It is an attitude held by the youth coach and acts as a guiding principle for the training and development of an athlete or a team. It is strongly linked to the beliefs, values and motives for coaching. All coaches somewhat have a coaching philosophy and if it is well thought out, the coach is probably on the right track. By doing so, he or she can learn about themselves, understand their strengths, know why they are coaching and effectively improve their coaching delivery to attain the end goal.

Guidelines to help youth coaches develop a coaching philosophy (Adapted from "how to develop a youth coaching philosophy)

Assess and reflect on some of the following details:

1. As a youth coach, what is important to you when you are coaching?

Why specifically youth?
Why do I like to coach?
What would make a good coach?

2. Develop values and beliefs

If I was a player, what would I want from my coach?
What do my players expect from me as a coach?
How do I like to coach?
What values should I relate to my youth athletes?

3. Individual coaching philosophy

Everyone’s coaching philosophy is different so get to know yourself and your students better as you define your own.

4. Philosophy can change

Can change your philosophy to adapt to suit the needs of your players

5. Apply the philosophy and keep tweaking until it works.

Tips from other coaches

Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, who has 1,000 NCAA career coaching wins and coached the USA basketball team to the 1996 Olympic games gold, believes that her role as a coach is to take the players to a place they cannot reach by themselves. She wants to help them do something they cannot do on their own.
Former Cedar Girls’ School sports coach Mr. N. Subramaniam who developed national runners back in the 1970s, recounts pushing his students to have qualities of champions like discipline and positive attitude. He believes that if you have discipline, it will empower you in everything you do and be part of your lifestyle. Out of the sporting context, he was a father figure, mentor and many things all rolled into one and strived to not only develop his students into good athletes but also good people.

Reference

“How to develop a coaching philosophy” by BelievePHQ

Jenkins, S. (2017, February 03). Tara VanDerveer is a Stanford educator - with 1,000 basketball coaching wins. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/tara-vanderveer-is-a-stanford-educator--with-1000-basketball-coaching-wins/2017/02/03/bc600ba4-ea5b-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.d9224256139f

Shambrook, J. (2013, June). Coaching Philosophy. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://guernseysports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Philosophy-Coach-Forum.pdf

Toh, W. (2017, July 13). The lives they live: Discipline the keyword for former Cedar sports coach. The Straits Times. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/the-lives-they-live-discipline-the-keyword-for-former-cedar-sports-coach?xtor=CS3-18