Queensland Academy of Sport

Sports Coaching

What is sport coaching?

The constant application of integrated knowledge: professional (sport-specific), intrapersonal (knowledge of self), and interpersonal (knowledge of others).

Coaches apply this integrated knowledge to improve athletes’ competence, confidence, connection and character.

Coach effectiveness is difficult to measure but a good indication is if an athlete is improving in the four C’s!

 

How to identify an effective coach?

  1. Confidence – Increasing athletes’ self-belief.
  2. Competence – Develop athletes’ sport-specific technical and tactical skills, performance skills, improved health and fitness, and healthy training habits.
  3. Character – Athletes learn behaviours such as humility, integrity, responsibility and respect.
  4. Connection – Athletes learn to work together for unified success and to feel a sense of belonging.

 

 

What does good coaching look like?

Transformational Coaching involves the four I’s:

  1. Idealised influence – Coaches gain athlete trust and respect by acting as a positive role model and following a consistent set of values.
  2. Inspirational motivation – Coaches inspire athletes by clarifying expectations and by fostering perceptions of team unity, meaning, and challenge.
  3. Intellectual stimulation – Coaches provide opportunities for athletes to actively engage in the coaching process.
  4. Individualised consideration – Coaches show genuine care and concern for the unique needs and abilities of each athlete.

“Coaching is a process of guided improvement and development in a single sport at identifiable stages of athlete development.” – International Council of Coaching Excellence

The 4 I's of Transformational Leadership for Coaches by Jean Côté – For the Love of the Game

So, how can you remember this?  

“A coach should work on ‘I’ so they ‘C’ athlete improvement.”

Want to learn more about Transformational Coaching?

Take a look at this table below that has been sourced from Jennifer Turnnidge and Jean Cote’s research (click here to read the research paper).

Additional resources

We want talent.
We want passion.
We want commitment.

If this sounds like you, we want to hear from you.

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Queensland Government