Athletes receive their knowledge of sports from coaches and by watching sports. As a coach, it is a huge responsibility at all levels of any sport, whether that is youth, high school, college or professional. At a youth level, the amount of responsibility comes from teaching the foundations and helping the athlete grow as a being. After that, the responsibilities come from dealing with the athletes and their education, money problems, societal influences, and health. Throughout the evolution of sport, coaches have becoming more focused on working with athletes on skill development. Training programs have been created to help coaches and athletes with the development of achieving the highest performance.
The focus is on the development as a player in the game, but not physiological growth. Problems lie within coaches not staying current with the exercise information and the lack of coaching education. Coaches have focused on speed, skill, stamina and strength. As time continues, coaches begin to focus more and more on those four aspects while forgetting the basic physiology of the athlete. It is important to focus on the athlete as a whole because that is when the physiological aspects do not diminish and the athlete is able to grow all at once.
When a coach does not stay current with the exercise science information or the physiological aspect of the athlete, that is when injuries start to occur more often, participation decreases, and mental health decreases. Coaches should be aware of the external factors of practices in order to keep athletes safe. One of these external factors is how to use the equipment. Some equipment is agility ladders, plyometric boxes, resistance bands. Without knowledge of how to use and instruct how to use the equipment, athletes can find themselves with a broken ankle. In order to know how to use the equipment, coaches can do research on tips when using the equipment that can prevent injury. This will help coaches minimize external risk while preparing their athletes for competition.
Coaches should want to gain the knowledge about the care and prevention of injuries. Some coaches do not care about staying up to date with the exercise information which results in more injuries than anticipated. Therefore, when a coach teaches sport skills, the athletes need to develop the technical movement of the sport. When these technical movements tied with the speed and expectation to accelerate, decelerate and change direction can increase the risk of injuries. When external forces, such as body contact, is added to the internal forces of the body, there is a greater chance for injury. By being aware of the potential risk of training regimens, can help decrease injury at any level. “Unfortunately, competing in athletics increases the opportunity to experience a sport injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated more than 1.4 million injuries occurred in high school sport participants during the 2005-06 school year.” (Scott R. Johnson 2012) Students who decide to join athletics should know their limitations and the risk for injury. By being aware of the potential risk of training regimens, can help decrease injury at any level.
Youth athletes are starting to train at a professional level. Many children are starting to condition at a high rate in order to be the best. With high pressures of training at a young age, it is stressing out the growing body and mind which can cause a higher rate of injuries. Once an injury occurs, not only will it affect growth but it will affect the child on a psychological level, causing the child to feel an enormous amount of pressure and failure. At any level there should be an athletic trainer in order to assess each players physiology. “Coaches are key members of the sports medicine team and have a great deal of interaction with ATCs (i.e., certified athletic trainers) at all levels of competition.” (Scott R. Johnson 2012) Even though the coach might not have a background in athletic training or physical therapy, it is important for there to be a relationship between the coach and the athletic trainer. This relationship is important because it helps the coach gain an understanding of each of their players in a physiological aspect and learn how to push them physically during practices.
A coach who has poor communication skills results in stressed players with their bodies stressed, causing more injuries and no interest in coming back to playing. Communication is key as a coach because that determines the relationship between the players and the coach. The coach is supposed to be the the most important leader of the team. Strong communication skills with the players and the athletic trainers help with the amount of pressure put onto the athletes. “Coaches can be extremely knowledgeable in the technical skills of the sport and have the perfect game plan; but if they cannot communicate this information to their team, the likelihood of a victory will be greatly reduced.” (Scott R. Johnson 2012) The biggest problem is keeping up with the current exercise science information and then effectively communicating that back to the players. Coaches need to stay on top of what they want to communicate to develop good relationships with their players. Establishing positive relationships is important to achieving proper communications with players. Communicating effectively will allow coaches to teach their athletes the necessary sport skills to produce peak performance and increase the possibility of having a successful athletic program.
Another important key factor of exercise information coaches should keep up with is nutrition. An athletes nutrition is a vital part to their growth. If a coach is not effectively communicating to their athletes on how to properly take care of themselves nutritionally, then the athletes are prone to more diseases and injuries. A coach should stay updated on nutritional science in order to make sure the players are taking care of themselves to optimize their health. An athlete who eats poorly all the time will have a difficult time keeping up in the sport and can develop a chronic disease, therefore a coach should stress the importance of nutrition.
In recent years, there has been research on how large of a gap there is between coaches and exercise science information. “Besides the incongruence, several studies indicated critical barriers to coaches when obtaining sport science knowledge. Lack of time and fund to reach and read the scientific journals, lack of direct access to sport scientists, and poor understanding of academic language which was used in the scientific publications were among the barriers.” (A. K. Bandealy 2015) Reasons above have been supported by data on how coaches have not been able to keep up with the information. Regardless of those reasons, a coach can find ways to change how large the gap is between the two.
A way for coaches to change the percentage of sport injuries on their team is to start to read up on the current exercise information, seek to communicate with athletic trainers, and to try to participate in the latest research in exercise science. “Elite coaches value scientific publications and seminars and national sporting federation publications as sources of knowledge.” (A Case Study of the Relationship between Sports Science Research Practice and Elite Coaches' Perceived Needs) For the coaches who have an easier access to seminars and federation publications, the first step is to attend these events and absorb the information and the next step is to apply the information to their teams. For the coaches that have no access to events, it is more vital for them to try to find as much information through mentors and on reliable research websites.