Here is an excellent article from New Zealand about athlete-centered coaching:
http://www.gymsportsnz.com/files/education/coach/senior_coach/effective_coaching.pdf
The article compares an athlete-centered approach with a more traditional coach-centered approach. In an athlete-centered approach, the coach asks more open-ended questions, and gives fewer directions. Rather than imposing a system on the athletes, the coach helps facilitate learning and encourages questioning and curiosity in the athletes.
The goals are set by the athlete, rather than by the coach. The athlete then becomes fully engaged in his own progress in the sport because he takes full ownership of the process.
It's a more holistic approach to coaching that goes beyond mere expertise in the sport and helps the athlete develop on different levels. It's more about helping facilitate a learning environment than providing answers to every question.
Not everyone will be comfortable with this approach. Some people will expect the coach to be more directive and more of a leader than a consensus-builder. Many people will just want to know the answers to their questions than having to figure it out for themselves. And it is less expedient- if time is of the essence, a leader making a decision is faster than having everyone discuss it and try to come to a decision together.
You want the athlete to learn to own his own run though in a race situation. You don't want the athlete to be going down the race course thinking about what his coach said. It has to come from within.
I have applied this approach in several different ways. For example, when studying a race course with an athlete, I often use a completely question-based approach, rather than a directive approach.
I don't want the athlete to have the cognitive dissonance of thinking of doing the move one way while his coach is telling him to do it a different way. This usually leads to confusion and indecision. The athlete needs to have a clear idea of what to do, not a variety of approaches swirly in his head as he approaches a move on the course.
In a training situation, I am usually more directive and we can try new approaches that the athlete might not think of for himself.
And, as we get closer to a race, I start to use a more athlete-centered approach more in training, rather than using a directive approach. We might work on a different technique in the off-season, but when it's time for a big race, it's not time to start improving your forward stroke.
Over-coaching is a big danger at this time, especially if you rarely get to work with the athlete except when you get together before big events. You see errors and want to correct them, but it's not always best to be nitpicking the athlete right before a big race. Better to guide the athlete in figuring it out for himself, and making notes of things to work on after the race.
I have also led a discussion with experienced athletes about how to deal with certain things in races. If I had used a more directive approach and tried to control where the discussion led, we all would have missed an interesting, counter-intuitive idea that works for many people.
As an example, when we were discussing how to deal with anxiety before a race, different people spoke about how to lower their anxiety levels, relaxation techniques, etc. But one world champion had a completely different take on it. His perspective was that anxiety wasn't a bad thing. It is a good thing and worrying about it is the only problem. He said that he welcomed the anxiety because it gave him the energy, the fuel to go down the course.
If the discussion atmosphere and our culture had been one where new, novel ideas were not welcome, he never would have felt comfortable sharing his different idea that was contrary to the assumptions of everyone else. But because a comfortable atmosphere was created where new ideas were welcome, he felt that he didn't have to keep his ideas to himself and could share them with others.
Anyway, take a look at this article. It is well worth reading:
http://www.gymsportsnz.com/files/education/coach/senior_coach/effective_coaching.pdf
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