NCAA CPL (H) Theory cheat sheet

Coaching philosophy = stated beliefs about athlete development, winning, and role of the coach; it should be written, shared with athletes, and used as a decision filter when trade-offs arise.

Ethical decision rule: if an action would need to be hidden from the athletics director, the athlete's parents, or the institution's compliance office, it is presumptively impermissible.

NCAA ethical-conduct bylaws require coaches to act with honesty and sportsmanship and to report knowledge of rules violations; failure to report can itself be a violation.

Mandatory-reporting rule: any credible suspicion of hazing, sexual harassment, or abuse must be escalated to campus authorities (Title IX, athletics administration) regardless of team consequences.

Confidentiality limits: coach–athlete conversations are not legally privileged in most settings; do not promise secrecy you cannot keep.

Role-boundary rule: personal relationships, gifts, and favors involving current athletes or prospects create conflicts of interest and must be disclosed to the administration.

Philosophy alignment check: recruiting messaging, practice language, and playing-time decisions should all be traceable to the same stated core values.

Coach behavior is the dominant model for team norms; athletes adopt the coach's response to officials, opponents, and mistakes more reliably than any stated rule.

Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) stages are anchored to biological maturity, not chronological age alone; use peak-height-velocity (PHV) estimates to time training emphasis.

PHV screening: track standing and sitting height every 3 months; a sudden rise in growth rate marks the onset of the adolescent growth spurt and a window of increased injury risk.

Windows of trainability: the period around PHV favors aerobic and speed development; the post-PHV period favors strength and power development.

Sampling-before-specialization rule: early diversification across sports is associated with better long-term participation and lower overuse-injury rates than early single-sport specialization.

Late specialization sports (most team sports) favor multi-sport participation through early adolescence; early specialization is defensible mainly in highly technical, aesthetic, or acrobatic sports.

Bio-banding: grouping adolescent athletes by maturity status rather than age alone reduces mismatches in size and power and protects early and late maturers.

Developmental ceiling concept: early maturers often win youth selection but do not hold a permanent advantage; late maturers require retention strategies to avoid drop-out.

Athlete development is multidimensional: technical, tactical, physical, psychological, and psychosocial (life skills) outcomes should each have explicit program targets.

Fitts and Posner stages: cognitive (conscious, error-prone), associative (refining, fewer errors), autonomous (automatic, low attentional demand); instruction should shift from explicit cueing to external focus as skill stabilizes.

Bernstein's degrees-of-freedom problem: novices freeze joints to simplify control; instruction should progressively release constraints rather than demand full-range technique immediately.

Internal focus (body parts) vs external focus (effects on environment): external focus generally produces better retention and transfer for experienced performers.

Blocked practice improves immediate performance; random or interleaved practice produces superior retention and transfer - the practice–performance distinction.

Variable practice: vary distance, angle, speed, or opponent pressure within a session to build a schema of movement rather than a single rote pattern.

Feedback rules: frequency and precision should decrease as skill improves; bandwidth feedback (only correct outside a tolerance zone) preserves self-correction.

Demonstration effectiveness depends on model similarity, status, and correct timing; combine demonstration with brief cues rather than long verbal explanations.

Whole vs part practice: use part practice for serial skills with separable components; use whole practice for highly interactive, fast, continuous skills.

Tactical periodization principle: fitness is developed through game-model exercises; training form should resemble the tactical demands of competition.

Principles of play divide into attacking (penetration, support, mobility, width, improvisation) and defending (delay, depth, balance, compactness, control/restraint).

Pressing decision rule: high press requires compact vertical distances (typically under ~30 m between lines) and a defined trigger (back-pass, poor touch, sideline trap).

Formation is a starting shape; system is the behavioral rules within it. Changing formation without changing principles rarely changes performance.

Game-model concept: the team's reference behavior in and out of possession is defined, trained, and used as the evaluation standard for exercises.

Numerical superiority rules: create 2v1 in the zone of the ball; avoid being outnumbered at the back; use third-man runs to break lines.

Set-piece design: assign roles, starting positions, and second-ball responsibilities; rehearse restarts as tactical events, not conditioning.

Tactical flexibility: prepare at least one in-possession and one out-of-possession alternative to the primary system for in-game adjustment.

Session structure: warm-up (raise, activate, mobilize, potentiate), main theme block, secondary theme block, cool-down; total quality contacts matter more than total minutes.

Session time allocation rule of thumb: warm-up ~15–20%, main tactical/technical theme ~50–60%, secondary theme ~15–20%, cool-down ~10%.

Periodization hierarchy: macrocycle (season/multi-year), mesocycle (3–6 weeks), microcycle (typically 7 days), session, unit.

Weekly microcycle: place the highest-load session 48–72 h before competition; avoid a high neuromuscular load within 24–48 h of match day.

Acute:chronic workload ratio: compare 7-day load to 28-day average; rapid spikes above roughly 1.3–1.5 are associated with elevated injury risk.

Session-RPE load = RPE (0–10) × duration in minutes; use it to monitor and adjust weekly load progression.

Practice planning rule: state one measurable objective per session, design drills that force the objective, and finish with a game-like scenario that tests it.

Tapering: reduce volume substantially while maintaining or slightly reducing intensity in the final 1–2 weeks before a championship to preserve fitness and reduce fatigue.

RPE (Borg CR10) is a validated internal-load measure; session-RPE multiplied by duration yields arbitrary training units for load monitoring.

Heart-rate zones: estimate maximum HR as 208 − (0.7 × age) (Tanaka) for adults; the 220 − age formula has a standard deviation of roughly 10–12 bpm.

Hydration rule: a 2% body-mass loss from sweat degrades performance; weigh athletes before and after training to individualize fluid replacement.

Exertional heat illness: cool first, transport second - cold-water immersion is the standard for exertional heat stroke; do not rely on antipyretics.

Concussion: any suspected concussion requires immediate removal from play; return-to-learn precedes return-to-sport and follows a graduated, medically supervised protocol.

Sudden cardiac arrest response: recognize, activate emergency action plan, start CPR, apply AED as soon as available; rehearse the EAP at every venue.

Female athlete triad / RED-S: low energy availability links to menstrual dysfunction and low bone mineral density; screen for disordered eating and energy deficit.

Sleep: adolescent athletes need roughly 8–10 hours per night; chronic sleep restriction impairs reaction time, mood, and injury risk.

NCAA recruiting rules are division-specific; contact periods, evaluation periods, quiet periods, and dead periods define what coach–prospect communication is permitted.

Dead period: no in-person contact or evaluations; written and telephone communication may still be permitted depending on division rules - verify the current bylaw.

Official visit: institution-funded visit limited to prospects at defined academic stages; unofficial visit: prospect-funded, with different contact and benefit rules.

Extra-benefit rule: providing prospects or enrolled athletes anything not generally available to the student body is a violation unless a specific bylaw exception applies.

Booster involvement: representatives of athletics interests are bound by the same recruiting rules as coaches; impermissible contact or inducements create institutional liability.

Amateurism and name-image-likeness: NIL activity must not be used as an inducement to enroll; disclosure and institutional policy govern permissible deals.

Program management cycle: needs assessment → recruiting board → budget → scheduling → staff assignment → evaluation; document decisions to preserve continuity.

Compliance monitoring: keep a written rules-education log, self-report potential violations promptly, and cooperate with the compliance office and NCAA enforcement.

Leadership styles: autocratic (fast decisions, low input), democratic (higher buy-in, slower), laissez-faire (low structure, high autonomy) - match style to context and athlete maturity.

Transformational leadership components: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration.

Communication model: sender → message → channel → receiver → feedback; reduce noise by using short, specific, behavior-focused language.

Feedback rule: describe observable behavior and its effect rather than labeling the person; separate the person from the performance.

Team culture is defined by what is rewarded, tolerated, and punished - not by stated values; audit those three levers before writing a culture statement.

Psychological safety: athletes who feel safe to admit error and ask questions learn faster; punish errors and you get concealment, not accountability.

Team-building evidence: shared task-oriented goals and clear roles predict cohesion better than social-only activities such as purely recreational outings.

Conflict rule: address performance-related conflict directly and early; unresolved task conflict tends to escalate into relationship conflict.