Coaching youth soccer has significantly changed since I started out playing in the early 70s and even from when I started out in coaching myself. The knowledge about the game, the "professionalization" of coaching roles even for youth soccer, the number and range of coaching courses and clinics, not to mention the availability of resources especially online, have dramatically changed how new coaches can approach their first seasons.
When I was involved in giving coaching certification clinics and the introductory level, there were still many parents who might not be overly familiar with the sport of soccer and certainly not with coaching. I would often start each clinic by saying " you are here today because when you registered your kid for soccer, you were ( ) fill in the blank., enough to check the box that said " are you interested in volunteering to coach?" If I go back to my own days starting out as a youth player, my father was considered an experience and knowledgeable coach, even though his coaching experience was limited simply due to the fact that as an immigrant for a soccer country ( Spain), he must certainly know more about the sport than most Canadians. However, even with all the changes mentioned above, for most first time coaches, regardless of their playing background, sport-specific knowledge or familiarity in general, starting out as a coach, especially as a parent-coach remains a challenge. For the parent coach that’s new to the game and coaching, the first two questions they usually ask are “What am I supposed to do and how will I do it?” This post will hopefully offer information and direction on these questions. It also contains a few age specific suggestions so that even novice coaches can get a basic understanding of how to use small sided games and why they are such an effective learning tool. The first step when starting out as a coach is to come up with a plan that can answer the most basic question ' How do I do this?" . Becoming a coach means adopting a set of behaviors on how to do a job. It amounts to assuming a role when dealing with the players, parents, opponents and officials. This can be seen as a coaching style which is based on a set of expectations of what a coach is and does. But choosing a model for this behavior is limited by experience. For the new parent coach this experience might only be the memory of a Physical Education class from long ago. What’s important is that it will form the framework for how the coach sees the game, the children, learning and themselves. It will be an unconscious, internalized starting point for every decision. Without delving too much into the different types of coaching models, I want to give a few general traits that can be found in different coaching styles. The Physical Education Teacher style - for many beginners, it is probably the most the most typical style in the game today because as mentioned above, for many, their first instinct is to model their experiences from phys ed classes. It divides the game into separate, distinct areas: technique, rules and basic strategy. This model sees the game as isolated components that can be learned separately in practices and reassembled later on in the game. It usually employs three different parts in a practice. A warm-up, the lesson and finally a scrimmage. This is an outline for the standard PE class lesson. The strength of this model is that everything is controlled and quantified. Almost everything can be evaluated on an objective basis. This is what Physical Education teachers do. Control the environment, and the students, in order to evaluate them for a grade. The grade will be based on technical proficiency, knowledge of the rules and basic strategy. Players learn how to wait in line for their turn and follow directions, they learn little about problem solving or team work. At no time are end results (winning/losing) a part of the evaluation. In this way it’s easy to justify the activities when the evaluation is isolated from a larger more complex picture. But success for a coach is different then for a PE teacher. Coaches are concerned with results from games. Mastery of any area is useless if it does not transfer directly to the sport. The structure used in learning PE (static positions, lines) can only be found on the field in a few brief moments, i.e. restarts if at all. The PE teacher exercises all of the control of the objectives and pace of the lesson. Students are dependent on the teacher as an external source of motivation and evaluation. But soccer is a player centred activity and children need to develop their own source of internal motivation and evaluative skills. They also need to learn for themselves how to control the pace and objectives of the game and themselves. So the basic weakness of the PE model is that it prepares the children for drills rather than games by both its focus and methods. Street Soccer Style – its focus is on learning how to play games by playing the game or, some modified form. It takes a holistic approach to learning. The upside of this model is that with it’s focus on games children not only learn how to play soccer but simply how to play. Playing together without supervision is a rapidly vanishing activity. Children must learn not only the skills of the game but how to self assess, take responsibility for their own actions and work together in a competitive environment. This style is really focused on the notion that as a general rule, games are considered more enjoyable that static drills, so especially younger players will perceive a heightened enjoyment because they are playing and it will keep them focused. Posted on September 13, 2015 by Steve WatsonFirst season as a youth soccer coachFor the parent coach that’s new to the game and coaching, the first two questions they usually ask are “What am I supposed to do and how will I do it?” This article offers information and direction on these questions. It also contains links to other pages so that even novice coaches can get a basic understanding of how to use small sided games and why they are such an effective learning tool. How Do I Do This? Choosing a Model Becoming a coach means adopting a set of behaviours on how to do a job. It amounts to assuming a role when dealing with the players, parents, opponents and officials. This can be seen as a coaching style which is based on a set of expectations of what a coach is and does. But choosing a model for this behaviour is limited by experience. For the new parent coach this experience might only be the memory of a Physical Education class from long ago. What’s important is that it will form the framework for how the coach sees the game, the children, learning and themselves. It will be an unconscious, internalized starting point for every decision. The Physical Education Teacher – The Physical Education model is the most dominate model in the game today. It divides the game into separate, distinct areas: technique, rules and basic strategy. This model sees the game as isolated components that can be learned separately in practices and reassembled later on in the game. It usually employs three different parts in a practice. A warm-up, the lesson and finally a scrimmage. This is an outline for the standard PE class lesson. The strength of this model is that everything is controlled and quantified. Almost everything can be evaluated on an objective basis. This is what Physical Education teachers do. Control the environment, and the students, in order to evaluate them for a grade. The grade will be based on technical proficiency, knowledge of the rules and basic strategy. Players learn how to wait in line for their turn and follow directions, they learn little about problem solving or team work. At no time are end results (winning/losing) a part of the evaluation. In this way it’s easy to justify the activities when the evaluation is isolated from a larger more complex picture. But success for a coach is different then for a PE teacher. Coaches are concerned with results from games. Mastery of any area is useless if it does not transfer directly to the sport. The structure used in learning PE (static positions, lines) can only be found on the field in a few brief moments, i.e. restarts if at all. The PE teacher exercises all of the control of the objectives and pace of the lesson. Students are dependent on the teacher as an external source of motivation and evaluation. But soccer is a player centred activity and children need to develop their own source of internal motivation and evaluative skills. They also need to learn for themselves how to control the pace and objectives of the game and themselves. So the basic weakness of the PE model is that it prepares the children for drills rather than games by both its focus and methods. Street Soccer Model – its focus is on learning how to play games by playing the game or, some modified form. It takes a holistic approach to learning. The upside of this model is that with it’s focus on games children not only learn how to play soccer but simply how to play. Playing together without supervision is a rapidly vanishing activity. Children must learn not only the skills of the game but how to self assess, take responsibility for their own actions and work together in a competitive environment. The downside of this model is that much of the control is given to the children and they might not go in the direction that you want. They may choose different solutions or ignore the problem altogether. They will learn at their own speed, not yours because they are the ones who decide what is really important. (And since this is their childhood, who can blame them.) It can also be chaotic and that will be a problem for some adults. There is an element of uncertainty in the training which matches the uncertainty of the game itself. Of course between the two, there are many variations / combinations of coaching styles. I don't want to delve too much into this topic but you can access a prior blog posts on it via this link is-there-a-best-type-of-coach.html what-kind-of-coach-are-you.html Regardless of the type of coaching style you might want to model yourself after, an important step is coming up with a road map of sorts, a plan that will that has objectives for the season and which can help you track progress. n the Physical Education model the seasons overall plan will focus on improvement in key areas. This usually results in a grocery list of objectives. Techniques such as passing, shooting and dribbling. Tactical concepts such as spreading out, proper support, defending angles. Rules such as proper throw ins, penalty kicks and so on. With a grocery list, lessons become topics and the children and coach are held in the straight jacket of the agenda. Success is measured by how much the children improved in the topic, even if the children don’t care about or have little use for it. “Tuesday we will work on dribbling, Thursday passing. We will be better dribblers and passers because that is what we have worked on.” While this statement might be true, it does not necessarily follow that they’ll be better soccer players.In the street soccer model the season’s objective will be to find the correct form(s) of the game and to help the players to increase their speed of play. This takes into account the players level and motivation. It will mean adjusting the resistance to meet the ever changing needs and situations. It allows the players to face constantly recurring and realistic situations under varying degrees of difficulty. As they progress in mastering the particular form their speed of play increases. Players’ decisions and their ability to execute them improve. “This week we’ll work on the shooting game, we might not be better shooters but we should be better soccer players because we have been playing soccer.” The goal is not just to improve the tools of the game, but to improve the quality of the game itself. A problem with the PE point of view for the new parent coach is that the grocery list of needs and objectives never ends. You simply keep adding on one more thing that you think they need to learn. In reality, the vast majority of youth players stop playing the game before they are 18. Lessons devoted to standing in lines and passing a ball back and forth or dribbling aimlessly around in a grid will have little relevance to their adolescent and adult needs. In the street soccer model the lessons are focused more on communication, responsibility, and team work with the technical and tactical side being driven by how the players see their own needs. They’ll be as good as they want to be, not as someone else wants them to be. One obvious important factor in how you will approach your team and their athletes is of course they skill level. You don't want to plan practices that come across as too easy or simple which will lead the kids to boredom, or too difficult which could lead to frustration if they deem themselves as failing. A simple rule of thumb is to focus on a few age-specific guidelines when planning out training sessions while however, keeping in mind that even within the same age, their will be varying skills levels and levels of understanding. The following will focus on a few general ideas. 5-6 Year Olds – Five and Six year olds can’t play competitive team sports. They lack the experience to understand cooperative play and the real meaning of winning and losing. Here soccer is a means to an end, a way to introduce social and motor skills to young children who are just beginning to experience the world outside of home and school. Some of the children may experience a new form of conflict, the difference in what adults say and mean. One example is between the “just do your best and that’s good enough” mantra and the realization that sometimes “your best is not good enough.” Another is when the coach instructs them to take the ball away another child, (which isn’t nice) while their teachers insist on sharing and being nice. This can lead to confusion about what adults, authority figures, really want. The basic game format (2, 4 goals or use targets) allows the children to learn direction. 2v2 and 3v3 mini-tournaments allows for team work on their scale. Using an appropriate field size (too big and there is no pressure, too small and players will experience conflict and stress) can help teach the consequences when the ball goes out. Goals in unusual positions (in the corner of the pitch or at an angle) can help children to get their heads up and to see beyond their feet. All of the technical skills will come along with the games and the basic lessons of “work together, keep the ball on the field and let’s try going the right way” can be learned. 7-8 Year Olds – One of the biggest problems at this age will be when children of different levels are mixed. Sometimes it’s between children who have been playing for a while and those that are either new or really don’t care about it. Sometimes the difference is in physical or mental qualities. When the levels are too great this puts a stress on everyone’s relationship and is the hardest problem for a coach to solve. Ideally, the club should have a way to ensure that children play with others that are close in their own level and interests. If the children have been playing SSG’s for a few seasons they should have enough experience so that the basic games can be modified and made harder. The number of players can be increased, line soccer or combined goals can be introduced and some simple rules set. Changing the demands of the training games can improve the speed of the basic game and their real weekend match. If the children have only had exposure to the PE model they will need some time to adjust to the freedom that SSG’s offer. Their speed of play will initially be slow but can improve over time. 9-10 Year Olds – The separation between levels becomes more pronounced and often the parents of the top players bring increased expectations to the situation. Some parents see these years as a continuation of a hobby while others see it as the final preparation before the “real 11 a side game.” This can cause conflicting agendas between adults on the same team and add to the stress that the children and coach already face. However, the separation in levels also means that some children will be faced with the choice of playing in a secondary role at a higher level, or, playing their preferred role at a lower level. Children who find themselves in a primary role but are faced with too much resistance from the too high a level will find a lot of frustration. Often this is the age when some children will start to gravitate to a position or a role. While it’s too early to predict where a child is best suited to play in the future, they should be allowed the option of sticking to the position or role of their choice. This allows them the opportunity to experience the game in depth as it meets their needs. (If a 10 year old wants to play the violin do they need to practice the trumpet?) Later, if they want to change it’s their choice. Soccer at this age is a hobby. Hopefully the children are there because they choose to be. If they are forced to play too often outside of their comfort zone they can simply pick a new hobby. The down side of this position is that the average 12 player team has 8 right wings and will require the coach to work out a diplomatic plan for playing time. Children that have been playing a while might express a total commitment to the game, even dreaming of moving onto higher competitive levels, travel teams, university and who knows maybe even a professional career. The game has become the center of their lives outside of school and home. But this attachment is like a first love and is subject to change with age and experience. Unfortunately, many parents don’t recognize this and it can also lead to increased expectations. In addition, some children go through a prepubescent growth spurt and their physical qualities can change almost overnight, usually for the worse. Children who only a year ago were stars can rapidly gain body weight, lose confidence and develop a fear of failure. This period of a crisis in confidence must be recognized a temporary and natural process. They’ll simply out grow it. At this age children are capable of fairly sophisticated games. The big goal, two small goals and 5v2 games can help them prepare for the building up phase of play. The ball will be getting off of the ground so soccer tennis and heading games will help as an introduction to this part of the game. If the children have mastered most of the basic and somewhat more advanced skills, they should be able to quickly adapt to new problems and situations. When the resistance is correct this age is capable of quality play at a high speed. It is important to adapt to the realities of the level that you will be coaching at, how many training sessions per week or over the course of the season, how many games, do all players attend all practices and games, etc. Like with any youth sport, the truth is that regardless of their commitment level, younger kids will still be dependent on their parents for transportation and / or availability. So some children will miss practices and games. Practices and games will be rained out. Children will arrive late and leave early. Many children will not practice at all away from the team. Time is lost for breaks and setting up new activities. All of these things will reduce the amount of time that the children have to learn. When the learning curve of the new parent coach is figured in it’s easy to understand why the training must be first and foremost, efficient and effective. Keep things simple and don’t forget to play soccer! One thing that really hit home with me when I attended my first coaching clinic as a participant was the first words issued by the instructor. " Always remember that without the players, there is no need for a coach. You are there for them and not the other way around". It is something stayed with me and guided how I approached the teams I worked with and was a message I always tried to give to young coaches I might cross paths. Always keep this in mind !
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I have often referred to the fact that coaching and managing in the workplace have many similar aspects as both are based in having leadership skills and the ability to lead a diverse group of individuals towards achieving a common objective. Read articles or books about leadership and without requiring specificity , you could apply many if the suggestions on the fields or in the workplace.
In order for "teams" to succeed they require a good coach. This is a proven fact. A leaderless group might do well short term but without someone in front, showing the way, a group of individuals, no matter how like minded will flounder at some point. So what does it mean to be a good coach? A good coach makes magic happen. They takes a bunch of pieces, put them together and find a way to make them work in perfect harmony with each other. Regardless of industry or sport, a good coach is a good leader and they all have a unique and superior way of putting the pieces together. They understand that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. They bring people together and are the foundation of any winning organization or team. So what constitutes a good coach, what make a great coach stand out among good coaches ? To begin, the truth with any team or group, regardless of how they are put together, it remains a collection of individuals. As a starting point, successful coaches fully understand this reality and prepare themselves to deal with it. They understand the strengths and weaknesses of each player. A really good coach, like a good leader in any work environment realizes how each member of the team can best contribute to the team’s success. So many times in business, take restaurant kitchens for example, there is a clear hierarchy in the division of tasks. As with any team, you might take a look at a kitchen staff and see very talented, strong individuals but in the wrong position. Not everyone is meant to be a grill cook, or work the condiments line. That same individual, however, might be a great pantry cook or prep cook. To be a good leader, to be the coach, you need to put your players in the best situation for them to succeed. You need to know not only what each person can bring to the team, but also how their individual skills set relates to everyone else. Good coaches understand the different personalities of their players and how to manage them. I remember when I made my cegep varsity soccer team. I was a hardworking, honest player, a regular team captain, with a certain level of success having always been a starter on my various competitive teams. My success was more about my work ethic and compete level and not about my natural athleticism of technical ability. For the first time, I found myself on a team with players somewhat older than myself, from different environments, and a coach who I will say was completely different than any other coach I had ever had. He didn't know me since he had worked in the club youth system for quite a while and more importantly in my opinion didn't take the time to understand my skill set. All I really remember from those practices many years ago were the four letter curse words shot in my direction, combined with a questioning of how was I ever able to play on any competitive team in the past. He knew many of the older players from the squad and was able to communicate with them if very specific coaching cues that we all new for me. It took one of the veteran players on the squad who played with our club's top senior team ( and knew me) speaking to him on my behalf to tell how my abilities could help the team. Some players respond well to being yelled in front of the entire team, while many cringe at the very thought of it — they need to have that conversation after practice or work on the side, one on one. You need to understand the power you have as a coach to create the chemistry and dynamic within your organization, and it is directly related to your ability to connect with each member of the team and meet them where they are. One size certainly doesn’t fit all. A good coach lets you shoot when it counts and doesn’t condemn you if it doesn’t go in. In every game or in any type of team environment, there will be a “last second” shot type of situation where the coach does their best to put the team in a position to succeed, but then has to pass their trust over to the team and to someone to take that integral “shot”. Maybe it’s an important position on a busy night, whatever it is, it’s important that the coach trust whoever is at the helm — whomever it is that controls the way the night is going to go. Trust and empowerment within an organization is powerful. Even when the shot misses, sometimes erratically, it’s important that the leader stand there beside the team, support them and help them through the struggle — once the dust is settled, then it’s time to figure out how the x’s and o’s could have been better executed. So, have you ever been watching a game, maybe it’s pretty close and one of the coaches pulls a move out of their back pocket and you thought to yourself, " What is that coach thinking?" I think we all have. I lived it as a spectator and player and assuredly, have had players and spectators think that about me when seeing some of my coaching decisions. Successful coaches are constantly taking the pulse of the situation in front of them and aren't afraid to make spur of the moment decisions even when it might deviate from a well established and prepared plan even when it appears to be a risk most observers might not be willing to take. In our organizations, sometimes we need to make decisions that don’t make sense to those around us, especially in the short term. With that being said, it’s important that we communicate the vision and direction for our organizations so that when we make certain decisions, our teams and players understand the rationale behind them. It’s so incredibly important to have a clear vision of the future and what we think is the best way to get there — this allows for us to take risks and chances — but only if our teams understand where it is we are going and why. They have to be on the bus before we can move it forward. Everyone on the team needs to know their role and feel like their role is important. A team of superstars, all with the exact same skill set with over time not be successful. When i coached, I often spoke about needing the select the best team, as in the best group of players with complimentary skills and not simply the top players. Simple example, if we had a 5th year player who had previously been a starter and had been bumped out of the lineup by new players, would the team be best served keeping her over say a 1st year player of comparable skill who might more easily accept sitting on the bench knowing that she could earn a starting spot in subsequent years. Would the veteran accept this lesser role willingly and remain positive or mirth she become a malcontent, Part of the issue as as mentioned earlier, knowing the individual. However it also means being clear and transparent with everyone about their role. In this type of case, we would typically speak to the athlete and the discussion would have two parts, 1. explaining what we felt her new role would be and our expectations in terms of her attitude and behavior 2. but also soliciting an agreement from the individual about accepting the change in a positive manner with the a clear message that if it became an issue, exclusion from the team could occur. It doesn’t take much to show the people on our teams that we appreciate them — often, all it takes is few kind words at the end of a shift, a ride home, or an extended break in the middle of a grueling shift. We need to look for ways to show the people in our organizations that we appreciate them, however large or small their role might appear to be. They will work better, harder and with more loyalty, almost without fail. If managed right, individuals even with lesser roles in a group but that contribute to the achievement of common goals, can find motivation to give their best. A coach truly cares for their team, not just has players or workers, but as people. At the end of the day, the role of a coach or leader is to facilitate an environment that helps get things done that move us closer to success. It’s really about investing in each person on the team on an individual basis and being connected to the growth that they make within the organization. It’s not about making someone a better player, it’s about investing in someone to help be a part of creating a better human being and then, the en d result is that they become a better player or employee. This is the right thing to do, ethically, but it’s also the right thing to do in a business sense — the more the various members of a team feel like the person in charge has a genuine interest in their well-being, the more willing each player will be to go to bat for the team and make sacrifices. That’s how you create loyalty and trust among a group of people. Invest in them first, and they’ll go to war for you. A good coach leads players to a place where they will be better than the coach ever was. Much of a coach’s success is directly linked to the kind of impact that they can have on the players with whom they mentor. This means leaving them in the best position to succeed. In the truest sense of this ideal, a coach creates players who are far better than they will ever be. This is scary for a lot of ego-driven chefs and leaders around the world, but to truly make an impact worth talking about takes giving those under one’s care the very best opportunity to succeed. The goal is to leave the generation coming behind us with more tools, more knowledge and more understanding of the craft, so that they can they can then do the same for the generation behind them. A good or great coach leaves individuals with a set of skills that they will pass on to others. Aside from the sports related experiences that coaching gave me over the years, as I have often posted about, my path as a coach and a manager often intersected and who I was in one role and how I came to make decisions or take action in one was more often than that influenced by the other. This was pretty much equally true whether it was my coaching influencing how I managed, or my managerial roles influencing how I coached.
The truth is that for any leadership role, they are generally easy when things are going well. However, how do we plan for when things aren't easy, when we have to face some challenging situations? Lessons in developing managerial, coaching and leadership skills can be found both via sport or the workplace. Preparation is one of the most obvious yet most misunderstood aspects of learning soft skills. Imagine you’re heading off to lead a meeting, make an important pitch for your company, or have a difficult conversation. It’s obvious in these situations that you want to prepare yourself for what you’re going to do or say. But what we often miss when learning soft skills is preparing to manage ourselves, especially when we start to feel the stress and pressure of the real-life situation. In the sports environment, this could be reflecting in dealing with difficult athletes, managing a team through a prolonged losing streak, or preparing a team leading into a major competition. Sadly, corporate training for these situations is notoriously ineffective. We learn new skills in safe situations with few repercussions for mistakes, yet we often have to perform in pressure-filled situations with the potential for great consequences. Our scripted remarks are of little use in unscripted and unpredictable situations. Via sport, the preparation is somewhat different as a lot of training is focused on how to prepare for motivating athletes, getting them to perform at their best, or focusing on issues directly within a coach's control, in an environment which for the most part ( unless at the top levels) is significantly less pressure filled than a typical work, profits dependent situation. To learn soft skills in a way that truly prepares us for what we’ll face when it really matters, we can take a few lessons from a different arena where learning, development, and performance are essential, competitive sports. One key premise of competitive sports coaching, for example, is to prepare athletes in the most realistic contexts possible. Regardless of the sport, when teams prepare for their next opponent, they might take into account the likely conditions they’ll face. It can be something as simply as playing loud music of noises during practices to mimic playing in front of a loud crowd, do significant fitness training to fatigue the athletes to see how they can maintain decision making when tired, creating different competitive scenarios and challenges to have the team prepared to adapt as needed. Many coaches will talk about having an attitude that they want their teams to feel that they have see it all when they step onto the playing surface for a big game. Although we don’t always think along these lines in a business context, it’s certainly possible. For example, you might work on rehearsing a sales itch to potential investors in front of a crowd of colleagues who have been instructed to ask difficult questions. You might create situations when circumstances my force you to finish your presentation in half the time you had planned. In most professional sports, coaching staff might do extensive research on their next opponents to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies. They then plan for these tendencies in training sessions and develop potential plays where they can take advantage of these predispositions in an actual game. Similarly, in soft skills training, companies can teach people the likely and possible behaviors and responses they’ll encounter in a particular situation, so employees are ready. However, as noted above, this can lead to awkwardly scripted moments that fall flat in real life. So both top sports teams, and star performers go further. Once they’ve identified what they can expect, they think about what might come as a surprise. Instead of showing the team one version of an opponent’s potential play, the savviest coaches will show multiple versions. They might introduce something players have never seen — or in a way they’ve never seen it. Unpredictable simulations are common practice in teaching hospitals, fire or police departments and of course disaster response teams. In my work as a manager within an academic institution, who also happens to oversee security and emergency measures, we try and focus on being prepared for as many possible scenarios as possible. The hard work in learning soft skills comes from having to apply them in complex and unpredictable performance situations. By sensitizing yourself to the actual challenges you’ll face in real situations, you’ll become more flexible and adaptable, and have a far greater chance of succeeding in the situations that matter most. The reality is that whether in sport or in a managerial role, you can't foresee every possible situation with every possible variation. The important thing is teaching athletes or staff to trust in their skill set, understand that in sports and life something things simply can go to shit and keeping calm, focusing on the training and dealing with one situation at a time will more often that not get a group through tough situations. If you have ever watched the film The Martian, towards the end of the film, the Matt Damon character is speaking with a group of students talking about how he dealt with being stranded on Mars. There is a quote that I think covers about dealing with adversity...... "When I was up there, stranded by myself, did I think I was going to die? Yes. Absolutely, and that’s what you need to know going in because it’s going to happen to you. This is space. It does not cooperate. At some point everything is going to go south on you. Everything is going to go south and you’re going to say This is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math, you solve one problem. Then you solve the next one, and then the next and if you solve enough problems you get to come home.” Now that was in a film based on a book, on the very specific context of space travel. Hopefully few of any of the adversity or tough situations you might face in sport or in the workplace with be life or death or at least not to that level however I think the mindset presented by that quote is very applicable. When things get tough, you can freak out, be pessimistic and assume all is lost, or you can take a breath, focus on the situation and tackle things one a a time, one step at a time and when you get through enough of the small issues, the big issues take care of themselves. So whether you are a coach or a manager, train your athletes or employees to trust in themselves, trust in the process or feel empowered to deal with anything. |
AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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