Sports coaching has for the longest time only focused on developing athletic, as well as technical and tactical skills of sport participants. It is understandable why this has been the case and why even nowadays many times when coaches gather around to talk shop, the conversation topics focus on drills, athletic skill development, testing and their results, and practice planning. The main reason for this is that these are comfortable and familiar topics to coaches from any background. It is what their entire professional life and activity revolves around.
But the tides are turning towards a more comprehensive, even holistic approach to development of sport participants.
Not only coach developers, but also Olympic Committees, sports federations and associations, and coach education providers understand that coaches do not only deal with athletes or sport participants but with people. And people have a multitude of development needs also outside of pure sport skills.
To best develop people, a holistic approach to sport coaching is necessary. One such approach, which can be applied in daily coaching activities is the ‘C’ system.
The ‘C’ system is finding it’s way into numerous coach development frameworks such as the USOPC Quality Coaching Framework, the International Sport Coaching Framework (International Council of Coaching Excellence, Association of Summer Olympic International Federations & Leeds Beckett University), the Coach Development Framework (International Ice Hockey Federation), as well as taking a central position in the UK Coaching – Coaching the Person in Front of You-workshop. Besides including the ‘C’ system in the course, UK Coaching also created a fantastic video explaining the ‘C’ system, a short podcast on the ‘C’ system of Coaching Children, as well as a short guide explaining the ‘C’ system model in more detail (only resource behind member login). The system further found it’s way into Coaching Better Every Season by Dr. Wade Gilbert, and has been the topic of many journal articles such as Kilic & Ince (2021), Vierimaa, Erickson & Gilbert (2012), and Jones, Dunn, Holt & Bloom (2011), to list but a few.
The ‘C’ system is essentially a framework that focuses on the social and personal development of people through its application in a sport environment.
Some publications call it the 4 C’s, others the 5 or even the 6 C’s. So, it’s probably better to just call it the ‘C’ system and leave it to each coach to decide how many they attempt to include in their practice sessions, leaving room to add another C as time goes by.
The system itself revolves around developing people holistically by including training of characteristics like connection, confidence, character, creativity, caring & compassion, and competence as part of each sport training session.
Connection: the ability to build rapport with others
Confidence: believing in oneself, being resilient and having a sense of self-worth
Character: developing a sense of right and wrong, integrity, respect for the sport and others, self-discipline
Creativity: ability to find own solutions, own style of playing, training and improving
Caring and compassion: empathy for others, supporting others when and where needed, respecting the individual’s needs
Competence: the ability to not only execute sport-specific skills, but life skills in general
As sport coaches we are in the unique position to support the development of all our sport participants, not just as sport participants but as people by implementing the C’s into our coaching practices.
Are you there already?
In the six following posts on the ‘C’ system, I will delve a bit deeper into each of the individual ‘C’ characteristics and give further examples on how to incorporate them in practice into your coaching routines. Tag along if you want to learn more…