ASSISTANCE PLEASE

As Head Coach your use of Assistant coaches can add tremendous value to your program and to the experience of your athletes.  Just like in the corporate world it's important to delegate tasks and responsibilities to ensure that more get done and that you are not overworked as a Head Coach. Also delegation ensures the growth of your assistant coaches.

I've attached a short video of a recent NT Bantam Girls Team practice where the assistant coach is working in with a group of athletes to ensure the flow of the drill.  If this coach did not participate in this drill, the two players in his group would have to join another group.  What's the big deal?  The big deal is less reps for each player!  When we break the team into small groups like the one in the video one of the main reasons is to get each player more touches.  This is an important point of emphasis when running breakdown drills with players.  REPETITION!  The Assistant coach in this drill facilitated more reps for all the players on the team.

I've delegated the following responsibilities/tasks to my awesome assistant coaches over the years:

Work in with Drills - Participate in drills when we don't have enough players due to injury or absence

Work in with Scrimmages - Participate in scrimmages when we don't have enough players due to injury or absence

Team Administration - Team budgeting, hotel bookings, tournament registrations, etc

Player Advisors - Meet bi weekly with a group of 3 or 4 players for goal setting and performance evals.

Create our special situation playbook - Playbook we created for special situations in the last 2 minutes of games.

Brief Players - Pre-brief players prior to going on the court in games; debrief players when they come off the court in games; brief players in drills

Supervise team warmup - ensure pregame warm-ups are at an acceptable standard

Coach games - When I have been absent, suspended, or with an injured player

Run practice - When I have been absent;

Run Part of Practice - Have assistant coaches run a segment of practice

The Head Coach is the leader of the program.  Doesn't mean you have to do everything.  Create the vision for your program.  Connect with the strengths of your staff/volunteers/assistants let them help you to offer the best program for the athletes you serve.

If you'd like some ideas about how to use your volunteers/assistants to support the needs of your program please drop me an email at sealyja@gmail.com and I'd be happy to chat about it or come out to one of your practices to demonstrate.