INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / JANUARY 22, 1991

 

 

 

Coaches Shape Up For The Year 2000

Wren Ben Johnson had his
Olympic gold medal revoked in
1988, the Dubin Inquiry was estab-
lished to investigate, among other
things, the role that coach Charlie
Francis played in the Canadian
sprinter’s downfall. Was Johnson
guilty, or was he the victim of his
coach’s unscrupulous attempts to
produce.a winning athlete at any
cost?

This and other questions
about the role of the coach were ex-
amined at Coaching 2000, a nation-
al conference held recently in
Ottawa, says Douglas College
Sports Institute Director Chris
Johnson, who attended. He says
that the conference established
goals to be met by the year 2000,
some of which will require sig-
nificant changes in the nature of
coaching. “There are some com-
mon beliefs about trainer/ player
relationships that have been with
us for a long time, but that are
nonetheless false,” says Johnson.
“We can only clarify this matter by
educating coaches.”

It is not always true, for ex-
ample, that competition is a posi-

tive experience, according to a
document that Johnson brought
from the Coaching 2000 con-
ference. The document provides
an elaborate analysis about some
“psychologically damaging effects
of competition”. It asserts that re-
search proves “competition
breeds hostility” and it offers
“cooperation” as a more “ produc-
tive alternative”.

Johnson says that coaches
must re-evaluate another tradition-
al idea: that sports are only for
good athletes. Coaches will under-
stand the dynamics that make
sport more enjoyable for everyone
only when they learn to develop a
sensitivity to all players and their
various needs.

“Some people join sports not
to gain athletic skill, but just to
play with their friends, in which
case the coach must learn to en-
courage social development
through sport,” says Johnson. “A
well-trained coach understands
the benefits of social and moral
development.”

An untrained coach, on the
other hand, may accept any num-

ber of misconceptions about
sports, thereby marring the ex-
perience for many players.
Johnson sees untrained coaches as
a serious problem for the way
recreation is organized.

“We would never allow un-
trained teachers or life guards to
take charge of our children, so it
does not make sense that we allow
completely uninstructed people to
lead our kids in sports,” says
Johnson. “Coaches at all levels
must be educated about social
dynamics and the importance of
cooperation in sports, as well as
about ethics, and fair-play. To do
this coaches should enroll in
workshops and join professional
associations which they can turn
to with questions.”

Johnson says that the Douglas
College Sports Institute does its
part by providing workshops to
train better coaches in the lower
mainland. For more information
about the Douglas College Sports
Institute coaching certification
workshops, please call Chris
Johnson at 527-5041. @

 

Serials Collection

The Library is already planning the development of its collection for
the new Coquitlam Campus. As part of that process, we want to begin
building our Serials Collection. We are interested to know if any faculty
members with subscriptions to relevant serials would be willing to
donate the next two to four years of their subscriptions to the Library. We
would require every single issue of the title concerned be available to us.
If you have a subscription to a journal or magazine which you think
would be relevant, could you please drop me a line giving the title and
place of publication, and indicating that you would be willing to donate

it to the Library.

Thank you,
Ralph Stanton
Serials Librarian &

DID YOU KNOW. ..?

eee That the Douglas College
Speakers’ Bureau is a list of faculty
and staff who will speak on subjects
in which they have expertise? The
Speaker’s Bureau is a public service
provided at no charge to groups and
organizations outside the college
which are looking for someone to
shed light on topics from nursing to
child care to criminology to sports
psychology. For more information
about the Speakers’ Bureau, contact
the Public Information Office, 527-
5153.