Coaching Tip #54

Tagged – Tip of the Week, Coaching Practice, Player Development, Team Development, Team Management

When you read about sport, one very common narrative is the one about the players that a team or club needs to be able to compete at the level they want.  You know the stories.  ‘If we get player x in the draft, we can…’.  ‘If we can trade for player y, we can…’.

This kind of thinking engages a lot of people with different forms of media, but as a coach it is a recipe for underachievement.  Simply put, if you are always thinking about the players that you don’t have, or the weaknesses of the players you do have, then you can never engage fully in the project that you are in.

For a team to reach its maximum potential the coach must invest all their energy into each individual and into the group.  It is simply not possible to do that if while looking over their shoulder for reinforcements or are disappointed with the players they are working with.

The coach must accept the players in the team and then work to create the best possible team, using the strengths of those players to achieve the maximum performance.

You can’t coach the ones you don’t have.  Coach the ones you have.

The initial collection of 50 Coaching Tips can be found here.