Sports coaching: what it is and what its benefits are
Coaching is a discipline that has become very fashionable in recent years. And although it receives some criticism, if the professional who applies it is well trained, it can provide excellent results for the personal, professional, educational and sports development of the people.
Today we will talk about sports coaching , a proposal that allows maximizing the potential of an athlete or athlete.
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Different types of coaching
Coaches guide people in the process of change and help them achieve their full potential in a variety of areas and improve their well-being. They can work with individuals who want to achieve their life goals (Life Coaching: the secret to achieve your goals), with managers to better manage the deal with the staff (Coaching for companies: what is it and what are its benefits?) even with teachers and teachers (Educational Coaching: a tool to learn and teach better).
But the coach not only works with the coachees (client of the coach) individually, but also can do it with groups of people and work or sports teams. In this area, it allows adopting strategies to maximize the learning and management potential of psychological resources useful to achieve a goal.
Coaching is a methodology that helps to overcome those limiting beliefs that prevent us, many times, from staying halfway between what we really want and what we can achieve.
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The origin of sports coaching
The relationship between coaching and sports is a reality since the origins of this discipline. In fact, coaching as we know it today was born in the United States in the 70s, specifically in the field of sports. His main precursor was Timothy Gallwey, a tennis player who later became a coach He realized the importance of psychological aspects in the achievement of objectives and sports performance in general. In his book The Inner game of tennis, published in 1974, discloses his ideas about coaching, which would later be used in other fields, especially the labor field.
However, the origins of coaching go further in time, because, for example, the contributions of Socrates and his methodical dialogue known as maieutics, the concept of self-realization of humanistic psychology, whose maximum exponent is Abraham Maslow, or the well-known Emotional Intelligence practice initially proposed by Daniel Goleman, have shaped this discipline.
Benefits of sports coaching
Sports coaching brings many benefits for athletes. But, what are these benefits?
1. Help to get to know each other better
Sports coaching allows athletes to get to know each other better, because they develop Emotional Intelligence and learn to use tools to discover their own limits and impulses that hinder their full potential. With sports coaching, self-knowledge improves, which is key to personal and sports development .
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2. Help to plan realistically
Self-knowledge also allows us to know which path we want to take, and helps to plan realistically. This is key because it helps keep your feet on the ground and avoids frustration.
3. It allows to reach the maximum potential
With the help of coaches, athletes develop resources, competencies and skills that allow you to maximize your performance and your potential . Coaching makes athletes go further by helping them eliminate mental barriers.
4. Helps to overcome limiting beliefs
Limiting beliefs act as a barrier to reach the potential that an athlete possesses, because the mind can be our worst enemy if we are not aware of how these negative thoughts affect us.
The sports coach offers the coachee techniques and resources that are oriented to enhance talent at its best. In other words, sports coaching can identify the weaknesses , but also take responsibility for the change and take action to overcome any obstacle.
5. It favors the management of emotions
Emotions can favor or hinder athletic performance. Thanks to coaching, athletes are capable of Know and regulate your own feelings, emotions, beliefs , judgments and coping strategies. Something that, without a doubt, allows to obtain better results.
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6. Increase motivation
Sports coaching is key to planning and setting realistic goals, but also to stay in the present moment and get feedback on how we are behaving. Coaching is motivating because the person discovers their own motivations and achieves a greater capacity for challenge and ambition.
7. Increase concentration and higher performance
Staying in the present moment and acquiring a high level of consciousness also favors concentration and increases performance.
Also, since coaching allows athletes to connect with themselves in the here and now, so that they reach the state in which the level of difficulty of the task and the motivation necessary to carry it out are kept in an almost perfect balance. It favors what is known as "flow state".
8. Reduce frustration
Realistic goals and well-planned goals help maintain high self-esteem, since people do not live in irrational expectations and are less frustrated. Coaching establishes action plans in the medium and long term , so it is beneficial to go step by step and live in the here and now.
9. Power leadership
Coaching empowers athletes, who feel responsible for their own actions thanks to this methodology. Athletes have greater capacity for learning, decision-making power and they acquire a positive mentality in the face of change .
10. Improves group cohesion
Coaching can be done individually; however, and especially in the world of sports, group coaching sessions or team coaching can be carried out. When a group feels united and pursues a common goal, it is easy for it to perform at a high level. Coaching increases the feeling of belonging , discipline and improve relationships within the team.
