Officiating and Coaching in Physical Education and Sports

In order to bring out the beat in athletes, coaches must first consider their approach and how to guide their practice. Coaches must be committed to the athletes and their learning. They must be at hand to guide practice, to work with individuals and to teach strategies, techniques, values and sportsmanship every day, rain or shine.

Each competitive even provides an opportunity for learning. To help the athletes with this task, we as coaches provided written summaries. It is important to note that these comments were never negative. If the effort or performance an athlete produced lacked focus or determination, we found a way to state our comments so that the individual knew that there would be another chance, a better day ahead. When coaches provide information to the athlete, which will allow them to take actions to effect change, it is important that they provide the information in a positive manner. Look for something positive to say first and then provide the information that will allow the athlete to effect a change of behaviour or action.