beyond the game

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beyond the game

• - what you need to know to be a better coach

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Morten Bertelsen

• MSc. Psychology
• MSc. Sports science
• Sports psychologist
• Family therapist
• Management consultant
• Soccer player
• Morten.bertelsen_at_right.com

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Personal development

• The degree to which the personal development
  matches the opportunities that golf offers is a
  strong indicator of how motivated the golf player
  is for training and continuing to play golf
• Personal development refers to the various
  development stages which the golf player goes
  through, e.g. from child to adolescent and from
  adolescent to adult, and when children are in one
  of these transitional phases, this redefinition
  and readjustment very much occupy the childs
  minds. The coach should be aware of this fact
• The extent to which there exists concord among
  the parents, the coachs, the friends and the
  golf players own demands will also affect how
  focussed and goal oriented the child is capable
  to be in relation to his/her golfing

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Motivation

• Sports literature predominantly uses four
  theories as its starting point
• 1. Internal-external theory
• The degree to which the golf player has a
  self-referring or mastering oriented view at
  own performance or an external or governed by
  others view at the result and the performance
• 2. Expectation-value theory
• Motivation is related to the values and norms
  one is brought up with
• 3. Sports-engagement theory
• To what degree one feels connected/linked to the
  sport of golf
• 4. Competence theory
• To what extent one experiences competence and
  control in the situation

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Goal setting and reflection

• Goal settings should always concern individual,
  personal improvements independent of external
  factors such as placing
• A conversation between coach and golf player is
  the initial preparation of any competition
• No matter how creative and intuitive one is as a
  golf player, one should always at an early stage
  decide what ones goals are and how one wishes to
  achieve them
• This process is particularly important to
  talented golf players whose performances are
  irregular and characterised by unpredictability
• A golf player depending only on his/her
  spontaneous talent will have less internal
  resources to rely on on a bad day

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Coaching

• The coachs coaching method should vary according
  to the different age levels. Typically, the role
  will change from instructing to coaching
• Coaching means trying to help the golf player to
  create new understandings, behaviour and insight
  through a non-dominating relation. This is done
  through questions inviting the golf player to
  reflection

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Consciousness-raising/mental training

• Training in mental competencies is a continuous
  consciousness-raising process
• Our performances and how emotionally susceptible
  we are depend on these competencies, which are
  rooted in all people but can be very differently
  developed from person to person
• Through training they can be developed and raised
  to higher levels just like the tactic and
  physical areas of golf training
• Mental training cannot be divided into ages like
  theoretical and tactic, but depends on which
  techniques (concentration training, focus,
  performance anxiety) the individual golf player
  seems to need the most at the moment

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U-9 golf players

• Formation of self-perception and self-confidence
  through the statements of others
• Motivation is predominantly playing and having
  fun with other children. They are NOT miniature
  versions of adults, they are children
• A very playful and appreciative coaching role
• U-9 children are impulsive and have poor staying
  power, which means that short goal settings such
  as how can golfing be even more fun, what can
  I do to get there can be advantageously used
• Simple exercises of tension/relaxation or other
  sorts of bodily consciousness can be introduced

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U-12 golf players

• Formation of global self-confidence. Parents and
  coach contribute in creating a whole human
  being
• Age of rule games. Ideal to set up rules for the
  coaching environment how do we want our team to
  be, how can we make each other good
• Motivation is still very much the joy of exercise
  and training and the experience of competence
• Profit of start-up meeting with the parents where
  concord is established among the parents, the
  golf players and the coachs expectations to
  training quantity, training attitude/discipline
  and priorities (e.g. in relation to other sports)
• Short, clear, individual goal settings,
  predominance of emotionally oriented and future
  oriented goal settings training the child in
  stopping to feel and verbalising wishes and
  needs

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U-15 golf players

• Puberty is setting in with large physical and
  mental changes as a result. The child is in a
  transitional phase from child to adult, and this
  period is characterised by large focus on
  identity and social relations
• 2. Motivation is predominantly the social
  relations and the satisfaction of improving and
  creating an identity
• 3. Short goal settings and subsidiary goal
  settings will help keeping the motivation. The
  key word is help to structure, clear concord
  between priorities and contribution
• Taking care of the young person and showing
  understanding of the fact that other areas of
  life are intruding
• Exercise in mental tension regulation,
  possibility for conversation

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U-17 golf players

• Long transitional phase into the life as an
  adult, which the golf player needs help getting
  through e.g. help to plan. Promotion to senior?
• Predominantly self-referring types of information
  as a means of formulating their faith in own
  competences within the sport of golf
• The coachs role is more coaching than
  instructing
• Focus on performance oriented goals and
  subsidiary goals
• Awareness of own coping strategies and thinking
  patterns

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U-19 golf players

• Transitional period from young person to
  independent adult
• High motivation in those aiming for a picked
  career
• The golf players are very much able to use each
  other as sparring partners
• Long-termed facts and performance oriented goal
  settings such as what am I supposed to be
  capable of in six months, in ten months, in a
  year? How can I get there? Also future oriented
  goal settings such as what do I wish to achieve
  through golfing, what do I wish to achieve in two
  years, what can I practise to get there would be
  useful to formulate
• For example exercising basic mental training

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Coach effectiveness training CET- researchs
idea of the most efficient coaching role

• The CET survey shows that training in which the
  coaches are trained to act
• more reinforcing (positive things lead to more
  positive things)
• encouraging
• more instructing, coaching
• less controlling and punishing
• leads to/creates
• larger joy of playing for the children
• the children liking the training environment
  better not matter the lose/win result
• a decreased drop-out quotient (5 per cent in the
  survey against 25 per cent in the control group)
• increased sense of self-confidence in the
  children
• a significant decrease of performance anxiety in
  the children

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Coaching

• Asking the right questions has consequences for
  how young of an age people learn at
• Linear Questions
• Circular Questions
• Strategic Questions
• Reflexive Questions

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Psychological, basic principles as a coach

• Be grounded (sensitive). Be an active listener
• Be reflective (self-conscious). Be aware of own
  influence of the system
• Be relation oriented and appreciative
• Be authentic (be honest)

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Various coaching attitudes with different effects

• Linear Attitude
• - thinks it is possible to correct and adjust
  defects
• - assumes to know the reason for and solution to
  the problem
• - often asks many why questions in the hunt of
  finding the reason

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Various coaching attitudes with different effects

• Circular attitude
• - does not know the solution, but thinks that it
  is possible to affect the system and, thus,
  create changes
• - assumes that problems are the problem and can
  be externalised
• - often asks many who, what, where and how
  questions trying to understand the relational
  and contextual matters in which the problem or
  the success can be contained

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What characterises the good team?

• A commonly accepted goal setting/vision
• Commonly accepted norms and values
• Cooperation (teamwork) towards the goal setting -
  synergy
• A social and task oriented solidarity
• A clear division of roles/responsibility accepted
  by all (formally as well as informally)