Graduate Work Showcase
1. GOAL SETTING PROJECT
This page has been designed to showcase examples of my graduate work from Michigan State's Masters of Arts in Education program. More specifically, the examples below come from courses geared towards Coaching, Athletic Administration, and Sports Leadership.
For this project, I interviewed a junior basketball player at Carmen High School using the GROW model to set goals ahead of his junior basketball season. This GROW model encourages the interviewer to ask purposeful questions to help athletes come to their own conclusions and understandings about their GOALS, the REALITY of their situation, the OPTIONS they have at their disposal, and their WILL to accomplish the goal.
2. COACH OBSERVATION PROJECT
This project focused on a coach observation I conducted on Carmen's girls varsity basketball coach during the 2015-16 season using the Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS). This artifact showcases my ability to conduct coach observations and provide feedback to coaches as well as make use of a valuable observation tool.
3. FREE THROW IMAGERY PROJECT
In an effort to help athletes achieve peak performance during games, I employed the psychosocial tool of imagery to help varsity basketball players at Carmen improve their free throw shooting. For this intervention, I used the PETTLEP imagery model, which is an acronym that refers to seven components of imagery created by Holmes and Collins (2001): Physical, Environment, Task, Timing, Learning, Emotion, and Perspective. I created an imagery script and conducted two separate interventions with the goal of providing a very real simulation of an athletic experience in an athlete’s mind so that the athlete can improve focus during the moment of pressure, reinforce useful routines, and hopefully, improve performance.
4. EFFECTS OF SLEEP ON ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
This project examined the effects of sleep on sports performance by looking at a wide variety of research examples. Ultimately, there were four major takeaways that I have shared with Carmen student athletes as guidelines and suggestions related to their sleep habits: follow a consistent sleep pattern, indulge in brief naps (5-30 min), expose yourself to bright morning light after waking up, and avoid cell phone use and television before bed.
5. NUTRITIONAL RECOVERY PROJECT
Athletes' bodies need the right nutrition to properly recover from exhausting workouts. In this project, I suggest WHAT an athlete should eat as well as WHEN it should be consumed in order to best help muscles recover. The final component of this project details sample snacks for post-workout recovery.
6. REVIEW OF COACH EDUCATION PROGRAMS
As a high school athletic director, I am frequently in search of programs and courses that offer professional development for coaches. This is my evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of several different coach education programs.
7. INTRODUCTION TO CARMEN ATHLETICS PRESENTATION
This artifact is a presentation that I have used to introduce Carmen's athletic program to new students at the beginning of the school year. Much of the information and goals that I communicate are influenced by my graduate course work at Michigan State.
8. VARSITY BASKETBALL PERIODIZATION PLAN
For this project, I combined the things I learned around nutrition, weight training, and sport specialization to form a periodized plan for the Carmen varsity boys basketball team. The goal of this plan was to schedule out specific training exercises and nutrition for the entire school year.