Written by Coaching is not easy at any level. When someone is coaching a recreational youth team, there are athletes who are dependent on your role, their parents who want the best for their child, others who need administrative support for the league or team, and the outside requirements of family, paying job, and other personal needs. A professional coach still has many people dependent on their time, energy, and expertise. Just like youth athletes, professional athletes still need their coach to be supportive of their needs and focused on team preparation and success, fellow coaches and staff still need to rely on each other to accomplish tasks and team and athlete performance, the professional coach still needs to focus on their paying job – the coaching role they get paid for, family, and other personal needs. A great coach, volunteer or professional, knows how to balance themselves and lead in all directions.
As a coach, their primary role is to serve others in the organization. The head coach serves the organization, their assistant coaches and staff, and most importantly, the athletes. A coach cannot take this service lightly. Serving others will whisk a coach on journey to places that one would think were not possible and will impact the lives of others. The lives impacted will not only be while athletes are on the team, but will most likely leave a lifelong impression.
Coaches need to check their egos at the door and realize that their decisions directly impact organizational success, team performance, and athletes’ short and long term mental, physical, and emotional health. This is an enormous burden and should not be taken lightly. But this burden has an even bigger reward, which is the service itself.
Some coaches, young and old, will be focused on the return of their investment: Wins, goals, runs, points, baskets, and times; winning events and competitions; and climbing that coaching ladder to coach better teams, landing paid coaching positions, and eventually higher visibility and paid coaching roles. The best coaches get their rewards by watching athletes learn something new, reach their goals, perform better than expected, solve problems, and hundreds of other reasons. Watching athletes or team’s success, failures, and athletic and personal growth should be the culmination of the hard work of a coach.
Do you want to be a coach who serves or one who is served? Are you coaching to help others or for your own success? Only you can truly answer these questions for yourself but your athletes definitely know if you are there for them or yourself.