Using the Athlete DISC profile, will enable you to identify your coaching style. When your athletes also complete their profile, the information you get will enable you to use the correct style with each athlete. Coach behavior should be a way to connect athlete understanding with the concepts and skills the coach is trying to improve within the objectives of the session (Hall & Smith 2006). With each of the four behavioral styles outlined in the Athlete DISC, there’s a different way to communicate, connect with, provide feedback and motivate and counsel them. How to do all this is the basis of our Coach Education webinars and the purpose of this article is to explain how to generally learn more about the coaching styles and how to be more effective in coaching your athletes.

If you are the Coach, are you the leader?

First, recognize that as a coach you are a leader. As a leader you have certain amounts of power. Your power will essentially come from two sources: “position power” and “personal power.” Position power is just what it sounds like–you’re the Coach so a certain amount of power comes from being anointed by the Club or Team Management for this role.

But personal power comes from earning it, from developing it. Position power is a starting point for coaching an athlete or team, but it’s personal power enables a coach to go from a coaching style that considers the needs of the athlete first and then fits the style of coaching required to these needs. Personal power is also based on coaches building respect and credibility in the eyes of their athletes. It is well known that a critical condition for an athlete to change their technique is the amount of credibility the coach has in the eyes of the athlete. For example, if the athlete’s previous coach has taught them a certain technique and it is deemed ineffective, then unless the athlete’s current coach has greater credibility than the athlete’s old coach, there will be no change in technique. This is because the athlete does not believe in the new coach as compared to their belief in the old coach. Building the credibility is about showing your desire to adapt to the athlete’s need (see previous article on Adaptability) and then show your expertise in the athlete’s eyes.

What is interesting in sport today, is the amount of information on topics critical to performance such as nutrition, sports science, bio mechanics. Yet show me the same depth of information on how to build effective relationships and rapport with your athletes. Business has recognized the need to develop the management and leadership skills of its people years ago. In sport many people still seem to be caught up with training programs and sports science. Believe me I know this is important. I won three Olympic medals and used every piece of sport science and bio mechanical help I could, but it was the ability of my coach who really enabled me to be my best. Actually, by the end of my career, my coach could do everything a sport science tester did and he understood the bio mechanics of my sport to a degree that exceeded many experts in the field. What my coach did better than any other coach I have seen, is his ability to build rapport with his athletes, establish enormous credibility and develop the highest level of respect. To us, he was (and is to others today) a coach who was athlete centered, where he adjusted his style to suit the needs of his athletes. I guess that is why he is Head Coach of one of the largest nations in the world. Personal power–in essence, your skill in dealing with people–is increasingly crucial to you and your role as coach.

In short, if you respect your athletes’ individuality, their essential differences, they’ll feel like they’re on a winning team and will work harder, better for you. But you must empower them rather than just seeking power over them. You can do that by learning to listen, observe, and talk to them. And then adapting so they’ll feel important, wanted and highly valued, this will build their self-esteem and that will increase their confidence in themselves. We all know the results that genuinely self-confident athletes can achieve. Want to know your coaching style?

Bo Hanson is a four time Olympian and Triple Olympic Medalist. He is one of Australia’s most dynamic speakers on sport and business performance. He founded Athlete Assessments to assist coaches and athletes to improve their results through better understanding of themselves and others. He can be contacted through http://www.athleteassessments.com or bo.hanson@athleteassessments.com

With the aid of a life coach, you can undoubtedly improve how you perform in every aspect of your life. It is

with the skills you learn from the life coach that you can turn your life around and greatly improve upon

yourself and your place in the world.

But what is it exactly that a life coach does? How does he or she make an impact on the way you function

in the world?

Everyone’s experience with a life coach is bound to be different. After all, we’re talking about the methods

of motivating individuals to achieve the success they know they deserve but haven’t yet had the gumption

to go for. Life coaches often focus on your individual issues and help you work through them, much like a

therapist would. However, this is not a clinical or medical experience. A life coach helps you cope with your

daily life and take the steps necessary to move forward.

When it comes to performance, however, a life coach has a unique role. He or she will guide you through

all the steps necessary to prepare yourself for a life change. In fact, a life coach will probably know more

about your hopes, fears, dreams and goals than your loved ones. That is because a life coach is paid to

listen to you. You don’t have to listen to their problems or reciprocate in any way. Your meetings with a life

coach are all about you and your needs.

So when you meet up with a life coach, you can expect to evaluate your goals in life and to come up with

realistic plans for obtaining those goals. It is with this sort of focused attention you can really take

advantage and get the most out of the experience. That is not to say that talking to your friends is not

helpful. Rather, you can just receive a different sort of attention from a life coach that can better get you

and keep you on track.

When considering performance, a life coach can help you come up with a “game plan” of sorts. For many,

life coaches play an integral role in their development on a sports team so that analogy is pretty apt. They

can help you visualize your success, develop a detailed plan for obtaining success and encourage you

along the way to keep pursuing your goals. The support and guidance of a life coach is really invaluable

when it comes to improving your performance in any and all aspects of life.

Review
Harvey Dorfman’s books, from the Mental Game of Baseball to those on approaches to both hitting and pitching, have been — Peter Gammons in ESPN.com
–This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

Coaching the Mental Game is a bible for coaches who strive to make their athletes the most complete performers possible. Not only a wonderful asset to athletic coaches, this book is a motivational resource for workers in all industries as well as in the game of life.

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