The problem is many with the title don’t understand the essence of the responsibility.
“You know what works better than yelling recycled catch phrases from books you didn’t even read at athletes?
Taking the time to listen, learn, & understand them so that you can develop authentic relationships and mentor & coach them in ways that best serve their unique personalities.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
Coaching is one of the most essential, life-altering, important professions in the world.
This makes coaching, for good reason, a highly sought-after field, especially at the youth and high school levels.
There is one giant problem, though. Many “Coaches” don’t even know how to coach, nor do they understand the essence of coaching.
Sure, they have a title and maybe a business card that says “Coach” on it, but I can buy a NASCAR jacket and tell everybody I’m a race car driver, too, but it doesn’t mean it’s true.
Many coaches liked the sport or have a background in training themselves, so naturally believe, “I’m fit to coach!” Let me tell you there could hardly be a worse reason to get into the field.
Coaching is much more than putting on a cool outfit and draping a whistle around your neck.
Understanding the game/activity you are coaching is obviously a pre-requisite. For the most part, your knowledge of the game is no different than the coaches across the field’s knowledge, but he or she can very likely be an extraordinarily better coach.
Nick Saban doesn’t know much more about football than <insert football coach you’ve never heard of>, he just understands culture and coaching better than most.
You see it’s not the physical stuff. It’s not the x’s and o’s, and it’s not even the gameplan that make the difference. Sure, those are important elements, but obviously they are, right?
It’s what the surface level coaches, the coaches who are coaching for themselves, gloss over, that make the most difference.
It’s the Eric’s and Sarah’s that make the difference.
And in order to get the most out of them, to help your team/culture succeed, you can’t just throw surface level motivational quotes at them intermittently or run them into the ground when they piss you off (translated: you do a poor job of communicating expectations/leading by example.)
You have to build real trust with kids. You have to understand THEY are the main character of the story. You have to listen and coach them the way THEY need to be coached, not how “you wanna do it”.
Coaching is about them. Not you.
So many in the field miss it.
