How to Manage Stress While Working as a Basketball Coach
Coaching, while a highly rewarding profession, brings its own challenges and stresses. They are all manageable if you have the right bag of tricks up your sleeve, but they do need monitoring for your overall well-being and also for maintaining professional integrity. If you have been feeling the strain lately, read through the following advice and see if anything can help you get back to balance and harmony.
Calm-Focused Breathing Exercises
How do you spend your downtime? One way to deal with stress head on at the moment is to concentrate and fine-tune your deep breathing. Focusing on breathing allows you to connect with your body when you might otherwise be trying to disassociate. It also means you are forcing yourself to slow down and take a pause, which is always a useful technique for regaining control. This is a great technique for mid-game stress level management.
Recognizing the Symptoms
To deal with stress, you have to know what the common symptoms are and how they manifest in your physical self. Don’t ignore them, because stress can seriously impact your health in a number of grave ways.
Talk to Other Coaches
Coaches are influential figures in the community, regardless of the size or status of their team. There are award programs, countless networks, and whole systems of support set up to make the role more enjoyable and give it the recognition it deserves. It stands to reason, then, that coaches are well informed to be valuable sources of support for one another during the hard times and also to celebrate the victories. Lean on your fellow professionals, and the job will be instantly less stressful. Never underestimate the value of having someone to talk to who truly understands where you’re coming from.
Have a Great Assistant Coach to Share the Load
Assistant coaches are a necessity when coaching on any level. They are there to divide the workload, take on some of the stress and generally help out where needed. These are great roles for not only training future lead coaches but also for managing the related stress of the job.
Maximizing Those All-Important Recreational Outlets
If you live and breathe basketball, that’s fair enough but it’s also worth exploring other interests so you have some versatility in your life. This helps the brain stay refreshed and boosts your general mindset. Finding something else to do in those precious hours you have to yourself is easy because there is a long list of activities to try out. Try out online gaming, where there are thousands of varieties of gaming to experience from basic strategy to casino options too, and if you want to know more about what might be out there in this area, this page has it all covered.
Clear Boundaries With Parents, Loved Ones, and Carers
Whoever you are coaching, whether it is a kid’s league or an amateur adult one, there are always going to be unwelcome interjections from either parent or loved ones who think they know all about basketball. Thankfully, you are well within your rights to remind them that you are the coach and there’s good reason for it, e.g. because you’re the one with all the experience. Holding boundaries is hard, but worth the energy because it allows you to stay focused on what’s important, the game, as opposed to managing all the unwanted advice at every game.
Managing your stress levels as a basketball coach is a must. The negative consequences of too much stress in any profession are severe. If you neglect to take the time to get to know how you’re feeling and the ways to address it, there is a real risk you’ll have to stop altogether. Avoid this by practicing self-care and building a supportive team around you.
