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AFM Magazine


Lion Heart

by: Kent P. Falb, ATC, PT
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Coaching requires the commitment to teach, to inspire athletes to set and achieve team and/or personal goals, while simultaneously developing the all-important necessary strategies to win! At no time should a coach ever forget or choose to ignore a most basic fundamental and unwritten code: coaching involves people not just schemes or strategies. Regardless of the level or the sport chosen to coach, this code can never be forgotten or the meaning lessened: that coaches, first and foremost, are in the people business.

Coaches' careers will be presented with situations that supercede the traditional x's and o's. They will face challenges that no "Bible" of coaching or summer clinic can adequately address. There is no ignoring the reality that injuries are and will remain inherent and will continue to occur as long as athletes engages in sports. Coaches today are to be commended for their interest in and dedication to athletic safety. For example, coaching groups recently worked to enact changes in rules and coaching techniques to prevent and/or reduce the risk of injury. When injuries do occur, the coach must take on a role that is included in the unwritten duties, that is to motivate the injured athlete to understand, appreciate and dedicate himself to the completion of his injury rehabilitation requirements and program.

As a professional leader, the coach - often better than the parents or "significant other" - will come to know and best understand how to motivate the injured athlete to fulfill the demanding and seemingly endless rehabilitation requirements, demands, the inevitable set backs and the resulting periods of frustrations. Coaches should expect and want their athletes to fully rehabilitate themselves quickly, completely and safely. The injured athlete's return that season, for the rapidly upcoming and all-important playoffs or next year's season is critical to both the team's success and the athlete. A good coach knows that motivating injured athletes to fully rehabilitate themselves is essential not only for the team, but also for the athlete's own bigger game of a healthy and productive life after sports. Convincing the athlete of this can be a career coaching challenge. This basic principle should forever exist and be practiced from amateur pew wee teams to the professional major league sports.

Rehabilitation programs are the result of both surgical and non-surgical athletic injuries. Frequently, coaches are expected to shoulder the responsibility and challenge of motivating their athlete who is facing or has already begun a rehabilitation program. What is the coach's role, where do they begin and from whom can they seek direction and guidance? In the perfect world, the coach should seek this information and suggestions from the team's certified athletic trainer (ATC). Those coaches who are employed in such a setting sometimes fail to realize they are fortunate to have such a person or persons on their staff. This is not a perfect world, however, and regrettably not every coach or team has an ATC on staff. Thus, rehabilitation motivation becomes another coaching responsibility.

Motivating the athletes to rehabilitate themselves from an injury can be a perplexing and frustrating experience for every coach. Few textbooks deal effectively with this challenge and there will never exist a "cook book" or "boiler plate" form to provide assistance. The realization that every rehabilitation program and it's motivational challenges will be as different as the basic personalities involved, is the first step to successful motivation. Coaches traditionally possess a unique knowledge and awareness of each athlete's personality and what motivation techniques are most effective. For one athlete frank and harsh demands may be they most effective motivational approach. For the next, such a method will "back fire" and only a compassionate approach will succeed. There will also always be those unique athletes who require no motivation and, in fact, may need to be restrained from pursuing rehabilitation too aggressively.

Before the coach's optimum method of motivation can occur, there must be established a level of reciprocal trust between the injured athlete and his coach. The most effective development of trust should take an individualized approach. Two main criteria to success will be needed. First, there must be a level of individualized attention, understanding and compassion. Secondly, the coach must understand and appreciate not only the various phases of the physical and psychological aspects of any rehabilitation program, but must also have an understanding and commitment for the overall value and philosophy of rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation motivation like other forms of motivation requires realistic and progressive goal setting. Therefore, a full understanding of the rehabilitation process and necessary mental attitude of the athlete is basis for the coach's motivational plan. In cases involving highly competitive athletes, goal setting should involve input from the athlete and the experience of the coach. Career threatening or ending injury create unique and motivational goal setting challenges and must involve the athlete, physicians, and in special or difficult cases the appropriate counseling services.

The injury in itself will cause the athlete an intense degree of physical and emotional distress. The experienced and wise coach will not allow the injured athletes to be alienated by teammates or his or her own inability to perform and compete. Many great and injured athletes never return to pre-injury performance levels and sometimes even leave the game because of alienation from their team, boredom, intense demands and the long periods of rehabilitation which over ride their previously intense competitive mentality and will.

Likewise, rehabilitation subtly, without warning signs, can also have a significant impact on the athlete's self-esteem. The active players can be driven by the coach's demands to excel. It sometimes will be difficult for an inexperienced coach to step outside that demeanor, but the experienced coach will quickly learn that this personality and mentality will most often fail when attempting to motivate the injured athlete.

Motivation for the coach cannot be a one time session, conversation or meeting. Coaching motivation must be frequent and always upbeat and positive. Negative and condescending remarks from any coach to a rehabilitating athlete will be frequently misinterpreted or felt as unacceptable and can often result in further levels of elevated frustration and the loss of respect for the coach by the athlete. When this occurs, first the individual suffers and, thereafter, the team success can suffer. Ultimately, when the issue is whether the athlete and team responds in the expected and desired manner, the ability of the coach to motivate every athlete, could be the one deciding vote that history will record whether he was "just a coach" or "The Coach."





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