Coaches should have an understanding of their player’s or athletes’ mental makeup, but there are some important issues that coaches need to recognise when relating to the psychological side of players.
The major issue is the development of coaching strategies and there are certain assumptions that the coach has to consider when coaching a team:
- Will the formation of the team be successful because the players will be skilful and talented?
- Will the team understand the role of leadership behaviour on and off the field?
- Will teamwork be understood and displayed by the players?
- Will players become individuals to show off their skills because of competition among the players?
- Will all team members interact together in a positive manner?
- Will all players selected to the team have a skill set at a high standard?
- Will the formation of a leadership group within the team support the development of team members?
A critical leadership technique is team building because team spirit contributes greatly to on-field success and coaches have the key role to promote this team spirit.
Coaching strategies will help a player’s mental approach to performance, and yet some coaches rarely devote enough time to this issue.
