High Performance Disability Sport Coaching by Geoffery Z. Kohe & Derek M. Peters

Author:Geoffery Z. Kohe & Derek M. Peters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Recommendations for coaching, education and practice

‘As a Coach we take on so many roles (teacher, leader, mentor, parent figure, friend, confidant, adviser, motivator, first aid person, transport manager, disciplinarian, cheerleader, etc. … well above just turning up to coach the team’ (Walker, 2010, p.3).

As evidenced in Rosta’s experience, coaching is about players’ formation, and formation of himself/herself over the course of many years. During this time Rosta has had to accept a lot of roles depending on internal/external circumstances. External influence heavily determines team development, from a team’s beginning to the European top level.

Rosta’s example illustrates wheelchair basketball development in three distinct chronological timeframes:

a)

Non-systematic development before the 1990s, based on inner effort and motivation with randomly gained information. In spite of the limits in international contacts, quality of equipment or governmental attention, the roots of sports were laid by dint of enthusiastic patrons. Amateur coaches were no exception and as such they should be imprinted in the minds of the current generation.

b)

Spontaneous development in the early 1990s, with strong social orientation on the phenomenon of ‘disability’ as quite a new attractive domain. New fresh political atmosphere led toward more intensive support in legislation, social care, equipment quality, fast appropriate information, communication with foreign sports clubs, etc. These conditions initiated media interest, research orientation, a new generation of athletes and volunteers, new organizers and supporters including coaches (some of them with an approach to athletes’ prosperity, some of them with an approach to private prosperity). Intrinsic motivation and personal enthusiasm of athletes were crucial, though.

c)

The current period, when professionalism in a top disabled sport is necessary. As the recent conditions are solved in a typical ‘Czech way’, which is ‘something between’, only a limited number of athletes remain in regular competitive activities. These athletes are either well supported, based on good living conditions, or they are enthusiasts with a personal vision to go over to a professional ranking. The system of support in CZ is only on a ‘semi-professional’ level, while elsewhere in the world para-sport is more likely to be supported on a fully professional level. This may be one of the reasons why the previous CZ successes (in skiing, swimming and athletics) are now less prevalent than before.

Thus, as Rosta’s story exemplifies, coaches have to make up their minds which route to take, i.e. either focus only on their own team’s achievements, or on the system of sport as a whole. which will inevitably affect the team’s curve of performance. A coach’s approach should be spontaneously ‘holistic’ as only a healthy, motivated player satisfied with his or her job and family environment can cope with the demands of training and competition in high performance sport to gain future success (Hall et al., 2015). A long-term systematic and strategic vision is crucial and should be based on:

a)

recruiting new younger wheelchair users, providing them with information about sport participation in the early period after a trauma to initiate their intrinsic motivation for sports as part of their social and personal life development.

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