The days of taking just anybody and letting them coach the youth
is rapidly disappearing. Sport club managers can no longer place the health and
well-being of youth in the hands of well-intentioned volunteers who are not
competent in coaching the children.
Recruitment
of Coaches
The most important element of a
successful sport program is quality coaching, many other elements are necessary
and important, but the coach makes or break the program. Recruiting coaches is
a challenge for many sport clubs, and the challenge is getting these coaches to
commit to your club. You need recruitment plan that identifies the number of
coaches you will need for each sport in your club, the activities you will
initiate to recruit coaches, the time of year that you would initiate each
recruiting activity, and the cost associated with each.
Recruitment
Plan
The following steps can be
followed to compile a recruitment plan:
Step 1: Needs
assessment
Step 2: Compile a
job design and description
Step 3: Advertise
Step 4: Compile recruiting plans
1. Needs Assessment
You need to
determine how many coaches you need for the up-coming season for each sport
program at your club. To do that you can compile your own coaching needs
assessment form.
If you administer more than
one sport at the club you you’ll want to summarize
your coaching needs for all sports
2. Job design and job description
Before you compile a job
description you need to look at job design. The
foundation of job design is skill
variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and
job feedback.
When a job is well
designed, the employee is motivated based on feelings of
meaningfulness, responsibility, and
knowledge of the results of his efforts.
a. Skill variety
- refers to
“the degree to which a job requires a variety of different activities in
carrying out the work, involving the use of a number of different skills and
talents of the person”. Variety may relate to the number of tools and controls
an employee uses or to the change in work pace, physical location, or physical
operation.
A good
example is a club manager who oversees both the sport and business sides of a
club.
b. Task identity
- refers to
“the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and
identifiable piece of
work; that is doing a job from beginning to end with a
visible outcome”.
An example
of high task identity is a sport scientist in your sport club who
evaluates the fitness level
of a client, prescribes a gym program for the client, and
leads and supervises the
exercise session. A sport club manager who oversees
participants registration,
schedules the facility and games, administer the coaches,
and organize the year-end
function also has high task identity.
c. Task
significance
- refers to “the degree to which a
piece of work is essential to the club achieving its mission and goals”. Every
job should be designed so that the person in that job plays a part in achieving
the mission and goals of the club.
For example
a club cannot achieve excellence unless the facility
manager ensures the
upkeep of the facility.
d. Task autonomy
- refers to “the degree of
freedom and independence employees feel in relation to their work and the
control they have over how and when they do the work”.
For example the coach of a hockey team has
considerable autonomy in recruitment of players, methods of training, and
competitive strategies. In contrast the club’s secretary has less autonomy,
because the tasks she needs to do, how she carries out those tasks, and when
she does the tasks are specified for her.
e. Task feedback
- is
“the degree to which carrying out the work activities provides the
individual with
direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or
her performance”.
Club
managers need to communicate performance standards to
employees,
supervise them to be sure they understand the standards, and
evaluate them to
let them know whether they have met the standards.
Elements of a coaching job
description
1. Title
-The title of a position should communicate the level and function of
the position
-Example head
coach, assistant coach
2. Position description
-Provide a brief description of the position without getting into the
position’s specific
Duties
-Include the following:
a. League
within which the person will coach
b. Age, sex,
and skill level of players
c. Number of
players to be coached
3. Activities and responsibilities
-Describe all activities the coach is expected to perform
-Example:
-Finding
a sponsor
-Purchasing
equipment
-Meeting
with parents
-Conducting
practices
-Scheduling
and supervising contests
-Transporting
athletes
-Recordkeeping
-Attending meetings
4. Work schedule
-The work schedule communicates the expected working hours
-Most sport clubs entail evening and weekend hours, and should be
documented
5. Qualifications
- Describe the required experiences, and the level of education required
for the
position
- Qualifications are related to the specific responsibilities that the
coach will have to
Perform
6. Benefits
-Describe the tangible and intangible benefits to be obtained from
serving as a coach
-Example:
- Compensation
- Recognition
associated with the position
-Transport
- Medical
7. Supervisor
-The job description should communicate to whom the coach will
report and who
will ultimately direct and evaluate the coach.
-List the name and telephone number of the supervisor
3. Advertise
Now you know
how many coaches you will need, what their duties will be, and the type of
person you want to recruit.
Next you
need to let your community know of your needs by publicizing the availability
of these positions.
When advertising you need to focus on the following:
1. The
message
A clear statement
of your need for coaches of certain sports at specified times of the year
2. Audience
- Parents of
participants, Students, Teachers, Local fitness clubs,
Adults who participate in local sports
3. Medium
- The medium is the
means of delivering your message to your
audience.
- Possible mediums:
Local newspapers, Newsletters, Website,
Printed
brochures, Posters, Radio, Personal presentation
4. Recruiting plans
You are now
ready to develop specific recruiting plans and can use the
following ideas:
- Contact individuals in
any of your target audiences personally
- Ask current coaches at
your club if they know of someone who would like to
coach at the club
- Contact
the University to recruit students from the sport science
department
- Contact teachers at
the local schools
- Speak to the parents
of the participants and invite them to coach.
Selecting coaches
It is your responsibility as manager to make sure that you select
the most qualified coaches from numerous candidates for your club. To have a
quality program you must be selective and be sure that those you choose meet
the minimum qualifications. The selection of coaches entails a screening
process.
Screening
process
1. Review the
applicants’ application forms.
2. Briefly
interview those candidates who meet the minimum qualifications.
3. Reference
check
4. Short list
5. Final
selection
Reward
systems
It is important for a club to develop a structured rewards system
for its coaches. This system should offer both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
that meet the psychological, life, and financial needs of the coaches.
1.
Intrinsic rewards
-They
are tied to the job design
- Example: an assistant coach promoted to
head coach of the team
-
New position has more responsibility and is more challenging
2.
Extrinsic rewards
-Can
come in financial and nonfinancial forms
-Financial
include direct compensation, merit pay, and bonuses that are
stipulated in a contract
-Nonfinancial
include social awards, office location, parking sport, car
allowance etc.
ADMINISTRATION
OF PARENTS
In addition to meeting the needs of their athletes, coaches must
meet the expectations of the clubs they represent. They must also engage with
and answer to parents, who come with their own expectations and desire to be
involved. Some parents want to be highly involved, others wish to be minimally
involved, and a number can become overly involved. Given the central role of
parents in a sport club, coaches and sport managers must be prepared to deal
with parents on a regular basis and to respond to their needs. In this chapter we
will discuss the development of a shared understanding with parents, parent
responsibilities, responsibilities of the club towards the parents, and parent
problems.
Developing a
shared understanding with parents
A shared understanding is:
“a multidimensional process that begins with self-reflection and
ends with commitment to building relationships with parents that extend beyond
the coaching context.”
A club can
develop a shared understanding with parents by means of the following ways:
1. Being transparent about the club’s philosophy
2. Engaging in appropriate and
ongoing communication
3. Providing social opportunities
Parent and
sport club managers’ responsibilities
Parent responsibilities to the
child
Parents should:
-find
out what their children want from their sport and from them in
respect to their sport participation
-provide
a supportive atmosphere conducive to their children’s
participation
-determine
when their children are ready to begin playing sports
-ensure
that the conditions for playing are safe
-protect
their children form abusive coaches
-help
their children develop realistic expectations of their
capabilities in sports
-
help their children interpret the experiences associated with
competitive sports
Parent
responsibilities to the club
Parents should:
-
cooperate with the team’s coaches
-
inform the coaches of their child’s physical and mental
condition whenever this condition may place
the child at risk
-
make sure that their children behave during practices
-
provide the equipment the child needs to play the sport safely
-
behave appropriately as spectators
-
feel obliged to help conduct the sport in which their child participates
Sport club managers’
responsibilities to parents
Sport club managers should:
-
provide excellent leadership
-
ensure a safe environment for participants and spectators
-
educate parents about their responsibilities to their children and to
the club
-
communicate with parents about the specifics of the programs in the
club
Parent
Problems
Just as some coaches as problem coaches, some parents are likely
to be problem parents. In some clubs parents have become such detriments that
sport club managers have banned them from competitions.
Banning parents from observing their children’s games is a
desperate last-resort solution and a sign that adults have lost perspective
about the purpose of the child’s sports. The problems with parents should be
classified as minor and major when considering to address them.
1.
Minor parent problems
-
parents getting in verbal arguments with coaches, officials, and other
parents
-
parents coaching their children or other children from the sideline during a
contest
-parents
yelling criticism to players or coaches of either team from the
spectators area
How to handle
minor parental problems
- after the
first incident or two the coach should meet the parent to explain that his
behavior is not acceptable and describe
clearly what behavior is expected
- after the
next incident, the coach should request that the club manager speak with
the parent about the problem, conveying the
same information as the coach did
- if there
is another incident the coach and manager should advise the parent that
this is the last warning, and should submit a
brief written report to the office
- if the
parent further misbehaves it will be recommended that the parent be banned
from practices and games for the rest of the
season.
Major parent
problems
-
parents being repeatedly verbally abusive and disrupting the contest
-
any type of physical abuse
-
being out of control because of drinking alcohol or using other drugs
-
cheating on eligibility rules or by using illegal equipment
Handling major
problem parents
-
all major problems should be reported to the club’s office in writing by the
coach
-
if the parent’s behavior directly violates the clubs rules, the penalties as
specified
by your policies should be immediately enforced
-
if the problem is physical abuse, the severity of the behavior will determine
your
course of action, varying from calling the police to barring the parent
from
attending practices and games to meeting with the parent to discuss the
problem
Parents
are vital to the success of the programs at your club and as sport club manager
you must have a plan for involving them constructively in your club.
Reference:
Eksteen,
Elriena & bookboon.com.2014. Sport Organization and
Administration. 1st
ed.pp.55-72
Governance
of Sports Elementary and Secondary
Chapter 3, Section 9, Republic
Act No.9155
Abolition of BPESS. All functions and activities of the Department
of Education related to sports competition shall be transferred to the
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). The program for school sports and physical
fitness shall remain part of the school curriculum.
Governance
of Sports Elementary and Secondary
Sports Events
-School Level
-District
Level
-Municipal/Unit
Level
-Provincial
Level
-Regional
Level
-National
Level (Palarong Pambansa)
Preparation
-Selection
-Parent Consent
-Birth Certificate
-Medical Certification
-Training
-Competition
Governance
of Sports in Collegiate Level
-SCUAA
-UAAP
-NCAA
-V-LEAGUE
Reference:
Websites
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