Family Members, Your Biggest Critic:

As a coach of a sports team, there are many challenges you will face with your players. Teaching the athletes fundamentals, preparing for a big game, and effective practices are the major obstacles but one of the toughest challenges can be communicating with family members of your players if it is not approached the correct way.

Some things to consider when first communicating with family is that they will always see their family member with a little bit of an opinion on how good of an athlete they are, and they will be very protective of that person. Because of this view, things can get a little tricky, especially in a sport that is more focused on the team as a whole. Proper communication is necessary to keep the peace so to say; minor issues can become a huge problem if they are not effectively approached.

Communication between family members should begin at the beginning of the season, there should be meetings that include family members just so they are not left out of the picture, after all they do have a big part in your athletes life. In these meetings, you should always go over team rules, your coaching philosophy, team goals, and outline the practice and game schedule. It is very important to get this out on the table in the beginning of the season to prevent any misunderstanding of what will be expected of your players. Also at the ending of this meeting you should always open up to questions that family members may have, because any issues should be resolved immediately!

During the season there will always be common issues with play time, publicity, and injuries so be prepared, and give a rational answer as to why something is occurring never leave people out in the dark about these things, there is a need for a common understanding among everyone. My suggestion is not to discuss any of these topics immediately after a game because emotions will always be at their height, especially after a loss, before or after practice is ideal.

In the end just remember that YOU ARE IN CHARGE, and you don’t have to change anything to accommodate to others demands, however you should listen to what family members have to say and always know what you stand for, communication is key!

Effective Communication Between Players and Coaches

Communication is a key factor in the success of any sports team. However, many coaches still don't use effective communication when speaking with their players. Most of the time it's just a simple good job or well done and if the athlete does something wrong the coach will yell at the player until they do it right. Effective communication isn't all about screaming at your players until they do it right in fear of you screaming at them again. A big reason why coaches don't communicate well with their players is because they usually don't show any respect when telling a player they've done something wrong. I believe, that if you take them aside and calmly tell them what they did wrong and how they can correct it you will receive a much better result. Also, be aware of your body language. Starring at someone, putting your hands on your hips, and even pointing your finger at a player will almost always generate a negative response. However, don't be afraid to use your hands when communicating with a player, try to paint a picture in their mind of what you would like from them. With these helpful hints in communication I believe you and your team will communicate much more effectively and effective communication between players and coaches spells victory for any team.

Coaching Strategies

Coaching is an activity that enhances overall organizational performance by helping others identify, understand, and leverage their strengths to achieve results. Done well, coaching can turn performance management into a collaborative process that benefits everyone and helps individuals contribute fully to the success of the organization.
As a group we must explore the benefits of effective coaching strategies, and identify their unique behavioral strengths and how they can be leveraged in a coaching situation.

Moral Boosting Techniques For Your Team

Their are thousands upon thousands of coaches in the United States, but only a small portion of those coaches really understand how to bring out their teams maximum potential. One of the most over-looked techniques coaches can use to motivate their teams is to have individual conversations with players discussing how they can improve their style of play. This will not only get the player to work harder during training, but will also assist in improving the overall team moral.



Individual Player Meetings


Having individual player meetings is by far most important aspects to motivating your players. The meeting will improve your relationship with the player and build trust. Gain the players trust by asking questions that are not related to your team which will ultimately make you both friends. Once you have the players trust, you can discuss how they can improve the quality of their play. Don't out right say what they are doing wrong, but what areas of their game they can use to help the team's overall play.



The best coaches in the world have said that having a good relationship with their players individually was one of their main goals to help their teams play. When all their players were happy with their relationships with the coach, the overall play of the teams drastically went up.



Ask the player's opinion



The next way to conduct the player meeting is to find out what the player thinks needs to change with the team. Do not guarantee any changes to be made, but re-assure the player that their remarks will be taken into great consideration. By hearing from every player what they think could be handled differently with the team helps you to improve their moral because you have listened to their thoughts. Also, their thoughts could point out an aspect of someone of the team or a strategy that was possibly over-looked. With these techniquess in mind, you can drastically develop and enhance your teams play and moral which is the goal of any top coach.

Steroid Use in Professional Sports

Regardless of the potential punishment for steroid use in professional sports, numerous athletes are still choosing to use steroids for one reason, steroids do work and they do increase the athletes abilities by a noticeable amount. The increase in an athlete's strength and endurance is exactly why there is a ban on the use of steroids.


Although steroids are still being used in professional sports today, there has been a substantial decrease in the amount of athletes that use them. This is mostly due to the random drug testing that almost all professional sports now administer. Another reason is the stipulations that come with using performance enhancing drugs, such as monetary fines, the scrutiny received from peers and fans, and not to mention a lifetime ban from professional sports. Take Barry Bonds for example, he chose to take steroids and now he is under federal indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice.


It's true, steroids or performance enhancing drugs can increase your strength, stamina, and overall appearance in a short amount of time but the risk taken by anyone who takes them is far greater than the short term reward. The possible legal stipulations along with the symptoms steroids and other performance enhancing drugs bring should be reason enough for professional athletes to not even think about taking steroids. Yet professional athletes still choose to use performance enhancers and in the world of professional sports, steroids and performance enhancing drugs will probably never be gone.

Team Building in Sports

Team building is a difficult thing to achieve among many athletes and it is up to the coach to make sure that there is effective communication on and off of the playing field. A good coach will clarify the objectives of the team and responsibilities of each team member. They will identify the problems that are currently preventing the team from accomplishing their goals. Also they must be the base for the development of open, honest relationships between team members that are based on the trust and understanding of one another.

In sports orginizations such as the NFL, there are several different ways that the coaches help build a stronger team. The team has regularly scheduled practices, with a training camp in the off season, they also have team meetings/briefings during practices. Some coaches and even players encourage team building through different charaitable orginizations, for example some NFL teams work with The United Way and they will go to various community elementary and middle schools and read to students throught the NFL Cares program.

Team building techniques in sports can help teams increase structural and group dynamics, and ultimately their performance. If used the right way, team building can be a powerful tool to enhance team effectiveness within a team and between teams, it can affect an entire orginization.

The right way to communicate during the recruitment process

Being a college coach of any particular sport you must know how to effectively communicate with potential student-athletes. The student-athlete may be hindering on two different schools and proper communication techiques could help sway their decision. The use of the following techniques will drastically improve the way your program is looked upon by prospective student-athletes.

The first step to effective communication with student-athletes, is to make yourself available to them. With the advent of cell phones and e-mails, this ideal has become much easier than it used to be. Give out your personal phone number and not your office to give the impression that this particular student-athlete is your top priority. Having this impression will go a long way with the student-athlete's image of the program.

Another important idea to remember is that when parents come along with the student-athlete during visits many coaches tend to only talk with the parents instead of the student-athlete. This is definately the wrong way to go about handling this situation. You need to sell your school and program to the student first, then to the parent (the latter becomes much easier when the student is impressed). Having the student-athlete handle the majority of the conversation will help to epitomize the relationship between the coach and player.

Making the relationship between yourself and the student-athlete personal is ultimately the overall goal. All sports players want a good coach, but if you are a good coach that has a tremendous relationship with the players than your image is improved in the eyes of others. The image of how you are percieved will drastically improve your chances of getting future student-athletes to committ to your program.

Also if you are going to respond by e-mail, texting, or writing a letter there are still many ways to be personal. First of all, do not make your writing look like it is a standard letter sent to anyone who applies to your program. This gives off the wrong impression to the student-athlete because it lowers high expectancy of the student-athlete-coach relationship. By sending a letter like you are friends with the prospective player creates the image of a personal relationship which you are ultimately trying to achieve.

In summation, the key idea to this whole column is that if you -the coach- makes yourself available and create a personal relationship with the prospective student-athlete will drastically improve your chances of getting this player at your program.