What Great Coaches Do to Change Average Athletes into All-Stars
Great coaches are like great investors. Every great investor knows the cliché disclaimer of investing. “Past performance does not guarantee future results and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted.”
Great coaches apply this same mindset to sports. Just because an athlete was average in the past, doesn’t mean they can’t be an all-star, and just because an athlete is an all-star today doesn’t guarantee their performance next season.
In other words, great coaches show up to coach every athlete, every season. Unquestionably, coaching is the act of developing talent, not recruiting last year’s all-stars. While there are numerous process steps, techniques, and philosophies for developing talent, I believe it all starts with 7 fundamentals.
- Elevating and stretching the boundaries of an athlete’s goals beyond what they think is possible.
- Motivating athletes to work hard not only for themselves, but also because they respect the game, their teammates, their coach, and their supporters.
- Routinely providing athletes with opportunities to grow outside of their comfort zone while building their confidence with the challenge-skill balance.
- Consistently showing up to coach excited, energetic, positive and supportive even when facing exhaustion, adversity, and disappointment.
- Making athletes feel that together with their teammates and coaches they are working towards a shared purpose that is bigger than any one event or person.
- Treating every athlete as an individual personality and customizing their approach to produce positive outcomes for each individual.
- Teaching systems not just techniques by explaining techniques in the context of a big picture and a strategy.