What Makes a Good Coach? (Read 856 times)

I think there are a TON of things that go into being a great coach, but the one major factor that all others stem from is a love of the sport in question. Love isn't it, either really. It is a passion for it. When you talk to them about anything other than the sport, you can see that their mind is always playing/thinking/analyzing the sport. I had a basketball coach like that in high school. Great guy, great coach, and completely enveloped in the game. Part of what (to me) made him a great coach is that either you understood his passion, and hence his coaching style, or you thought him a nut-job and tuned him out. So in fairness I suppose I should say that he was a great coach for some of us, while others couldn't relate.

ah... but it is more than that... just because someone has passion for the sport doesn't complete the recipe. It needs a good helping of caring for each individual athlete. Coaching is as much about relationship building as it is teaching, as it is knowledge of the sport at hand. perhaps it is like pornography... you can't define it but you know it when you see it!

a great coach is gonna tailor things to the athlete's needs. in this case, german is injury prone. so the coach gives him sunday off(I guarantee you that few top hs runners take a day off every week) and doesn't let the mileage or the workouts get too insane. my coach isn't all that great. he tries to train me like a speed runner with 200's and reps and stuff, but I've always been a natural strength runner and that's how I win races. in the case of my coach he has a rigid philosophy and he isn't willing to tailor it to my needs.

This example that Scout said - this is what makes a cross-country and track coach one of the top coaches - be it in high school or college....

As to the second point, a great coach realizes that each person is an individual and coaches the individual. This is a major problem with some forms of coaching: there is no real attention given to the individual. Each of us respond differently to the myriad training options. There is no one-size-fits-all plan. A great coach is able to recognize this fact, and then implement it in the person's training. This also requires the ability to really KNOW the person, to read between the lines and be able to determine when the person is done for the day, when the person needs to be challenged, how to motivate and challenge the person.

I would also like to add that a good cross-country/track coach has the uncanny ability to increase team bonding, while still tailoring workouts to various individuals. For example in track you distinctively have sprinters, middle distance, long distance etc and usually workouts are very different for each group - but to ACTUALLY HAVE the sprinters and long distance people getting along on their own, warming up with each other, hanging out outside of practice...that shows that there is a good coach - because they've ALL bonded and they don't just hang out in their small groups. In my case in high school all of our pliometrics, warmups, cool downs, easy days were done as an overall team versus separated. In cross country our team had long runs...everyone did a long run every wednesday. But the long run wasn't the same distance for everyone, it was based on ability, fitness and previous runs. So those who came into the season out of shape only did 4 or 5 miles. Those in shape would do 6-7 miles. Those who really liked distance would run 8-11 miles (some of these people were slower than people doing the 6-7 miles, but they improved more with the higher mileage per week), and other faster, in shape people would only do 5 miles, because they improved by tempo. Our coach had us write down distance and times for almost every run the first 2 weeks of practice (it would go into a team binder - same with certain tempo runs etc, so that we could compare the previous years binder with the new one - and he could use the times to calculate our tempo times). In all our seasons we had ice-cream runs - which were reserved for very hot days or days after very large, tough, competitive meets. The captains would get 50 $ and we'd all run an easy 2-3 miles to the ice cream store, wait for the whole team to get there - order ice cream and walk back eating it. We only did this 2-3 times during x-c season and 2 during outdoor usually - but it definately bonds team members, because since the run is easy and the walk back is easy we got to talk and run with people we normally didn't.

I think (correct) technical advice is more important. I would take a coach who knows what they are talking about over a guy (or girl) who says things like "you can do it!". That may be nice and all, but it doesn't get the job done. As far as motivation goes, I think encouraging phrases during a race are nice or little things like, relax your shoulders. Coaches who scream are scary as shit, at some track meets and cross country meets there was some blood curdling screaming going on.

Technical advice is important. Motivation is the responsibility of both the athelete and the coach. When a coach sees that the athlete is not giving his/her best effort, that is when the coach needs to step in and motivate the athelete.

PolePole, I think you're right. My son's coach does that. When DS tells me the goals Coach sets for him, I shake my head in disbelief, but then by the end of the season, he's usually reached them. Now that DS has that mindset, he's setting goals for himself, in academics as well as running. Neat to see in a teenaged boy!