GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 34 – September 19, 2015 | страница 29

BY JOE TROLAN
SEPTEMBER 18, 2015
As a coach, you will be around players of many different
personalities and attitudes. How you manage these players can lead to success or failure both on and off the field.
If you are a senior manager then you may have a panel
of 30 players and less if you are coaching underage (or
sometimes more). How do you handle all of these different players and those of different ages? As a coach, in my
opinion, you need to have what is called Emotional Intelligence to get the best out of your players.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
What is emotional intelligence, well it was a term coined
by researchers Peter Salavoy and John Mayer and is used
continually to help managers in organizations deal with
employees. It can also be used appropriately in sports. It
simplistically means being aware of our own and other
people’s emotions and learning how to control and channel those emotions especially in pressure situations.
TYPES
Sports certainly can give us pressure situations at all levels. So then how can you utilize emotional intelligence in
helping your team being successful? There are many types
of players you have to deal with such as the star player,
the lazy player, the emotional player and those who don’t
deal well with confidence or rejection. A good coach understands how to deal with these people individually. For
example, in dealing with players who may be lazy on the
practice ground coaches have a few options – they could
single them out and yell at them to improve, which could
back fire on them and the coach or the coach could ad-

dress it in a more individual manner. If he is a regular on your
team, you could also have your captain or influential players
talk to him. It is important though that you understand that
people’s reactions are different and one way doesn’t work for
everyone.
REACTION
And, what about the players who are highly emotional on
the field – how can you get the best out of them? This can be
especially sensitive if he or she is one of your “better” players. As a coach you need to know how the player will react
to discipline – will he or she quit or sulk if you bench them
until they get their emotions under control (particularly at the
youth level) or will they realize they need to change their ways.
Will the player accept a public dressing down on their behavior
or is it best to take him or her aside individually and highlight
ways to channel the extra energy. It could be an issue outside
of sport that is causing the anger and thus your role is to try
and uncover the problem and create a solution that’s best for
the player and the team.
CHOICES
Dealing with a multitude of different personalities is a part
of any coaches’ job. How you deal with them will define your
team and your success. Player management is a modern term
but has been around for decades in different forms yet coaches
sometimes still revert to “old school” methods of dealing with
players as one single unit. Coaches today wear many hats but
one of the most important is that of understanding their players’ emotions –a strong coach is one that acknowledges the
need for greater emotional intelligence in themselves.

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