Phillip Bazzini wrote the
following in response to my post about Jim Steen : Which leads me to a thought I have been pondering; if coaches’ success
is measured almost exclusively in wins/losses, how do we measure our success as
coaches of athletic development? Phil,
this is a great question. Especially in light of the fact that I think we are in a crisis situation in regard to caoching today. There is a distict lack of trained coaches accross sports at the developmental level. The attitude is "anyone can coach." I don't think so. Just becaue you plyed the game at any level does not qualify you to coach. (That is another topic for another post)
Let me begin by giving my opinion of a what makes up
a good coach in general and then I will get specific to the Athletic
Development coach. This is something that puzzled me from the day I got into
coaching in 1969. I saw coaches that were recognized as great coaches that
could not coach their way out of a wet paper bag. My observation then and now is
that they were blessed with talent and were smart enough not to screw it up. I
saw this at the high school where I coached. They were dominant in football for
a long period, but when the talent ran out, the same coach doing the same
things was terrible. He was not a very good coach. he coach football, not the people who played football. A good coach coaches people not the sport. I am also convinced that
recognition does not necessarily make a good coach. There are so many coaches
at junior high schools, high schools, small colleges, swim clubs and tennis
clubs that consistently do a great job of developing the talent they have.
Helping them to be the best they can be. There may not be any DI athletes come
out of those programs but the kids learn their sport and have a great
experience competing and improving. Good coaches are good teachers of
fundamentals, they have discipline that is fair and firm. Great communication
skills are very important to be a good coach, communication with everyone, the
administration, parents, assistant coaches and most importantly the athletes.
What makes a good Athletic Development
coach? The same as above, the coach who makes the most of the talent they have
to work with. Do the athletes consistently improve? Are they free of
preventable injuries? At the pro level do they actually work with the players?
In so many situations the AD coach is a figurehead that the players avoid like
a plague because they do not have faith in the coaches ability. I know one
coach who is considered a great S&C coach because of the championship teams
he ‘worked “ with, who never worked with
more than four players on the team on a regular basis. So winning is not a
validation of a good AD coach. How about being S&C coach of the year? Most
of the time those are popularity contests, if you drink and socialize with the good
old boys then you are a candidate for coach of the year. AD coaches are part of
the support team. As support team members they should be anonymous, not upfront. The same
holds true for doctors and trainers. The focus should be on the athlete. A good
AD coach is organized, and knowledgeable. They have ability to communicate and
motivate the athlete. They should have a growth mindset. They have a thorough
plan and then implement that plan. They thoroughly understand the sport they
are working with.
These are my opinions, I would be
interested in your thoughts and ideas.
Joe Przytula
“I know one coach who is considered a great S&C coach because of the championship teams he ‘worked “ with, who never worked with more than four players on the team on a regular basis”- great point Vern! This is like a virus that has spread to coaching too, especially track & field. In all the great teams we’ve had at EHS, it was developing the 50/50 athletes that won us championships. One of the worst teams we’ve ever had was one where 7 of our players went D1.
phillip bazzini
Thanks Coach for expanding on this and Bonnie’s and Jon’s input as well.
One of our top players, Christina McHale, won the Australian Open girls doubles a few weeks ago and we are very proud of her success. Then we have some kids who can’t do a pushup without sagging their butt, and other embarassing gross faulty movement patterns.
It just has me wondering if we had anything to do with Christina’s success, or, everything to do with some of the other athlete’s poor general movement skills?
Vern’s point about communication is well taken. Required reading for our staff is Dale Carnegie’s landmark book “how to win friends and influence people.”
Let’s not forget to add that the AD coach should be able to demonstrate physically the drills and skills well enough so that the “learn by seeing” athletes have an idea of what’s expected.
Dennis Grady
Vern, Just came across your blog and want to tell you that I enjoyed your interview in Track Coach (Fall, 2008). Having my article next to yours made it doubly a pleasure to read. Thanks again for all you have done to make USATF Coaching Education what it is today.
Sincerely,
Dennis J. Grady
Tim Sullivan
Vern I ask why do we want to coach? More important what values define us as an individual person? I present this topic w/ hockey coaches, successful qualities of a coach. You touched on organization and communication skills (especially w/parents) planning also decision making, time management, I think social skills is important away from the field.
I am finding one quality of a good coach is having the ability to teach disciple without taking away the love for the game, that is my challenge. Some great coaches lack balance and try force on their cookie cutter programs. If I could share something I wrote down sometime ago “maybe failure isn’t the problem, maybe expectation is, everybody fails, we should expect to succeed, we all should”. I think it was Waitzkin that said “every win is a thrill and every loss is a lesson”.
Mischa
A good coach for me is a coach who trains and coaches his players from junior world class to senior world class. Examples from the Netherlands in Judo. Coach Maarten Arens coaches en trains players like Elmont and Grol from junior world class to senior worldchampion ( Elmont ) and senior European champion and Olympic bronze winner ( Grol ).
Mark Day
Great coaches seem to have a high number of athletes they coached return to the sport as coaches themselves.
Ken Vick
It really has to be taken in context. At the highest levels of performance, its got to be preventing injuries and improving performance. The measurables are often poorly defined/selected, but it is about measurables.
At most levels, it should be about what you do with what you have. First are you developing good people? Even if they don’t succeed in competition or maybe don’t even stay with the sport, are your athletes better people for having been coached by you?
As a sports performance coaches we help athletes in their process to be their best. Do they enjoy the process as a whole?
I was reflecting on this very issue recently(http://artofcoachingspeed.blogspot.com/2009/02/going-10-for-10.html)
I like the challenge of trying to go “10 for 10”. I heard John Berardi use this term in a talk at NSCA Sport Specific this year and I will continue using it.
Many coaches point out their success stories, but if we look at all the athletes in the program is it 2 or 3 out of 10. Thats easy, some athletes will naturally succeed with (or inspite of) your methods and will buy into you and your approach.
The bigger question is do you have enough skills in both the art and science of coaching to try and go 10 for 10?
A great coach may never get there, but they will be a lot closer than others, and most importantly, even when they are at the top or have done this for decades, they will always be looking for ways to get that 10 athlete success. Those are the coaches I want to learn from.
Tim
One more simple point a coaching friend and I brought up over coffee was untimely it’s the athletes that will decide weather or not the coach is good or bad.
Craig Duncan
Hi Vern As usual you make some great points. I think a great AD coach is one that knows his place (like you said we are support staff), knows how to communicate with key staff such as Head Coach and Medical team and respects the players because without players we have no job. I also think it is imperative that even if you are with a pro team that you still get out and do development work with people of all ages and abilities because at the highest level it is often a different skill set you are using