Developing Championship People:
The following is an excerpt from my book Coaching Champions For Life:
Why should coaches coach?
If a player contacted you 10 years after the last game they played for you, what would the player say about their experience? Would they talk about the wins and championships or would they talk about the influence you had on their life? Would they talk about how you developed them as a person or as a player?
If you started each season by writing a letter to yourself as if it were being written by your players at the end of the season and it began, “Dear Coach, Thank you for coaching me.” What would the following paragraphs say?
Would it mean more to you if the words expressed in such a letter written by one of your players talked about what you taught them about sports or about life?
Exactly - then design your goals for every season and for every practice with the priority on developing the team as people first, then as athletes, and only consequentially, as players. In fact, the first step in developing a player’s confidence is to get the player to see himself as a good person, not just a good player.
If a player contacted you 10 years after the last game they played for you, what would the player say about their experience? Would they talk about the wins and championships or would they talk about the influence you had on their life? Would they talk about how you developed them as a person or as a player?
If you started each season by writing a letter to yourself as if it were being written by your players at the end of the season and it began, “Dear Coach, Thank you for coaching me.” What would the following paragraphs say?
Would it mean more to you if the words expressed in such a letter written by one of your players talked about what you taught them about sports or about life?
Exactly - then design your goals for every season and for every practice with the priority on developing the team as people first, then as athletes, and only consequentially, as players. In fact, the first step in developing a player’s confidence is to get the player to see himself as a good person, not just a good player.
