George J's Essay

How Do coaches handle issues with players if they misunderstand a play or
get in trouble? Is each player handled differently.

When I first started this project I did not know how to word my question.
I found it difficult to take all the questions that I had and make them
into one essential question. When we first arrived in Boston we went to BU
and had the opportunity to work out at there track and field facility. A
Sports psychologist taught us the correct way to stretch and conduct
pre-game warm ups. The warm up usually would take 15 minutes but because
we were learning it for the first time it took us 45 minutes. We then met
with a Sports Nutritionist and discussed proper eating habits. We learned
all the essential foods that are necessary for optimum weight gain and
which products were the healthiest for us. She guided us through the
proper steps of hydration how much Gatorade, water and other fluid drinks
an athlete should
consume to reach there peek performance. We then had a sports psychologist
come in and discuss how they work with coaches on dealing with the student
athlete. What there roles are with in the world of
sports. This was getting to the core of my essential question how does a
college coach handle the player who doesn’t understand what is expected of
them or worse the player that gets in trouble during the
season.
Our next stop was the assistant baseball coach at Northeastern. Here we
discussed supplements and talked to two pro baseball players that were in
the Minor League and what there lifestyle was like. I asked how they could
stay focused with such a long playing season in such tough playing
conditions they said it was easy because they love the game.

On the second day we started our day at Boston College. We were taught
about a day in
the life of a Boston College Football player. Although it was an awkward
time to be there with the sudden departure of Coach O'Brien it turned out
to be a wonderful experience. We learned how the student athlete is taught
to manage there time. The coaches set them up to succeed not only on the
playing field but in the classroom. Depending on there grades they are
told how many hours they need to spend in a designated study hall for the
student athlete. They are placed in these study halls with a specific time
for accomplishing there homework which is based on there current grade
point average the lower the grade the longer they are required to study.
In addition to the academic classrooms located in the athletic facility
they also have film rooms for each position played in Football. The
quarter backs, linebackers etc. each have there own rooms available to
them to study the films. It all makes sense to me now why Boston College
has such a rich and successful Football Program. The athletes are given
everyt
hing necessary to succeed on the field and in the classroom. You could say
that if they don’t succeed it is there own fault. Our next stop was the
Boston Globe. Here we met with the Sports Editor I learned a lot about
what event is put on the front page or how they select the sporting event
that will get front page coverage. I did not learn anything that would
help answer my question however I did learn about how the Boston Globe
Sports section reports its news of the day.

When I think back to my essential question for this project and I think
about what I thought would be the answer and compare it to what I learned
during my visit, I find it interesting that this is a relatively new area
of study. What I mean is that there are people trained as sports
physiologist who then help the College Coach with the student athletes.
They have learned that just as teachers have had to understand that not
all students learn the same way in a classroom, just as many athletes come
to a program with a different approach to a game. Often this can lead to
misunderstandings as to what is expected of them. A coach needs to be
versatile in there style of coaching so that each athlete can perform to
there optimum level. If they don’t understand a play the first time it is
explained often there can be another way to show it. Some student/athletes
work better with visuals, some may want to read the play and some may
prefer to physically perform the drill or play several times to completely
understa
nd it. This makes sense to me as the world of sports psychology is being
focused on not just at the college level but in the world of
professional sports as well.