Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation

“The Home of God-Loving and Globally Competent Individuals”

Martin P. Posadas Avenue, San Carlos City, Pangasinan, 2420, Philippines

College of Education

Name: Wella R. Magalong BSED III-MAPE

Instructor: Dhan Camaso
“Athletes first, winning second” what does it mean?
“Athletes first, winning second”, for me this means that as a coach you will never
become successful on how you were going to take an action or make a decision, and win a bottle
if you did not know your athletes. So it means that you will going to recognize first your athletes
know their abilities, skills and attitudes. With this you know what were going to take an action or
decision on how you were going to point out the interest and abilities of your athletes. In that
way you know how to develop and improve the performance of athletes. Also you must know
the background of your athletes so that you can easily catch up with them.
Now, we are all competitive and we all want to win. However, our primary responsibility
is the development of our athletes. This must be first and foremost in everything we do as
coaches. And when we don’t win, that should be ok too. We learn lessons from our mistakes,
focus on the things we did right in the game, and set our next practice plan accordingly. The
most important thing to remember for athletes is to have fun.
“Athletes first, winning second” This motto recognizes that striving to win is an accepted
component of organized sports. But it emphatically states that efforts in striving to win should
never be made at the expense of the athletes’ well-being, development and enjoyment.
Remember that striving to win the game is an important objective of the contest, but it is not the
most important objective of sport participation. It is easy to lose sight of the long-term
objectives - helping athletes develop physically, psychologically, and socially - while pursuing
the short-term objective of winning the contest, because the rewards for winning are immediate
and powerful. Winning or striving to win is never more important than athletes’ well-being.
Successful coaches help athletes develop physically, psychologically, and socially. And
successful coaches strive to achieve their personal goals without jeopardizing their athlete’s well-
being. Winning is important, but it must become secondary to striving to achieve personal goals.
Success must be seen in terms of athletes exceeding their own goals rather than surpassing the
performances of others. If your coaching helps athletes understand and implement this principle,
you will do more to help them become excellent athletes - and successful adults – than by any
other coaching action.