New head coach

It's March 12, so are you just starting today? If so you are waaaayyy behind. You should have started some type of conditioning back in Jan.

You have to be consistent. That means consistent in practice, consistent in discipline, consistent in your style of training, consistent in your communication.

You need to be organized, this kinda ties back into consistency.

Learn about the sport, and events you may have to coach that you are not familiar. Make a real effort to learn how to coach pole vault, sprints, long jump... most everyone here is a distance runner and we can babble all day about training theories for distance kids, but when it comes to other events it's crickets.. Learn about all those, even if you have assistant coaches handling those events most of the time.

Be sure your team knows what's expected when they go to a meet. I'm not talking about performance as much as behavior, when to check in, where to warm up, what they can wear ("I can't wear ear buds during the 3200m??") etc.. Don't just show up and turn them lose.

It really depends what level you are stepping into (middle school, high school, college) and whether you are taking over a well established program or something in disarray.

I think every educator should read The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Wong when starting up something new or going into a chaotic program. The other poster already commented how important establishing good organization and routines are. For the middle and even high school level, these can be just as important as any training you actually do.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-first-days-of-school-how-to-be-an-effective-teacher_harry-k-wong_rosemary-t-wong/248228/?mkwid=sFM5qtcnV%7cdc&pcrid=70112878392&pkw=&pmt=&plc=&pgrid=21323665512&ptaid=pla-292616666786&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8-Gpve384AIVQyCtBh28NgxyEAQYAiABEgIsx_D_BwE#isbn=0976423316&idiq=3826081

If the program is well established you need to talk to upper classmen about their previous training, how they got to where they are now, and what traditions they have that are important to them. The worst thing you can do is be a know-it-all coach and pretend nothing good existed before you got there--you will lose a lot of trust immediately.

Also if you have assistants, give them people to work with to maximize their strengths. Don't let your ego get in the way. You might have a great distance coach, but if you force them to coach JV sprints just because you don't want to do it yourself, you may not be maximizing the entire team's potential.

TeamCultureFirst wrote:

Your name says it all. Team culture is always first. If you give the athletes a fun environment but one where everyone works hard and is proud to be there you will go places with them.

You can have rules about showing up, etc... which I would encourage any coach to have, but, if it is a place they want to be than they will not want to miss out on being there. I often hear my athletes getting aggravated with their parents about scheduling appointments during practice time. That is always a good sign.