Innovation in Sports Coaching and Rules By Prof. Dr. Salahuddin Khan Department of Sports Sciences & Physical Education Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan KPK Pakistan Pakistan sports board annual conference on sports & physical education 20-23 June 2014 Islamabad

Introduction It is generally established that sports coaching is a complex activity that involved the management of player through significant interactions and the management of vibrant performance environments Similarly, the sports coaching industry has usually been result driven, where success is usually based on results, and the coach is responsible for positive results or otherwise.

. In fact, at International level the main attention is given to competitive performance and achievement when evaluating sports coaching effectiveness. Therefore, sports coaches are seldom review on the quality of their own practice because commonly coaching is seen as a periodic process, where method of performance that require improvement are identified, then developed.

. In high level, competitions coaching play a vital role. Winning the game either at International, National, or at collegiate level means uniqueness, a more innovative, more creative, and more trained than your opponent. It is well known that when a feedback (coaching) is provided in an appropriate manner, performance, and acquisition of motor skills improves significantly. Therefore, coaching cannot be ignored, because it is a major factor that is involved in the enhancement of sports performance considerably.

. The information technology makes it possible to enhance and improve the performance of an athlete receiving the feedback from using the technology during the training and competition. Moreover, modern technology has had such a profound impact on sport that many athletes and coaches now consider information derived from technological advances to be very useful.

. Some time it happen that a coach come up with a new idea, he nurture it, and decide to take a risk to introduce it to his athlete at training time. Two minutes later, someone takes the video of his creative idea and places it on the Internet and the players all around the world have an easy and free access to his revolutionary and most brilliant idea.

. Today’s technology and media become more efficient, more powerful, easy accessible and cheaper to use. “Copying the ideas of others within your own sport means failure: copying equals losing - the best ideas win”. There are ten skills of quality coaching, and hundred are more can be added to this. Those ten skills that make a coach unique and a quality one are,

Ten Skills 1. Communication skills The quality coach must have a clear and understandable communication with the athletes. If the coach is not able to communicate the ideas and techniques wisely to his athletes, then the athletes cannot understand what the coach really want to say. 2. Passion Passion is another unique quality, which the coach must have. Without a passion or enthusiasm to an activity, nobody can excel or get high position in that area.

. 3. Empathy with Athlete A quality coach should have an empathy with an athlete. Without understanding with athletes, a coach cannot pass his massage to them. A coach should have sympathetic relationship with the athletes, so they can learn more from his experiences. 4. Engaging the Athletes The coach must have the ability to engage the athletes and inspire them to engage in the program of activities.

. 5. Enthusiasm The quality coach must have this unique quality. Interest to his work and sports make the coach distinctive from others. 6. Technical Knowledge The coach should have all the technical knowledge related to his or her field. 7. Knowledge of Sports Sciences & Sports Medicine A coach should have the understanding of the relevant principles of sports science and sports medicine.

. 8. Energy A fit and energetic coach can better perform in activity then an unfit and less energetic coach. 9. Curiosity The coach should have the curiosity to his or her work. They should not take it as a routine work, or part of the job. 10. Commitment The coach should have commitment to continue and excel in the field. S/he should have the thirst to improve his/her coaching with a variety of new techniques and with innovation in those techniques.

Challenges There are more challenges for coaches to become more creative, introduce new ideas, new paths and direction to enhance the athlete’s capabilities and performance. The coach must strive to enhance his abilities, learn faster, and applying the ideas faster than the others. This will makes him the winning coach.

Five Golden Rules of Creative Coaching: 1. The idea must be new to your sport The coach must create new ideas to his sports; only copying of someone’s ideas cannot work. 2. It must work The new idea that the coach has applied in sports or on athlete must work in enhancing the performance of athletes and sport.

. 3. It must be able to be communicated and understood by athletes The new idea that has been applied must have the ability to be communicated and understand by the athletes who can then use the idea to accelerate their rate and enhance the performance. 4. The idea must be flexible The idea must be flexible and has the ability to change, adapted and developed. There is no place for static thinking in sport.

. 5. It must not be limited by the restrictions or boundaries of past thinking, The idea must be truly creative, the idea must not have limits imposed on it based on what has worked or not worked in the past.

. Thank You