Coaching in Physical Education

Coaching and Physical education goes hand and hand at most school districts.  The main reason I got into the major of physical education is because I always wanted to become a wrestling coach.  It was later on through my years of college how much I realized physical education could truly change a student’s life.  I think it is important if you are able to both coach and teach physical education because it makes you a better rounded teacher.  However one of the biggest problems about physical education teachers being coaches is that sometimes they like to favor the students that are athletes on their sports teams.  I do not think that is fair I think that every student needs to be treated equally just like they should be in a normal classroom setting.  For educators that are trying to pursue a job as a physical educator it would help you a lot more to get a job if they are also looking for a coach in the school it is like the metaphor “to kill 2 birds with 1 stone” I think Physical educators usually make the best coaches because it is in their profession to be around an athletic atmosphere.  As physical educators we are taught all about the human body and we know it best when it comes to things such as getting into shape, what’s the best exercises for specific people, we are taught multiple drills for almost every sport, and most of us have grown up around sports so we as physical educators are in good shape as well and can set a good example for the students.  I think it is very important for a physical education teacher to be in shape because why would a student take your advice in physical fitness activities if it is not even working for the teacher.  I know it might sound a little harsh but I think part of professional look for a physical educator should be for them to be physically fit themselves.
I think that physical education teachers also make the best coaches because we are taught to work with students of all different ages.  I know that every teacher is taught how to work with all ages of students but the key thing about physical education teachers is when we work with students we are teaching them skills such as their basic motor development.  So if we are coaching a student and they have bad mechanics say for throwing a baseball we will know how to start from scratch teach them the basics all over again and correct those basic mistakes.  The most obvious reason a physical Education teacher would make a great coach is more than fifty percent of the time the physical educator has played the sport when they were in high school or college so that gives them plenty of prior knowledge to the game.  I think a student will listen to their coach a lot more when they know that their coach was a player himself or herself.  For example I always listened to my wrestling coach because he was state champion in high school and then division 1 all American in college.  Things like that made me trust his knowledge in the field of wrestling.