4 Questions A Coach Must Ask Themselves
If you want to become a better coach, you have to become a better you.
As coaches we are constantly seeking achievement and success. But few sit down and clearly define what success is for them.
For fans, success is winning. Victory may be a prize, but it’s a fleeting one. What I’ve come to understand is that success is often a journey. It has multiple peaks and valleys instead of one ultimate pinnacle. One success often builds on another. Success is not a black and white tug-a-war between winning and losing. Setbacks, losses, false stars can also contribute to success.
We coaches devote an excessive amounts of time on the technical and tactical aspects of performance, so much so we often lose sight of the greater purpose for coaching.
At the start of every season I take a weekend to think, reflect and answer the following 4 questions to guide my coaching:
Why do I coach?
Why do I coach the way I do?
What does it feel like to be coach by me?
How do I define success?
Investing time and energy to consider these questions is just as important as planning practice or upgrading domain knowledge.
Coaching is about relationships. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Transformational coaching happens when athletes believe in you and choose to follow your leadership because they know you believe in them too. Caring coaches uses their coaching platform to impart life-changing messages that might not be understood until decades later. They’re more concerned with who their athletes become in 20 years, then counting down the days until the championship contest.
We coaches cannot overlook the awesome power and responsibility of coaching: We give our athletes memories, for better or for worse, that stay with them until the day they die. All chalk talks, game scores, media hype and most statistics are forgotten with time. But not the bonds made. Those grow stronger if you care.
Win-at-all-cost coaches are remembered for their win/loss record.
Great coaches are simply remembered.
Any questions? Direct Message me on twitter.
Thx for reading. | jm