What makes a good Coach? This is a query that I, as a coach, parent, fan, and citizen ask.
As a coach, I pray that I might have a positive influence in the lives of my players. It reminds me of a famous coach that had an influential booster club member come into his coaching office and asked him, "how does the team look this year?" The coach responded with, "I won't know until about 10 or 20 years from now!"
This is how I want to coach, not solely focused on the win/loss ratio.
In my 25 years of coaching I had three seasons that my teams went undefeated. On the other hand, I had another team that did not win a game all season. Yet, the team that had the most positive impact was the team that never won. It was an inner city school with many negative diversions. It was a team that led the league in steals that year. Stealing cars that is. We were successful in keeping all the players going to school that year and the next season our win/loss record was .500.
What I look for in a coach is whether he or she is teaching the following life lessons: How to win and how to lose. How to play hard within the rules. Teaching cooperation with others despite their differences.
What it means to work through the losses and to not give up. That it takes team cooperation and giving your talents to the cause in order to win. That there is no "I" in the spelling of TEAM. They teach that virtuous character is what you do when no one else is looking.
I had a coach that helped teach me all of these lessons. It helped me in my marriage, my businesses, being a father, and even safely flying airplanes as a commercial pilot for 35 years.
All that being said, a good coach is not about pushing the win/loss record, its about teaching positive life lessons to the athlete that will influence their sojourn in life.
-Coach V
