In my mind, coach is just another word for teacher, educator, or manager. So I was excited when I saw bnet.com’s article called 10 Things Great Managers Do. I hope to one day be a great coach so let’s check out the parallels!
- Maintain your cool and sense of humor, especially during a crisis. Your team is watching you. They’re watching how you behave when things go well…and when they get sideways on us. They’re watching when your stud player is being a stud…and when she struggles. If you don’t want your team to freak out when things aren’t going well…then you can’t freak out.
- Tell team when they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Do you have a captain who sulks and grumbles and just generally leads in a poor manner? If you do, then it’s time to sit her down and let her know how her actions affect her teammates. And how it keeps her from leading effectively.
- Be in charge, but be humble. I’ve seen both types of head coaches. The ones that are uncomfortable with their role as leader (maybe because they’re young or not much older than their athletes), so they’re not really in charge. Sure their title says “head coach”, but the team doesn’t see them that way. I’ve also seen the coach that is solidly in control of the team, but so cocky and arrogant that the team feels uncomfortable around them. Neither of those is ideal.
- Let your guard down sometimes. Tell a joke, let them know of something silly you did that day, or just talk about everyday stuff…it’ll go a long way to making you human for your team.
- Stand behind people you believe in. When your best player has a bad game (or two, or three), talk to them and let them know that you still believe in them and their skill level…and that they’ll work out of their funk. Sometimes that word of encouragement will take some of the pressure and burden off of their shoulders.
- Complement your team’s weaknesses. So you’ve got this amazing player, but she’s an awful leader. She yells at her teammates and sulks when she’s not playing well. Basically, she’s a nightmare…but she’s also really good. Challenge her to get better. It’s our job to give our players what they’re missing, whether it’s a killer serve or leadership ability.
- Compliment your team’s strengths. Unless they’re supremely confident, our athletes always think they’re screwing up and disappointing the coaches and the team. They may never say it, but negative self-talk is a real thing and our athletes are doing it. How about letting them know what they’re doing well…in front of the whole team?
- Teach through personal failure. “Freshmen are supposed to be idiots”. That’s what I told a newbie one year when she was crying after practice because she’d made approximately a million mistakes. I told her about forgetting my uniform for a game when I was a freshman and thinking that I could get away with it, because we were playing a really good team. Well, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, my coach wanted to put me in the game and I had to tell him the awful truth. My player was able to laugh through her teary eyes at how stupid I was and that it all worked out in the end (after a whole lot of running on my part).
- Do the right thing. That means reprimanding the senior star the same as you would the player at the end of the bench. It means not yelling at officials. It means being a person of your word.
- Do what has to be done, no matter what. This includes everything we’ve talked about before, plus grunt work. Are you willing to lug out equipment if the setup crew was late? Or help your fellow coaches with manual labor they need to have done? Consistently working hard should be the hallmark of a great coach.
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