Velasco On Coaching

“One isn’t a great coach when you get a player to act out according to the intentions of the coach, but when you teach them to act out according to their own account.”

A lot of coaches work on the basis that the team functions at its best when it is doing exactly what the they have told the coach to do.  This goal is problematic for a couple of reasons.  It is completely impractical, as the coach cannot possibly predict and then provide solutions for every game situation.  It is also incredibly limiting, as it ignores to possible contributions of the players who all have their own experience, not to mention a vested interest in the outcome.

Julio Velasco spoke of this concept in this article.

He did go on to say that while this is the ideal, it is unattainable.  The full quote is.

“One isn’t a great coach when you get a player to act out according to the intentions of the coach, but when you teach them to act out according to their own account.  The absolute ideal, which is out of reach, is when the coach has nothing further to say, because the players know already everything there is to know. They have to know, besides the technique, how one acts, in a word, the tactics “.

The collection of Coaching Tips can be found here.

Read the thoughts of another of coaching’s greats, Vyacheslav Platonov here.