The Circle of Soccer Life

I woke up this morning with a distant memory of coaching soccer on my mind. I was coaching a team of U8's and had just introduced a foot skill to the group.  Delaney was working hard at learning it. I could see the concentration on her face and in her eyes as she set about attempting the move.  She completely botched it, but picked up her ball and ran over to me extremely excited with what she had accomplished!  I applauded her effort, patted her on the shoulder and gave her a big smile. Delaney went back to working on the move and it got a little better with each attempt. She eventually became pretty good at executing the skill.

Learning to coach is a lot like learning a new foot skill. The beginning effort needs to be applauded to encourage continued improvement.  As an observer, sometimes no matter how poor the result, you just have to smile in the moment and be content things will improve with experience and continued practice.

In that regard, the evolution of a coach is a bit like referring to a doctor "practicing" medicine.  We really don't want a doctor to practice at healing us, we want the actual real healing!  LOL. 

Do you want to be seen by Dr. Stone or Dr. Hogue?

In the 1991 classic Doc Hollywood newly licensed Dr. Benjamin Stone misdiagnoses a case of mitral valve regurgitation leading to late cyanosis in a young boy. The town's long-time doctor, Aurelius Hogue, order's Dr. Stone to give the boy a Coke. Shock full of confidence and self-importance, Dr. Stone dismisses Dr. Hogue's recommendation and calls for a life-flight helicopter to transport the boy to a large city hospital where he can be seen by a heart specialist for emergency surgery. Dr. Hogue arrives just in time to explain that the boy had gotten into his father's chewing tobacco again and the carbonic acid in the Coke would relieve the boy's stomach ache.  "That'll be 25 cents." LOL

There is no substitute for experience. And as Dr. Stone discovered experience is often gained through making mistakes. Sometimes the innocent are caught in the learning from mistakes another makes on the road to obtaining experience. When that happens, it's nice to have a Dr. Hogue around to keep things on course and mitigate the potential consequences.