Coaching - "Invisible" Disabilities

Participation in organized sport activities has been shown to increase self-confidence, social skills and peer acceptance. Young people with "invisible" disabilities (e.g. learning, emotional/behavioural, and speech/language) can often be overlooked because they have no outward physical characteristics that suggest they have diverse learning needs . As a coach, there are many ways to foster an...Read more

Are you working hard enough?

Any periodization training plan requires at least some measurement of work - daily, weekly or monthly. The challenge occurs when we try to balance work and recovery in the short, medium, and long term. One way to determine how hard your body is working is to measure your rate of perceived exertion or RPE. Simply put, RPE is our perception of how hard we're working based on how we feel. Athletes...Read more

Motivational coaching, is it a matter of carrot or stick?

Whether you are coaching athletes in elementary, high school or any age, one of the biggest challenges a coach can face is how to motivate their players. To start, you need to establish your expectations , this will determine your role within the team and let your players know what kind of coach you are going to be. What's a coach to do? Know your athletes as more than just "players" who are put...Read more

Coaching Young Athletes

As a coach, there is always a chance that you will spot exceptional talent in a young athlete. When this happens, it can be easy to forget that that talent is wrapped inside the body and mind of a child. Kids think differently than adults, especially when they are younger. Abstract thinking doesn't really start developing until adolescence, so it can be quite a challenge as a coach to effectively...Read more

The Tech Savvy Coach

Many coaches have already started to incorporate smart technology into their training, and when used to its full potential, iPads or other smart technologies can significantly enhance the coaching business . To some coaches, technology can seem a little daunting, but coaches need to embrace it by making themselves aware of what is available and how it can benefit them and their athletes. Slow...Read more

Coaching and Social Media

We’ve all been told that social media is a very powerful tool and that we should all be using it, but many have no idea how or what it can do for coaches and their teams. Social media can be used externally, by marketing and creating awareness of your team and internally, with the use of mobile applications for distance coaching, video analysis, or to track stats. Marketing is something everyone...Read more

Draft: Event Management 101

So you work in the sports industry. Cool. And now you need to put on a sporting event. Sounds fun. But where do you start? There is more to a sporting event then just the field of play. Ask any successful event manager and they will tell you one of the most important components to ensure a great event is the actual integration of functional areas such as the daily run-time schedule, staffing,...Read more

Draft: If You Can’t Beat Them, You Must Join Them

It doesn’t matter if you are a small or large business, a club or an organization, you have employees, athletes, members, coaches, fans and customers. All of them need to be kept in the loop on one level or another. Forget the letter and the stamp. A what? Yes, a stamp! The fax used to be cutting edge. Then progress to the electronic mail (AKA email) and even that was once considered to be the...Read more

I'm Sorry ... What Did You Say?

How well do you communicate with others? Yes - you are talking to someone, but are they really hearing and understanding what you are saying? And are you really listening to what they are saying? HOW you deliver your message is just as important as WHAT you are trying to say. SIRC recently attended an insightful interactive workshop hosted by Sport 4 Ontario in Toronto called “Communicate and...Read more

Computer-Mediated-Communication

Instant messaging programs such as Skype, text-messaging, Facebook, email, and MSN messenger, just to name a few, are some of the media which has entered our lives to facilitate communication between people. Our lives get more connected everyday and CMC ( Computer-Mediated-Communication ) is not something that will be leaving our society any time soon. What does this mean for the coach-athlete...Read more