Coaches Association of Ontario – The Time is Now

This past weekend SIRC attended the 4th Annual Coaches Association of Ontario Coaches Conference – The Time Is Now. The conference was attended by almost 300 delegates from across Ontario and was held at the University of Guelph. SIRC participated in the trade show portion of the conference and Amanda Street-Bishop, Information Specialist at the SIRC Regional office in Toronto, presented a Professional Development Workshop on Competitive Intelligence for Sport Coaches.

The Workshop covered:

• Where to find the best coaching resources
• How to optimize your searching techniques, and,
• The easiest way to access Canada’s National Sport Library

The presentation was very well received with some participants following along on their own laptops. The session was interactive and included some great questions from the audience for the SportDiscus™ database on Lawn Bowling, Volleyball drills and how to motivate a team before a game.

Other sessions at the conference included:

• Understanding Your Coaching Style
• Developing Athleticism – The Foundation of Long-Term Sport Success
• Hot Topics in Sport Psychology
• Increasing Leadership Roles For Women

Click here for a link to these sessions and others from the conference.

Soccer

Check out the latest SIRC Newsletter -Soccer!

It seems everywhere you look these days you’re surrounded by soccer. Not only is it possibly the most popular grassroots sport, but soccer also has one of the biggest international sporting events. Have you ever stopped to consider how either a player or a coach gets from the grassroots level to the international stage? Here are a few things to think about: what makes a great soccer coach? Are soccer coaches looking for more than just your ability to play the game? What can I do to prevent injuries while playing? Should I just train my body or my mind too? Another great way to improve your soccer skills is to take in a Canadian National Team Event and learn from some of Canada's best players.

http://sirc.ca/newsletters/mid-june10/index.html

Learning from Disappointment

Athletes and coaches can have good and bad days and they must learn how to deal with both. Knowing what can trigger disappointment and how to deal with it can be beneficial to athlete and coach as well as those around them. A recent article in Modern Athlete & Coach provides tips in both of these areas.

Factors leading to disappointment:

• Unsatisfactory interpretation of results
• Unsatisfactory interpretation of performance standard during competition or training
• Missing training or competition.
• Injury
• Poor interpretation of training or missing training
• Challenging or poor relationship between athlete and coach or between athletes
• Inability to efficiently manage sport and life

Tips for managing disappointment:

• De-briefing after every competition
• Regular performance reviews
• Looking at what has been accomplished
• Developing a support network of professionals (mentors, psychologists)
• Incorporating cross training
• Linking performance to goals and time-plans
• Philosophy that you do not know whether an event is good or bad until long after
• Understanding that “disappointments” are part of sport

There are numerous factors that can lead to disappointment however managing it well can have a positive impact on coaches and athletes.

Klarica, Anthony. (2010) Dealing with Disappointment. Modern Athlete & Coach. 48(3), p.19.

Coaching: Communities of Practice

A community of practice (CoP) was coined in 1991 to describe a group of people sharing a common concern or passion, who interact regularly to learn how to do it better. A recent article in JOPERD discusses how CoPs can be fantastic educational tools for interscholastic coaches. However, CoPs can be incorporated in many coaching situations as shown through research by Dr. Diane Culver and Dr. Pierre Trudel over the past few years.

How does CoP work?
A facilitator is appointed to be the “traffic cop” of the group. Their role is coordination only, ensuring a flow of discussion amoung the group.

What needs does CoP fulfill?

• Reflection and Mentorship
  o Members are exposed to perspectives of others and can developing trusting relationships.
• Adaptable Knowledge
  o Sharing of old and new ideas allow a flexibility to work in various environments.
• Competitive Nature of Coaches
  o Group controls the transfer of knowledge and over time cooperation between members should occur.
• Larger Educational Structure
  o Each member is considered an expert and contributor to the group.

For more articles relating to Communities of Practice (CoPs) contact AskALibrarian@sirc.ca

Coaching

Check out the latest SIRC Newsletter on Coaching!


Leadership has been described as a process of social influence in which one person can get the support of another to accomplish a goal or task. In order to be a good leader and coach you must possess certain skills and knowledge to be able to guide your team in the best direction to reach your goals. Studies have shown that a person with a growth mindset would believe that leadership abilities can be learned and acquired through effort and experience. With this in mind, coaching education and leadership training programs should consider focusing on helping coaches and leaders develop a growth mindset about their leadership abilities. With everything in life one must practice the necessary skills to be the best and the same goes for coaching. National standards are set by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) and its partners are implementing new frameworks to help coaches reach for the stars as coaches help their players. The sport landscape is always changing; this is the same for the coaching world.

http://www.sirc.ca/newsletters/november10/index.html

Coaching Do's and Don'ts

We all want our young athletes to be the best that they can be. And in order for athletes to be at their best, their coaches also need to be at their best. Supporting coaches through a very stressful competitive season should be high on everyone’s priority list. What can coaches do to focus less on stress and more on constructive teaching moments? A recent article in the SIRC Collection (Arnold, 2010) provides the following top 10 list of Do’s and Don’ts for coaches:

DON’T match your athlete’s negative mood, lead them to a more centered mindset
DO move beyond focusing on problems and focus on improving correct techniques or skills
DO provide challenges that will motivate your athletes
DO provide praise for athletes’ success (training and competition)
DO praise athletes character development as well as skill development
DON’T present a negative training environment that supports negative athlete feedback
DON’T focus on correcting large technique issues at competition, this is the time for tweaks and emotional support.
DO pay attention to parents and make them part of the athlete support team
DO treat all your athletes the same with a single set of over-riding rules
DO make it fun!!!

Full article reference from the SIRC Collection: Arnold, Alison, (2010). Top 10 Coach’s Sanity Tips for Competition Season, Technique 30(9), 26-27.

For more coaching information check out SIRC’s latest newsletter on Coaching Leadership or ask us a question at our booth at the Coaching Association of Canada’s Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Conference.

Coaches and the Female Athlete Triad

There are awkward conversations some coaches avoid having with their female athletes. One of these discussions may be about the menstrual cycle, especially by male coaches. This awkwardness can be avoided by educating your athletes on the Female Athlete Triad.
The three clusters of the triad are:

• Disordered Eating (poor nutrition),
• Menstrual dysfunction (irregular or loss of period), and
• Osteoporosis (low bone density)

Athletes should be educated on proper eating habits to maintain or balance the use of energy when training, as to prevent low-energy availability. The low-energy availability and excessive exercise can lead to a lack of estrogen causing amenorrhea (loss of period) or menstrual irregularities. A lack of estrogen, and poor nutrition (especially calcium) can lead to the third cluster, osteoporosis.

As coaches, the main focus should be on disordered eating, as this leads to the next two clusters. Women face many pressures these days to look a certain way, or have a certain body-type. For serious female endurance athletes, the pressures of training can produce the mind set of, “If I lose 5lbs, I can run faster.” These pressures can very easily lead an athlete into poor eating habits.

For more information on this topic please check the SIRC collection.
Female Athlete Triad Coalition

Sportsmanship: Connecting Fun and Competition

What is sportsmanship? Do we really understand how to exercise, teach, or encourage sportsmanship? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines sportsmanship as “fair play, respect for opponents, and polite behavior by someone who is competing in a sport or other competition.” Sportsmanship is the glue that holds competition and fun together.

As athletes, coaches, officials, or parents we need to lead by example. This can be done by:

• Thanking coaches and referees at the end of games
• Congratulating players and opponents
• Cheering for your teammates
• Being polite to the referees

Youth sport should be about having fun. However, as athletes get older the competitive drive gets bigger and often sportsmanship can be forgotten. Officials of highly competitive games can help to create a good sportsmanship atmosphere. Click Here for some tips on how officials can prepare.

Reference from the SIRC collection:
Woelfel, Rick. (2005). How to Build Good Sportsmanship. Referee, 30(3), 14.

Online Resources:
SIRC July Newsletter
TeensHealth: Sportsmanship

Computer-Mediated-Communication

Instant messaging programs such as Skype, text-messaging, Facebook, email, and MSN messenger, just to name a few, are some of the media which has entered our lives to facilitate communication between people. Our lives get more connected everyday and CMC (Computer-Mediated-Communication) is not something that will be leaving our society any time soon.

What does this mean for the coach-athlete relationship? CMC media brings obvious improvements to coach-athlete communication, as they are able to interact more efficiently, more effectively and more closely than ever before. But it can also bring on challenges, especially in the area of ethics.

Some of the questions that may come up are: Should my athlete and I be friends on Facebook? What do I do if my athlete adds me to MSN? What if I see a picture of my athlete engaging in illegal behavior? These are all situations which might blur the lines of coach-athlete interactions. If your sport organization doesn’t have a policy on coach-athlete interactions, it is recommended that every coach set his or her own personal standards for managing these new methods of communication. One example that the author gives us is; if you reject a Facebook friend request from one player, then you need to reject the friend requests from all your players. Each coach and each situation will be approached differently, but being aware is the first step.

Keeping an open communication platform with your athletes is important, but keeping the lines from becoming blurry is up to you. Ensure to make your standards clear to avoid any confusion and if the situation becomes too difficult to handle on your own, there is help. The most important thing is to guide discussions in a setting that fosters mutual respect and that will allow you to maintain a positive coaching environment.

Reference from the SIRC collection:
Lawrie, K. (2010). Computer-Mediated Communication - A Caution for Coaches. Coaches Plan/Plan du Coach, 17(1), 10-55.

SIRC Newsletter - Coaching

Whether you are a grassroots or high performance coach, in the boardroom or in the field, this is an excellent time to think about your coaching style. When is the last time you thought about your coaching philosophy, evaluated guidelines or policies related to your work or took a coaching education course? There are great national and provincial associations out there to help you like Coaches of Canada, Coaching Association of Canada, Coaches Association of British Columbia, and Coaches Association of Ontario. As well as upcoming events this Fall such as the SPIN Summit and the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Conference.

For more information check out the SIRC Newsletter online!

Knowledge in Action!

November is a busy month in the world of sport information sharing and knowledge transfer. With a variety of conferences and summits on the calendar, SIRC will be present in the following locations:

• Sport Canada Research Initiative Conference (SCRI) – Aylmer, Quebec (November 3, 2011)
SIRC hosts sport researchers, policy makers and practitioners sharing their knowledge and expertise with a vision to maximizing the practical applications of sport participation research and its potential contribution to sport participation policy in Canada. 


• Sport Innovation Summit (SPIN) – Toronto, Ontario (November 8-10, 2011)
Be sure to drop by the SIRC Resource Centre booth and check out the latest issue of the High Performance SIRCuit. 


• Petro Canada Sport Leadership Sportif Conference – Toronto, Ontario (November 10-12, 2011)
Debra Gassewitz, SIRC's president and CEO, will be presenting the Sport Management Stream Workshop 'Recruitment, Nominations and Orientation – How to attract and train sport leaders' on Saturday, November 12th. 


• Canadian Sport Policy Renewal  
The discussion paper "Towards a Renewed Canadian Sport Policy" is now available along with other sport policy renewal resources on the SIRC website.

For more information on our resources for these events, please visit SIRC.

Summer Safety

SIRC Newsletter now available online:  Summer Safety

Summer’s here and we all want to go outside, be active and have some fun in the sun! When temperatures soar and thunder roars, coaches, team managers and event organizers are responsible for the safety and well being of their athletes, participants and spectators. Safety awareness is easy and you can help avoid summer injuries by planning ahead and feel secure that you are fully prepared to handle whatever is thrown your way.

Read More:  http://www.sirc.ca/newsletters/mid-june12/index.html