Throughout his life and professional career, Alan Sheinwald has always been a natural leader.

For many years, Alan Sheinwald has volunteered as a softball coach in his local community. Coaching has been a wonderful experience and he has learned many important coaching strategies along the way that he has shared down below:

How to be a good coach

• Love your sport

For Alan Sheinwald, this is a given. The best coaches are passionate about their sport: They live and breathe it! Having both practical and theoretical understanding of the sport means the coach will be better equipped to teach it well.

• Understand and motivate players

A good coach understands the strengths and weaknesses of each player and supports individuals accordingly. All of us perform better when we set goals to improve skills, and we are further motivated when we meet these goals. In a team many skills are needed, like a fast runner, a good defender, and an agile mover. A great coach will find the people who fit these roles best, and motivate the players to get better at their skills.

• Improve skills

It’s not just the players who need to know how to improve, a good coach also trains themselves better. Alan Sheinwald suggests getting feedback from team players about how they would like to see practices improved as well as how you yourself can improve in your coaching methods. 

• Make training challenging

Learning happens when we are challenged. The best coaches make sure there is an element of challenge in each training session. But they also know to not make it too difficult so motivation wanes.

• Build a team

A great coach listens to the whole team. Players are more driven when they feel that their opinions are considered. A great team is where respect is shown between team members and peer-pressure is used positively to spur each other on to do better.

• Focus on ALL players

Players have different abilities, and therefore need differentiated coaching to improve and play to their best ability. Focusing merely on one or two players, is not effective coaching and the team will suffer in the long run.

• Have fun!

Of course there is routine and hard work in training, but a quality coach also brings fun and games into the drudgery of exercise. Planning socials events outside of the field is also a good idea. Not only is it fun, but it also increases team spirit and team bonding.

To learn more about his leadership roles and strategies, connect with Alan Sheinwald on Expertfile.