Coaching Videos and Articles

There is a lot more to coaching than the Xs and Os. The following videos and articles touch on coaching various aspects of sports.

Videos
Coaches must be patient and let their athletes learn by failing. Persistence and encouragement from your teammates pays off!

Kids should play two sports! They should be encouraged to do so by their high school coaches and athletics directors. Hockey is enjoying rapid growth because many club directors and coaches make the sport fun. They understand the value of kids playing two sports.

It is as easy as riding a bike!  Well, not always. There are several variations of this video. They all tell the same story. Patient and persistence is needed when learning a new task. It doesn’t always happen overnight.

Soccer Star Christiano Ronaldo is tested to the limit in this 45 minute video.  This video puts to rest the notion that athletes see the ball when they make contact with it.

Articles
There are many great articles, books, and videos talking about how to hit the ball or where to hit the ball. This section focuses on teaching principles for teaching tennis and other  sports. The following coaching manifesto word cloud was produced by USA Volleyball to help coaches remember some of the principles of teaching sports.

coaching-manifesto Going to School is Optional: Schools Need to Engage Students to Increase Their Lifetime Opportunities Susanna Loeb and Jing Liu. Students and athletes need to be engaged!

Mindsets: developing talent through a growth mindset,  Carol S. Dweck, Stanford University; a handout provided by the USOC.  Coaches and athletes perform better when they have growth mindsets!

Motor Learning Principles and the Superiority of Whole Training in Volleyball, Stephen Bain and Carl McGown. When teaching skills, it is appropriate to teach the whole, rather than breaking skills into parts.

The Aspen Institute Project Play, Aspen Institute. The report includes 8 plays or criteria for youth programs. In Play 7, the report states that kids want coaches who respect and encourage them, coaches who are positive roles models, coaches who provide clear and consistent communications, coaches who have knowledge of the sport, and coaches who listen! (pdf)

Principles derived from the study of simple skills do not generalize to complex skill learning, Gabrielle Wulf.