Just like a badminton player has a set of skills they need to develop to be a good player;
technique, tactical awareness, physical strength etc a good coach should also have a set of skills
so in this video we're going to discuss four skills that we think every coach should have
but even if you're not a coach this video will hopefully help you improve lots of different areas
of life whether that's on or off the court so there's something for everyone to learn!
Our first tip is to really understand that every player is different and you therefore may need to
alter your approach depending on each individual player to get the absolute best out of them
and this is also relevant to playing doubles with different partners let's start by explaining what
we mean with a non-badminton example. On the Netflix documentary the last dance it shows how
coach Phil Jackson really understood Michael Jordan and knew that he only wanted to win
but basketball is a team sport and Phil knew he couldn't win on his own
despite how good he was so rather than letting Michael just try and score as much as he could
Phil spoke to him and empowered him to become a leader and made him realise that he needed his
team to win more matches. Doing this led Michael to start pushing his teammates to get better in
every session and this meant they could collectively get the ball to Michael more
score more points and go on to win six NBA finals for the Chicago Bulls! Now another example within
badminton is when me and Greg are playing mixed together in a tournament and we respond
to different types of coaching from the coach at the back of the court so for Greg he prefers more
direct points like move your feet Greg whereas I prefer more motivational and encouraging types of
direction from the coach so a good coach would know this and understand these different needs
if a coach is shouting at me to move more from the back of the court then I might not respond
well to this and maybe actually play worse and this is where communication comes into it which is
probably a separate skill but we'll include it in here for now communication is essential to be able
to understand your players and making them feel valued and like you care for them and if a player
feels like they're being listened to and respected then they'll almost always respond positively and
follow anything you say as Benjamin Franklin says in his famous quote tell me and I forget
teach me and I remember involve me and I learn. Communication is a huge topic in itself and
probably one for another video now the final part of understanding your players is really
understanding why they are there and what their motivators are although it sometimes may not seem
like it most people play because they enjoy it so you need to remember this in how you deliver your
coaching and you should also be coaching because you enjoy it which leads us on to our next point
A great coach needs to have enthusiasm and passion but this has to be real passion you can't fake it
otherwise players will see straight through it! We like the two phrases no passion no point and don't
care shouldn't be there. That second one is a bit silly but in general yes we are huge believers in
doing things that you love and that excite you and if you're a passionate and enthusiastic coach then
you'll get the buy-in from the players and they'll be more likely to trust you, if you're coaching
like this then the players won't be connected to you and you won't inspire them to improve! If you
don't enjoy and have this passion even if you're earning a living by coaching we'd suggest finding
something else you are passionate about if you can! Another phrase we like is find something you love
and you'll never work another day in your life. The third skill is to be curious and always learning
This is probably one of the most overlooked parts of being a coach, understanding that you don't know
it all and you can always be learning to add to your existing knowledge you don't know what you
don't know because you just don't know get it think of it like this if you only ever have two
pieces of advice as a coach then you'll only be able to speak about these two things but think
about how much you could share if you learned two new things every week, not only would you improve
as a coach but your players would exponentially improve as well the more new information you take
on and the more you learn the more you'll be able to share with your players and the more likely
they'll be able to improve as a result! It's not just about learning technical and tactical detail
too it can be learning to communicate better or learning about match flow and momentum and
having this curiosity and desire to continually learn isn't just the tip to become a better coach
it will also help you become a better player and also help you in life in general and if
you're wondering how you can get started with this learning we have lots of suggestions; listen
to podcasts, read books and articles, ask questions to other coaches or reach out to players! You'll be
surprised how many people are happy to spend five minutes helping you and we'll include some links
to some of our favorite podcasts and books that we've learned a lot from in the description below
Curiosity and learning also includes reflection. Good coaches will spend time analysing after
each session they'll ask themselves what they did well and what they could have done better.
Could they have communicated more effectively to get the best out of a player? Or could they
have been more enthusiastic? Or maybe they could have even taught a new skill in a more clear
and concise way and this brings us on to our last skill of an effective coach, this is sport specific
expertise. To be a badminton coach you need to know badminton, to be a football coach you need to know
football, to be a maths teacher you need to know maths. You can't fake the knowledge if you want to
be a great coach but first you need to understand where you are on the scale of relative expertise
are you currently a beginner, intermediate or advanced coach? This is where it can actually
be an advantage to be a beginner coach you know that you're a beginner so you're asking lots of
questions and trying to soak up information like a sponge whereas if you're an advanced coach
you sometimes assume that you're a master and that you know everything so you stop trying to learn
and this is where we link back to our third skill of curiosity and learning you don't know what
you don't know because you just don't know! And finally when you're coaching you need to know why
you're doing something, for example we often see badminton coaches feeding brainless routines with
no real purpose! This might be because they don't have the passion to really develop that player
or they just haven't learned yet that hitting loads of shuttles or tiring them out doesn't
always help them improve in this sport specific expertise you need to learn how
to deliver effective training sessions and periods of training for different ages and abilities! Now
this is by no means everything you need to know to be a great coach, there's lots more but these four
skills are just what we deem to be some of the most important now remember having sport specific
knowledge is only a small part of being a great coach but this is often what people solely focus
on hopefully as we've shown the remaining parts of being a great coach are transferable across
other sports or industries from a badminton coach to a football coach to a maths teacher
So to recap you need to understand your players have passion and enthusiasm be curious and
always trying to learn and finally to have sport specific expertise and if you want to go away and
continue your learning and you're curious as to what professional players do in their training
then head to our website and check out some of our resources like our 27 multi-feed programmes
nutrition class or four badminton specific weights programs we'll include a link in the description
below for you. If you've enjoyed this video please do let us know in the comments below as we'd love
to share more of our coaching philosophies with you in the future and lastly don't forget to give
the video a like smash the subscribe button if you haven't already and we'll see you on another video...
communication community communication why they there why they there
why they are there that was good until that communication is a huge
communication come on why are they there done it again it's gonna be bloopers
why are they there
now the final part what am I doing there?! Meltdown come on