Coaching Handbook: Lessons Learned
“A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.”
- John Wooden
Coaching is the most amazing profession in the world. You literally can change an individual’s life, for the better, in six months. There are books that can give you examples of how to coach, but until you are knee deep in the profession you will never understand truly what it takes to be a successful coach. The lessons come to you in two ways. First, your individual experiences with players, parents and the organizations that you are with. Second, and probably the most important teacher; the coaches that you are working with and around every day.
In my first head coaching job, right out of college, I had no idea how to utilize my coaching staff. I had two gentlemen, Gordy Pillmore and Ken Ippenson. Gordy had been the head coach at the school and had stepped back into an assistant’s role before I got the job. Ken was the head basketball coach and the athletic director.
Both men brought years of experience and knowledge that I SHOULD HAVE tapped in to. I was young, arrogant, ignorant and inflexible. I thought I knew everything, and I have no doubt that I demonstrated my shortcomings in one way or another each and every day. Because of my unwillingness to ask for help; a really good football team ended the season 4-5.
After that year I began to learn more and more about how to be a better coach. I started to watch and learn from coaches like Tim Weiss, LeTroy Gathan, J.C. Comet, Doug Quinn, Johnny Church and Mickey Billingsley and saw how they worked and communicated. It took me a while to figure it all out but eventually the world of coaching became easier to understand.
Learn From Your Peers
After leaving the high school coaching level the journey I was on placed different types of coaches in my path. These people didn’t need to have a lesson plan for their history class ready while they could have been spending time on developing a game plan. They were focused 100% of the time on how they could improve their team.
As I moved up, to the college and later to the professional level, my education as a coach accelerated. I went from thinking I knew everything, to KNOWING I didn’t know a thing. But the coaches I worked with helped get me up to speed. Here is a list of some of the great coaches that I was blessed to see coaching, teaching, motivating and leading others to be their best:
· John Stucky was extremely focused. He was a true grinder – enough was never enough.
· Nolan Richardson was an intense competitor who demanded effort. He could get every bit of talent out.
· Phillip Fulmer controlled every aspect of his team and the football program.
· Pat Summitt was a great motivator who believed that you could outwork your opponent.
· Vince Anderson was the greatest technique coach I have ever been around. He was also a great teacher.
· Pete Carroll was all about putting competition at the center of every drill. Best vs Best was the norm.
· Norm Chow used the Socratic method and a gentle touch to get his athletes to perform at their highest level.
· Ed Orgeron was an intimidator. He made people get better, whether they wanted to or not.
· Tom Cable was the best teacher I have ever seen. His players were better humans from being with him.
· Kris Richard was a great motivator, teacher and innovator. He could find diamonds in a cow pasture. LOB
Because I am a professional watcher, I learned lessons every time I watched these amazing coaches. I may have a Masters Degree in History but over my career I earned a “PhD” in coaching. Every day it was a doctoral course in how to become an elite coach.
Every coach that I just listed had one thing in common. They are all championship coaches. Here is the thing that the normal every day fan doesn’t understand, they all do it differently. Too many think great coaches grow on trees. They don’t. Even if a coach comes out of a successful organization it doesn’t mean they will be successful.
Most of the time, when people think there is a “can’t miss coach” coming out of a big-time program, they are wrong. Those coaches who just mimic the great coaches they are around can never go on and win championships because they are only pretending to be “that guy”. They have no idea how to react to the hard times. Their mentor did. But the pretenders don’t
For example, Bill Belichick and Sean McVay are on different ends of the coaching spectrum, as far as how they go about their teaching and motivating. But they are both championship coaches. They were only able to do this because they understood who they were and the coached their way. They may use different lessons they learned from their mentors, but they don’t try to copy them. In turn, when you watch coaches come out of their coaching trees, they don’t fare very well, because most try to be their mentor, because they never learned who they were.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Here is what those who only “study” successful coaches miss … they miss the underbelly of the profession. When you are growing up in coaching you must not only look at the good things that you are learning but more importantly, you need to look at the things that you shouldn’t do when you become a head coach.
Don’t only look for things that worked for your mentor, understand why they worked. Sometimes things work because it grew organically out of the personality of the coach. Since you are not that person, it may not work for you.
If your mentor is too hard or maybe too soft on their players understand why they do what they are doing. You can’t treat all of your athletes the same. You can treat them as individuals, but everyone doesn’t get the same treatment in day-to-day affairs. Sure, if they break the rules then they all get the same punishment. That’s easy. But most of the issues you will deal with happen in the grey area.
Great coaches thrive in the grey area. Lesser coaches die in the grey area.
It’s the grey area that keeps the team in balance. It allows them to keep moving forward. This is why you will see that great coaches don’t have 100 rules – or 25 – or 10 … they have just enough to keep things in balance. The rest of the issues fall in the grey area.
What Makes a Great Coach, Great?
Being a great coach is not only about wins and losses. Being a great coach is a combination of several things. But if you are a great coach, you will also be a successful coach.
Here are three things that make great coaches, great coaches!
1) Great coaches communicate better than average coaches do. They will tell you what their expectations are for you and your work. Because they communicate so well, they are also great motivators. A coach who yells or demeans others is communicating, but isn’t a great communicator.
2) Great coaches are consistent. They know who they are and they live their truth all of the time. They aren’t trying to be “like” someone, they are themselves. What was desired yesterday will still be desired tomorrow. A coach who is consistently lazy or consistently ignores the welfare of his staff is not consistently being a great coach.
3) Great coaches are great teachers. They will be able to teach techniques of every movement they are requiring. They understand what “elite” is and will hold everyone accountable. Coaches who stand up in front of the team and talk out of one side of their mouth while they live a different life are not being great teachers.
Use these three traits to be your starting point as you become a great coach, leader or parent.
Have an amazing day!
