Sport Coaching in Practice

Articles and Videos

Here is a collection of articles focused on the practical application of coaching. Covering a varied topic mix, they all relate to useful and relevant coaching issues, coaches face day in, day out. You may find our sections for our most recent articles, resources and materials, latest newsletters, or 5 Minutes with Bo Hanson video series valuable too.

rugby-team-lineup

The Real Factor for high-performance in Sport

While it’s nice to have new buildings and equipment, is this the investment that will deliver the best return to your sporting success? At Athlete Assessments, we have been fortunate enough to have worked with more than 100,000 coaches, athletes, and sports administrators since our founding in 2007. This work has spanned over 40 different sports across the globe.

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sport coaching style

Avoiding the Traditional Sport Coaching Style 

Video Presentation by Bo Hanson, 4x Olympian and Coaching Consultant The Traditional Sport Coaching Style is the old way of coaching athletes. Highly directive in style and highly ineffective with today’s modern generation of athletes. Discover

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Teaching and Sports Coaching Methods

There are many different learning strategies designed to help athletes develop. As a coach, what are your strategies? This article is a follow up from our article on the 11 Qualities of Optimal Learning Environments. In that article the fourth quality of an optimal learning environment was coaches providing multiple teaching and sports coaching methods to help their athlete’s progress. Learn more about the following methods in order to better communicate and educate your athletes.

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coaching model

Critical Coaching Models to Understand

By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments As a coach, there are some models that it is vital you understand to get the best out of your athletes. In this article

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The Coach’s Guide to Managing Conflict in Sport

We all know that in the highly stressful environment of elite sport (and even social sport), conflict is bound to occur. Coaches need to know the best way to understand, recognize and manage conflict in a way that results in a positive outcome. Dealing with conflict is a delicate yet necessary part of any coach’s role, so we have also included a guide to the Critical Conversations you will need to make regularly in your coaching career.

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team decisions

Making Effective Team Decisions

By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments One of the hallmarks of successful athletes, teams and coaches, is their ability to make effective decisions across a range of challenging environments.

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Delivering Athlete Feedback

All athletes will perform at a level under their best at some point. How Coaches manage this impacts the athlete’s future performances. Studies into coaching effectiveness continually suggest everything we say and do as a Coach impacts our athlete’s performance. This article provides two simple athlete feedback mechanisms to use with your athletes to ensure their performance improves with your coaching feedback. The first technique is called the feedback sandwich. It is a three step model for giving constructive encouragement and athlete feedback.

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How To Be An Athlete Centered Coach

Athlete Centered Coaching is a coaching philosophy underpinned by a set of values and coaching behaviors, where the primary goal of the coach is to help their athletes take responsibility of their sporting behaviors that create their results. This article outlines what Athlete Centered Coaching is, the goals of this approach and how to be this type of coach.

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Athlete Accountability in Sport: Are Your Athletes Accountable?

What is athlete accountability in sport? I recall having this conversation with my coach when I was rowing. Most coaches I speak to today tell me how their athletes do not accept accountability for their performance. Ultimately, accountability in sport means you believe that it is you (and only you) who creates your performance.

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Do You Have Adaptability in Sport?

What if an athlete you’re coaching says: “Hey, Coach, I feel like I am getting stale with this training routine, can we mix it up a bit?” As you are a well-organized coach with a scientifically proven program, you know that even small changes will alter the physiological makeup of the program. But if you knew that making a small adjustment could improve your athlete’s mental state (and assuming this is as important as their physical preparation) then you’d make the adjustment, right? Even if this meant that you were the one who had to adjust the most. You would be willing to adapt your behavior a little bit.

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sports team travel

Sports Team Travel Tips

By Bo Hanson – 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments Make the most of your team’s travel time with these valuable sports team travel tips and activities to deepen their understanding of each

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coachs-role

A Coach’s Role is Critical

A coach’s role is critical in the context of our society. What I want to share with you in this article is my philosophy on the role of sport and the significant contribution coaches make. This is particularly important for your sport and every sport.

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8 Characteristics of Expert Sport Coaches

Ever spent time wondering how expert coaches operate? In this article we take a quick look at what the ‘experts’ do that makes them experts. This research was derived from how experts conduct themselves across a wide domain of industries and areas of endeavor. Expertise is universal and we apply this to coaching sport.

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We specialize in helping our clients create and sustain winning results...

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See who we work with and read what they say about us...

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Bo Hanson

Senior Consultant & Director

Bo Hanson’s career within the sport and the business sector spans over 25 years, delivering leadership, management, and coach development. In addition to his own athletic career comprising of four Olympic appearances and including three Olympic medals, Bo has worked for many years with coaches and athletes from over 40 different sports across the globe. Bo was also the winner of the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) 2023 Award for L&D Professional of the Year, for his dedication to L&D and transformational work across various industries.

After a successful career in sport including four Olympics and three Olympic Medals, Bo co-founded and developed Athlete Assessments in 2007. Bo now focuses on working with clients to achieve their own success on and off ‘the field’, and has attained an unmatched track-record in doing exactly this.

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BoRowing-Atlanta Olympics

Now, watch us interrupt him for a round of quick fire questions.