J. Askenberg

30. Never, never, never, never give up. ~Winston Churchill

31. You are never a loser until you quit trying. ~Mike Ditka

32. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Edison

33. Fake it till you make it!

34. Perseverance is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired, you quit when the gorilla is tired. ~ Robert Strauss

35. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. ~ Margaret Thatcher

36. A jug fills drop by drop. ~ Buddha

37. Determination and perseverance move the world; Thinking that others will do it for you is a sure way to fail. ~Marva Collins

38. Season Expectation Worksheet-parent Your son’s or daughter’s participation in the school’s athletic program should be a great educational and developmental as well as a great experience. At the beginning of this , it is most helpful for the primary stakeholders in the athletic program- coaches, students and parents- to have an understanding of each other’s expectations. 9/2/2014 38

39. I have put together this worksheet for you to use to discuss your expectations with both your students athlete and your Coach. The athletes are completing a similar worksheet. Our partnership together will increase the likelihood of successful season, regardless of the final win/loss record of our team. I also ask you to note any other expectations, goals or questions you have on the reverse side of this form. COACH_________________ 9/2/2014 39

40. Expectations for your athlete and this season 9/2/2014 40

41. Expectations for your athlete and this season 9/2/2014 41

42. Expectations for your athlete and this season 9/2/2014 42

43. Expectations for your athlete and this season 9/2/2014 43

44. Stress Education Academics First! You should emphasize teaching first and foremost, both in the classroom and in the athletic arena. You should stress the value of education and athletics as an important part of your programs and later in life. 9/2/2014 44

45. Being Honest Being respectful and truthful, honest, and caring about your players should be a priority. 9/2/2014 45

46. Being Loyal To your coaching staff, athletic program, administration, your school, and most of all your players. 9/2/2014 46

47. Be Organized Neverbe outworked. Hard work and organization build confidence. Have objectives and goals, and point your program in that direction. Preparation time is essential for a successful program. Do not waste time in practice. Have a plan-know what you are going to teach your players. Keep abreast of new techniques- clinics, camps, magazines, etc. 9/2/2014 47

48. Maintain Discipline Good discipline is essential, but rules and their consequences must be consistent and with sound basis, and publicized. On the court/field, demand the attention and effort of your players-yet realize and be sensitive to their individual differences. Earn respect; don’t demand it. 9/2/2014 48

49. Set a Good Personal A Example Discourage any type of un-sportsmanlike behavior by your coaching staff or players. Act and dress in a way that represents your school and program with class & respect. 9/2/2014 49

50. Be Enthusiastic and Positive Talk about your players and program in positive terms. Accent the positive; correct the negatives with positives. 9/2/2014 50