Athletic Coach Responsibilities

Coaching is gaining much importance especially in todays world, be it in education, career, management of financial matters, sports or any other field. Athletic coach responsibilities comprise instructing, guiding and assisting the sports person to become an expertise in his area of specialization. He also trains him on the rules and the strategies that need to be followed to ensure success in the game.

Key Responsibilities of an Athletic Coach

Athletic coach needs to apply his scientific knowledge related to nutrition, physiology, medicine, psychology and applying creative skills based on experience to develop a winning athlete. He provides guidance on physical training, fundamental rules, regulations and skills and uses different strategies to ensure individual and team success. Here is a detailed description of the key responsibilities that need to be handled by an athletic coach:

To effectively communicate the rules and procedures of the relevant sports by conducting training workshops to enable better learning
To motivate the sports persons to participate in different contests to develop and prepare themselves and get an edge over the competitors
To understand the strengths of the players and inspire them to overcome their weaknesses by using different types of coaching styles to add to their confidence level
To advise, guide and counsel the athletes on their nutrition, health,safety, and the use of various sports equipments
To assess, evaluate the performance of the athletes during the training and contests
To arrange for the transportation facilities to various sports contests and events

In addition, he must keep himself abreast with the current knowledge on various sports techniques and equipments. He should advise them on the legal use of supplements. If an athlete is feeling low he should relax him and provide him the necessary reassurance. He should conduct training to minimize the injuries during the competition so that the athletes remain physically fit. He ensures adherence to the policies, maintains discipline and recommends changes to initiate improvisation. He maintains reports related to the performance and documents the injuries that need immediate medical attention. He must keep a track of various schedules at the state and national level. He should ensure that team building spirit is developed to gain success in any sports event.

Essential Skills

To be a good coach you need to have some of the following skills:

He needs to train, supervise, guide and instruct the athletes so they ought to have excellent interpersonal communication skills
He should be able to motivate and support the team members to give highest level performance by resolving their personal or professional issues if any
He must be able to organize various tasks and demonstrate effective time management techniques
Should be able to deal with situations which are tense, nerve wrecking and ensure that a positive environment remains in the team
Should be able to demonstrate high levels of consistency and self control

Educational Qualification

A bachelor's degree in science, math or any health related course in physiology, biomechanics with special emphasis on physical education would be the minimum required educational qualification. A master's degree with a demonstrated work experience would prove to be an advantage.

Work Hours

He is required to work outdoors for long hours which are variable depending on the schedules of different events. He may need to work for 12 hours daily during the practice sessions and competition season. During the off season their work hours usually last for forty to fifty hours per week. Both part time and full time options are available.

Salary details

The yearly wages fall in the range of $23,000 to $50,000 depending on the type and size of the organization where they are employed in. They may work in schools, colleges, universities, hospitals or other relevant health-care sectors.

Career Advancement

If you have a successful track record you can move on to the supervisory or managerial level to become an athletic director or will need to handle upper management level roles in various other industries like health-care, military, recreational sports centers to name a few.

Thus, effective implementation of athletic coach responsibilities will ensure to build a better team and gain accolades for performing consistently and successfully. This in turn will help in developing a fit young generation of future athletes.