Philosophy

"Remember that for most of us, our job isn’t to make world champions, but to make each person we coach the best version of them that they can be." –Martin Bingisser

The art of coaching and that of an athlete is an ever-evolving process. The most important step in that process is to be yourself. “Most coaches have incorporated information into their own program that they have picked up from colleagues, clinics, videos, printed materials or the experiences they have had as athletes” (Guthrie, 2003). Now with the internet it is very easy to have access to training, this is a great tool, however, so is a hammer, but the hammer alone cannot build a building, it takes a carpenter; the same thing holds true to what you see and read on the internet, that alone, like the hammer, it is a valuable tool, but it takes experience of being oneself, to develop the appropriate knowledge to use that tool, to build the athlete. The internet provides a great perspective for easy corrections, event knowledge, as well as technical assessment, that many athletes and coaches try to strive to be like, it is your own experiences that should guide your development as a thrower or coach, and not the mold of one coach or athlete in media source, such as a book, video or the internet, “it is important that your existing coaching philosophy is such a way that your athletes see your approach as a cohesive whole” (Guthrie, 2003).

Once you have established your own coaching procedures and philosophy it is important to help your athletes with the correct progression and technique refinement. The coach should have an open mindset, as to not get carried away in negative commentary that some coaches say when the athlete does not perform to the coach’s expectations. As a coach, I have not blamed an athlete for poor performance, as it is easy to blame others for their shortcomings, than to dig deep and look at your own coaching style. I would go back and see if I could have provided better cues that day, or planned practices more effectively leading up to that competition. By reflecting on your coaching skills and using the athlete’s performance as a test to the practices that week, you will be able to better create and refine your coaching style

"After establishing an appropriate technique for each athlete and drilling the proper reflexes, coaches must detect and correct faults in the athlete’s performance. The greatest difficulty in this regard is locating the causes of the observed faults. According to Bondarchuk (Russian Gold Medalist in the hammer and coach of world record holder Yuri Sedych), there are basically two kinds of individuals concerned with performance-related faults: commentators and evaluators. Commentators concentrate strictly on performance and point out mistakes. Evaluators find the cause of the mistake and figure out how to fix it." (Judge, 2007)

As a coach, it is your job to be the evaluator and not the commentator. It is difficult, as the easiest thing is to point out a flaw, the job of the coach is ever changing and your ideas of technique and corrections should be as well. This book is set up to help you change from being the commentator to the evaluator, by providing season plans with appropriate athletic progressions in the throwing events; as well as corrections to common technique breakdowns in technique. Also in the book to help with your coaching and athletic career is a yearlong strength and conditioning plan, with daily workouts for the lifts and sprints.

As a coach that has reflected on his own coaching and athletic experience throughout the years, I hope that my knowledge in the throws, will help you be the evaluator.