The Importance Of Personal Coaching Philosophy

Coaching as a profession goes much deeper than simply the field of play. Any coach will tell you their job requires so much more than just knowledge of the fundamentals needed for any given sport. So what other components of coaching are needed to be a great coach? Many coaches will tell you that the base of the job is having a personal coaching philosophy. Jeff Mitchell, former football coach and coaching specialist tell us that “A coaching philosophy is a statement of what you value and how you will approach your coaching role.” (Mitchell, 2013). In order to develop a coaching philosophy one must understand, why coaching philosophies are important, what a coaching philosophy should include, and how to go about forming your personal coaching

According to former coach Alex Ferguson (2013) a coaching philosophy should be an attitude and guiding principal that will affect every decision you make as a coach. Your philosophy will lay out what is important to you, and should be something you can always refer back to when a tough decision arises. A solid coaching philosophy will help you stay true to beliefs and give you a clear sense of direction throughout your career (Ferguson 2013). Having a solid coaching philosophy is also a huge benefit to you players. As Ferguson says in his article The Importance of a Coaching Philosophy (2013) “Coaches stay with the same year group each year, without a clear idea of what they need to teach in order to progress the players for the next coach. Or they progress with the team, lacking the knowledge to teach a different age group. Either way the players are the ones getting hurt.” Additionally, your coaching philosophy will help you as a coach stay consistent with how you handle different situations. For example, the philosophy should make the way you discipline your

Coaching is a tough job, and as a coach you will often be faced with having to make various ethical decisions. Having a solid coaching philosophy will help you navigate through all of the tough decisions, challenging days on the job, and be able to do so with a consistency and calm manner that all players will notice. Coaching should be fun, and incredible rewards. It gives you the chance to teach young athletes the fundamentals of sports, as well as teach them teamwork, hard work, and many more valuable life lessons. In the words of Jeff Mitchell; “A coaching philosophy will usually be a couple of sentences. Some people are able to capture their philosophy in a couple of words; other people have philosophy statements that run into several paragraphs. All good philosophies, regardless of their length, explain the purpose of coaching and the beliefs and principles that the coach follows to achieve their goals” (Mitchell 2013). A few words, or a few pages, your philosophy will be a tool you use daily, and a key ingredient to becoming an incredible