Athletic Leadership Development Program Essay Example for Free

acrobatic Leadership Development Program EssayThere is great need to develop efficacious athletic management programs in utmost schools. Apart from the fact that students derive direct benefit from much(prenominal) programs, it is also a good training resource since todays high school athletes entrust in conclusion take shape as tomorrows sports leaders as coaches, trainers, athletic administrators, sports physicians, sports psychologists and other capacities (Lanasa, Ciletti Lackman, 2005). High school is a very important stage in which students civilise for the future by getting a good education, making friends and participate in other activities such as summercater. It is unfortunate, that many schools have adopt cypher cuts that under provide for sports, taking the opinion that money would be better spent on pedantics. Though it is right that academics come first, sacrificing high school sports is dodgy to the students high school experience as it affects their abi lity to perform at optimum academic levels (Amorose Horn, 2000). Sports ar also an important component that helps students develop into comprehensive adults who give full benefits to the country at large. INTRODUCTIONThis paper give carry out a literature review to illustrate how a schooling Athletic Leadership Plan works to give students full benefits. In extension, the school as an institution also derives high levels of achievement and satisfaction from the same. It will show how students with an interest in the field of training and treatment of athletes stub effectively be prepared by the school athletic training programs. They are a perfect opportunity of gaining college and career preparation. These programs give an appropriate opportunity to the attainment of information, certification, scholarships and ne devilrking for students (MacGregor, 2005).HOW TO DEVELOP A LEADERSHIP PROGRAM This section will guess the leadership program adopted by Wheeler High School in India na. It presents a situation that is appropriate to most high schools where there are potentially good players but their hopes and targets fail to materialize due to lack of a well organized sports framework and leadership in the school. On paygrade of the proceed and areas that need change, Snodgrass notes that the foremost problem was the lack of player leadership in the students team ups coupled with the lack of senior talent (2005).Borrowing from the end adopted by this school, this paper will give guidelines on how a school athletic leadership plan endure be developed. Structure of the program An effective leadership program should start by identifying players that can participate in the plan. For starters, the first class could be made up of six senior and two junior students who would meet weekly for two to three hours over a ten week period (Snodgrass, 2005). In this period, they would they would participate in the curriculum by carrying out the following Interaction Th ey are expected to visit and spend one or two hours in the curriculum each night (Snodgrass, 2005).From this interaction, the run of the plan identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the selected team by observing how they interact and how committed they are. This is the stage at which the leaders and those with skills valuable to the plan are identified. As they share ideas, hopes and aspirations, this pilot burner chemical group can come up with an excellent blueprint of the plan since they are better positioned to chicane what would work with their fellow student athletes and what would not. Activities strengthening heart look upons The activities that strengthen core value are important as they set the plan in motion with the rest of the student athletes.The pilot group of eight should each be assigned a group of student with which they carry out these activities. This could occur in class for discussions and after knowing each other, the group members should engage in o ut of class activities. Group leaders are expected to call incoming players and engage with them with an aim of getting to know them intimately (University of Wisconsin, 2007). This is a very important step as the group leaders get in a position to identify strengths and weaknesses that might be hidden from the coaches and teachers.This enables the teams to avoid failures that commonly arise from the lack of proper understanding within the team. Leadership in youth camps The eight members of the pilot team should march as counselor at the summer youth camp. They are expected to take up roles such as teaching a position, coaching the team in flag football, running the punt-pass-kick contest etc (Young Edmonson, 2010). It should involve activities such as story narrations to emphasize the importance of team playing. The plan should be sure to hold a youth summer camp.The Handbook of Organizational Consulting Psychology underscores the importance of such camps in the development of leadership plans. It is from such camps that the members emerge as a team understanding each other, with strong leadership and ready to work together (Fiedler, 2002). The above activities lay the foundation on which the plan can be built upon. After getting the required individuals to spearhead the program and the necessary team sprit, the plan can proceed into the next step in which it formally assembles the best ideas and strategies for the leadership program in form of a blueprint discussed in the following section.PLANNING THE BLUEPRINT Snodgrass defines a blueprint as the serve well of designing a leadership program in any field from start to finish (2005). It guides the implementation of the whole process and it gives guidelines on how to check progress and success levels. This paper will provide a blueprint that is divided into steps as follows Step 1 Assembling the planning team correspond to the program adopted by the Leigh University for the summer of 2007, the planning team should comprise all the key stakeholders to build a program that is acceptable campus wide (Fiedler, 2002).It is dogmatic to ensure that all individual stakeholders understand the importance of athletics in the life of the students. Teachers and other members of staff should be ready to sacrifice some academic hours in order to bring the plan into track. In this university, the team consisted of coaches from the Athletic Department, administrators and student-athletes as well as staff from the Dean of Students fleck to attain a healthy balance (Young Edmonson, 2010). They should meet weekly to discuss the rest of the steps in the blueprint. Step 2 Conducting a leadership take stockThe leadership audit is a systematic assessment of leadership development opportunities at the institution and beyond. A complete audit includes both internal and outdoor(a) reviews and inventories all leadership opportunities (Lanasa, Ciletti Lackman, 2005). Internal audit The information from this audit should find out whether there are other leadership initiatives on campus in which student-athletes can participate (). Fiddler finds that often these programs are not designed to directly increase the value of the students leadership and do not fundamentally impact Athletics as a whole(Amorose Horn, 2000).There should be goal setting and skill building workshops that are conducive to the unique schedules of student-athletes and athletics division staff. External audit This involves researching specific leadership opportunities at other institutions. This should particularly look for leadership development programs and delivery options within other institutions (Robinson Skinner, 2008). It can be done in neighboring schools that have highly successful leadership development programs to identify crucial aspects that can be adopted.It can also be done online or from other literature on the issue to set good standards for a comprehensive plan. Step 3 Identification of an moxie The anchor is another crucial aspect of the plan that should be in place. Young and Edmonson define it as the existing institutional purpose, outreach or reason that makes the programs efforts essential and justifies the investment of time, energy and resources to support the effort (2010). It helps in the acceptance of the plan since it does not appear as something totally alien. For instance the mission financial statement of Lehigh University isTo advance study through the integration of teaching, research, and service to others (Young and Edmonson, 2010). To be in tandem with the schools mission statement, the Lehigh Athletics Mission Statement could be made to capture that of the institute, e. g. Our mission in the Lehigh Athletics Department is to advance learning to develop leadership, and to foster personal growth through comprehensive athletics programming. (Young and Edmonson, 2010). This way, the plan manages to entrench itself within existing institutional goals and hence all stakeholders can comfortably identify with it and work towards its implementation.As such, teachers for instance would drop their disenfranchised line stance towards the plan as they feel it helps in academics. Step 4 Determining the scope The scope is the extent of the leadership experience which encompasses aspects such as how deep the program will be embedded in institutional culture and the programmatic mission and learning objectives (Robinson Skinner, 2008). The scope should be connected to the vision, mission, and learning outcomes of the schools sports department.Vision the plan should be aimed at cultivating a culture of leadership which encourages self-awareness, commitment to team playing, and emphasis on values and actions that bring up a good athletic experience. (Amorose Horn, 2000) Mission the sports department should use the plan to complement and support the larger missions of the institution as a whole. This can be achieved with the use of the tr ansformational leadership theory that enhances students leadership skills and understanding (Fiedler, 2002). It should accomplish a sense of community among al stakeholders focusing on the value of positive leadership.Learning outcomes these are the benefits that the students should derive from participating in the Athletic Leadership Program. Firstly, they enhance their knowledge of basic leadership skills and principles. Others are interpersonal skills, integrity, lucifer motivation, self awareness and the value of diversity in every situation (University of Wisconsin, 2007). This will enhance their wellbeing in every field of life in school and beyond. Step 5 Shaping the philosophy A philosophy is important in shaping an appropriate vision, mission and goals for a comprehensive Athletic Leadership Program.Robison and Skinner put forward two examples of philosophy that can be utilise to achieve this end. They do so by addressing the unique ineluctably of student-athletes, teams and coaches (2008). The Transformational Leadership Theory is the primary philosophy in which the program is embedded. It describes a course of action where both leaders and participants engage in a mutual, on-going process of raising one another to higher levels of motivation, moral reasoning, and self-consciousness (Robinson Skinner, 2008). This encourages collaboration and interdependence within participants by appealing to social and community focused values.Principle-Centered Leadership Theory this theory is based on principle based leadership. Leaders are required to center their practices in natural based practices. Their values can only be effective if they remain true to these guiding principles, which are identified as continually learning, service-oriented, radiate positive energy, believe in other people, lead balanced lives, see life as an adventure, are synergistic, and exercise for self-renewal (Robinson Skinner, 2008). Step 6 Selecting delivery framework These a re the strategies and individuals to be used for teaching participants about leadership.This includes positional leaders and emerging ones. Positional leaders include coaches and captains who are directly responsible of development of athleticism in individual-student athletes which will ultimately lead them to winning championships (Fiedler, 2002). Emerging leaders include students joining the program and those who have been it for a while and want to further their leadership skills. This way, the plan ensures that it has a never ending supply of talent and new leadership, i. e. it is sustainable. Step 7 Select Assessment and Evaluation StrategiesThis step ensures that intentional assessment and evaluation tools will are available. It is recommended that the implementation of the blueprint is assessed after the first full year of implementation. The tools to be used for this assessment may include focus groups, student-athlete authorise interviews, pre- and post-surveys, student-a thlete post-season evaluations, etc (University of Wisconsin, 2007). This process is meant to explore needs, outcomes and satisfaction derived from the plan. CONCLUSION A School Athletic Leadership Plan like the one outlined above will go a long way in accomplishing a varied range of needs in the school.It clearly shows the need to implement an effective plan from which students can derive numerous benefits. The step by step process is imperative in creating a leadership program which is self sustaining and which is deeply rooted in the institutional goals and vision. This ensures that it is embraced by all. REFERENCES Amorose, A. J, and Horn T. S (2000). Intrinsic Motivation relationship with collegiate athletes gender, scholarship status, and perceptions of their coaches behavior. Journal of sport and exercise psychology. 22(1), 63 84. Fiedler, F. E (2002). proactive ways to improve leadership performance.Handbook of organizational consulting psychology, 76 105, San Francisco Jo ssey-Bass Lanasa, J. , Ciletti, D. and Lackman, R. (2005). Designing a Model for Improved Outcomes Among Students- Athletes in Sports Education. Left Coast Press. Retrieved, 6th August, 2010http//lcoastpress. metapress. com/ index number/6jp60m3240x253mm. pdf MacGregor, G. M. (2005). Designing Student Leadership Programs Transforming the Leadership Potential of Youth. Youthleadership. com Robison, T. I and Skinner, T. (2008). The Athlete and the Grade Change. Cases in Educational Leadership. Retrieved, 6th August, 2010http//jel.sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1/106 Snodgrass, S. (2005). Building a high school leadership program. Gale, Cengage Learning. University of Wisconsin. (2007). A Grounded Theory Of High Quality Leadership Programs Perspectives From Student Leadership Development Programs In high Education. Madison University of Wisconsin. Young, J. and Edmonson, S. (2010). High School Athletic Directors and Educational Leadership Traits A Conceptual Analysis of the Lite rature. Retrieved, 6th August, 2010http//www. ncpeapublications. org/attachments/article/33/m34613. pdf