Do You Like Coaching

Yes I know you like wearing the shirt. You like being called coach. You like the respect and revere that comes with the position. You like the company and community. Maybe you even like the TV appearance. Maybe you like the lime light. But do you really like coaching?
I observe coaches in a state of agitation. I see them angry most of the time. They are upset at practice. They are upset during games. They use foul language, and I know society has become loose with language just as it has with appearance, and behaviour, but that doesn’t mean you have to conform to that standard.
Where does this behaviour from coaches stem from? Is it the pressure to succeed? Is the pressure to keep your job? Is it a reflection, of the measure of your character? Do you have what Ernest Hemingway called "grace under pressure”. Or is it simply you feel inadequate in what you are doing. Did you spend the time to prepare your team? Are you passing the buck and blaming your team for the loss? Wait, it is a team right? You are part of it correct? Then isn’t the blame shared?
From personal experience I can say, that all but two losses I felt I had either not prepared my team, or made a decision during the game that might have produced a different outcome. Two of the best games I coached and prepared my teams for resulted in losses. But I could not have been more proud of the team, and my efforts in those games. They gave it their all, and so did I and my assistants. It stung, but it didn’t last long. It wasn’t our day.

For me coaching is teaching. Teaching is one of the most honourable professions, if your heart is in it. If you are willing to make a difference, and let the difference be your reward. If your heart isn’t in it, and you are agitated, and angry most of the time, then get out. You need to find something else to do with your time. Think of the effects you have on those players, and the role you are setting for your assistants. You can’t deny the effect you will have on both groups. I see out of control head coaches’ behaviour trickling down to their assistants. Nice legacy.

Stop looking for perfection! Look for improvements. Look for learning. Take the time to enjoy what you are doing. In the end it's about forming relationships.

Try focusing on some of these things.

1.Improve Your Players Skills
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
Larry Bird

2.Coaches Should Motivate Players
You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone.
Percy Cerutty

3.Coaches Should Be Tough But Fair
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Oscar Wilde

4.Coaches Should Make It A Team Effort
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Henry Ford

5.Coaches Should Not Be Demeaning
By lifting the weakest, poorest among us, we lift the rest of us as well.
Bill Clinton

6.Coaches Should Give It Their All
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
Albert Einstein

7.The Sport Should Be Fun, Not Funny, But Fun
When the going gets tough, the tough do what they do, while the wise find the game in it.
Unknown