Redheugh Boys Under 14's- 26/09/07

As this session was my first contact for 4 months with the team whom I'd had a good working relationship with the previous season, I felt that any apprehension towards the role in the past had disappeared. The co-operative manner in which I conducted myself with the players and manager during our previous time together was again reinstated and all parties were very much at ease with each other. With this co-operation came trust and an understanding that all members were under no illusion of the expectation of the respective roles played in the team. As I had established with the team previously, was a standard of coaching that balanced the autocratic role played by the manager and a more diplomatic stance.
They found the manager to be more of an authoritarian figure which, when unavailable, resulted in the children acting as if without consequence. In order to counter this way of thinking, I altered my approach and appered more assertive by emulating the authorative stance taken by the manager. His autocratic style was in contrast to my democratic approach which, as Kuklinski (1990) highlighted, uses performer satisfaction as a measure of effectiveness. This change in technique and manner worked well as I noticed an immediate positive response from the players.
I felt that the way to accomplish this would be to undertake and emulate the role of a co-operative coach as highlighted by Lynch (2001). By using this learned technique, which consists of following the 8 C’s of co-operation, I believe that I built up a good rapport with the children, which in turn, resulted in gaining their attention and respect. The basis of this technique’s success hinges on how much co-operation is valued by all involved. If the players respected the rules set by the manager and I, then positive compliments were forthcoming. With this rapport, I was able to use the children’s loyalty to complete tasks with minimum upheaval or protest. This ensured that most training sessions were conducted in a smooth manner, and to schedule, where I was able to cover most, if not all, teaching points.
The aim of this session, on a personal note, was reinforcing the basic understanding of the role and a reintroduction to the players, staff and parents. Also monitoring with the manager, the progress and development of the individual players, and team as a whole. It appeared that in the summer, two players who were known to disrupt training sessions, had left the club. As a major problem encountered throughout the previous campaign was constant interruptions by a minority of the squad, the removal of this negative influence from the squad was seen as a positive by most players and coaching staff.
The first session was a success as my objectives set at the beginning were met. I reinforced my relationship with the club members and gained perspective on expectations for the season ahead.