Poor Attitude

A poor attitude is like a flat tire,

 

You can't go anywhere until you change it.

 

As I watched a player commit the same decision-making error he has been making for years I was reminded of this saying. This kid thinks he knows it all to the point of being damn near un-coachable. I know, I had tried.  There exists a thin line between being determined and being stupid.  And it's not just players who suffer this malady for I have seen coaches flirt with this line as well. The worse of the lot confess they have much to learn and then continue to do as they have always done.

 

I recently sat a young man down in the figurative sense and explained to him that knowledge is not going to find him. Rather, he is going to have to seek knowledge out.  He has to be willing to learn, but that is only the first step.  Acquiring knowledge does you little good if you do not apply it correctly.  The king consideration is a practical and useful application of knowledge.

 

The coaching sphere might provide the best demonstration of what we are discussing here.  It is a well known fact that great players do not always make great coaches.  By extension, some who never played the game turn out to quite successful coaches.  The important difference between the two is not in how they acquired knowledge, but in how they apply and communicate the knowledge they do possess.

 

In the 30+ years I have in coaching various sports on a wide rage of levels I have witnessed humble players excel in the game only to turn into arrogant coaches who fail on the sidelines.  It is a bitter transformation of attitude.  It attests to the stark cold reality of change being constant in the world, but not always positive in nature.  There is also a fine line that exists between a humble attitude and one of arrogance. 

 

Failure on the pitch or on the sideline can be a humbling experience.  It can make one bitter or make one better dependent on your approach to dealing with failure - your attitude. If bitterness is allowed to permeate your consideration of failure chances are your failure will perpetuate itself. If there is recognition and acceptance that you failed, then the possibility for improvement exists.  It really is all about attitude, or how you handle adversity ... and prosperity... that determines your chances for success.

 

 

 

 

Knowledge is limited to what has already been learned.

Imagination is unlimited learning potential.

Mistakes bridge the gap between imagination and knowledge.

Traits of a Good Coach

A good coach knows results are not the ultimate measure of success in athletics.

Passion For The Game: Coaches need to love the sport they coach and be able to share their enthusiasm for their sport with the players entrusted to them. Their passion must transcend all aspects of the game - the teaching of technique and tactics, respect for the spirit of the game, opponents, officials and spectators and ensuring a positive environment of encouragement and empowerment.

Love of Players:  A coach needs to love working with the players of the age group he coaches. The relationship between coach and player should energize and motivate both parties. It is a relationship to be celebrated in the context of athletics and in the broader spectrum of life.

Knowledge: A coach must be a student of the game. Continuing education is not an option. The moment you think you know everything there is to know about the game is the point in time you should stop coaching.

The Ability to Teach: This is a companion to knowledge. A coach must have an ability to teach the basics fundamentals and deeper intricacies of the game. In order to do so the coach will need to recognize not all players learn in the same manner and be able to adapt lesson / practice plans to keep everyone on the same page.

Patience: This might be the most important trait a coach needs. On the soccer field the decisions players make can evoke emotions ranging from satisfaction to bewilderment to irritation. And then there are the off-the-field issues that can creep into the equation as well. Being able to maintain an even keel is of vital importance for a coach.

Tolerance: Is the companion of patience. Players bring the entire range of emotions with them to practice and the game. Getting them to be able to focus and concentrate on soccer for the time you have them can be a challenge. The ability to enable players to channel their energies in a focused and positive direction on the task at hand (soccer) is a key characteristic found in good coaches.

Acceptance: The third part of the coaching trinity along with Patience and Tolerance is Acceptance. Each player is an individual and each comes with varied potential, technical and tactical skill levels. Each player has value as an individual and as a member of your team. You must acknowledge and nurture that worth in order to spark passion for the sport and a desire to work on improving within each player.

Respect: Treat players with the respect you wish to be treated with. You may think the title of coach brings you respect, but you would be wrong.  Respect is not given or bestowed upon a coach. As a coach you must earn respect just as you expect players to earn your respect.

Motivation: I include motivation in this listing because we so often hear of its importance in athletics, but if we take care of Patience, Tolerance, Acceptance and Respect you will find little difficulty in motivating players... or people.

Sportsmanship:  I include sportsmanship much as I did motivation for if we are patient, tolerant, accepting and respectful it stands to reason we will also exhibit good sportsmanship.

In summation, coaching is about treating people as you would like to be treated while igniting a passion within them to become the best they can be as a player and teammate in the sport they have chosen to participate in. 

Coach Krzyzewski on translating knowledge into action

“A leader may be the most knowledgeable person in the world,

 

but if the players on his team

 

cannot translate that knowledge into action,

 

it means nothing.”

 

~ Mike Krzyzewski ~

 

This quote from Coach K has been in my thoughts often these past few days. There is a fundamental truth in his words.

 

Legendary Purdue basketball coach was a football quarterback in college. He also lettered in baseball and track at Kansas State. He didn't play basketball but still became one of the best basketball coaches in the nation.

 

Isiah Thomas was a legendary basketball player winning NCAA and NBA championships but was a terrible coach.

 

Translating knowledge into successful action is the bottom line in coaching.  Some can do it and some cannot. Playing experience is not necessarily an indicator of one's ability to do so. 

You're a much better coach than you used to be.

I recently ran into someone I coached back in the day. He's been reading this blog and has arrived at the conclusion I am a much better coach than when I coached him.

For goodness sakes, I should hope so!

My first experience as a soccer coach was in 1993. I knew next to nothing but was put in charge of a group of 5 year olds. Among that group were some boys who went on to become very good high school athletes. One in particular was David Monteleone. He was the best player in the area and scored goals at will for that team. We went undefeated and my soccer coaching star shone brightly.

Yeah, right.

I still knew next to nothing about the sport of soccer.  I did recognize the need to learn more about it though and so began a process of accumulating knowledge about the beautiful game. Today, I quite literally have hundreds of DVD's, books, coaching manuals, and materials saved from over 20 coaching courses and countless coaching clinics, symposiums and presentations. 

This process began by going to the local bookstore and buying anything and everything I could find on the sport. Some were an absolute waste of good money. Others were most beneficial. Three of my all-time favorite books on the subject are The Complete Book of Coaching Youth Soccer, the NSCAA's Coaching Soccer and Zonal Defending: The Flat Back Four. These were among the first books I purchased on soccer.  I look back upon them as being the beginnings of my foundation of soccer knowledge.

Still, it wasn't until I began observing the local high school team that pieces began falling cohesively in place. And the process did not truly gain momentum until I was offered the opportunity to attend their team camp conducted by Mr. Graham Ramsay. It wasn't long before I accepted a position as an assistant coach with that high school team and was put in charge of goalkeepers. 

Goalkeepers?

Yikes!

I new next to nothing about goalkeeping.  Back to the bookstore and the emerging Internet in search of knowledge about the art of goalkeeping.  A stroke of blind luck saw me in my first ever coaching course, the old State Level NSCAA Goalkeeping I Course held in Columbus, Ohio and conducted by legendary goalkeepers Tony Waiters, Tony DiCicco and an up and coming star by the name of John Murphy.  They lit the fire and my passion that has carried me ever since.

Still, as a high school goalkeeper coach I had a steep learning curve. I had to work at it and it wasn't always smooth sailing. By continuing with and completing all the NSCAA goalkeeping courses, buying virtually every book and DVD about goalkeeping I could find and learning to analyze (Thanks to John Murphy!) goalkeeping play I became better over the course of time.

It was while working in this capacity that I had driven home to me how little I still knew about soccer in general. Yes, I was becoming a good goalkeeping coach, but there was still so much to learn and especially about the game in general.  One lasting memory I have is of a coaches meeting where we were discussing how to penetrate our biggest rivals defense.  They played a diamond stopper / sweeper man marking system and did so really well.  It was the strategizing that went on that day that brought new light to my inadequacies as a coach. Not that the other coaches were so far ahead of me and talking over my head. No, it was the obvious absence of knowledge in that room of how to deal with the opponents defense that woke me to the fact I had so much more to learn.

Looking back on that day now, I wish I knew then what I know now.

And that's the point.

No, Brian, I am not the same coach I was back in 1993.  I am not the same coach I was when I first began coaching high school goalkeepers back in 2001. I am not even the same coach I was last spring in club soccer.  I continue to seek knowledge. I continue to evolve. I am getting better at coaching soccer each and every day because I continue to pursue and share knowledge and insights about the beautiful game.