invest in your coaches

everyone wants better coaches. but who’s actually developing them?

maybe we first need to determine, what makes a good coach?

my litmus test for assessing a coach is based on three criteria:

1.     do players improve? (development)

2.     do players feel motivated to do more? (inspiration)

3.     do players want to play for the coach again? (retention)

if a coach can tick these three boxes, i’d say they’re doing an excellent job as a coach.

but where do coaches learn the ability to execute these three things? coach development is usually seen as something state or national organisations are responsible for through the ability to acquire coaching badges. but as most who have acquired their badges will know, these courses have their limitations.

so what do i think is the best way to develop a coach? mentoring them.

getting a coach to do just that, coach, but doing it with direction. with guidance. with support.

too often, clubs hire coaches without any of the above. they hire them and leave them to their own accord assuming that they’ll learn everything they need to learn on the job. and they will learn. because everyone learns more by doing. but there’s also a limit to this – we only know what we know. some things, you can’t learn without being explicitly taught.

this is no different than a player only being able to play how they know how to play. so to develop them, they need to be taught. 

everyone talks about coaches developing players, and that’s absolutely needed, but who’s developing the coaches? what club has systems in place to develop the next first team coach? or to make good coaches, great? and i don’t mean just running a few coach education workshops, i mean hands-on peer-to-peer mentorship?

good coaches don’t just appear. they need developing, just like players. invest in the coaches and by default, you’ll be investing in players too.