The “Right” Way to Coach
Historically, the pursuit of the best ways to coach and build dominate teams has been centered around how to show up for your athletes on the field. What drills are you presenting, how effective are your game day strategies, what you can pull out of athletes on the field. All of these elements are still true and necessary of a high value coach, however, one element is missing. The more research and understanding of athletes we gain, the more we realize that athletes need more than that to help push them to greatness. That missing piece that elite coaches have already figured out is the value they place on athletes as individuals, not just performers.
We see a higher success rate and stay rate in athletes who have coaches who have developed relationships with their athletes on and off the field. Athletes are under high demand and require guidance as they get more established in their sport. If coaches only show up for athletes when they are performing well, especially early on, it creates distrust, resentment, and a much higher likelihood of resistance to direction from the coach in the future.
Asking coaches to build these relationships with athletes can feel excessive for many coaches seeing as they typically are responsible for several athletes, but it does not have to be extreme. It can look like saying hi to an athlete when they show up to practice, asking how their home life is, acknowledging their progress or hard work when warranted, These simple yet impactful moments change how athletes view their coaches and puts them in a position to want to work harder and push further for that coach producing better results for the team.
The little things are the big things in this case. Don’t lose sight that your athletes are people first and a relationship with them not only will help them be better at their sport, but also make the coach that much more effective.