Coaching
This page is meant to provide support to anyone. Amateur coaches/GM and veteran, you will find something to assist your programs. I have also provided some Wakelet bookmarks, at the bottom of the page, for each of the sports. These Wakelets are filled with links to coaching drills and more.
Coaching Trainings & Opportunities
The North America Scholastic Esports Federations or otherwise known as NASEF, hosts several free coaching and playing academies throughout the year. This is a stellar opportunity for new coaches and coaches who have been in the game for a while. Scholar Gamers also can participate and help create the competitive culture you are seeking.
Building a program
Starting your esports program can be exciting, nerve wracking, and filled with questions. An esports program is more than students playing video games. Ultimately your program will be interwoven into your schools athletic culture and hopefully into your schools curriculum.
How most programs start is gauging student interest. A simple Google Form can be created to survey the student body to see who'd be interested in starting a team. Understand that you will most likely get more students to sign up on a form than will actually show up on the first meeting. Next, set up your first meeting. This first meeting is to discuss the vision you have for the program. Connecting the program to your school district mission is key in adding a sense of legitimacy to the program.
Take note, you will also want to build your community to include more than just the students competing in the games. It is very plausible to bring in students to be your "IT" group to work on hardware and software updates/upgrades, create a stream team to broadcast your competitions and events, have a student be your shout-caster and provide commentary for your matches, and lastly create a media team to connect with your local paper and run your social media outlets (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.).
Once you have your initial students connecting with the Wisconsin High School Esports Association (WIHSEA) would be your next step. You don't necessarily need to have teams created yet for your sports /games, but this gets you in the door to chat with other coaches and general manages from other high schools. Our Discord server is a great resource to get started, and is the platform we do most of our communicating.
Something to keep in the back of your mind is to create a brand for your scholar gamers to take ownership of is really important. Most programs need to prove their legitimacy and establishing a place to compete and designing signage and jerseys help do that. This all comes later and doesn't need to happen in the first year of your program.
Below is the Welcome to Coaching slide deck. You can also check out the WIHSEA Youtube page and/or Twitch for most up to day information
Roles of a GM &/or Coach
One of the most common questions I am asked is, do we need a coach? There are a couple of different leadership roles we have seen with programs. Just starting out there may be an adult (teacher, support staff, community member) that is in charge of establishing your program. First off remember the reason we are starting the program is for the students, so don't let the adult limitation limit the opportunity for the kids. The advisor/general manager position is usually the individual overseeing the program and the coach is running the actual practice for the sports. This may be the same person, and instead of having multiple lead roles it is just one. Below is a checklist of "tasks/responsibilities" you can find with each role.
Advisor/General Manager
Establish a place to compete
Recruit players
Monitor game play and eligibility
Maintain and grow numbers
Coach
Coaching titles vs. Advising has created more interest in students
Run practice (talk about later)
Must communicate with other coaches (pregame, rosters, report, rescheduling)
Must be present during matches
Can have coaches for each game and a general advisor
Below is the WIHSEA Day 2 Coaching Clinic that highlights coaching and practice.
Purposeful Practice & Examples
For new coaches practice is going to look a little different. It usually has to do with the coach’s familiarity with the game. Just remember, don’t let your limitations as a coach be the limitations of your scholar gamers. As a coach it is your job to create structure, and if you can come up with the drills and practice strategies, but if you don’t know enough about the game have your scholar gamers help. We also want to help promote mental and physical health, which is something your may encounter in dealing with the negative stereotypes of gamers. I have included two videos/podcasts from The Academy of Esports that focus on Scholar Gamers and good mental and physical health when it comes to esports.
There are different ways to lead a practice: Lecture Style (Topic of the day and Presentations), Discussion Style (Do not give students answers, but have them come to conclusions together), and follow up these styles with VoDs (Video reflections), Map Analysis, Team Composition Discussions, 1 on 1 coaching/discussions, Scrimmages.
The key is to having structure to your practice. Having a deliberate practice is essential to keep students moving forward. Most of the kids you will find have not actually been part of a team sport, so there is a steep learning curve.
Creating exercises/drills with specific objectives within the game versus just “playing the game together”
Creating an effective practice schedule or lesson plan is very similar to creating a curriculum for class:
Each practice should have specific Learning Objectives
Students will improve/learn this by doing that…
Modifications for specific activities to expand and go deeper
Have your practice activities on a schedule (a certain amount of time per activity)
Diversify your practice - Analytical vs. Mechanical
In Game exercise examples
Communication Exercises - One person talk and make call outs and then rotate. League of Legends - Don’t allow pings, and only verbal communication
Team Composition Exercises - Give time to learn what compositions are meta and why
Map Analysis Exercises - analyzing lanes and why they’re different
Hypothetical Scenarios
Here is an example checklist from the WIHSEA onboarding session with James O’Hagan:
Rocket League- Coaching Wakelet - This bookmark scroll is filled with links to Rocket League support links for scouting, drills, and more.