Thoughts from a Coaches Kid
I learned at an early age watching my dad that coaching wasn’t just showing up to the game and coaching a group of athletes. There was so much more to it. There were things he did that didn’t have anything to do with actual coaching.
To the coaches that lug their kids around everywhere with them, I know exactly how they feel. I also know that they are learning a ton from watching you. What a great opportunity to teach.
Here’s some things I learned that I use today as a young coach:
All Details Matter
There are a ton of details that go on behind the scenes of the actual game. I got to witness all these details first hand with my dad.
In the book Wooden on Leadership, Denny Crum, former Louisville head coach and a former player of John Wooden’s, described his mentor this way:
“Coach Wooden’s teaching was effective because he was so well organized with his details. Everything was written out on 3 × 5 cards and in notebooks: What was happening from 3:07 to 3:11; what we’d do from 3:11 to 3:17; who was doing what and when.”
There was detail in everything he did — the way he planned practice, ran practice, evaluated practice and games. It applied to details of travel, equipment and food. Absolutely everything that could affect performance got taken care of.
Why? Because all these details MATTER. I think those 10 NCAA championships speak for themselves though.
Things Don’t Just Happen
I remember I got into coaching because I loved to coach. The actual time coaching isn’t near as much as you think. No one told me I’d be doing all of this other stuff. There are things you may have to do that you thought you may never do or never wanted to do.
When I didn’t want to do something my dad used to say, “sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do.” Gosh, if you only knew the amount of times I’ve had to repeat this one to myself. But these unseen things we do as coaches have an unbelievable impact. If we don’t do it, who will?
They are planned and thought out, typically by a leader, for HOURS. As a coach, you are that leader.
Evaluate Performance
We all know that things don’t work out perfectly, but to increase performance it takes a great deal of self-evaluation. Great coaches are great evaluators. They don’t fail, they figure out ways to not do something. They find out what works, and what doesn’t. To me that is just pure grit. They take action and execute. These are some of the coaches we deem most successful.
Take the time to sit down and write down what you did well, what you could have don’t better, or maybe things that you missed. I think self-evaluation helps with coaching complacency, which is common. There is always something you can improve on. I think the biggest failures in life are the ones who think they know it all.
I personally tend to learn the most about my performance from peer-evaluation. A lot of times the people we surround ourselves with catch things in our performance that we may NEVER see. Make sure you have great coaches/friends around you that aren’t afraid to tell you how you can get better.
Be Great at the Basics
At Performance Course you may have heard us talk about the crock pot versus the microwave when coaching. We are talking about the long-term approach to development of the athlete when we talk about the crock pot approach. Many people want to rush through the basics to get to the more interesting information.
Or perhaps they believe that the more advanced work is where real power lies. I see it all the time when coaches make kids do power cleans before they master a deadlift. Deadlift is a prerequisite to having a great power clean. This is just one example. Why rush it? Even with just a mastery of the basics, you can have huge successes.
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
BE GREAT AT THE BASICS. Ignore all of the fancy stuff and help these athletes lay a strong foundation in their athletic development.
