This is an update to last years post that I posted in December 2017 as I have continued to interact with coaches at conferences and clinics and ask them;
What are the top 3 qualities of the greatest coach (or teacher, manager) you
ever had?
Last fall our co-op student created a tracking sheet to summarize all the characteristics that I had recorded by various means and now our “informal” database is just shy of 1000 coaches, board members and even parents.
By no means is this a formal research study, but the below pie chart outlines the updated results for the top 10 characteristics;
Just as it was last year, and every time I do the exercise, the Number 1 characteristic was the coaches cared about their players. This also was one of the characteristics when I talked to the amazing guest speakers in our summer and winter digital summits we hosted thru our digital arm For the Love of the Game.
Number 1 (always)
Not only do they care about helping them develop into the best athletes they
can be, but the best people.
This is what John Wooden, Clare Drake, Phil Jackson in past and current coaches like Pete Carroll, Mike Kryzyzewski, Sean McVay and others have demonstrated or shared with journalists what was really important to them as they guided their teams to achieve at the highest level.
Coaches that care, not only teach the skills of the game, but the skills of
life.
Number 2 (moreso the reason kids play but coaches must foster an engaging environment for it to be fun)
Another of the top characteristics was they coaches made the experience fun, both in games and practices as well as other team activity.
Many misinterpret that I am not competitive because my philosophy of coaching is “FUNdamentals, not winning, at all costs”. Like all the great coaches who worked on the process of developing all players on their teams that lead to results on the scoreboard, I know how important it is for players to have fun, even on the most competitive teams.
As I have been saying for years;
Mike Babcock, now the highest paid NHL coach with Stanley Cup, World Championship and Olympic Gold achievements on his resume is another one of those great coaches. When he became the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he shared that his main role was to develop all the players into great young men. Prior to the 2010 Olympic Gold Medal game, when he was coaching some of the best players in the WORLD at the time, when asked by the media what he told the team before the game he said “I just told them to go out there and have fun.”
Many people think when kids they just want to have fun that it means goofing
off, but kids actually don’t want their team mates to do so they want to play,
the want to compete, they want play for the love of the game. That is what fun
is.
Number 3:
When Amanda Visek did her groundbreaking study and identified the 81 characteristics of what is fun in youth sports, the number 2 reason, second only to having the opportunity to try your best was when coaches treated players with respect
Although I would NEVER consider myself to be in the same company as John Wooden, his three rules are very similar to mine and his third was “Never criticize your teammates”, mine is Respect. Respect yourself, teammates, coaches, officials, other teams, parents, class mates, parents and so on.
I believe respect is a two-way street, if coaches respect their players then
they players will in turn respect their coaches and vice versa.
Sadly, although the many coaches in youth sports do respect their players, there are coaches that think nothing of screaming at a player, singling them out in front of the teams, criticizing their mistakes over and over again and other ways that are not only disrespectful but crossing the fine line from demanding (pushing players to be their best) to demeaning (belittling players).
It is no wonder why 70% are quitting by the age of 13 in majority of sports, but as I recently found out due to changes that USA hockey made to focus on fun, ensure the coaches respect their players and recognizing that it is all about the kids, they have moved the needle where they only lose 8% of their kids by the age 13.
Number 4:
One of the key takeaways for every talk that I do for coaches is “Care Passionately“. For me, caring and passion go hand in hand, when coaches are truly passionate for their sport, the kids will become passionate.
When I think of the greatest coaches I had in many sports, same held true for me, they took on the role as father figure and truly cared about me become a better player, but also a well rounded person. Many of which were so passionate about the game I could not follow suit which is one of the reasons why I played so many growing up.
The remaining top 10 characteristics from our 2018 summary include great communicators, were positive, patient, encouraging, fair and listened.
Coaches can also fill the gap for kids like me who lost their father at a young age to guide them, mentor them, and steer them out of trouble if they head down that path.
Great teachers do the same, if it had not been for my Grade 12 French Teacher who took me aside one day and said “you can do better” after I acted up in class for the umpteenth time who knows where I would have ended up.
She was the one that motivated me to pursue post-secondary education and as a result I was the first of all my cousins from both our extended Roman Catholic Families (over 30 first cousins) to graduate from University and one of my proudest moments as my Nanny (grandmother) was there to see me accept my degree.
Think back when you grew up, did you ever take a class in school and thought
you would HATE it like calculus, accounting, history, literature? Then to you
surprise you ending up loving the course – Why? Because your teacher was so
passionate about the subject.
Same holds true for youth sports … if coaches are passionate about all aspects of the game they will instill that same passion in their players so they love the game more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning.
Other – the list of other responses were endless but included characteristics like calm, challenging, committed, confident, consistent, disciplined, demanding (not demeaning), energetic, enthusiastic, fair, firm, forgiving, genuine, trustful, inspiring, integrity, invested, kind, listens, motivator, organized, personable, positive, role model, teacher and leader.
In addition to care passionately and making it fun, please make it safe (to fail and for all forms of harassment), teach skills and lastly …..
