A while ago I commented on a blog post which discussed 10 things that lead to coaching failure. The same author has a related post looking at the habits successful coaches develop. They are loosely based on the ideas put forth in the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (definitely worth a read).
They are as follows (paraphrased):
- Make training harder than competition
- Learn and develop at a faster rate than your athletes
- Make your rate of learning faster than your opposition
- Develop your creative thinking abilities
- Coach the individual
- Ensure that each player out-prepares their opposition
- Develop training plans which optimize impact on each player
- Make training as game-like as possible
- Adopt an integrated approach to talent development
- Lead
The first entry is something I have long lived by, and I think #8 has been pretty well covered. Notice the heavy focus on individual athletes. Also see how many relate to continuous learning.
I think #4 deserves a little extra attention.
You may not think of it this way, but coaching is a creative endeavor. At least it is when done well. I’m not talking about whether coaching is an art or a science, or some combination. It’s much more simple than that.
Coaching is about identifying a need and figuring out how to meet it. That almost always involves trying to work around limitations or constraints. It’s creative problem solving. An example of this is dynamic practice planning.
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