Analysis of the Article: Inside Out Coaching - Paper Example

Describe the author's main thesis made about effective coaching.

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Sports transform lives for the better. This is the central thesis of this inspirational book. Whether from the childhood plays to the professional league players, sports are an important forum through which the participants can get to transform their lives for the better.

However, this transformation is about the coaches who are available for these players. The author discusses how coaches are an important figure in a player's life, like their second parents. They get to be the people these players look up to, listen to, learn from, and even consult on decisions other than the sports. The impact they have on these players is a big responsibility according to the book.

However, the author notes that most coaches fail in this aspect, due to their fixation on transforming the players into the best players they can be, forgetting about their need for inner growth, which very much affects their performance on the field. He addresses the transactional coaches who abuse the power they have over their teams to raise them to professional glory while completely neglecting the needs of their team. Their leadership and operational strategy is being called out by the author. On the other hand, he admits that there are transformational leaders who other than teaching the sports, they also are attentive to their teams' needs. These kinds of coaches are more concerned with the transformation of these team players to responsible adults that can be a positive change to society as well as their lives. These are the kinds of coaches the author advises the readers to emulate.

Explain how this book differentiates between "transformational" and "transactional" coaching.

A transformational coach is one who about understanding the players and helping to nurture and grow them. He looks to understand and empathize with the students without having to use forceful authority. Their method of leadership is interactive with the team, using sports as a medium through which his team can express their feelings, and he can communicate with them on a deeper level." Instead of looking back in despair, I quickly decided, with Paula's help, to look forward with hope. I wanted to become the kind of coach I had craved all those years under transactional coaches. I wanted to be transformational." (Ehrmann, Ehrmann, Jordan 6)

Transactional coaches. These coaches are all about the need for a win. Such coaches do not care for the need of the team; rather they look to gain the ride and status that comes with winning. These coaches have no personal relationship with their players. They are concentrated on growing their team, but not the personal growth of the players. Most of these coaches are dictatorial and take no suggestions or criticism from the players. They are respected out of fear and need, but not out of respect as is the case for transformational coaches.".. The kind of coaches who use players as tools to meet their personal needs for validation, status, and identity. They held their power over us to elicit the response they wanted. I obeyed these coaches out of necessity, but I never accepted their belief systems or bought into their programs. Coach first, team second, and a player's growth and needs last, if at all, were their modus operandi." (Ehrmann, Ehrmann, Jordan 6)

Describe how this book relates to your personal coaching philosophy of athletes within your program today.

The book highlights my belief in the practice of winning being secondary to my team. When you put your team before anything else, whether they win or lose is not as important as their morale and spirit at the end of the day. I always remind my players that despite winning being a good thing, it is only one perspective of the whole game. The desire to win is natural to human nature, but if the team enjoys, learns, gets to interact and associate with others while working as a team, then that should be enough. Being a good coach means, that winning is not his goal but a good coach will make the team want it for themselves.

"An Inside Out coach is one who has done this sort or arduous interior work to answer such critical questions as, why do I coach? Why do I coach the way I do? What does it feel like to be coached by me? How do I define and measure success?" (Ehrmann, Ehrmann, & Jordan, 8).The book also enabled me to achieve this kind of mindset that I had not approached before. Adopting this mentality allowed me to approach the coaching profession as a calling.

Much of the information that has been discovered in this book is the purpose of coaching that is reinforced by the personal stories in the book. A considerable amount of evidence gathered has enabled us to realize that coaches are very essential in players' lives. They are in control of their lifes, thinking, emotional and personal growth, and most importantly, themselves. Based on these observations, investing in well-trained, transformational coaches is the way to a better future for the sporting system.

References

Ehrmann, J., Ehrmann, P., & Jordan, G. (2011). Inside Out coaching: How sports can transform lives (1st Simon & Schuster hardcover Ed.).