BTEC Sport - Unit 4 (Double)

• There are skills, qualities and characteristics that different sport leaders have. 
• The skills are:
  • builiding rapport
  • confidence
  • communication
  • being organised
  • giving feedback
• The quality are:
  • knowledgable (or rules and laws/techniques, strategies and tactics/team or participants)
• The characteristics are on the next flashcard

• The characteristics are:
  • goal orientated
  • patient
  • consistent
  • approachable
  • role model
  • committed
  • ethical and having integrity
  • leads by example

• Building rapport - developing a good rapport will ensure that communication is easier and that objectives are met successfully.
• Confidence - if you are confident in your own ability and judgement, then those around you are more likely to share your confidence. Confidence is often considered one of the most important elements of a good leader. Having confidence only comes from ensuring that other elements are all in place, allowing the leader to perform at their best. These elements include being organised, being appropriately resourced, understanding the demands of the role, having clear objectives and being experienced.
• Communication - communication is successfully sharing information with one or more people. A good listener will enhance their image as being approachable and valuing other team members' thoughts, gaining a reputation for being a good collaborator. Communication can be verbal and non-verbal. Non-vrbal communication can be split into the following forms: body language and facial expressions, gestures and hand signals, demonstrations, non-verbal sounds.

• Being organised - a leader who is not punctual, is poorly resourced or has not done any background research is set for failure. Being organised will not only give the leader confidence, but will also inspire others to have confidence in them.
• Giving feedback - Honesty is important, but the sports leader must be sure that they are also objective and do not allow any of their preconceptions to cloud their judgement or appraisal of the participant.

• Knowledgeable - a strong leader will be knowledgeable about both the activity and their team.
  • Knowledge of rules and laws - it's a leader's responsibility to maintain discipline and uphold rules so that participants have confidence in fairness and can perform without any safety concerns.
  • Knowledge of techniques, strategies and tactics - sports leaders should consider conditions, environment and opposition when developing strategies. Techniques may be complex and need breaking down into small sections in order for a participant to learn them.
  • Knowledge of team or participants - they must be aware of the participant's prsonality traits, motivations and aspirations. Only when a leader has empathy with, and undertands, an individual ca they understand how they fit within a team. They must also understand the participant's physical needs, such s any specific dietary requirements or old or existing injuries.

• Goal orientated - goals and targets provide focus, and in order to work most effectively, a leader must learn and adapt to make these goals challenging and feasible.
• Patient - no matter what the situation, a leader must remain impartial and level-headed. It is vital that leaders develop strategies for coping with challenges.
• Consistnt - consistency is vital in order to promote fair play and ensure every member of a team feels equally valued. A leader cannot appear to have favourites or be biased - they must be objective.
• Approachable - being approachable will allow people to discuss their problems with you so tht you may be able to help.
• Role model - a quality leader will often lead from the front. Their behaviour and motivation will set the benchmark for every other member of the team to aspire to. Role models set an example: socially, personally, psychologically and physically.
• Committed - if a leader if to expect total committment from those they are responsible for, then they must demostrate that they are also willing to give 100% commitment to support them.

• Ethical and have integrity - being ethical and acting with intergrity is understanding the accepted norms of right and wrong and acting in a manner that promotes right from wrong.
• Leads by example - a good leader shows what they want from their team by consistent demonstration of their expectations. 

Team cohesion can be split into 2 forms:

• Task cohesion -  this is the degree to which a group works together to reach a common goal, such as a hockey team applying tactics to win a hockey match.
• Social cohesion - this is when a group works together through mutal respect for one another and often very simply, because members enjoy each others company.

There are 4 external psychological factors:

• Personal
• Environmental
• Team
• Leadership

A leader can encourage cohesion within their team by:

• encouraging team identity
• maintaining strong communications through meetings
• having empathy with individuals frustrations
• set clear, challenging, yet achievable goals
• making every team member feel valued

• Personal:
  • historic relationships
  • indivuidual fatigue
  • injury/illness
  • gender
  • age
• Environmental:
  • access to appropriate resources
  • weather
  • venue

• Team:
  • aligned goals
  • supportive relationships
  • experience
  • abilities
• Leadership:
  • leaders ability to lead by example
  • leaders decisiveness
  • leaders approachableness

• Personal - if individual members of the team are tired, injured or unwell, they may struggle to participate fully in a game.
• Environmental - a football team that has access to indoor training, astro pitches and quality equipment will have greater options when it comes to training.
• Team - a hockey team with some experienced competition players may find that they are able to maintain a more controlled game due to the positive effect that their experience brings to the team.
• Leadership - when running a gruelling expidition, a tired and haggard-looking leader will have a very negative effect on the morale of the group.

• Forming - initial stage when members find their place within the team, Relationships are initiated and opinions develop.

• Storming - members become used to one another and begin to push boundaries to attempt to secure a position within the team that they see as valuable.

• Norming - as conflicts are resolved and roles stabilise, individuals begin to understand their place within the group.

• Performing - final stage when the group starts to focus its combined energies and common goals. Everyone has a firm grasp of their roles.

Social loafing - as the size of the group increases, an individuals performance will decrease. This was first observed by a Frenchman called Maximilien Ringelman (1912), when a group of people pulled on a rope.

Personalities can be generalised into two catergories:

• introverts - quieter, less verbal, unlikely to promote own success. Individual sports and activities
• extroverts - outgoing, communicative. Enjoy social situations. Team sports

Motivation can come in two forms:

• intrinsic - motivated by pleasure of playing
• extrinsic - motviated by rewards beyind the process of actually taking part, e.g. money, medals, fame, trophies

Example - in hockey, you were running up and down the pitch well, but your shots on goal were bad so that needs improvement at training, but the power and accuracy of your passes were good.

Human nature suggest there is a need to succeed when we are put into situations where failure is a possibility: then we feel the effects of stress on our psyche.

Arousal - can help us focus and motivate ourselves

Psyche - the centre pf a persons thoughts - their mind, soul and spirit

As psychological arousal increases, so does performance, until you reach optimal performance. Then, as you become over aroused, performance decreases.

Leaders must be aware of how arousal and anxeity contribute to success or failure, and understand how it can personally affect members of their team. Leaders must help manage stress; maybe through the use of:

• breathing techniques and meditation
• repetitive training tasks linked to increased stress levels
• tasks designed to build confidence and slef-esteem

Self-fulfilling prophecy - when someone believes a senario will happen so strongly that they increase the likelihood of it happening

Confidence can be increased in a variety of ways:

• experience and success will generate an expectation of equal or better performance
• 'vicarious expectations' are those gained by other people watching. Observing success in others who are percieved as having equal or lesser ability will generate a belief that an individual can succeed