The journey to becoming an effective coach is not unlike the journey of becoming an accomplished player. It takes years of work, study, practice, reflection and a willingness to learn from those who have traveled the road before you. You must study the fundamentals of your sport, but you must also study the fundamentals of coaching: how to teach, communicate, build relationships, lead and, most importantly, understand the people entrusted to your care. There is no shortcut to mastering the craft.
Many coaches begin at the youth level and eventually aspire to coach at the high school or collegiate level. That progression often requires serving as an assistant coach, working within an established program or coaching at a lower level. Each position provides opportunities to learn, but each also presents a temptation to believe that moving forward requires becoming someone else.
Early in my career, I encountered that challenge while coaching a high school junior varsity team. Compared with youth sports, the junior varsity environment offered many advantages. The athletes were generally more developed. The competition was stronger. Equipment and facilities were often better. Perhaps most valuable, I had opportunities to observe, work alongside and learn from varsity coaches. Being close to experienced coaches can be a very valuable education.
But junior varsity coaching also presents challenges that can test a coach's identity. Rosters can change as players move between the junior varsity and varsity teams. More significantly, the junior varsity coach may have a different personality, communication style or coaching philosophy than the varsity head coach. When that happens, it is easy to begin changing who you are in an effort to satisfy the varsity head coach or make your players fit seamlessly into the varsity program.
There is an important distinction between learning from another coach and becoming another coach.
A junior varsity or assistant varsity coach should understand and teach the varsity head coach and program's fundamentals, principles and philosophy. Players should be prepared for the expectations they will encounter when they move to the next level. Consistency throughout a program matters. But consistency does not require every coach to have the same personality or communicate in exactly the same way. It certainly should not require a coach to abandon the values that shaped his approach to leadership.
Every coach develops a philosophy over time. It is formed through mentors, experiences, successes, failures, relationships and lessons learned along the way. It becomes part of who we are. When we abandon that identity because another coach has a different style, we risk losing something more important than consistency: authenticity.
Players recognize authenticity.
Before we can effectively teach an athlete, we have to connect with that athlete. We have to understand the person in front of us, validate that person's experiences and demonstrate that we genuinely care. Trust is not created by a title, whistle or clipboard. It is earned through relationships. Once players know their coach sees them as people, they are more willing to listen, accept correction, take risks and respond to difficult challenges.
That responsibility also makes coaching much bigger than the game itself. Every practice and competition provides opportunities to teach lessons players can carry into the rest of their lives. We are teaching athletes how to respond to adversity, treat people, handle success, accept responsibility, work with others and persevere when circumstances do not go their way. Those lessons will ultimately matter far more than anything that happens on the scoreboard.
Years later, when former players contact their coaches, the messages of appreciation are rarely about a particular win or loss. They are more often about how the coach influenced the person they became. Players may forget a particular drill, practice or game, but they will remember how their coach made them feel. They will remember whether they felt respected, valued, challenged, encouraged and believed in.
The best part of any coaching day should include seeing our players smile and laugh and allowing them to see us do the same. Enjoyment does not diminish accountability. High standards do not require constant tension. A demanding practice can still be fun. A difficult competition can still be meaningful. A coach can challenge athletes while making sure they know they are valued.
One of the simplest and most revealing questions a coach can ask after a practice or game is this: Are my players excited to come back tomorrow? That question reaches beyond wins and losses. It asks whether the environment we have created makes athletes want to continue learning, competing, improving and being part of the team.
Ultimately, while we are mentoring athletes to become better people, training them to become better athletes and developing them into better players, we should give them lessons they will want to pass forward. We should want our players to teach their friends, siblings, teammates and, eventually, their children and the people with whom they work what they learned from us about life.
The lesson should be that character matters. Integrity matters. How we respond to adversity matters. Who we are when circumstances become difficult matters.
That is where staying true to yourself becomes essential.
Learn from the coaches above you. Respect the program. Understand its expectations and teach its fundamentals, principles and philosophy. Prepare your athletes to succeed within that system. But do not surrender your identity to do it.
The goal is not to become a younger version of the head varsity coach. The goal is to become the best version of yourself as a coach.
Your players will eventually leave your program. Their playing careers will end. Statistics will fade. Seasons will become memories. What remains is the influence you had on the people they became.
Your players' lives as people, not their accomplishments as players, are your legacy. To please the head varsity coach, stay true to the program's coaching fundamentals, principles and philosophy. But to accomplish your ultimate mission as a coach, stay true to yourself.
Many coaches begin at the youth level and eventually aspire to coach at the high school or collegiate level. That progression often requires serving as an assistant coach, working within an established program or coaching at a lower level. Each position provides opportunities to learn, but each also presents a temptation to believe that moving forward requires becoming someone else.
Early in my career, I encountered that challenge while coaching a high school junior varsity team. Compared with youth sports, the junior varsity environment offered many advantages. The athletes were generally more developed. The competition was stronger. Equipment and facilities were often better. Perhaps most valuable, I had opportunities to observe, work alongside and learn from varsity coaches. Being close to experienced coaches can be a very valuable education.
But junior varsity coaching also presents challenges that can test a coach's identity. Rosters can change as players move between the junior varsity and varsity teams. More significantly, the junior varsity coach may have a different personality, communication style or coaching philosophy than the varsity head coach. When that happens, it is easy to begin changing who you are in an effort to satisfy the varsity head coach or make your players fit seamlessly into the varsity program.
There is an important distinction between learning from another coach and becoming another coach.
A junior varsity or assistant varsity coach should understand and teach the varsity head coach and program's fundamentals, principles and philosophy. Players should be prepared for the expectations they will encounter when they move to the next level. Consistency throughout a program matters. But consistency does not require every coach to have the same personality or communicate in exactly the same way. It certainly should not require a coach to abandon the values that shaped his approach to leadership.
Every coach develops a philosophy over time. It is formed through mentors, experiences, successes, failures, relationships and lessons learned along the way. It becomes part of who we are. When we abandon that identity because another coach has a different style, we risk losing something more important than consistency: authenticity.
Players recognize authenticity.
Before we can effectively teach an athlete, we have to connect with that athlete. We have to understand the person in front of us, validate that person's experiences and demonstrate that we genuinely care. Trust is not created by a title, whistle or clipboard. It is earned through relationships. Once players know their coach sees them as people, they are more willing to listen, accept correction, take risks and respond to difficult challenges.
That responsibility also makes coaching much bigger than the game itself. Every practice and competition provides opportunities to teach lessons players can carry into the rest of their lives. We are teaching athletes how to respond to adversity, treat people, handle success, accept responsibility, work with others and persevere when circumstances do not go their way. Those lessons will ultimately matter far more than anything that happens on the scoreboard.
Years later, when former players contact their coaches, the messages of appreciation are rarely about a particular win or loss. They are more often about how the coach influenced the person they became. Players may forget a particular drill, practice or game, but they will remember how their coach made them feel. They will remember whether they felt respected, valued, challenged, encouraged and believed in.
The best part of any coaching day should include seeing our players smile and laugh and allowing them to see us do the same. Enjoyment does not diminish accountability. High standards do not require constant tension. A demanding practice can still be fun. A difficult competition can still be meaningful. A coach can challenge athletes while making sure they know they are valued.
One of the simplest and most revealing questions a coach can ask after a practice or game is this: Are my players excited to come back tomorrow? That question reaches beyond wins and losses. It asks whether the environment we have created makes athletes want to continue learning, competing, improving and being part of the team.
Ultimately, while we are mentoring athletes to become better people, training them to become better athletes and developing them into better players, we should give them lessons they will want to pass forward. We should want our players to teach their friends, siblings, teammates and, eventually, their children and the people with whom they work what they learned from us about life.
The lesson should be that character matters. Integrity matters. How we respond to adversity matters. Who we are when circumstances become difficult matters.
That is where staying true to yourself becomes essential.
Learn from the coaches above you. Respect the program. Understand its expectations and teach its fundamentals, principles and philosophy. Prepare your athletes to succeed within that system. But do not surrender your identity to do it.
The goal is not to become a younger version of the head varsity coach. The goal is to become the best version of yourself as a coach.
Your players will eventually leave your program. Their playing careers will end. Statistics will fade. Seasons will become memories. What remains is the influence you had on the people they became.
Your players' lives as people, not their accomplishments as players, are your legacy. To please the head varsity coach, stay true to the program's coaching fundamentals, principles and philosophy. But to accomplish your ultimate mission as a coach, stay true to yourself.
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