Through the years of playing many sports, including track and field, I have been exposed to many different types of coaching philosophies. Through these coaches and also by learning what is best as an athlete, I have developed my own coaching philosophy.
First, we must be aware that a coaches philosophy greatly depends on who is being coached. In other words, a coach will have a very different philosophy if they are coaching Jr. High kids as opposed to college athletes. A coach can not expect to have the same mentality to a 12 year old that is performing because it is fun as compared to a division one athlete trying to qualify for a meet. Being new to the coaching world and understanding that I am probably going to have to work my way to the top, I am basing my coaching philosophy towards young new athletes, such as Jr.
English: Carl Lewis in midair during a long jump f...
English: Owen Hamilton represents Jamaica in the 8...
Remigius Machura senior (Czech athlete - shot put)...High and High School kids.
Experience of learning what works and what does not work as an athlete is what my philosophy is based on. I will try to eliminate "bad" practices because I feel they reflect bad coaching behaviors. Practices that begin to become unproductive and not taken seriously will be re-directed and be turned into fun, productive and hardworking practices. There is a difference between fooling around and having fun in a drill while being productive. For example, instead of just letting the athletes "go threw the motions" in the long jump, I would create a competitive, fun game by putting the athletes up against one another. I believe if practices are fun then the athletes will continue to work hard and not lose interest. As an athlete, I used to hate practices and drills that seemed unproductive. I felt like I was wasting my time and...