Our athletes yearn to experience the best from us as coaches. These 4 simple, but hard things are what make a great coach.
Love Your Players, Win or Lose
The impact a great coach has can last decades, if not a lifetime. Loving your players whether they win or lose will instill in them a love for others. Handwritten letters are a very powerful tool for you to share your feelings with an athlete. Notes left on the mirror in the locker room or on the white board before a session or a game are also a great way to inspire your kids.
Set Rules (and stick to them)
Setting team rules and then enforcing them helps young athletes understand the value of rules and lets them know they have consequences when they are broken. I see this as invaluable as our young athletes grow into adulthood and must traverse the realities of life.
Constantly Search for Knowledge
Always seek knowledge. Most of the coaches I work with, from many disciplines, stop searching for knowledge after a point. In my experience, that is the downfall of most coaches. How do we expect our athletes to hunger for knowledge if we do not set the example by constantly seeking it? A teachable coach is a coach that is engaged with their craft and kids. What websites do you frequent? What podcasts do you listen to? How many books are you reading per month? The more you thirst for knowledge the better of a coach you will become.
Be a Leader
I had a coach say, “listen to what I am saying and not the words I use” and “do as I say, not as I do.” He was essentially asking for a pass on his language and his behavior outside of the team. Our athletes DO listen, and 9 times out of 10, they will do what we do and say what we say so LEAD BY EXAMPLE!
As coaches, we are not idols to be worshipped, but rather examples to be praised. Our faithful leadership is but an extension of the stewardship we have been granted when we are entrusted with the lives of our athletes.
The best way we, as coaches, can create more leaders is to put our athletes in a role of leadership. This could be as simple as having an athlete assist a new kid in the warmup or lead the entire team. Leading effectively could be as simple as enlisting the help of your athletes with cleaning up the workspace or volunteering for a community clean up.
As coaches none of us are perfect and we will fail often. A truly great coach does not despair at failure, but rather sees it as an opportunity to improve his craft. By constantly learning, loving, and leading our athletes we will build an epic legacy for them.
Until next time… let’s make a difference one athlete at a time!
About the Author
Chad Coy
Master Performance Coach
Chad CoyChad Coy has been a part of the Parisi Speed School family since signing as the 13th Franchise in 2006. A graduate of Purdue University in 1991, Chad studied Exercise Science and Nutrition. Chad still has a strong commitment to as an athlete, and has competed as a professional strongman since 1998. He has won Masters’ America’s Strongest Man “3” times and placed second at Masters’ Worlds two times after 10 years as an open Pro ,where he averaged a top 10 placing. A Powerlifter from 1994 -1998, he has also won 2 National Powerlifting Championships, 1 World Championship, and held 4 American Records and 3 World Records. Chad joined the Master Trainer program in the winter of 2014 and takes great pride in helping educate the future coaches of the franchise.
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