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Showcase of Work

 When choosing to enter the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program at Michigan State I decided to choose a concentration in Sports Leadership and Coaching.  I was an athlete in the past, I am presently a coach, and I hope to be an athletic director in the future.  For this concentration I had to take a variety of athletic classes that focused on the athletes, coach, and administrator.  In my showcase you will notice that my graduate work is focused around these topics.  I have grouped my work into three different categories.  Each of the categories below displays artifacts that I have created to help athletes, coaches, and athletic directors.  Click on the images to view the artifacts.

All about the Coach
 
Athlete
Coach
Director
 All about the Athletic Director
 
All about the Athlete
 

Nutrition

Pamphlet

Injury Prevention

Exercises

Nutritional

Recovery Snacks

It is important that athletes perform certain exercises to strengthen their muslces and joints to prevent common injuries from happening in their sport.  In this exercise I started by making a list of the most common gymnastic injuries that occured to gymnasts.  I used this list to make a set of exercise cards for gymnasts to use to help prevent these common injuries from happening to them.

A lot of athletes don't realize just how important proper nutrition really is for them.  Eating and drinking the appropriate pre, post, and during meals can actually help improve the athlete's performance.  I put together an informational pamphlet for athletes so they can begin to expand their understanding.

Not only do athletes need to know why proper nutrition is beneficial, but they also need to know what types of snacks are good for their body to recover after a workout.  A lot of athletes fail to properly refuel their bodies with the correct nutrients, carbohydrates and proteins.  I created six meal cards with a variety of options for athletes to use to make sure they are getting the proper nutrients after their workouts.

Networking

Pamphlet

Long-Term

Athlete

Development Plan

Movement

Description

The goal of this assignment was to pick a skill from a sport that you coach and describe each of the movements that occur while the athlete performs the skill.  It is important that the coach understands what joints are used in each phase of the skill, as well as the motion that the joint performs and how the muscle is being contracted.  Knowing these things will help the coach determine what joints and muscles are necessary to work on with their athletes. 

There has been a lot of research about how long-term development of athletes is more beneficial than the traditional method of having the athletes put in more hours and intensity to reach success.  In this paper I analyzed the long-term athlete development plan that Canada uses to create success in their athletes in the sport of gymnastics.  I used their plan to help create my own long-term athlete development plan for gymnastics.

As a coach you try to make yourself as qualified and knowledgable as possible, but it is quite impossible to have all of the answers.  It is not necessary to have all of the answers, but having someone you can reach out to when you have a question or need some advice exhibits beneficial resourcefulness.  In this assignment I reached out to medical professionals that have expertise in areas that would be beneficial to help a coach with their athletes.  I made a pamphlet with all of their contact information and services that they provide for athletes.

Performance

Factors

Try-out

Flyer

Psychosocial Bases

of Coaching

Paper

There are many factors that affect an athlete's performance in each sport.   As a coach it is your job to figure out which of these factors are the most critical for the success and improvement of each of your athletes.  Being able to identify these factors will allow you to strategize ways to increase and improve these factors.  In this assignment I made a list of the top six factors that I believe affect an athlete's performance in the sport of gymnastics.

In this assignment I made a flyer that I would use to spread the word for upcoming cheerleading try-outs.  As a coach it is important to inform athletes about the try-outs.  There are also a few things that are necessary to include on your flyer which include try-out requirements, what to bring, what to wear, date, location, and time.

 One of the classes that I had to take for my concentration was a class on the psychosocial bases of coaching.  At the end of the semester our assignment was to write a reflection on all of the main topics we learned from this class and how we can apply these skills in the future.  Topics discussed in my paper include the achievement goal theory, goal setting, reflective practice, benchmarks, GROW model, motivation, flow theory, long-term athlete development, and ethical decisions.

Anti-Hazing

Policy

Year-long

Checklist

Budget

Cuts

As an athletic director one of the biggest decisions you need to make is making budget cuts.  It is a tough decision because you never want to cut things from a program or to cut a program because you will always have people that are unhappy with the decision.  But there is also a legal aspect that comes into play when making cuts.  Title IX, which is the gender equality law, states that males and females must have equal athletic opportunities.  Therefore, budget cuts get even more complicated in order to avoid lawsuits.  In this paper I had to analyze a school's athletic program to determine if they were abiding by Title IX law and how I could cut $1 million from the budget while still following Title IX laws.

Having great organization skills is a very beneficial skill for athletic directors.  As an athletic director you are typically in charge of overseeing numerous sports over three different seasons.  There are plenty of things that you are in charge of doing for each of these teams.  A few of these things include scheduling preseason and postseason meetings with coaches and athletes, scheduling referees, practice space, and transportation, ordering uniforms and equipment, maintaining the upkeep of gyms, fields, and equipment, and monitoring and helping coaches.  My assignment for one of my classes was to put together a year-long checklist of everything that I would have to do as the athletic director for a given school.

Hazing is a really big issue that a lot of schools have to deal with.  My assignment was to complete an anti-hazing policy that I would present to a school board.  In my policy I defined hazing and what acceptable and unacceptable behaviors are.  I have determined consequences for students  and coaches involved in hazing situations and I  also described how I would inform athletes and coaches of my hazing policy.

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