Successful Coaching

As America’s best-selling coaching text, Successful Coaching has helped over a million coaches develop their coaching philosophies; improve their communication, teaching, and management skills; and understand their responsibilities as a coach. The updated fourth edition of Successful Coaching offers students as well as new and veteran coaches a comprehensive guide to every aspect of coaching.

Written by Rainer Martens, a respected and renowned sport psychologist, longtime coach, and lifelong competitive athlete, Successful Coaching, Fourth Edition, details the principles, knowledge, and skills that will help coaches build a foundation for their decisions and actions. Working through the text, coaches will define their philosophy, identify their objectives, and determine their coaching style. Next, coaches will learn how to become skilled communicators and motivators by applying psychological principles and recommendations for positive management of athletes’ behavior. Knowing the skills required for each sport is as important as knowing how to teach and shape those skills. With Successful Coaching, coaches will become more effective instructors as they learn the games approach to teaching technical and tactical skills, a proven method of helping athletes become smart tactical players of their sports.

Successful Coaching also discusses the team management responsibilities of the coach and details how to manage relationships with athletes, other coaches, administrators, medical personnel, officials, parents, and the media. Also addressed are the legal responsibilities of a coach and strategies for reducing risk.

Readers will find the latest research in the fields of physical training and nutrition, including new information on creatine, energy drinks, caffeine, and hydration. Successful Coaching also provides a straightforward discussion of drug abuse among athletes, offering all-new content on methamphetamines, prescription drug abuse, and drug-testing recommendations.

Sidebars provide focused insights on a range of coaching topics and offer personal encouragement and advice for coaches throughout the season. In addition, quotes from well-known coaches provide perspective on what it takes to be a successful coach. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter encourage readers to think critically about the content and apply it to their own current or future coaching situations.

Written by a coach for coaches, Successful Coaching blends the latest research and accepted practices in the sport sciences with practical advice from seasoned coaching veterans. Successful Coaching helps readers think critically about their motivation for being a coach and establish a coaching philosophy and style that pave the way for a fulfilling sport experience for coaches and their athletes.

The fourth edition of Successful Coaching has been carefully revised to meet or exceed the guidelines of the National Council for Accreditation for Coaching Education and the recommendations of the National Standards for Sport Coaches.Successful Coaching is the primary text for the Coaching Principles online or classroom course offered by the American Sport Education Program (ASEP). Coaching Principles is a part of ASEP’s Bronze Level coaching certification, a three-step certification involving coursework essential for coaching any sport, teaching sport first aid, and conveying advanced sport-specific knowledge.

Rainer Martens, PhD, has coached at the youth, high school, and collegiate levels and has studied sport as a research scientist. The founder and president of Human Kinetics, he also started the American Sport Education Program, the largest coaching education program in the United States. An internationally recognized sport psychologist, Martens is the author of more than 80 scholarly articles and 17 books. He has also been a featured speaker at more than 100 conferences around the world and has conducted more than 150 workshops and clinics for coaches and athletes at all levels.

After receiving his PhD in physical education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1968, Martens was a member of its faculty for 16 years. A past president of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, he has been recognized for his contribution to sport by the National Recreation and Park Association and by his induction into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education Hall of Fame. He has received Distinguished Alumni awards from Hutchinson High School, Emporia State University in Kansas (where he earned a bachelor's degree), the University of Montana (where he earned a master's degree), and the University of Illinois.

Martens continues to enjoy sport today, especially senior softball. He has been playing slowpitch softball for 45 years and currently plays for and coaches the most successful senior slowpitch team in the United States, the Florida Legends. In 2009, he was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame. Martens and his wife, Julie, live in Ormond Beach, Florida.