What Is The Role Of A Coach?

English 1101

Research Paper

What is the role of a men's basketball coach?

When someone thinks about some of the best basketball teams in history, they usually tend to forget about the coaches for those teams. Michael Jordan will always be thought of first when the championship Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s come to mind. Phil Jackson coached all those championship teams and Jordan never won a championship without Jackson. The same can be said for many other great teams. The coaches of championship teams are always very good at what they do. A coach can be the difference in a winning team and a losing one. They are the ones who are supposed to train their athletes to perform at a level high enough to compete. Coaching is all about communication. If a coach is able to communicate well with his players and get his players to communicate well with each other, then the probability for success increases for his team. A coach affects his team more than just winning or losing. In her essay about the role of a coach, Sandra Short said, "A coach has tremendous influence on the physical and psychological development of their athletes" (29). In the life of an athlete, a coach can be more significant than just getting his players to win games.

I love basketball. I always have and I always will love it. Coaching basketball is definitely something I'd like to do after college. A coach can have many specific roles and even more when many different sports are considered. I want to define the role of a head basketball coach, but even more specifically, I want to define the role of a men's head basketball coach. Sandra Short gave numerous roles of a coach: teacher, organizer, competitor, learner, friend, and mentor (29-30). I agree with all of these, but I want to narrow it down. It can't be simple, but with all of