Effective Communication

• ‑ Personal and Social Skills– ‑ Effective Communication– ‑ Maintaining Discipline– ‑ Awards and Rewards

Instructional Goals

• Learn: – how to promote effective instruction

– useful interaction with assistant coaches, players, press, administration and the public (communication skills)

– to promote standards of behavior for oneself and toward others (personal/social skills)

– to promote an orderly setting /discipline skills).

Instructional Objectives:

• We will identify examples of good Communication Skills.

• We will identify examples of desirable Personal/Social Skills.

• We will assemble customized rules, and/or sources of rules, for use with our Judo team.

Effective Communication• For with athletes, administrators, parents and

peers, coaches must send clear and non‑verbal messages.

• Coaches must also be good listeners.

Positive Approach to Coaching

• As a coach, you must rely on your skill in using Positive Approach to Coaching to achieve mutual respect, confidence and cooperation.– For example, a coach who uses a Positive

Approach to Coaching will refrain from using sarcasm with athletes, thereby gaining their trust and fostering open communication with your athletes.

Sending Clear Messages• Rule 1

– Get and keep the attention of your listener

• Rule 2– Use simple and direct language

• Rule 3– Check for understanding with your listener

• Rule 4– Be consistent by making sure your actions match

your words

• Rule 5– Combine verbal and non-verbal messages to

communicate clearly

Rule 1• Get and keep the attention of your listener.

Make eye contact, avoid distractions, be enthusiastic, and emphasize the importance of your message. – For example; when you instruct on a new skill,

make sure everyone can see and hear you.– Avoid facing them toward a distraction (crowds,

entrance/exit door's, other teams(during warm-ups at Nationals, etc.).

Rule 2• Use simple and direct language.

• Reduce your comments to the key information the athlete needs to know to keep potentially distracting or misleading information from confusing the message.– For example; when giving instruction, focus only on

the instructive information.• When correcting an athlete's mistake, focus only on the

information that will correct the mistake.

Rule 3• Check for understanding with your listener.

Make sure the athletes know what you are trying to communicate. – For example; after communicating critical

information, ask the athletes to restate the key points of the instruction that you expect them to know before they proceed.

• Verbal• Non-verbal

Rule 4• Be consistent by making sure your actions

match your words.

• To maintain credibility, make sure your behavior is consistent with what you are teaching or saying.

• For example; instructing athletes to never yell at an referee, but then doing so yourself, will only negate the instruction and reduce your credibility.

Rule 5• Combine verbal and nonverbal messages to

communicate clearly.

• Combine instructive messages with demonstration, and/or illustrations, so athletes can hear and see the instruction at the same time.

• For example; while explaining the key points of the Sankaku turnover, demonstrate the position of the leg and arms.

Three Rules for Listening Effective

• In addition to sending clear messages, part of effective communication is being a good listener.– There are three rules to follow that will help

you listen effectively.

Rule 1• Listen to the speaker in a positive manner.

• Respond to the athlete when he or she speaks (athletes want to be heard and to express)

• For example; use affirmative head nods and statements such as "I understand. right, exactly. I hear you, yes, of course".

Rule 2• Listen to the speaker in an objective manner.

• Always sincerely consider the speaker's message so as to encourage open communications and learning.

• For example; a coach who closes her ears to an athlete she believes is just "whining again" may the fact that the athlete is truly injured.

Rule 3• Express interest when listening to the athlete.

• Be attentive in the way you listen and look at the speaker by maintaining eye contact and body that reflects interest in what is being said.

• For example; if an athlete comes to you with concern, stop what you are doing, look at the athlete and encourage him/her to tell you the message.

Personal/Social Skills• Social Skills

– For the vast majority of athletes, the skills and knowledge they achieve are due to your effort.

• Sport specific skills, become less important as they move into later life.

• The personal values, moral qualities, and social skills that athletes develop under your guidance are often carried throughout life.

Fill-in• With knowledge, skill and a positive experience in

the areas of sportsmanship, respect for self and others and avoidance of stereotyping, an athlete will develop positive personal/social skills.

• In order to create this knowledge and skill, a coach must be a good model and reinforce appropriate behavior.

3 Rules for Developing Sportsmanship

• Rule 1– Define appropriate and inappropriate behavior for

your athletes.

• Rule 2– Define rewards and penalties for sportsmanship.

• Rule 3– Use role models to demonstrate good

sportsmanship.– For example; identify an athlete that you know

impresses your athlete.

Five Rules to Develop Respect• Rule 1

– Never degrade anyone verbally or non‑verbally.

• Rule 2– Accept referee's calls and approach them considerately.

What positive attribute can we gain?

• Rule 3– Accept instruction and follow rules.

• Always room for improvement

• Rule 4– Never physically hurt someone.

• Rule 5– Use positive self-talk when evaluating your own

performance.

Avoidance of Stereotyping• Never use jokes or slurs that refer to race,

gender, age or physical characteristics of an individual.

• For example; talk to the team about the inappropriateness of jokes and slurs.

Developing Social Skills

• Method 1– Follow the rules of modeling behavior– Model appropriate behavior.– Be consistent in your modeling at all

times.– Never tell athletes rules then break them

yourself.– Recognize that any negative behavior you

model will be imitated by your athletes.

Developing Social Skills

• Method 2 – Reinforce appropriate behavior and

penalize inappropriate behavior.– Use the Positive Coaching Approach at all

times.– Use immediate praise when appropriate

personal and social skills are demonstrated by athletes.

– Use immediate penalties when inappropriate behavior is demonstrated by your athlete.

Disciplinary Skills

• Rules Set for Disciplinary Skills– If a coach uses sound coaching practices

• (such as season and practice planning, effective instruction communication),

• uses a Positive Approach to Coaching– discipline problems will be minimized.

– NO matter how much it may appear that young people challenge rules

• all young people look to adults for the leadership and guidance that will provide an orderly experience.

Fill-in– When sound principles and techniques of

coaching are applied, discipline can be maximized by defining and enforcing the rules, consistently.

– There are two basic parts to developing effective disciplinary skills:

• 1) Define the rules• 2) Enforce the rules

Define Team Rules

– Define• Sportsmanship• Respect (stereotyping)• Chemical/drug abuse.

– Involve athletes in the development of team rules

• They are more committed to live by rules they had a voice in establishing.

Define Rules in Clear and Specific Terms

• Define the rules in the beginning, rather than arbitrarily make up rules as the year progresses.

Enforce Team Rules

– Determine the rewards and penalties for the rules:• Use rewards that are meaningful to your

athletes and appropriate for the violationallow athletes to alter your lists of rewards and penalties to create some ownership and commitment to them

Enforce Team Rules (con’t) • Never use physical activity, such as push-

ups, as punishment. – Athletes may view such activity that is crucial to

improving their performance in a negative perspective

– (It is better to encouraging the concept that practice is a reward.)

• In some cases, minor infractions can be difficult or counterproductive to penalize and may be of a more important "root" problem

Enforce Team Rules (con’t)

• If athletes are "goofing around" while waiting in a long during a drill.

• This is a problem created by the coach and the drill should be changed instead of punishing athletes.

• Reward athletes who follow the rules– Immediately and consistently

• Try to reward every athlete when deserving and avoid repeated rewards to the same athletes.

• Immediately and consistently– Punish by withdrawing rewards and, if necessary,

initiating penalties who break the rules.

Disciplinary Skills

• Rules– All of the rule lists for specific behaviors that will

be covered need to be defined for athletes and parents

– Matched specific behaviors with rewards and penalties modified to include rules for the specific needs and situations of the dojo and athletes.

Personal and Social Objectives

• All Personal and Social Objectives should be further defined when they are shared as part of a Rules Meeting.

Sportsmanship Code

• List/Define sportsmanlike and unsportsmanlike behaviors

• Such "obey all Dojo rules" and ”No swearing at opponents."

• These will aid you in specifically defining the rules.

Rules of Respect

• List/Define

– Respectful behaviors that can be rewarded– Such as "congratulate winner,"

– ”Helps and encourages less skilled teammates.”

Making Team Rules

• Specific behavior– ”Helping to clean dojo".

– Lists of specific behaviors could be combined with this list to show all the behaviors you would class as desirable or undesirable.

Rewards and Penalties

• Rewards and penalties– Generate your own custom lists of rewards

and penalties.

Conclusion:

• By applying communication and social skills, both interpersonal relations and instruction between the coach and athlete will be optimized and will reduce discipline problems.– By defining rules, rewards, in a Rules

Meeting.– Then enforcing rules consistently, a coach

will minimize behavior problems with athletes.