It’s that time of year again—amid Fall Ball in preparation for another (likely full) season of lacrosse. Programs are full steam ahead looking for players, volunteers, and coaches in anticipation of getting back to the grind of a spring sport—all the while still adjusting to back to school and getting ready for the holiday season. Within all of the busyness, it is important to take a moment to take a step back to do what we can to prepare for the upcoming season—especially as coaches.
When you think of a sport coach—what does that really mean? Some may imagine Ted Lasso. Some may imagine Coach Carter. Some may imagine a coach they had at some point in their lives. But, what really is a coach? According to Merriam-Webster, a coach is “a person who teaches and trains an athlete or performer; a person who teaches and trains the members of a sports team and makes decisions about how the team plays during games.” When thinking of someone who teaches or trains others—especially helping others make decisions—some people (other than coaches) that come to mind are educators. To be an educator requires training about human development, how to teach, how to research, how to manage classrooms, how to communicate effectively, becoming well versed in a variety of subjects, managing classroom safety, and much more. In some sense, coaching is not much different. Full disclaimer: This is not to say that all coaches need to be trained educators. However, there is a need for coaches to have some form of training to better serve athletes.
Think about it this way: some of the best coaches know how to teach skills, teach tactics, communicate effectively, manage team dynamics/culture, understand how athletes’ function, and equip players to make decisions. More often than not, that does not come naturally to every single coach. Often, coaches (just like educators) need to take time to learn how to do these things effectively to create the best sport experience possible for their players. In a sense, training allows coaches to have better understanding of their players and therefore better equipped to fulfill their roles as coaches.
Say, you’re a parent of an 8-year-old who wants to try playing lacrosse for the first time, but there’s no coaches available for the U8 team. So, you offer to coach because you used to play. You have the fall season to prepare—so you start studying high school and college lacrosse to pick up some tips in addition to recalling what you did as a player. Fall ball comes around and you try doing the things you’ve seen—West Genny drill, two lines of shuttles for warm up, a layered zone defense, and you realize—none of it works. The children get bored, they’re not paying attention, and struggle to complete one of the drills because they’re still learning to throw to an intended target, catch the ball, and cradle. In a sense, everyone is getting frustrated—you at the drills not working and the kids at not being able to find success in the skills. Time for some course correction.
Instead of continuing to do the same thing—you seek out some training and do your own research. You learn that 7- and 8-year old players are still learning: basic movement and athletic skills, how to share, and self-regulation. Additionally, you discover that catching is the most challenging skill, this age group needs games and stories to activate their imagination (which yields better engagement and focus), and that the players need more opportunities with the ball to grasp the skills. With this new information, you decide to use stations and games to teach skills—which allows for smaller groups and more opportunities to practice the skills. You also decide to find out some of the groups favorite characters and rename some games with those names in addition to adding short stories to some of the games. The difference is night and day! The players are more engaged, everyone is having fun, and the players are starting to find success with the skills.
While this is a hypothetical scenario—there is a lot of truth to this and is something I hear often from coaches in the field after they’ve participated in our Coach Development Level One and/or Two trainings. Consistently, coaches relay that coaching their teams—regardless of what age—is more than just getting a bunch of “drills”, teaching systems/plays, and the rest that goes into the “X’s and O’s” of playing lacrosse. Becoming a trained coach allows them to learn how their players think and receive information, how to effectively instruct their players, and the other elements that create a fun, positive, and engaging sport experience.
At the crux of all of this (and from listening to some of the highest level Olympic and professional coaches), I find the two most common elements of successful coaches: 1. They are constant learners (i.e. getting trained, reading books, listening to podcasts, looking at other sports, etc.). 2. They know how to effectively build and maintain relationships. Those two elements help create and support a player-centric experience and allows for transformational coaching to happen. Whether it be a youth coach or a professional coach, why not take advantage of all of the learning opportunities out there to create the best sport experience possible and to fulfill the definition of what a coach is—an educator and trainer of others?
