The news and social media seem constantly full of stories about athletes, professional and non-pros who have issues beyond the playing surface which we can simply deem as running anywhere from unacceptable to criminal. As long as sports have been covered, we have heard stories where athletes of considerable talent seem to get a pass when it comes to behavioral issues. There will always be the perception that as long as an athlete performs and is successful, allowances will be made for his or her conduct.
Every team has players who somehow feel that the coaches have favorites, those players that are allowed to bypass certain rules and yet still get playing time. Most coaches at some point face the dilemma of having a top athlete they count on, someone who is a difference maker, break a team rule that would normally merit consequences and having to decide if they should apply or not. In a win at all costs reality, the above situations are amplified. I have never coached at the professional level so I can't really relate to it nor do i feel comfortable sharing an opinion of how coaches should be proceed, however at the non-pro level, speaking from experience, I would say that as a coach, it is important to always be consistent and transparent in decision making and as the saying goes, "manage to the norm and deal with the exception". When it comes to deciding the type of player you as a coach want on a team that you are in charge of, whether via recruitment or player selection, I have always believed that it is important to evaluate the individual more than simply the athlete. If you do your due diligence properly, you were more often than not be able to detect the warning signs that at some point down the road, a potential athlete you are considering might become a problem case. Of course, sometimes, even after when you take all the time available to properly vet someone, you might make a mistake, however if you have a clear idea of the type of individual you want on your team, more often than not, you will get it right and when mistakes do happen, it will the exception and then you deal with it on a case by case basis. So how do I suggest living up to the idea of "recruit the individual and coach the athlete" ? Recruiting is all about the relationship. The most important thing I can tell you about the recruiting process is to develop a relationship with a athlete directly. If you seem to spend as much time going through their current coach(es) or parents, then it is hard to properly evaluate what kind of individual you are dealing with. From experience, I will say that a lot of times that’s what separated the athletes who seemed like they might have some interesting potential and did ok from those that excelled and were model student-athletes in my program. In today's reality, there are a lot of organizations selling cookie cutter templates on what athletes looking to get recruited should do and how they should do it. These services say they will talk for the athlete and use their resources and contacts to give athletes a chance to be seen and evaluated. But what most don’t realize is that a lot of coaches are skeptical of these services because after all, they are business who profit from placing athletes on teams or with universities. They are there to promote their clients. It is not much different than a parent who oversells their child as being the next " great one" except that their is profit in play. I rarely responded to message sent to me by recruiting entities or even parents, I wanted to be in touch with the individual themselves, their email, or cell phone, that’s it. I know tons of coaches that don’t open any mail if they see it’s from an outside service. Back in the day, before there was email recruiting, information was sent via snail mail. That’s through the post office for you young bucks out there. Building a relationship with a potential athlete or student-athlete in the recruiting process is like anything else. When you need banking information or a medial opinion, you wouldn’t go through a third party whose sole purpose is to charge your for being a conduit. No, if you know what you are doing, you would go directly to the source of the info you are looking for. You want your information to come straight from them. It’s the same with recruiting. You want to get your information from a singular source and normally it’s from the source you’re trying to acquire. In the recruiting or athlete selection process, this would be the individual in question. You’d be a rich person if you got a penny for every time I mentioned the word relationship when talking about recruiting with my athletes. I need you to understand that you’re trying to create a dialogue with these athletes. You’re doing whatever it takes to get that conversation rolling. It’s hard to do that on a regular basis if you have to go through someone else to get the message out. Like with any form of communication, the more filters there are between you and the individual you are trying to reach, the higher the chance that your message will get distorted, or the return information gets manipulated in order to conform to someone's expectation that might differ from those of the future athlete you hope to be coaching one day. In today's reality, plans, goals objectives and focus can change from year to year. How a potential athlete sees their involvement in sport, what they are looking for out of a student-athlete experience might be very fundamentally different within a few short months. In the 16 years I coaches at the university level, a saw a who range of reasons ( or excuses ) why certain potential student-athletes chose or didn't choose certain universities. and to be quite honest, some made absolutely no sense to me. However, in trying to develop a good level of communication and start building that relationship, it did two important things. First, it builds a relationship with the athlete where you feedback and opinion might help he or she navigate through the decision making process. Secondly, it can give you as a coach the chance to interact with individual on a non-sport level, understanding what makes them tick, what they see as important in their future, how they need to be dealt with, etc. The biggest thing about customizing an approach for an athlete on an individual / personal level is to evaluate where they are in the recruiting process today. How far along are they in the process, what factors will play into their decision, how reliant are they on their parents or other influential members of their entourage, how set are they on their academic, athletic and even personal goals. Getting answers to these can often give you insight into the type person you are dealing with. It’s just like setting a goal and having a plan to execute it. To get from A to Z, there are some steps in the middle to make it happen. Evaluating an athlete on their sport specific skills is easy, you watch them play live, you watch video, you can even test their fitness level and sport ability by having them train alongside you current athletes, the tough part is trying to figure out how they are as people. The recruiting process is like a job interview, the potential " candidate" is going to do everything possible to put their best foot forward, give you a long list of examples of why they are a good fit, why they are qualified etc. However, how can you test how they might react in tough, stressful situation full of adversity? How will be when instead of being the best athlete on their team, they are now one of the many good athletes on yours? So once you recruit the right individual, now the coaching begins. So how do you coach the athlete now ? A team’s success is mostly measured by its season record and overall amount of victories, yet winning is only a minor part of success. Success alone does not make a team great until it is paired with effective coaching. Effective coaching runs deeper than wins and losses, it also includes reaching athletes on an individual level. Coaches who focus on positive, personal relationships with their athletes are ensuring success beyond their record on the field. Relationships ( there is that word again ) are the foundation of coaching and even though a relationship is a two-way street, it’s the coach’s responsibility to pursue a real relationship with their athletes. Coaches hold a place of respect and authority, but still feel reachable enough for athletes to open up and view their coach as a role model or mentor. The challenge of coaching is balancing rationale and logic along with empathy and emotional awareness. A strong coach-athlete relationship is important not only for the athlete’s growth as a positive, ethical and moral person, but for the team’s performance as a whole. Coaches who value and focus on effective, personal relationships with their athletes are guaranteed benefits regardless of wins and scores because they will have helped to influence positive moral and ethical behaviors. Through strong relationships and a consistent, transparent approach to coaching, young athletes will develop as people and play better as a team. The skills an effective coach possesses revolve around honesty and positivity. Coaches who genuinely want to connect with their athletes need to be empathetic and understanding. They must accept, support and respect their athletes as well as the people around them. They must realize that being a role model is a 24/7 job. Approachable and interested coaches will attract players, both those interested in a relationship and those who don’t know if they want one. Sometimes athletes won’t respond and sometimes they will. It is really about going more than halfway and giving athletes every chance to build a possible relationship. The coach-athlete relationship is considered particularly crucial because of its effect on the athlete. Young athletes are susceptible to the effects of their surrounding environment and to the ideas of others, making the coach-athlete relationship critical to the development of athletes as professionals as well as sports participants. If a coach is obsessed with victory and their sole goal is winning, they may be able to reach that goal. However, it comes with the strong possibility of introducing ethical and professional dilemmas. Success without effective relationships produces athletes with ability, but with no personal growth. Coaches must understand their job isn’t just about physical progress, it’s about setting their young athletes up for success in life. A lack of interest, remoteness, deceit and pessimism are key characteristics to avoid as a coach. Apathy and irritability set a poor example to be followed and lead to ineffective relationships. These characteristics do not provide a healthy foundation for positive relationships, and exploit malleable minds in pursuit of victories on the field, when the real victories are found in teamwork and personal connections. When an individual is strengthened, the team is strengthened. Genuine relationships between athletes and coaches generate more trust, better communication and a winning attitude. An open line of communication helps everyone be more honest with one another, which leads to stronger training, athletic progress and personal growth. Winning will become a byproduct of relationships the team and coach/coaches have created with one another. Victories, success, winning or goals measured through numbers are attainable without relationships, but that has its drawbacks. Coaches become remote and distant, and players adopt a “win at any cost” attitude, characterized selfishness and poor sportsmanship. By promoting a positive competitive environment, athletes can have the opportunity for unlimited personal growth both on and off the field. So if you've made it this far and I haven't lost your interest, what does all of this mean ? In a nutshell, it means putting in the time to bring athletes who are good people onto your team, then build a coach-athlete relationship that puts the athletes, every athlete in a position to succeed. In the end, each individual has the choice how to process and control over their own destiny and this might mean that some athletes can't, won't or don't want to succeed, regardless of your best efforts and intentions. You need to accept this reality. However, if you do the work upfront, taking the time to get to know your potential future athletes as individuals first, more often that not you will just have to focus on working with them as athletes and not dealing with off field issues.
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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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