Week One Assignment - Supplemental Reading
Supplemental Reading and Assignment
• Week One Article - PDF Document (849 KB)
Read this article and answer the following:
Critique yourself as a coach in each of these 10 characteristics. Describe your strengths and weaknesses in each category. Provide examples of when you have demonstrated good and bad judgment in each of the categories and discuss what areas you can improve upon and how you could address these concerns.
Papers should be two pages in length. Be typed, double-spaced, using a 12-point font with one-inch margins.
Week 1 Assignment
Exercise One: Week One
Developing Your Coaching Philosophy
• Why do you want to coach/teach?
• At what level(s) do you want to coach/teach and why?
• How do you define success?
• What is your current, personal philosophy of coaching/teaching?
• What do you want to accomplish in your coaching/teaching career?
Goal is to help each individual develop their foundational beliefs, their core and to understand their own reasons for choosing this profession.
Exercise Two: Week One
List the specific criteria you use to assess the athletes you coach and/or teach.
• How have you developed these criteria?
• Why have you chosen to focus on these aspects?
• Where have you learned how to assess athletes?
• What characteristics are important for you?
• Categorize your criteria into the physical, fundamental and mental model.
The goal of this assignment is to get students to begin the process of learning how they assess individual talent, future potential and the path necessary to get there. It is important to understand the influences we have from former coaches and teachers, which have shaped how we view athletic talent and how we go about developing that talent. Most of the criteria that each student will come up with should fit into the three categories.
Exercise Three: Week One
Coaching Self-Assessment Exercise
Step One: Assess your current abilities as a Teacher/Instructor/Coach along the following dimensions:
1. Knowledge of physical training for golfers.
2. Knowledge of the fundamental aspects of various golf swings and shots.
3. Knowledge of the mental and emotional aspects of golf, relating to self and course management.
We are asking that each student in the class adopts and practices the concepts of self-assessment and how it relates to personal and professional growth. It is important for each student to begin asking themselves the same questions they will be examining when working with future golfers.
A good coach must be able to understand their own personal strengths and weaknesses and then identify ways they can improve upon these to become a more complete coach, teacher and leader.
Each student is asked to critique themselves according to the same principles they will use to assess future students. Students should try to be as specific as possible when assessing their own strengths and weaknesses.
Once weaknesses are identified, it will be important for students to begin the process of learning how to develop weak areas of their coaching abilities.
Week Two Assignment - Supplemental Reading
Supplemental Reading and Assignment
Parsh, D. (2007, April). 8 Steps to a Coaching Philosophy. Coach & Athletic Director, 76(9), 56-57.
• Week Two Article - PDF Document (850.2 KB)
Read this article and answer the following:
Use the eight steps to a coaching philosophy article as a guide for you to begin the process of developing a developmental plan for a team or an individual athlete. Use the eight steps as a structure shell or outline that will guide you in articulating your ideas. This will both illustrate your own ideas and philosophy concerning each of the eight steps and how you would apply each of these eight steps into formulating a plan for a team or one individual.
Papers should be two pages in length. Be typed, double-spaced, using a 12-point font with one-inch margins.
Week Two Assignments
Exercise #1: Week 2
a. What specific elements of Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success do you think you need to work on in your own development and improvement as a coach?
b. How would you integrate elements of Wooden’s Pyramid into your own teaching and coaching?
This exercise is another step at assisting students in thinking about and developing their own philosophies for how to teach and coach. Self-awareness will allow for self-growth and Coach Wooden applies this same concept to the athletes he taught. Coach Wooden also argues that coaches have a responsibility for self growth and improvement, as well.
A coach should examine critically Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success to determine how they can use this information to assist in their development as a coach. That is the essence of this exercise. To continue the process from Week One, where students are encouraged to critically think about how they can improve through working on dimensions of the Pyramid.
Exercise #2: Week 2 Personal Development Plan Stage Two: Teacher Research
Identify one area in each of the physical, fundamental and mental categories that you would like to research, so you can become a better coach & teacher.
• Explain why you chose each of these specific topics and provide an example of how you can integrate each into your teaching and coaching.
• Discuss the various resources you can utilize to gather more information about each topic.
The goal of this exercise is for students to apply Coach Wooden’s “Method of Continuous Improvement” onto themselves. Utilizing the physical, fundamental and mental categories, students are asked to pick one topic in each area they would like to learn more about. Students are not to conduct the actual examination of each topic, rather they are simply to develop questions, explain why they chose these specific topics and illustrate resources they can utilize to learn more. Finally, it is important for students to explain how they can integrate and apply the information they obtain in their teaching and coaching.
Week Three Assignment - Supplemental Reading
Supplemental Reading and Assignment
Staffo, D. (1992, Late Winter92). Clarifying physical education teacher-coach responsibilities: A self-analysis guide for those in... Physical Educator, 49(1), 52.
• Week Three Article - PDF Document (27.4 KB)
Many coaches at the high school level have to balance their coaching duties with the responsibilities of teaching academic courses and/or physical education classes. The demands placed on teacher-coaches is tremendous, both in terms of time and responsibilities. Often times, coaches begin to spend more time on their coaching duties, rather than their teaching responsibilities. The reasons why are complex and balance is hard to achieve.
Your assignment is to critically read this article and discuss the issues presented. Discuss how teacher-coaches can achieve balance without suffering burnout. Explain how ideas learned from John Wooden can help a teacher-coach who is struggling with achieving and finding balance.
Papers should be two pages in length. Be typed, double-spaced, using a 12-point font with one-inch margins.
Week Three Assignments
Exercise #1: Week 3
Develop a lesson plan, for a golfer of your choosing, that covers three lessons over three weeks. You create the scenario of the golfer.
• Create a daily lesson plan for the 3 lessons, each lasting 45 minutes.
• Detail drills and exercises your client can work on in between lessons.
• Define what the measures for success are for each client according to Wooden’s definition.
Exercise #2: Week 3
How can you integrate Coach Wooden’s Whole-Part teaching method into your teaching approach?
• Discuss how you use or can use the following methods to improve your instruction:
o Explanation & Demonstration
o Imitation & Correction
o Repetition
The goal of this exercise is to have you utilize Coach Wooden’s Whole-Part teaching method and experiment with integrating these concepts into their teaching and coaching.
Draw on your own experience as an athlete and as a coach, so you can look at the learning process from both perspectives. Many coaches already implement aspects of Coach Wooden’s Whole-Part teaching method, but do not have the systematic approach that he created.
Many coaches explain but do not demonstrate or vice versa. The corrections from some coaches are often lost out because of the way a coach delivers his or her message and many coaches have athletes complete repetitive drills with little or no meaning.
Week Four Assignment - Supplemental Reading
Supplemental Reading and Assignment
Mahoe, S. (2007, February).Five Ways to Improve Communication with your Players. Coach & Athletic Director, 76(7), 44-44.
• Week Four Article - PDF Document (434.9 KB)
Create one of two scenarios: Choose to communicate with (1) one individual athlete; or (2) with an entire team. Also choose the context and time frame in which you will be meeting with them (ie…pre-season, beginning of season, during season, in playoffs/championship). The scenario can utilize your own experiences or can be made up.
Apply the concepts discussed in the five ways to improve communication between a coach and an athlete to your scenario. Explain how you would go about:
1. Assessing the Situation
2. What elements of effective communication would you want to communicate.
3. How can you be positive; What message would you like your athletes to hear and think about?
4. How can you improve your communication skills? Be specific.
Papers should be two pages in length. Be typed, double-spaced, using a 12-point font with one-inch margins
Week Four Assignments
1. Choose three of Coach Wooden’s maxims and discuss, in depth, what they mean to you.
o Connect your arguments with examples from your own experiences.
o How can you use the wisdom from these maxims in your own coaching and teaching?
Discuss how your have grown as a coach and a teacher since the beginning of the course. Reflect on your initial definition of success, how you viewed motivation, and how you can utilize information from this course in your own teaching.
GRADING CRITERIA:
All of the Supplemental Reading assignments for each week must be 2-3 pages in length. Please write these in APA format and do not use bullets or numbers to list the qualities within your paper. Please write this in essay form so one paragraph flows to the next. Some of the qualities are similar so feel free to group them in the same paragraphs.
