Building Coaching Communities
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>> Next: Creating the Coaching Environment - Game Plan
Coaching communities are made up primarily of coaches and those who provide them with support or services. The coaching communities are based on the stages of athlete development. Some key players may be part of more than one coaching community.
For example, coaches may coach across a range of development stages and service providers may deliver services to a range of coaches.
Active involvement of all key players in a coaching community is important to facilitate the practical transfer of knowledge, which in turn will lead to accelerated learning. Coaching quality will improve when the communities are strong and working well.
The development of coaching communities is critical to the creation of the world-class coaching environment.
The coaching communities are:
- High performance/Carded Coaches
- Competitive adults
- Social adults
- Late teenagers (17-19)
- Early teenagers (13-16)
- Late childhood (9-12)
- Middle childhood (6-8)
- Early childhood (0-5).
Elements of a successful coaching community include:
- A sense of belonging
- A common understanding
- A supportive learning environment
- Collaborative development and improvement
- Acknowledgement and recognition of coaches.
Communication is at the heart of a successful and well functioning coaching community, and the following will help to maintain the communication flow:
- Meetings
- Newsletters
- Conferences
- Websites
- Key coaches and networks
- Mentoring programme(s)
- Club and school activity
- Recognition and acknowledgment awards.
The coaching communities game plan will be implemented through the following:
| Tactic |
Project |
Support the development
and growth of coaching
communities. |
Establish coaching communities and processes for
their effectiveness and growth. |
Outcome
Effective coaching communities will exist to support coaches.
Development stage:
Establish the coaching community project
To ensure the development and growth of effective coaching communities, a number of project teams made up of key players from the communities, and supported by the SPARC coach support team will be convened.
In each coaching community, a project team will:
- Assess the current coaching community communication pathways
- Establish a coaching community communication plan
- Identify and action the tasks to improve and maintain a healthy community.
Contents | >> Next: Creating the Coaching Environment - Game Plan
Updated | 22 Mar 2007.
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