{"id":329,"date":"2015-04-29T12:42:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T19:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/?p=329"},"modified":"2015-04-29T12:44:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T19:44:13","slug":"coaching-for-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/?p=329","title":{"rendered":"Coaching For Commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onMouseOut=\"al_link_out()\" onMouseOver=\"al_gen_multi(459723287, {uk : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',us : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',de : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',es : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',fr : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',jp : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',it : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',cn : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',in : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',ca : 'A-B00BUHQBXW',br : 'A-B00BUHQBXW'}, 'uk', 'default');\"  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B00BUHQBXW?ie=UTF8&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1634&#038;creative=6738&#038;tag=-&#038;creativeASIN=B00BUHQBXW\">Find our EBook Here!<\/a>\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/commitment.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-330\" src=\"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/commitment-150x150.png\" alt=\"commitment\" width=\"188\" height=\"188\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The road to collegiate softball takes time, hard work, and discipline within the athlete; but how do we instill the commitment necessary to achieve greatness?\u00a0 How do we prepare them for the next level with extracurricular activities, social media, family events, and other various on-goings outside the game? The importance of commitment is slowing deteriorating.\u00a0 Athletes are excused from their responsibility to their sport without question; it is disparaging to their game, and furthermore, their recruitment.\u00a0 Female athletes need constant structure and discipline to succeed at the next level and as coaches; it is our responsibility to create commitment and ownership within our teams.<\/p>\n<p>Following the 4 key steps to teaching and implementing commitment in your female athletes will not only strengthen your team as a whole, but inspire maturity and dedication in your individual athlete.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Time Organization. Every female athlete needs organization.\u00a0 It is understandable that academics will always come first before a sport, but they need to have a plan.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t have time,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI need to work on my project,\u201d \u201cMy group is meeting the same time as practice,\u201d are all unacceptable excuses to disengage from their commitment to their team.\u00a0 Every athlete should write out their weekly schedule, include due dates, practices, and other time commitments.\u00a0 Once their schedule is completed, they will notice the free time they have to fit everything in.\u00a0 A coach\u2019s responsibility is to make it clear that time organization is a must and disciplinary actions will take place for missed practices or games.\u00a0\u00a0 The ability for your athletes to be organized within their academics, athletics, and social events will better prepare them for the next level of play.\u00a0 They will be ultimately responsible for their schedule in college and the better you can prepare them to be time efficient, the more successful they will be in their future aspirations.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Structure and follow through. It is incredibly important to set the ground rules early on and stick to them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you, as a coach, stay committed to structure, your athletes cannot question your expectations.\u00a0 The hardest part of setting guidelines is sticking to them.\u00a0 As you get to know your team and get comfortable around each other, it\u2019s easy to let the little things slide; \u201cShe was only a few minutes late to the game today\u201d, \u201cShe went on a camping trip this weekend, so it\u2019s ok she\u2019s not at practice.\u201d\u00a0 Once the individual commitment is gone, the team commitment fades.\u00a0 As much as you want to have fun with your athletes and enjoy working with them; the structure needs to be instilled on a daily basis.\u00a0 At the end of the day, you are their coach and they may not like you all the time, but maintaining structure will earn their respect over time.\u00a0 It\u2019s always important to remind your athletes of their common goal and the work ethic it takes to achieve that goal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Respect. Respect the game.\u00a0 Respect your team. Respect your common goal.\u00a0 Whether you are coaching 7 year olds or 17 year olds; respect should be taught from the beginning.\u00a0\u00a0 Respecting the game means your athletes come to practice and games with a purpose.\u00a0 They come to work hard, better their skills, and accomplish preset goals.\u00a0 Athletes respect their team through dedication, positivity, and camaraderie.\u00a0 They respect the common goal by showing up as a sisterhood and leaving it all on the field.\u00a0 When your athletes respect the reason they play, they will feel a need to stay committed to their sport, team, and coaches.\u00a0 Coaches can set the standards high before the season starts; Coaches are addressed as Coach XXX, not by their first name, athletes approach coaching staff, not parents, athletes write down individual and team \u201cgame time\u201d goals.\u00a0 Maintaining respect among everyone working towards a common goal drives athletes to stay committed through thick and thin.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Focus. The more focus and drive within the athlete, the better prepared they will be to play at the next level. \u00a0\u00a0Without focus, your athletes will never succeed.\u00a0 Female athletes are easily distracted with the social aspects of their lives and need to learn to separate it from their sport.\u00a0 Coaches cannot completely take their athletes out of their social realms, but it can be minimized when the focus needs to be on the sport.\u00a0 Lay out rules for your team regarding social media and phone and internet use.\u00a0 Phones are to be put away 1 hour before practice time, 2 hours before game time, 1 hour before bed time, etc.\u00a0 Female athletes\u2019 emotions can change on the drop of a dime and any outside influence that will affect their game negatively should be removed.\u00a0\u00a0 Teams that travel can implement rules while they are on the road; no phones at team meals, team captain collects all social media devices at the end of the day, etc.\u00a0 The athletes may hate this rule, but it will help the team to bond and create chemistry; and as always, a clear head helps them to stay focused on the game.\u00a0 With time, they won\u2019t even miss it.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the common goal is to play at the next level, athletes need to create a routine of focus, discipline, respect, and organization that revolves around their athletic commitment.\u00a0 Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day, but if you stick to structure, and follow through with your agenda, your athletes will respect the work to stay committed to their sport.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find our EBook Here!\u00a0 The road to collegiate softball takes time, hard work, and discipline within the athlete; but how do we instill the commitment necessary to achieve greatness?\u00a0 How do we prepare them for the next level with extracurricular activities, social media, family events, and other various on-goings outside the game? The importance of &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link block-button\" href=\"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/?p=329\">Continue reading &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[140,36,40,169,177,84,144,37,180,178,179,174,34,146,176,175,88],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coachingafemaleathlete.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}