Special Olympics Ontario Provincial Games Coach Development and Resources

Special Olympics Ontario, in collaboration with COACH+, are excited to offer a cutting edge coach development opportunity for all coaches and caddies attending the 2025 Provincial Summer Games. This program is designed to enhance your own Provincial Games experience, while improving your ability to creating a meaningful and impactful sporting opportunity for your assigned athletes.

This program has four optional development opportunities, and coaches are welcome to participate in any or all that are meaningful to them. While this program is optional, it is strongly encouraged for coaches who have goals of participating on Team Ontario in Medicine Hat or in the future!

If you have any questions about the professional development opportunities, or experience technology issues while participating, please contact Carly Shannon, carly@improveyourcoaching.ca.

Building Your Personal Coaching Philosophy

Supporting Athletes Before & During Games

Creating Your Own Games Plan

Post Games Reflection

Building Your Personal Coaching Philosophy

What is a coaching philosophy?

A coaching philosophy is a set of value and principles that guide a coach’s interaction with athletes, designing their training program and setting the culture and expectations for their team. A well-established coaching philosophy provides clear direction for coaches and athletes alike and creates a sense of trust between athletes and coaches having set clear expectations and guiding principles for the team,

How do I create my own coaching philosophy?

COACH+ has created Coach Theo, a coaching specific AI based program, who will walk coaches through establishing their own unique coaching philosophy! This will allow coaches to determine their own coaching mantra in 30-60 minutes!

Next Steps

Now that you have watched the demonstration video, here is the link to Coach Theo: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67c85be4da888191a696b005d029fffd-coach-theo
You may be prompted to log in or create a free account in ChatGPT to engage with Coach Theo.
For the best results, please use this initial prompt in the chat box:
- “In five easy steps, I want to create a coaching philosophy. Less is more. Give me one step at a time.”
Keep it conversational when chatting with Coach Theo - just talk to him. Don’t worry about making it sound “correct.”
Once you have completed stages 1 – 4 with Coach Theo, use this prompt:
- “Please summarize my coaching philosophy in three sentences, using three values and one mantra.”
Be sure to copy and paste your coaching philosophy. You will need it for the next steps.

Supporting Athletes Before and During Games

Special Olympics Provincial Games are an experience like no other. From working with new athletes in new environments to supporting Sport Excellence athletes in their element, Games coaches are asked to juggle a lot! COACH+ will be hosting two webinars to dive into best practices leading up to, and during Provincial Games to ensure success, not just for our athletes, but also our coaches!

This webinar will focus on supporting athletes during Provincial Games. Special Olympics Athletes experience a full range of emotion during Games from excitement (competition, ceremonies) to anxiety (new coaches, new teammates) and fatigue (competition, rigorous schedules). This seminar focuses on supporting athlete health, both physical and emotional, while attending Provincial Games.
Register Here

Stepping onto the Stage: Creating your own Games Plan

Preparing for Provincial Games goes beyond training hard. It’s about helping athletes feel confident, focused, and ready for everything the event has in store.

In this portion of your coach development, we’ll examine what solid preparation means from both the coach’s and athlete’s perspectives. That includes building effective routines, managing nerves, and supporting athletes mentally through the lead-up and the event itself.

We’ll also discuss the practical aspects, including travel plans, competition planning, coaching goals, and communication. This self-guided learning experience gives you the flexibility to create your own content. This process will be supported with custom AI tools and practical resources to help you reflect on, plan, and apply your games plan. Creating your own Games Plan should take 30-60 minutes with a concrete resource following participation.

More Information to Come!

Post Games Reflection

Provincial Games are now complete, and you used the previous Professional Development opportunities to create an unparalleled Games experience for your athletes. Congratulations!

Through this tool coaches will be able be able to reflect on the Games experience. What worked really well? What could use some tweaks? Did my Games Plan and Coaching Philosophy produce the desired effects on my coaching at Games?

By taking some time to reflect and document their experiences, coaches will be better prepared to tackle future Provincial, National and World Games opportunities.

More Information to Come!