Strength and Conditioning Roundtable: Working with Novice Coaches

Abstract

Coaches learn how to coach in a variety of ways and mentorship has been suggested as a key component in learning to coach, but is also one that is not widely applied or effectively utilized in sport coaching. In sport, mentorship has been considered within the context of coach-to-coach, administrator-to-administrator and coach-to-athlete. Some attention has been paid to considering the specific context of strength and conditioning coaches, but expert level strength and conditioning coaches have yet to have their voices heard. The purpose of this article was to provide a forum for award-winning strength and conditioning coaches working at high school, collegiate and professional competitive levels to discuss their experiences both learning how to coach and their approach to working with novice coaches. The four respondents provided similar answers to each other and answers that are largely supportive of previous work with sport coaches. Despite the similarities, questions within the context of being a strength and conditioning coach remain and some questions for future research are presented.

A Roundtable With College Strength and Conditioning Coaches: Working With Sport Coaches

“…This type of an intervention could be part of a mentoring situation or even as part of a community of practice (CoP). It is noteworthy that there are examples of both mentorship and CoP within both sport coaches (Garner & Hill, 2017;McQuade, Davis, & Nash, WORKING WITH SPORT COACHES 6 2015) and strength and conditioning coaches (Gillham, Doscher, Schofield, Dalrymple, & Bird, 2015;Murray, Zakrajsek, & Gearity, 2014) that provide guidance for researchers and coach developers.…”

“…The open-ended questions used in this project were developed specifically for this project and stemmed from previous research and follows the same format found in the literature (e.g., Gillham et al, 2015Gillham et al, , 2017. In addition to seeking descriptive answers, questions were also asked with a focus on solutions and advice the participants wanted to share.…”

Strength and conditioning roundtable: Strength and conditioning coach evaluation

“…Participants were recruited by Michael Doscher, who also served as a respondent. This procedure follows previous work 20,21 with different coaches recruited. Guidelines for recruitment were (a) ability and time to respond to the questions asked with detailed typed responses, including follow-up questions and clarifications; (b) extensive experience in the field of SC coaching evidenced by overseeing at least their own facility; and (c) a willingness to include their name in the article thereby making their contribution, thoughts, and contact information public.…”

“…This body of knowledge has increased the effectiveness of the protocols, training systems, and ultimately athlete performance but it has also left ample space to consider the coaching aspect of the SC coach. Exploring how SC coaches are evaluated is one step toward filling in that space and follows recent work exploring coaching philosophy 20 and mentorship 21 within the context of SC. The purpose of this project was to solicit responses from SC coaches across competitive levels regarding their experiences being evaluated as SC coaches.…”

Working with coaches and their teams in youth and collegiate sport in the USA: An interview with Dr Andy Gillham

“…I used the tool as an entry point, even if it was just a conversation starter. I didn't use it recently at a NCAA D1 Power 5 school -it was 100% my observation, my strength and conditioning background, knowing what I've seen that's been successful, the three S&C roundtable papers I've co-authored [3][4][5] have really helped me learn from outstanding coaches. SPRJ: So the roundtable papers were borne out of your professional work?…”