Part 2 is Completed

I'm making good progress through ASEP's on-line Coaching Principles course. I wrapped up Part 2, which deals with communication, motivation, and managing athlete's behavior.
It's easy to forget sometimes that there's more to coaching than being able to show student-athletes how to bowl. Obviously, one needs the knowledge to show the proper technique, but how the coach communicates this information to his or her players goes a long way toward how succesful a coach will be.

Part 2 goes into great detail on the various communication styles used by coaches, and examples of which ones are successful and others, not so much.

Do you spend so much time talking that your athletes tune you out?
Is your feedback generally positive or negative?
Are you spending more time judging your atheletes than you are instructing them?
Is your communication consistent?
Are you a chatterbox during practice and during matches, to the point that your athletes can't get a word in edgewise?
Are you expressionless during practice and matches?
Do you talk down to your athletes when discussing their technique?
Are you all over the board when it comes to reinforcing the positive or negative behavior of your athletes?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, or you aren't sure why those questions are important, you're a good candidate for taking this course. Regardless of how much time you've spent working with student-athletes.

Part 2 goes on to talk about motivating athletes, and how to help them feel like they belong on the team and how to have fun while practicing and developing their skills.

The final unit in Part 2 discusses discipline and the importance of establishing a team culture and team rules. The key here is that discipline is not the same thing as punishment. As you go through this section, you'll find that we often treat those two terms the same.

Reading through the book and answering the questions on-line, I've found that much of the first two parts of this class have universal application, so if you are in any type of management for your career, much of what you'll learn here could be adapted on your job.

I'm spending anywhere from 30-45 minutes on each unit, between reading the material in the text and going through the exercises on-line.

Tomorrow I move onto Part 3, The Principles of Teaching.