Coaching Tip #73

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

Coaching requires the constant review and analysis of current performance, with a view to improving future performance.  Coaching requires errors and weaknesses being identified and corrected.  It is only natural that what players hear from coaches is mostly about the things they can’t do or can’t do well enough.  There is no avoiding this.  It is part of the process.

What need not be part of the process is setting limits on what players and teams can do.  Too often the message that players absorb is that they are not good enough.  The other team / player is bigger / better / richer / faster etc.  The effect of this constant, negative messaging is that players lose before they even begin a match.

The coaching process needs to open players’ minds to possibilities that can’t be seen.  Players need to know what they can do, or might be able to do, or can aspire to.  Players need to hear the reasons why things are possible.

If you set limits, you will never know what might have been possible.  Don’t set limits.

A collection of more Coaching Tips can be found here.

For more great coaching tips, check out the Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.