(Read below for the long version. Click here for the super short version.)
She rolls into practice — an athlete ready to work hard. She craves what all athletes want — a positive experience. A learning experience. She desires you to help her grow and develop, but most of all, to support her.
As her coach, it’s your job to deliver.
Now the spotlight turns on you — what about your expectations from your job? Do you expect to grow? Learn? Be supported and have a positive experience as a coach?
Do You Expect That When You Leave Coaching (your position or the profession) That You Will Be Remembered Fondly?
If so, you’re headed for a bumpy road.
Coaches, like most people, want:
- acceptance
- recognition
- respect
- to be needed
- a feeling of satisfaction
Yet a rare few coaches experience those things.
I know this from years of coaching.
I know this from my original research with hundreds of coaches.
I know this as fact—odds are the experiences you have as a coach will be less than you expect and want. Way less. And you legacy won’t be what you want it to be.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Coach, meet today
Coaching sports sure isn’t what it used to be.
There’s good reason for that . . . because sport coaches are facing challenges like never before.
So, you know the obesity rate is exploding right? Soon you’ll be coaching an athlete(s) with significant weight issues. That’s new. Do you know what to do?
Or how about this … a constant stream of disappointing news is bombarding us about coaches who degrade their athletes, who hurt the cause, who lie, cheat, steal, and worse.
Athletes and their parents are having conversations about those incidents. Right now. Are you addressing these issues with the parents and athletes? Are you taking steps to make sure situations like these don’t happen in your program?
Things are changing in coaching. It is getting increasingly difficult for a coach to thrive. To find enjoyment. To have fun. To feel like he or she is making a positive impact. And to leave a positive legacy
So what’s a coach to do?
Listen, it is possible to thrive today as a coach. It is possible to be a good coach, make a positive impact in the life of others, be effective, and have fun. It is possible to have a wonderful experience and leave a legacy you are proud of but . . it doesn’t just happen.
You HAVE to go after it.
You need a plan. And then you have to take action.
Two quick examples
Let me start with simple.
How much personal-liability insurance coverage do you have? Experts suggest a coach should have around $1 million to $1.5 million in coverage. You have that much? I bet not.
So go to the phone, pick it up, and call your insurance agent (and if you don’t have an agent—find one). A quick discussion could save you a life-time of hassles.
Simple, right?
And let’s talk a little-less-simple . . .
A majority of the athletes today are distracted by their fast moving lives. Smartphones, travel teams, and crammed schedules make them busy, busy, busy. So you better be prepared to grab their attention in new and innovative ways. If you don’t—you’re sunk.
You have a plan to snag those fast moving brains in 3 minutes, right?
Right?
Coaching sports today
We need, now more than ever, good caring coaches. Positive coaches. Dang-good role model coaches.
Yet the support, the training, the funding, the atmosphere is not there for coaches and coaches are failing fast.
And while this is happening the expectations on coaches have never been higher, especially from parents. Yesterday, a high-school football coach rarely received calls from parents about their sons lack of playing time. Today? It is the rare coach that doesn’t get those calls. Constantly.
Need help? Read on
The purpose of this site is to help coaches thrive — and to help you build a positive legacy. Period.
I’m sick of seeing good coaches, really good, caring coaches, suffer or just barely survive. My hope is to impact 1000 coaches — to help them — maybe you — find ways to thrive. Through discussions, videos, blog posts, podcasts I’m going to help you find ways to survive and thrive in your coaching.
One way for us to communicate will be through free weekly updates with valuable insights that go beyond the material you’ll find here. I use email to communicate. It’s not fancy, no bells and whistles, but it works well—especially for coaches on the go. You can join in on those conversations by clicking here.
My hope is that those updates, delivered every Monday morning, will help you get the week going strong. They will contain information relevant to coaching today — not 10, 20 or 100 years ago. And if the updates don’t deliver what they promise just unsubscribe with the click of a button.
Back To Top
More About Me
I am an Eastern Shore of Maryland transplant, collegiate rowing coach, award winning coach, and an outdoor-computer geek. I am also an artist, writer about the vocation of coaching, and combiner of ideas. I work at Washington College and speak to coaches about coaching.
Glad to have you here, now let’s get coaching.
Click here to go to the blog.