Honoring the Game doesn’t just happen. Coaches make it happen by creating their own Team Culture.
If you don’t intentionally shape your team’s culture to value Honoring the Game, the larger win-at-all-cost culture will likely dictate the behavior of your swimmers and parents. This lesson includes practical tools for doing just that.
Tools to help Swimmers and Coaches Honor the Game
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Model and Teach Honoring the Game
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Use Narrated Modeling to Make Your Point
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Develop a Self-Control Routine
Tools to Help Parents to Honor the Game
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Set the Table with a Parent-Guardian Letter and Meeting
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Intervention Strategies
Model and Teach Honoring the Game
First, you must introduce the principle of Honoring the Game to your team—do it early and come back to it often. It’s important you use the language of Honoring the Game (like “ROOTS”) again and again until your swimmers internalize the concept in their values and behavior.
Your behavior speaks louder than words. If you harp at officials, your swimmers will likely do the same. If you remain calm and focused, it’s easier for the swimmers to act just like you.
We’ve put together a script that you can use as a guide when you talk to your team. Don’t read directly from it. Just put it in your own words.
Download the document from the course materials.