PSADA Coaching Better Workshop Print Version

In surveys of high school athletic directors, coaching is most often cited as their biggest concern. Finding qualified coaches, ensuring the preparedness of coaches (especially non-faculty coaches), and retaining good coaches are just a few of the challenges they face in effectively staffing their department.

Now there is help for administrators seeking to develop and sustain a cohesive, high-performing coaching staff and athletic program: the Coaching Better Workshop.

World-renowned coach educator and author of the highly acclaimed book Coaching Better Every Season, Wade Gilbert helped create this quick and comprehensive coaching development experience for administrators to offer all their coaches at once. In just three hours, the entire coaching staff will gain a clear and consistent perspective of the priorities, culture, instruction, performance, and evaluation methods that characterize quality coaching.

The workshop is organized into six modules that help coaches do the following:

• Develop an athlete-centered coaching philosophy and adhere to it
• Build and foster a strong team culture
• Design and conduct practices that promote athlete development
• Prepare athletes and teams to compete successfully and achieve peak performance
• Implement evaluation systems for individual, team, and program improvement
• Enhance their own professional development and personal well-being

Athletic directors are provided a suite of easy-to-use tools—including an administrator manual, a coaches’ workbook, and online videos—to facilitate the workshop experience. They have the flexibility to customize the workshop and how they choose to conduct it, whether by supplementing content with school policies and procedures or enlisting veteran coaches on their staff to lead select workshop activities. Districts can even award continuing education credits to participating faculty-coaches working to maintain teaching certifications.  

The Coaching Better Workshop is offered in two formats.

Online Access
The online access option includes the following resources, all of which are accessible electronically without printed materials:

• Coaching Better Every Season ebook
• Administrator manual
• Coach workbook
• Supporting resources
• Video library
• Presentation package
• Coach quiz

Print Package
The print package includes all of the electronic resources that come with the online access, plus physical copies of the following:

• Coaching Better Every Season book (3 copies)
• Administrator manual
• Coach workbook (10 copies)
• Coach quiz (10 copies)

Audience

The primary audience for the Coaching Better Workshop is high school athletic directors charged with hiring, training, developing, and unifying their coaching staffs and enhancing their schools’ overall sport programs. Secondary audiences include sport administrators for national governing bodies of Olympic sport, national and international sport organizations and associations, and club teams.

Module 1    Team Core Values, Standards and Expectations

• Core values are the expectations and standards that coaches and their athletes use to hold each other accountable and build a culture of excellence.
• To be most effective, core values must be clearly articulated with athletes and other members of your team.
• Core value action statements provide real and specific guidance on how to behave.

Module 2    Coach-Athlete Relationships and Team Trust/Team Building

• Team building is the systematic and deliberate actions you take to promote closeness, connection, unified purpose and shared commitment to team goals among your athletes.
• Mutual trust is enhanced by a clear and agreed-upon understanding of the role that each person on the team is expected to play.
• Depending on your actions as a coach, you will be making either deposits or withdrawals from the team trust bank.

Module 3    Athlete Development and Quality Practice Design

• Athlete learning is optimized when the practice goals stretch the athletes just outside their comfort zone.
• Short, high-intensity practice sessions are generally more productive. When coaches overextend practices, athletes inevitably lose focus and are more likely to get injured.
• Athletes will be more motivated to practice, enjoy practice more and show greater commitment to practices when they have some choice and input on practice design and the practice is more competitive, like an actual game.

Module 4    Competition Readiness and Peak Performance

• Examine: Silently observe the performance of the athlete and opponent. Look for (a) opportunities to make strategic adjustments or exploit opponent tendencies, (b) praiseworthy athlete behavior, and (c) potential signs of athlete fatigue.
• Encourage: Regularly give praise and support, both for successful performance outcomes (e.g., goal, score) and quality of performance (i.e., correct skill execution, effort).
• Educate: Use athlete performances as teachable moments by providing quick feedback and reminders of important technical and tactical actions during natural breaks (time-outs, intermissions, when athletes are on the bench).

Module 5    Performance Evaluation and Recognition

• The goal of end-of-season program evaluation is to collect enough information in a short time to make informed decisions about how to allocate off-season energy to improve your coaching, develop your athletes, and enhance your program.
• Quality program evaluation requires consideration of at least four factors:
• Identifying what should be evaluated
• Collecting evidence from multiple sources
• Ensuring that the evaluation system and tools are practical
• Deciding how to communicate and use evaluation result

Module 6    Self-Improvement and Personal Well-Being

• The most effective coaches are lifelong learners who are on a constant quest to identify and close performance gaps.
• Continuous improvement requires industriousness, curiosity, resourcefulness, and honest self-examination—characteristics associated with personal mastery and a growth mind-set.
• Coaches with a growth mind-set are more resilient and seek opportunities to improve despite encountering failures and setbacks.

Dr. Wade Gilbert is an internationally renowned coaching consultant and sport scientist, as well as an award-winning professor in the department of kinesiology at California State University at Fresno. His highly acclaimed book Coaching Better Every Season (2017, Human Kinetics) demonstrates the author’s special combination of knowledge of studies in the field, keen understanding of the key principles resulting from that research, and adept communication and teaching skills to inform and benefit coaches, athletes, students, and coach educators. Gilbert was also the lead author for the inaugural USOC Quality Coaching Framework (2018), created by the United States Olympic Committee in partnership with its national governing bodies.

Gilbert has been involved in sport and coaching his entire life. His experience as a competitive multi-sport athlete and coach across a variety of sports fuels his passion for coach development.

Gilbert holds degrees in physical education, human kinetics, and education. He has taught and studied coaching at the University of Ottawa (Canada), UCLA, and Fresno State. He has contributed to over 100 publications, including dozens of scientific articles and book chapters, and also serves as editor-in-chief of the International Sport Coaching Journal.

Gilbert has conducted coaching workshops around the world, spanning all competitive levels and nearly every sport imaginable. The diverse groups that have benefited from Wade’s expertise include the following:
Australia Football League Coaches Association, Badminton World Federation, Coaching Association of Canada/Canadian Olympic Association, EXOS, Fresno State Athletics (basketball, football, golf, track and field, soccer, swimming and diving, volleyball, water polo, wrestling), Fresno Unified School District, High Performance Sport New Zealand, International Council for Coaching Excellence, International Ice Hockey Federation, Irish Rugby Football Union, LA84 Foundation, National Hockey League/National Hockey League Players Association, New Zealand Rugby, Softball Canada, Sport SG (Singapore), Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club, United States Olympic Committee, USA Archery, USA Football, U.S. Rowing, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association, U.S. Soccer, World Rugby Union, and World Wrestling Entertainment.

Gilbert regularly shares his coaching insights through “Coach Doc” commentaries on the Human Kinetics Coach Education website in his advisory role with the company. He also works closely with youth and Fresno State coaches locally, often testing the merits of new coaching methods and practices.

Access to ancillaries is granted at the time of purchase. Ancillaries are available online.

Administrator manual. Contains material to help you design and lead a half-day (three-hour) learning experience for you and your coaches. Takes facilitators step by step through the process of leading the workshop.

Video introductions. Each workshop module begins with a two- to three-minute video clip featuring Dr. Gilbert, who introduces the topic, explains its significance to coaches, and sets the stage for group discussions and learning activities that will follow.

Coach workbook. Each module in the coach workbook includes key points that will help coaches get more out of workshop activities. Coaches are prompted to consider the questions then record their responses and thoughts.

Test package. The 30-question test package includes five multiple-choice questions per module. The test items are based on the material addressed in workshop activities and the coach workbook. You are free to use all, some, or none of the items provided. If you do decide to test your coaches’ retention of the content, you can set your own scoring standards.

Presentation package plus image bank. Contains 100 slides, including key figures and tables from the text. Modify the slides as needed to fit your needs. The image bank includes all the figures and tables from the book, separated by chapter.