My name is János Radics, I am a graduate student of the University of Physical Education, and I would like to spend my future in Hungarian Gymnastics as a gymnastics and aerobics coach. After 14 years of gymnastics as an athlete, I started working as a coach. I have just started my career, but I believe that in today’s world, a coach should be a role model outside the gym, too.
In addition to their families, elite athletes spend most of their time with their coach for years. The coach is the person who, along with the parents, knows his students best. In many cases, children will spend more time with their coach than with their parents. The athlete will follow the actions, behavior and communication style of his coach, moreover try to express himself in the same way as his coach. If he makes a positive impact on the child that will be good, but unfortunately the opposite can also happen.
It is extremely important for the student to be able to discover a person in his / her coach who he / she can consider to be a role model, a mentor in other areas of life, too.
There are many Olympic sports where we were once successful, but over the past thirty years, Hungarian Olympic athletes have gradually disappeared from the map of the sport.
Table tennis, football, boxing, weightlifting and gymnastics are also among the sports where there is a lot of silence when we mention the statistics of the results.
We know and we are well aware of the failure of qualifying competitions. It is certain that every sport requires a lot of work. However, it is no longer so clear how to get today’s kids into this hard work. Young people are struck by an amazing amount of stimuli. In the world of internet, mobile phones, all questions are answered at the speed of lightning.
Advertisements infiltrating our lives and celebrities have a strong impact on youth. The legitimate need of an alert and caring parent is to have meaningful, attentive, consistent care for children. If, in addition to these, we are able to invent and apply new tools and methods that will catch the young people of today, we are on the right track. Code of Ethics for Coaches, issued in 2018 by the Hungarian Coaches’ Association, can help to establish the ideal working relationship.
With the help of Code of Ethics for Coaches, we can purposefully develop and adhere to the norms that a coach needs.
I believe that it is primarily universal values and morals that affect my work. The paragraphs of the Code of Ethics for Coaches carry these values, and knowing this, the joint work of coaches and athletes can be more effective and ultimately more successful. For me, success in numbers means success, but at the same time, I want to be a coach that his students look up to.
“True knowledge is always associated with positive moral behavior.”
My research shows that most coaches are unfamiliar with the code of ethics,
however, in men’s national team this code are used in the course of work. Familiarity with the Code of Ethics for Coaches would be desirable for all coaches working in aerobic, gymnastics and other sports, especially since the child meets the coach as early as 4-5 years of age. This age group is still very fragile, sensitive to any spiritual vibration. If we want to win kids to the sport, we also need to win their soul and meaning.
Extensive knowledge of the Code of Ethics for Coaches is expected to result in developing a desirable behavior for most coaches. To achieve this, it would be beneficial for coaches to have access to in-service training videos that analyze correct and incorrect coaching reactions in critical situations. It could even be a test of the situations in which the coach’s reaction is not appropriate.
Through such educational films, we would provide them with a practical opportunity to respond appropriately in certain situations. With adequate interest and support, these videos could be made, tested, and made available to all coaches. Those who put their lives on raising and developing generations have the opportunity to develop. Regardless of age and years of practice, everyone is capable of changing his wrong approach.
