Changing Your Coaching Style

Changing Your Coaching Style

Traditionally coaching or leadership styles have been based on the following; autocratic or democratic, there are more but these will be our primary focus.

'Autocratic' - 'Bossy' - 'Authoritarian'

Autocratic Coaches tend to adopt a consistent TELL style of delivery where they are in charge and the players/learners do as they are told. Development is taken away from the players and is firmly in the hands of the coach. This style however is one predominantly used when SAFETY is an issue in developing tackling or in in the SCRUM.

'Democratic' - 'Guider' - 'Personable'

Using a DEMOCRATIC or SELL style of approach allows you to put the player first and build your sessions around their development, primarily using questions to check for understanding. As you realise the power of questioning your players, you begin to realise that subject matter isn't the priority! Sure subject knowledge has a role but it very often leads to a lot of coaches just spouting the knowledge as fountain without consideration of the players knowledge... We need to know what they know!

The acronym TED is an excellent way to learn the power of questions:

As coaches develop and spend more time coaching and reviewing how their style affects the development of the players, we see some improved outcomes. There are many reasons how our coaching style differs and should differ - these could be:

• Experience of the coach
• Ability of the Players/Learners - inc' prior knowledge
• Context or situation of the coaching - what is being coached
• Age of the players being coached

Take a look through our 2000+ coaching videos to learn from the some of the best!