SAY THANK YOU TO YOUR COACH!

We know that behind every successful Roller Derby Team and even freshmeat group is their coach.

Turning up early, writing session plans on the bus, gathering drills from far and wide, watching your game footage over and over again to help you and your team get to where they want to go.

When we watch other sports its always great to hear those words ‘thanks to my coach!’ Time and time again during the Olympic and Paralympic Games the athletes recognised their coaches and brought them into the limelight to share their moment of glory. Its cool to watch and it acknowledges all the work that person has done to help you out.

It is fair to say coaches experience the highs and lows of a team season and what keeps them motivated is very much individual. But at the same time we know coaches are often feeling unsupported and its really hard to keep a good coach for more than one year.

Many of the reasons coaches quit are due to personal and life changes, or they might also be a skater and their own training is suffering. However some are leaving because of lack of support from the very people they are trying to help out.

Although there are a lot of things we as a sport can do to keep our coaches happy such as helping them with finding drills, doing any paperwork they may have or taking a few sessions so they can have a break etc I would like to start off with suggesting that you THANK YOUR COACH! We are all human beings and coaching voluntarily but how often do we get a thank you As a coach – how are you recognised?

Here is a starter for ten of some of our ideas to say thanks coach!

• Simply say thank you!

• Send a thank you card

• A personal note at the end of a season

• A special mention at any club events

• Nominate your coaches for an award

• Include a thank you in any reports or press releases

• Run a social event for your coaches

• Create a coaching wall of fame

• Run a coach of the month scheme

• Say thank you through social media (maybe twitter or facebook)