Coaching philosophy refers to the approach adopted in imparting skills to students or professional athletes on how to excel in a given sport. It also involve how the coach intends to offer mentorship, guidance, and acting as confidants to the trainees. Although there is no specific prescription of attributes that an effective coach, there are some which are fundamental towards success in coaching career. These attributes include good leadership skills, adequate knowledge in the sport, ability to motivate the trainees, effective communication skills, consistency and full knowledge of different attributes of each athlete.
An effective coaching philosophy has a well-defined view of how the athletes interact with the coach and the nature of information being conveyed. Although the content of the coaching process is critical in imparting knowledge and skills to the athletes, how this is carried out is equally important. Thus, an effective coaching philosophy does not only have a well-defined knowledge base of the specific sport of interests but also an elaborate approach of how such information is disseminated to the athletes. The “how” of coach interactions with athletes will include such activities as demonstrations, role plays, animations, theoretical classwork among other approaches ( Guthrie, 2003) . On such illustration of how effective coaching philosophy can lead to transfer of meaningful information to the athletes is in how one coach can realize consistent success with different teams over a period of time. In football, there are coaches who with little regard of the team they are assigned, they are known to deliver good results season on season.
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In coaching practice, the formulation the philosophy should appreciates the uniqueness of every situation, athlete and level of current competence and the desired one. Thus, flexibility in the philosophy is of great importance because it helps the coach appreciate different circumstances and levels of skills of the athletes ( Whitmore, 2002) . Whereas one approach can be effective for one athlete, the same may not be the case for all athletes, thus the concept of flexibility is necessary ( Lombardo, 2002) . With a predetermined philosophy notwithstanding, there are some external factors such as personal experience, and personalities of coaches which may affect complete adherence to the approach.
In developing an effective coaching philosophy, it is imperative that all key stakeholders are involved. One of the key stakeholders in the development of a coaching philosophy is athletic administrators whose role will entail overall oversight of the athletic program, resources mobilization which include the human resources and finances as well. It an institution wishes to pursues a certain philosophy in coaching, it is incumbent upon the athletic director to hire a suitable coach whose approach will be in line with the expectations. Secondly, the successful realization of a desired approach requires deployment of specific resources in terms of teaching aids and training equipment. This is also the role of the administrator. In fulfilling these mandates, the athletics administrator advances a desired coaching philosophy.
References
Guthrie, M. (2003). Coaching track & field successfully . Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Lombardo, B.J. (2002).Coaching in the 21 st century: Educational models, In B.J. Lombardo,
T.J. Caravella-Nadeau, K.S. Castagno, V.H. Mancini (2002) Sport in the Twenty-First Century: Alternatives for the new millennium , Boston, MA: Pearson Custom.
Whitmore, J. (2002). Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose
(3 rd Ed) . London: Nicholas Brealey
