Which Qualities Defines a Successful Coach?
When I was about 4 years old I remember one of my sisters came home from practice and said they needed a new soccer coach. For the next few days, my mom and dad discussed what a huge responsibility it was to take on a role like that. I thought for myself, is it really a huge responsibility? How hard can it be to stand on the sideline and scream to a bunch of girls? To make a long story short, my dad became the new head coach built the team for over a decade. He led the team to win more than 10 tournaments and the league 3 times. Even more impressing, three of his players became professional soccer players.
I tell this story to show how little one might think a coach has to say, or how much a coach is worth for a team. As I grew older, I understood that coaching was more than screaming and yelling at players. Every sport is constantly evolving. We humans are pushing the limits. We are trying to jump a little higher, run a little faster, make the winning streak a little longer. Sport has become a religion. Sports are all around us, on television, radio, newspapers, phones or at school. In a sport-loving culture, we crave to see new records broken every day. For teams to win and athletes to break records, they all have one thing in common. A great coach.
Coaching is a skill, a talent, a fine art that many people have tried to learn over the years. To understand what really lies behind the success of a team or an individual, one have to go down to the basics and look into the lifestyles and philosophies of coaches that has been remarkable. A complex question arises, what makes a winning coach? What qualities defines a successful coach? Success can be defined in many different ways. The success of a coach even more. The top qualities of a successful coach are defined by his ability to develop character, establish relationship, and build a champion culture.
Firstly, a successful coach must master the ability to develop a personal relationship with his players. The ability to establish a relationship might not seem like a hard task to do, but it is the number one quality that the best coaches are known for. Alex Ferguson which is perhaps the best Manager of all time coached Cristiano Ronaldo in Manchester United. Ronaldo is currently the best soccer player in the world, and in an interview where the asked what made Sir Alex such a great coach, he said this: “Everyone loves him at the club. He invites people to come home for lunch, for a cup of tea. It was a family with him” (Sir Alex Ferguson). A coach is not just a person that yells and tells his players what to do, a coach is someone that cares about the well-being of his athletes and invest in each player. Another coach that made history of himself was Vince Lombardi. He understood that to become a winning team, it was as much about understanding the players on a personal level as it was teaching them details of the game (Dixon). One would trust most likely trust one’s parent over a stranger on the street, why? Because of the relationship. It is the same with a coach. Trust is vital for a coach-athlete relationship. Without trust players won’t listen to what the coach says, which makes the job for a coach pointless. Even though trust is a choice, it comes naturally as a result of establishing relationship to players (Jowett).
Second of all, character development is at the heart of a successful coach. Character is the mental and moral qualities that distinct one person from another. In “The mental edge,” Ross Tucker, a sport psychologist that has been studying what makes the difference between a silver- and a gold-medalist in the Olympics, said, “At the professional level, the game becomes 90% mental and 10% physical.” (Tucker) How important the mental aspect of a game is, we probably will never know. ORU men’s soccer coach Ryan Bush said this: “If you can’t wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, and make your bed. You can’t score a goal in front of a thousand people on Friday night” (Behrens). In other words, if an athlete can’t do the small things right, he can’t do the big things right. Coach Bush is not just a knowledgeable coach. His program focuses very much on developing character. He is not one of those that says we have to do something and does the complete opposite himself. Bush is a hardworking coach and leads by example, he teaches his player to pursue excellence on the field, but mostly off the field.
It appears that Mr. Lombardi would agree with Bush and Tucker. He is a great example of a coach that does not only focus on skill and physical performance. “Vince Lombardi never strayed away from his ultimate goal of winning games… Lombardi combined the military style of disciplinarian coaches more typically used in the past with the motivational style of new coaches.” The mental aspect of an athlete must be the same of a soldier. Not in the aspect of killing people, but in the form of being able to execute a task under pressure. Lombardi thought that if he could discipline his players to be mentally tough like soldiers. Circumstances wouldn’t matter, and they would perform the same way in games as they would do in practice.
Lastly, a winning coach is distinguished by his ability to build a champion culture.
The culture of a country, place, team or religion says a lot about who they are. John Maxwell wrote this: “You can’t partner with just anyone and expect to multiply your dreams of making a difference. If you aren’t connecting and partnering with people who share your dreams and values, you can’t make those partnerships work” (Maxwell). To become a champion one must be surrounded by champions. A champion behaves as a champion way before he stands on the top of the podium and can call himself champion. In other words, coaches need to create an environment that can produce greatness. Coffee can’t grow all over the world. In Jamaica, they are famous for making one of the world’s best coffee, but if someone start planting coffee beans in Alaska people will laugh at them. The difference between Alaska and Jamaica is the atmosphere. There is something about the atmosphere that creates the right environment for coffee. The atmosphere creates a climate, and the climate creates a culture. It is the same way with coffee growth as with athletes. If the culture is right, the outcome will be right.
Another aspect of creating the right culture is unity. Playing favorites and treating players differently is like poison for the team and it ruins the team spirit. Regardless of talent or color, all players should be viewed the same. It means that a coach should require the same attitude, the same commitment from all of his players (Ye Hoon). An anonymous quote goes something like this: “A team is only as strong as its weakest player.” The best coaches are apprehensive with fair treatment for every player. This goes conjointly with his capability to evolve. According to Gillian Jones: “Most coaches have a passion for development that sees them personally experimenting with new tools and trends. The more tools in your toolbox, the more resources you have to help your clients, whatever their issue” (Gillian). Every sport is evolving, humans are evolving. If coaches can’t adapt to the new way of playing the game. How can they expect their players to evolve? A coach leads by example and needs to evolve as much as his players. Unity, constant evolvement and atmosphere are all important aspects of building a champion culture. Great coaches are constantly seeking ways to improve themselves and their players to become the next champion.
Although that it has been good arguments that establishing a personal relationship with players, some people don’t agree with that. Rather, establishing a strong relationship between coach and athlete has a more negative effect than it has positive. The primary reason for this statement is that a good relationship can be taken advantage of and coaches might be viewed as a brother or a friend, rather than a coach in authority. The risk is that players don’t value their coach and their authority for what it is, they see themselves with the same authority and stop listening to what the coach says. There is a fine balance between being close while being in authority. Because if there is no relationship, players won’t trust their coach. On the other hand, if there is no authority, the players don’t listen.
On the other hand, other criticizers might say that developing character is a waste of time. Instead of developing character a coach should rather focus on skills, tactics and physical strength. Even though character is a great issue of sport, winning coaches drive their players to perfection when it comes to details about the game and skill. Coaches that only focuses on these abilities will come to a point where their players give up, because they lack character and wear themselves out on the way to reach their goals.
Finally, some critics claim that building a champion culture is not necessary, because great players should be good enough to play the game instead of having the need of others to produce greatness. They claim that skill should surpass the standard player, no matter what the circumstances look like. If this is the case, the team spirit has become one of complacency, the need of a coach in this situation is almost useless. “Lombardi is described as a teacher who is incredibly tough on his students, always correcting them when they failed” (Dixon 19). Producing greatness and always becoming seems to be vital in a champion daily life. Coaches like Vince understood this and created the atmosphere that was necessary for athletes to do so.
The role a coach has, whether it is middle school, high school, college or a professional league they have a high influence on players and staff. What a coach focuses on and say can influence a person for a lifetime. Whether uplifting or destructive, the memories and knowledge they give last forever. The score on the result board or the time on the clock is all affected by the mindset of the coach. Therefore, the qualities a coach has and concentrate on is alfa and omega when determining who will stand on the podium when the war is over. There are many qualities that a coach needs to be successful. However, the top three qualities that define a successful coach is his ability to develop a personal relationship to his players, the ability to develop the character of his players, and the ability to build a champion culture.