Coaching tips

[bluekey88]

In trying to think of topics that haven't been done to death here, I got to thinking that we don't often talk about the skills/abilities that make for a good coach.

As this is an area that I really struggle in, I figured I'd throw it out there to you guys. What makes a good tkd coach? What qualities does this person posees and how do they differ from a good teacher/instructor?

Most importantly, what are some tips for developing these qualities in oneself for the betterment of one's athletes?

I've got a couple of thoughts, but will repsond later after I see what some of you other guys/gals have to say.

Peace,
Erik

 

[terryl965]

All coaches should be a Black Belt and have experience in the tournament circuit. Without that they really do not understand the sport of TKD. Just my opinion and with a nickel you could not get a cup of coffee.

 

[ATC]

Understanding. This is the one word that I can think of that make for a good coach. If you don't understand you really can't coach. The game is so fast and so short that you have to see things from the beginning and make adjustments on the fly and right away. If you don't understand what you see or what is going on in each second then you can't be a good coach.

You only have the 30 seconds in between rounds (twice in a match) to alter or make a game plan. The time that the fighters are fighting is all the time you have to see and formulate that game plan. In order to do that you have to understand everything already.

Man do I love this game.

 

[granfire]

All coaches should be a Black Belt and have experience in the tournament circuit. Without that they really do not understand the sport of TKD. Just my opinion and with a nickel you could not get a cup of coffee.

BB necessary?

I am asking, because, well, never had a coach.

Can you really make a huge difference in the delivery? Or is the role more of a cheer leader with the ability to grab the attention long enough to re focus?

 

[Earl Weiss]

All coaches should be a Black Belt and have experience in the tournament circuit. Without that they really do not understand the sport of TKD. Just my opinion and with a nickel you could not get a cup of coffee.

So, If experience as an athlete and competitor is required to be a good coach then you think Bella Karoly is a bad coach?

 

[granfire]

So, If experience as an athlete and competitor is required to be a good coach then you think Bella Karoly is a bad coach?

he was a gymnast himself though wasn't he?

 

[terryl965]

So, If experience as an athlete and competitor is required to be a good coach then you think Bella Karoly is a bad coach?

We are talking TKD, so I was giving my opinion to the question. In TKD experience goes along way for such a short time period, if the adjustment is not dot withen seconds the match is over.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

I know in many sports the great coaches were never very good at the sport when/if they played it themself. Isnt there a sying in regards to this, something like "you dont have to be a chicken to know a bad egg". Im not involved at all in sport tkd so this may not be the case in tkd though. I do know that in most sports just because you were great at the sport doesnt neccessarilly mean yo will be even an average coach. Wally Lewis springs straight to mind.

 

[ATC]

So, If experience as an athlete and competitor is required to be a good coach then you think Bella Karoly is a bad coach?

I think you do need some experience, even if you got beat every time you competed. It is not how good you were or weren't, just as long as you understood win or lose. I don't think there are any coaches in any sport that have not played the game at some level. Experience is a huge part of being a coach at any sport.

The cool thing about any sport is that there is no single attribute that makes you the best. Speed can be countered with timing. Power can be countered with speed. Timing can be countered with broken rhythm and so on. This is something a good coach will understand. Coached look at the game as it is being played and make adjustments to suite the situation, the athlete executes the game plan and the adjustments. The coach understands what he has to work with and prepares the athlete as best he can. The coach makes the athlete aware of his/her limitations and strengths, then makes sure that said athlete understands what works best for any given situation.

The one thing that I hate is when I see a coach try to make one thing work for everything. There is no one thing that can work in every situation.

 

[Earl Weiss]

We are talking TKD, so I was giving my opinion to the question. In TKD experience goes along way for such a short time period, if the adjustment is not dot withen seconds the match is over.

OK, how about boxing. do you think Cus Damato and Angelo Dundee were bad coaches.

Or is boxing so dissimialr as well?

 

[Earl Weiss]

he was a gymnast himself though wasn't he?

Nothing in his Bio mentions it. He certainly never did the Women's apparatus. His body type also seems to make it unlikely that he excelled in the men's field.

 

[terryl965]

OK, how about boxing. do you think Cus Damato and Angelo Dundee were bad coaches.

Or is boxing so dissimialr as well?

But once again both trained in boxing, so they had that as a edge. I am not saying they cannot be good. What I am saying is to me they need to have some ideal what and how it feels to be in the ring. Ring experience can come from inside your dojaang from sparring with your teammates. The question was what do I believe make a good coach for blank sport and I gave my opinion, I do not let anyone coach my players except they are a BB and they understand the dynamics of the game, for this to happen I prefer someone with experience sparring in Olympic TKD.

 

[bluekey88]

I would agree with the statements that to be a good coach one needs both experience AND understanding/awareness. If one has experience and little understanding, they may be able to deliver themselves....but will struggle in communicating to their player what they need to do to deliver. Conversely, awareness without expereince...they may know what sorts of strategic/tactical things need to happen to win, but will be unable to translate theory into practice.

Now...for myself, I have some experience and some awareness...but I want to get better. How do I do I (or someone else) do this? Experience is easy...keep training, compete occasionally, watch a lot of matches...

But developing awareness and understanding...developing communication strategies that allow me to motivate and communicate to my players...how does one improve there?

I've looked around, and there's not a lot of discussion of these things in TKD. How does one become a better coach? Plenty on how to be a better athlete, instructor...but not much on coaching (which seems to live in a grey area between instructor and athlete).

Peace,
Erik

 

[mango.man]

The problem I always experienced when coaching my daughter (and I did so MANY times) was that I was too focused on what she was or was not doing and not at all focused on what her opponent was or was not doing.

Between rounds I was always saying things like "Why aren't you doing..." or "Why the hell are you doing..." when I should have been like "That girl is doing... and you need to do... to compensate" etc.

I always told myself before every fight that I was going to focus more on the other girl but when the fighting started I always focused 100% only on my kid.

 

[terryl965]

One thing I do for my coaches is hold sparring matches and video taping them and making them right down way they change statagy or keep going the the same road. One other thing is to see what your opponet is doing, that maybe confusing your athlete, remember your fighter is only one part of a match, refs. play a big part you need to keep alog on all refs. that are at major events year after year so you can know what they allow and what they do not. I know alot of them and I know who allows a push, extra holding or anything like that.

 

[StudentCarl]

So, If experience as an athlete and competitor is required to be a good coach then you think Bella Karoly is a bad coach?

Coaching beside the ring in TKD is about reading the opponent and helping your competitor adapt to win. Bela didn't have to change his athletes' tactics to adapt to opponents at the apparatus, he had to look at their execution of long-coached mechanics and coach the mental game. It's different.

 

[StudentCarl]

How do I do I (or someone else) do this? Peace,
Erik

I'm gaining the most by attending athlete development camps where coaches from a number of clubs either bring in a higher level coach or pool their talents. If you can spend time watching and working with more experienced coaches, you will learn. Don't be shy about asking questions, as the good ones will share. Despite what the few paranoids might think, there are no trade secrets in this game. Getting to know coaches at tournaments is a good path to follow. Develop some friendships, as they are likely on the same learning path you are.

Best wishes,
Carl

 

[ATC]

The problem I always experienced when coaching my daughter (and I did so MANY times) was that I was too focused on what she was or was not doing and not at all focused on what her opponent was or was not doing.

Between rounds I was always saying things like "Why aren't you doing..." or "Why the hell are you doing..." when I should have been like "That girl is doing... and you need to do... to compensate" etc.

I always told myself before every fight that I was going to focus more on the other girl but when the fighting started I always focused 100% only on my kid.

You were on the right track Mango. You are aware of your short coming and only need more time (experience) coaching to get better (develop). You should maybe have started with someone other than your daughter. Once you have developed better coaching skills you can then come back to coaching your daughter

Erik, the more you do anything the better you become. One thing you can do is to watch other good coaches. Sit next to them when they coach and see what they look for and what they do. I know at local tournaments you can sit behind or stand next to coaches at the ring (as long as you don't interfere) and pick up some great tips. It is also helpful to have a good coach let you coach and then after point out things that you may have over looked. Also watch coaches that are not so good also and try to give advice. Even when simply watching matches of others you can arm chair coach and bounce ideas off of others that are watching with you.

Nothing comes overnight. It takes time just like anything and the more you do it the better you will become. As Master Terry said, video tape the matches that you coached and watch them back. Look at where you maybe could have done something different. Never toss the videos away as you can come back to them months and years later and still find even more opportunities that you did not see each time as you experience gets better.

Coach all different skill levels as well. Better fighters may see and do things that you do not see and the lower skilled will give you the opportunities to hone your basics. I still watch all my sons and daughters older matches over and over as I always see something I missed before. I even watch their matches from when they were color belts. This gives me understanding of what those levels need to be working on and keeps me grounded at all the different levels. Sometimes coaches expect green belts to do and see what black belts see. They don't and you have to understand that.

One tip that I can give is to look for types, Aggressive vs. Defensive vs. Balanced. Then work on understanding what is needed for each type you coach against.

The easiest to coach against is the Defensive fighter. The next is the Aggressive, and the hardest is the Balanced fighter. Look at each type and learn to define the opponent right away. Then have game plans for each type.

Also you should be able to tell if the opponent is right or left dominant pretty quickly also. If you can pick up on these two things pretty quickly you should be able to give your fighter this info giving them some knowledge to help them. Your fighters should be looking for that same info right away also.

Coach before the fight as much as possible. This means that during your training with your fighters you should be teaching them to coach themselves. You should not need to talk that much during the fight and in between rounds you and your fighter should already be on the same page and be seeing the same things. You are there as an extra set of eyes to maybe see the one or two things that the fighter does not see. You are also there to help motivate.

My son gets to tense sometimes before a match and will try to hard. At the past J.O.'s I saw this and between matches I felt that cracking some jokes would loosen him up. It did, and every time he step to the center of the match to bow before the start of the match I would just yell out the punch line to our inside joke and he would smile. I knew he was relaxed then. I was not even his coach in the chair but that little bit of coaching I did from the side made the difference.

Just get as much experience as possible and you will be fine.

 

[StudentCarl]

Not so much directly coaching as philosophy-of-coaching/player development:

We work with our players to be thinkers who read and adapt as they fight. The coach's job is to help see what the fighter might not and make adjustments. The more a fighter can think for themselves, the more the coach can fine-tune and not do all the thinking. Fighters who can think while fighting can adapt at the right time--becoming more defensive or more attacking at the right moment.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Coaching beside the ring in TKD is about reading the opponent and helping your competitor adapt to win. Bela didn't have to change his athletes' tactics to adapt to opponents at the apparatus, he had to look at their execution of long-coached mechanics and coach the mental game. It's different.

Point taken. That is why I used the Angelo Dundee and Cus Damato examples.

Your thoughts?