Coaching Styles

1. I decided to become a track coach because of the different coaches I had

throughout my career and the opportunities I was given. My father was my
youth coach and got me interested in track. My high school coach inspired
me to become a coach. My college coach took me under his wing and
guided my college and pro careers in track and gave me the essential tools to
become a coach. These three people were very influential in my life and in
track. I saw how they treated and respected athletes and had fun doing it. I
used the influences of these three people to build my philosophy for coaching
track.
2. The type of strategies that have been most successful for me in coaching is
understanding the athletes and finding out the best training that works for
them. The second ,is having the athletes trust and believe in you as a coach
and that you will train them for success. I train athletes based on their
individual needs that will give them the best opportunity to be successful.
Sometimes this will take time because you will have to know what type
training works for that athletes ability level. The athletes also have to trust
your coaching abilities. This comes with the success the athletes sees but
also how you communicate and teach them. As a coach you have to explain
to athletes about their training and how it is implemented.
3. My most effective coaching style is lenient with good communication. I say
this because with good communication my athletes know what I expect out of
them and earn their respect. My basic coaching style does not vary much
with gender or race but base on abilities.
4. I train my athletes to become independent. I try to give them the essential
tools to be able to warmup, to understand the technical parts of their events,
to perform pre and post meet exercises and to evaluate their performances.
As a coach of multiple events, I sometimes can not be with every athlete all
the time. I depend on the athlete to carry out workouts, or meet
performances without me being there. I do think that an athlete should
depend on his or her coach to teach them the essentials to be a quality
athlete.
5. I plan my workouts based on what part of the season we are in. I always plan
backwards from the championship meets to the beginning of each season. I
also make adjustment during the season as needed because nothing is ever
written in stone.
6. My greatest success as a track coach is seeing many of my athletes have
successful careers after their track careers are completed. This is my success
because I know that I have had an influence in their lives and that is a great
feeling.
7. From experience, the athletes performance in a championship should be
credited to the athlete. As a coach, it is my responsibility to get the athletes
prepared for the championship meets. I dont take credit for their success but
I do feel good as a coach when they perform well.
8. Coaching high school and professional athletes is somewhat similar. At both
levels I still do a lot of teaching and explaining on what we are doing. With
the HS athlete I keep the intensity moderate depending on their level of
experience. I always have to figure out how much volume they can handle
either running , jumping or throwing. With the professional athlete, the
intensity goes up quite a bit with a lot more strength work both in weights
and jumping. I want both groups technically sound and performing at a high
level.
9. For an aspiring track coach like yourself I would give this advice. Try and learn
about all the events(hurdles, sprints,throws and jumps). At some point in
coaching you will have to coach multiple events. Knowing about the different
events make you a more valuable and effective coach. This will give you the
knowledge to put together workouts, coaching staffs or even being hired as
an event coach either HS or college if you desire.
10.A couple of resources I would suggest is the sport illustrated book Track(The
Field Events)I did illustrations for this book.(ISBN #1-56800-031-6 )and The
Science of Hurdling and Speed , a fiend of mind wrote the book.( ISBN # 0-
919375-48-0). These two resources are excellent books. As a coach I would
go to coaching clinics and correspond with other coaches and pick their
brains for information. Always feel free to contact me if you think I could help.

If you need more in depth answers just let me know but I hope this was
helpful in your research.

I wish you well in your endeavors and always feel free to contact me anytime.

Coach Skeeter Jackson