How do sports coaches and activity leaders support a healthy lifestyle?
by Sam Whitmarsh
1. Setting goals for Their students
1.1. Another way sports coaches and activity leaders support a healthy lifestyle is through goal setting. Goal setting helps students close in on their weaknesses to really improve as athletes. Furthermore, goal setting helps to motivate athletes to push themselves. Goal setting can come in many forms. For example, one form of goal setting could be in the gym - one week you could be told to do x amount of reps and the next week, your coach can motivate you to do more, ultimately making you a stronger and more disciplined athlete. Similarly, you could be set more long term outcome goals, such as winning x amount of games in a season or scoring x amount of goals. Overall, goal setting can be used as a key motivational tool to help athletes really achieve big things.
2. Role models
2.1. Many coaches support the influence of role models. Role models can help once again to motivate individuals and give them a real challenge to chase. In the sporting world, there are thousands of role models to look up to and set out to be like in order to perform your best every week.
2.2. Having more than one coach/a team of coaches can also help with supporting a healthy lifestyle as they can help work on individual aspects of the game.
3. Providing different opportunities to develop
3.1. Sports coaches know their players the best, they have a variety of links to sports teams and academies. Giving their students certain opportunities such as trials can really help develop athletes and support a healthy lifestyle.
3.2. Sports coaches can also provide equipment for their students to use in order to gain more enjoyment from playing their sport and really push on. For example, once coach could lend their foam roller or massage gun to a student to try it out and see if they like it enough to buy their own for their recovery.
4. Contacting parents to ensure their students get enough sleep
4.1. This doesn't have to be too excessive but a short check up once in a while with the parents to see how the child is coping at Home can be largely beneficial. This is important because athletes need at least 8 hours of sleep each night to properly function. Therefore, some top coaches will monitor the sleeping schedule of theri athletes to ensure they are getting enough. An alternative to this is monitoring the sleep on smart watches which are being used continuously more by pro athletes to check up on their sleep.
5. Setting examples to follow
5.1. Many sports coaches live healthy lifestyles themselves, which help to promote this way of living onto their students. One way in which sports coaches can do this is by going to the gym and eating healthy to model behaviour. Doing this not only inspires students,but it makes others look up to you because you look healthy, live a disciplined life and look good physically. Furthermore, i have seen many coaches train with athletes to help interact better with their students and set a positive example.
6. Educating athletes on what is right and wrong
6.1. Sports coaches want to always get the best out of their players, so many coaches help to promote what they belive is necessary to do and not do in order to achieve the best performance. For example, many coaches promote the idea of not smoking, eating poorly and drinking alcohol. This should not be by just telling the students they are bad, instead coaches should explain in detail why these things are bad, such as smoking is bad because it affects the lungs which means you will lose stamina and overall fitness. This is because if they understand the harm that bad habits do, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, then they are less likely to actually do them. Furthermore, giving a full explanation to students help you not come across as short and stubborn whilst showing you care.
7. Shed light onto eating well and the nutritional values of food.
7.1. Especially with younger students, some don't fully understand the benefits that come with eating Healthy and nutritious food. With eating, it can be hard to show specific examples, but meal plans are great for this as they can be specific to each student. This is important to install at a young age, so students can grow up with their own meal plan and have an own diet that is adjustable. Having a healthy and nutritious diet, containing carbs, protein and fats, can really help athletes gain the edge over their opponents.
7.2. One common misunderstanding with this is that many people believe they should eat only 'good food' therefore, they end up Cutting certain foods such a sweets and fats out of their diet, which can lead to poor nutrition and a severe lack of short and long term energy. However, with a good coach they should create a meal plan rich of all kinds of food.
7.2.1. Drinking enough water also is Essential for our body to function. Having a good diet but lacking on fluids can completely disregard the benefits that a good diet comes With.
8. Promoting all types of health(physical, mental, social)
8.1. Sports coaches can promote physical health in many ways. For example, some coaches may require their students to complete a mandatory run, such as a 5k. Furthermore, other coaches can set up workout programmes for their students to follow, which helps students perform better in their chosen sport it also helps with recovery and prevention of injury. Furthermore, sports leaders can also allow students to integrate with eachotherr via potential team building tasks or just generally Playing with one another. This helps to create healthy relationships amongst teammates, which can stimulate social health because players can make friends and gain confidence.
8.1.1. Mental health is also extremely Important in sport. It can be much harder to identify but all coaches Should consider it. A few ways of increasing someone's mental health could be in terms of goal Setting. Goals set by coaches must be realistic to ensure there isn't too much pressure being applied To students, as too much pressure can Lead to a drop in mental Health. In addition, coaches should always talk to their students and encourage them daily. For example, a good way of doing this is getting students to look back on their progress and how far they have come, which motivates them to do even better. Also, due to the influx of social media, promoting body positivity is also a great way to boost someone's self-esteem and mental health. For example, normalizing either missing limbs, birthmarks or stretch marks are all a good thing to do. With a coach showing maturity and respect, this allows pupils to feel more comfortable. When pupils become more comfortable their confidence and self-esteem improves meaning they are able to express themselves on the pitch and try new things.