Coaching to win in life goes further than accomplishments that occur in a sport. After writing “Coaches Make a Difference”, I felt the conversation needed more clarity. I was concerned the take away from the message could be an expectation of coaches to be ‘easy’ on athletes. This is definitely not my belief. We should expect coaches to hold athletes to a high standard, push them to be the best that they can be and never let them settle for ‘good enough’. Push them to be better than even they think possible. I believe this occurs through 3 fundamental aspects of coaching:
Coaching fundamentals
- Teach players the work ethic and attitude needed to achieve their goals.
- Hold all players accountable to themselves and the team.
- Provide a sense of self confidence and drive to continue to push forward.
Coaching to Win in Life
Work ethic and attitude
Coaches should teach and demonstrate a strong work ethic, humility, grace and sportsmanship at all times. Rewarding hard work and great attitudes should be encouraged across all levels of athletics. Not everyone has the same abilities but each person can control their effort and attitude. We want to teach that a hardworking, team first attitude is something to aspire to not only in athletics but also in life. We need these types of people in society a lot more than we need the alternative.
Accountability
Coaches should hold all players accountable for their actions, attitude and effort. This should apply to ALL players, not only the ones a coach believes he can ‘afford to miss’. It should be demonstrated to players that everyone is held to the same standard whether it’s in the classroom, hallway, the community or during practice or games.
A failure to provide accountability to all players results in athletes that are entitled and believe the “rules” don’t apply to them. This is a dangerous idea to create as society may quickly teach them otherwise. A coach also risks losing ‘buy in’ of the other players that are demonstrating the correct attitude. Coach all players to be team players and hold them accountable to the team at all times.
Self Confidence
Too often we can become too results oriented instead of effort oriented. I believe this can have a negative impact on a young athlete’s self-confidence and their desire to continue to develop in a sport. Too many times I have seen young athletes pulled from games due to simple mistakes despite displaying great actions, attitude and effort.
I believe as coaches, we should be teaching kids through sports that everybody will make mistakes basically every day of their lives. It’s about how we learn from those mistakes and improve as players and as people that ultimately matter at the end of the day. Teach them it’s not all about results but sometimes it’s about how we play the game.
Focus on actions, effort and attitude
If we model to our young athletes a mindset that focuses on actions, effort and attitude instead of only results, we’ll be on the right track to help create self-confident adults. Self-confident individuals are ready to try new things, take chances and do something special with their lives, perhaps change the world. To help kids win in life, this should be our ultimate goal as coaches, parents or people. Helping every individual to get the most out of life and affect somebody else’s!
BtL
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