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Coach House at Commonwealth Games |
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“Coach House” : Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games
an excert from Coaches PLAN du Coach Vol. 13 No. 1
In
March 2006, Commonwealth Games Canada sent a team to the Melbourne
Commonwealth Games. Part of Team Canada was a group of some of Canada’s
top coaches who strive to create the best performance conditions for
the Canadian athletes. Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) and Coaches of
Canada recognized that supporting coaches in this environment was one
of the most significant ways to positively impact the quality of
experience for all involved: coaches, athletes and Mission staff. CGC
and Coaches of Canada entered into a joint partnership, showcasing the
first formal Coaches of Canada “Coach House”.
The 2004 Athens
Summer Olympics Games were the precipice for Coaches of Canada to
launch its major games strategy entitled “Coach House”. The strategy
expanded to encompass five main pillars of focus.
Standards
The
Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games was the first time this strategy was
fully embraced and integrated into the Mission Staff and Team Canada
process. Commonwealth Games Canada took leadership in this area and
required in its contract with the National Sport Organizations (NSO)
that any coach named to Team Canada be not only a specific level in
terms of certification but also a member in good standing with Coaches
of Canada. The main benefit of this initiative was linked to and
driven by the Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics that members of
Coaches of Canada must abide to.
Approximately sixty percent of
the coaches named to the team were members of Coaches of Canada prior
to the Games. Coaches of Canada and the CGC worked together in
communicating the new policy and process with the NSOs. Several special
membership committee meetings (Coaches of Canada has a peer review
process for membership) took place leading up to the Games to ensure
adherence to the policy. To accommodate some sports’ timelines of
naming members to the Team, final applications were taken on-site prior
to the Games and conference calls were conducted to allow the
membership committee review process.
Support
Based
on the feedback from coaches who previously attended major games, coach
support can come in many forms. In general, efforts for additional
“care and comfort” specific to the coaches was identified as needed –
such as making a private coach lounge area available in addition to the
business office which is normally provided for coaches at Games. Other
areas were also identified such as access to video replay and analysis
facilities and access to the Internet. The host Canadian games society
generally provides access to these services. At Melbourne, space was
at a premium but efforts were made by both Coaches of Canada and the
Mission staff to provide a coach (and team manager)-specific area for
coaches take care of their daily business, have some time away from the
athletes, and share some ‘down-time’ with fellow coaches.
Coach Performance
A
coach’s own performance is often overlooked in a Games environment. If
a coach is operating at his or her best/to their full potential, this
will in turn provide athletes with a better environment in which they
may excel to their full potential. This is one area of the major games
strategy that will continue to evolve and change: it requires
interaction and communication with the coach community on what they
need both before and after Games. Direct coach feedback was gathered
from the coaches on-site in Melbourne: results from a post-Games survey
can be found in Figure 1. This was the first time all coaches were
required to be members of Coaches of Canada. As a result a portion of
the survey was focused on gathering in-sight into the experience new
members had with the organizations.
Communication
An
often-unnoticed communicator within the Canadian sport system is the
coach. We tend to look past the coach and focus only on the athletes
when communication plans are established. This is a lesson learned from
the Melbourne Games. Efforts were made to ensure coaches were involved,
but little pre-planning and preparation took place in this area. Steps
will be taken in the next phase of implementation with Coaches of
Canada and CGC so as not to miss the chance to tap into the effective
communication skills of the coaches, to profile coaches in addition to
the athletes (to the media) and to also demonstrate the effectiveness
of athlete-coach partnerships. Pre-planning between Coaches of Canada
and the communication team of the Mission staff has been identified as
an area for improvement for the next Games. Strategies and tactics to
prepare, include and promote coach stories as part of the overall Team
Canada communication package will be developed.
“Coach House”
The
final area of focus of the strategy is the concept of a “Coach House”:
a physical coach-friendly location on-site at Games where coaches can
decompress without the distraction of daily business, and separate from
the other activities of village and Games life. As this area of focus
develops and expands additional service offerings will likely evolve to
include staffing the area with support personnel specific to the needs
of the coach (mentors, counselors, etc.). The Coach House, in most
instances, will be a Coaches of Canada contribution in the Games
situations, but may be a joint endeavor, working closely in partnership
with the host Canadian games society to ensure the most effective
scenario for the coaches.
The long-term view of the “Coach
House” is that it will emerge as a place to both support Canada’s
coaches and to also use it as a venue and means to recognize, showcase
and celebrate the contribution and advancements Canada has made in the
area of coaching and coaches: and to play host to the Coaches of the
world in Vancouver in 2010.
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COACHES OF CANADA
