What’s the secret to great coaching or teaching?
As you can probably guess, the secret is, there is no secret. Coaching is a form of teaching that requires the mastery of a lot of small ideas through diligence and focus, which can lead to a positive result if constructed carefully.
Four significant elements determine great coaching:
– How you manage time
– How you give feedback
– How you build relationships
– And how you assess how much everyone is learning
Maximizing your time with the kids is how to achieve the ultimate goal: making your players better faster and over a sustained period. While it’s tough to define what the “right” or “wrong” thing is to do with your players at practice, you can measure the choice’s success based on its efficacy.
When you couple these activities with the appropriate positive feedback approach, the result is players are appropriately challenged in a positive environment with positive coaching. These happen to be the three most important factors of fun for kids, with fun being the primary reason kids play sports.
When you’re teaching correctly, the relationships follow. And your ability to humbly reflect, coupled with a burning desire to grow, all come together to form a great coach and an optimal environment for the players.