Coaching from the Heart
Great coaches are distinguished for any number of strengths. Some are successful as master strategists. Some are successful as master motivators. Some are great “players” coaches, and some are great disciplinarians. All coaches who achieve success harness varying degrees of each of these skills, but what is it that their players remember?
Rarely do players remember or laud their coaches for their expertise in X’s and O’s. Instead, they tend to focus on integrity, honesty, and love. I know it isn’t masculine to speak about love in the context of sports, but I contend that love is the key ingredient in sport, as it is in life. As humans, we pursue love and are created to do so. There is no greater motivator for good or evil than love. We grasp for it, cling to it, live and die for it. In sport it is a love for the game, love for the competition, love for the team, and, yes, love amongst teammates.
What is commonly remembered about coaches is how much they loved their players. Did they genuinely care about each one of them as people and as players? Was there more to them than just the game being played? When we speak of great coaches there will commonly be a recitation of the small things, the attention to personal matters, the guidance for life, and the discipline demanded through a heart of love.
As a coach, do you approach your team from your heart? Do you impart your love and passion to those in your charge? I don’t believe this concept involves becoming a professional counselor or giving out hugs like candy from a parade. Instead it involves a sincere desire to push your players to be better every day and imparting the skills, attitudes, emotional support (motivation), and physical support to do so.
Genuine care for every member of a team bonds coach and player and provides a firm foundation on which to build a program. If your players doubt your care or concern for them, then their ability to achieve is tied solely to their personal drive. When a player is coached from the heart, they are motivated to give their all for the coach, the team, and their teammates. In addition, it sets the stage for the lessons taught to be enduring in their lives and reverberate in society at large. Love your team and you will make a difference in their lives.
Pride and a Sense of Belonging
I listened to Coach Al Kerns discuss his decision to come to Parkersburg and work with Coach Thomas. He had options and Parkersburg was not an attractive one at the time. But, he took the risk and became an integral part of the legacy of Aplington-Parkersburg football. He is a coaching great just like Coach Thomas and the two of them worked tirelessly to develop a program and manage the people and logistics of building a tradition. He noted one of the great achievements of their tenure as instilling pride in their teams and, by extension, in the school district and community.
Pride comes before a fall—right? Pride is conceit run amok and the epitome of selfishness. Scripture warns us about it. “God opposes the proud… (1 Peter 5:5).” How can instilling pride be beneficial and lead to positive results?
The pride instilled by Coach Thomas and Coach Kerns had nothing to do with selfish ambition or vain conceit. In fact, Coach Thomas and Coach Kerns opposed those who demonstrated selfish ambition. The pride they preached to us had to do with respect and being selfless in the pursuit of a collective goal. We were to treat others with respect and work tirelessly to make ourselves a strong member of the team. Similarly, in school and in the home we were to work to be selfless members that added to a collective vision of an upstanding and successful community.
Pride, in the context in which we were taught, was the pleasure and satisfaction taken in the achievements of the team, the achievements of others, and the contribution made by oneself toward a common goal. It spurred us on to continue the tradition, it created a tangible “buy in” for everyone involved in the program. If you were involved in the program, actively or passively, as an observer or integral part, then you sought to uphold the standards that were becoming of the pride that Coach Thomas and Coach Kerns had for the program.
In life it is easy to lose that sense of belonging and that sense of pride. That is why so many love to talk about the good ole days and long for the feeling of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. But wait…aren’t we still a part of something bigger than ourselves? Do we not work for a company? Do we not carry a family name? Are we not children of God? Today, resolve to take pride in where you are and work to make your job, your family name, and your life something to be proud of. Buy in to the selfless pursuit of seeing others achieve and become a key component in making your life and your pursuits mean something.
