Becoming A Successful Coach

What does it take to become a successful coach? I think the same things it takes to be a success in anything.

I first saw this video about a year ago or so. I was recently reminded when I came across it on Alwyn Cosgrove's site. It is very brief but does highlight the results of years of research into success.

It's consistent with what I see in successful coaches. The ideas of passion and serving are particularly important in the profession of coaching.

Harness Drills

A tool I like to employ like many other coaches is harness drills. As I was watching some coaches use these recently I was reminded of the importance of not losing sight of the forest for the trees.

We use various harness drills for acceleration such as marching, skips and runs. The harness is a great tool because the resistance can help teach body position, focus on the drive angle, and even work a little on ground reaction forces.

To effectively teach a good powerline with the body around a 45 degree angle, the partner holding the harness must apply enough force to hold the training athlete steady. Too little resistance and the athlete can't lean.

Unfortunately as I was watching the other day, the athletes were making a common mistake. They were all trying to prove how strong they were and resist when holding with all their might. This often leads to the in the harness trying to overpower them in return using long ground contact times to generate more force.

I also saw another problem whicvh was uneven force. Whether it was kids with arms bent (which causes the arms to straighten and lengthen as the athlete makes ground contact) or the holders were in bad body positions, the amount of resistance was uneven. This makes it very hard for the training athlete to get the right kinesthetic feedback or generate a consistent force pattern themselves.

These are common errors, but the real error was the coaches. Some were actually trying to encourage the resistance to gain a big force production. True, there was a lot of force applied. Unfortunately the rest of the technical model went out the window. The old adage of the 10% rule tries to emphasize the idea of not adding too muich resistance. I disagree with this for acceleration(that's another post), but regardless you can never compromise the basic technical model.



As a coach you have to make sure this is done right. The harness is great beacuse you can have differnet athletes easily focus on different aspects. Force production, contact time, body position, range of motion, direction of force application, etc... but no matter what you can't sacrifice technique for huge force overloads.

Are You A Cook or Chef

Over the years I’ve heard from several coaches the analogy as the coach as a chef and it’s one that resonates. I know Mike Boyle has used this and I think it's right on point. We are trying to produce a product that is the result of multiple ingredients. The successful chef has not only an in-depth knowledge of the cooking process and ingredients, but they are also artists.

Executive Chef
Executive chefs run the whole kitchen. They hire and fire the staff, determine costs, revamp the menu, take care of all administrative tasks, interact with the dining room managers, and generally oversee the well-being of the restaurant. In smaller, less flamboyant restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine sees to all this, and an executive chef would be redundant.

Sous-Chef
Next under the Executive Chef, depending on the restaurant, this chef is always in the kitchen. He/she comes up with the daily specials, takes inventory, watches over the staff, expedites, and basically does all the hands-on work. There are sous-chefs of two ilks: those who will soon move on to open their own restaurants, becoming Executive Chefs, and those who will remain as they are, preferring the rhythmic rigors of the kitchen to the bright lights of chef stardom.

Line Cooks
The line cooks are the people who actually cook your food. They are divided up, either by cooking technique (saute, grill, etc.), or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). When the expeditor shouts out an order (they always shout), the line cooks jump to prepare it. Most cooks work up through the line (working every position), before being promoted to sous-chef.

Learning to Cook
Imagine. You haven’t been much of a cook in the past. It’s new to you. You got down the difference between broil and boil but creme brulee is still a mystery. If you were cooking a dish for the first time, would you take two recipes from two different cookbooks and combine them? Would you add ingredients from one of the recipes while using the preparation and cooking directions from the other? If you did, would you expect it to come out right and taste good? What if you took two cakes recipes. They both call for flour, sugar and eggs, but you double the eggs and omit the sugar. How’s that going to go over? Obviously it’s not going to work. Unfortunately, when it comes to program design, this is exactly what many coaches do.

With so many coaches taking in seminars, DVDs and internet information, coupled with an impatient attitude for honing their craft, I see many programs being written by short order cooks and not chefs. Usually the program is a little of this philosophy, and a little of theirs, with maybe a sprinkling of another guru. It’s a combination of recipes to use the analogy, and the result is less that optimal.

When it comes to designing programs, you need to know where you are on the road to being an executive chef.

Out of College / Full Internship
When you first come out of college you have some scientific basis to understand what an athlete needs. It’s like knowing the properties and tastes of various ingredients, and you have developed some basic cooking skills, but that’s it. Many former athletes that go into coaching are also at this point and they know a variety of drills and exercises. You know how to chop, broil and blend. You’re a line cook.

At this stage, you need a recipe to follow. Don’t go changing the recipe to suit your tastes. You need direction while you hone your skills in cooking. It’s not yet the time for you to be creating a menu and recipes, but you should be honing your craft with an eye on the future. As you show your skill, you will be given opportunities to display your ready for the next step. The sous-chef should be continuing to train and mentor you as you develop.

Coach well and learn how to observe the movements, analyze for technical errors, and then problem solve. Learn the rules of program design while you do this, but its not time to be creating your own dishes and menus.

Coaching for Several Years and Writing Some programs
Many third to fifth year coaches are analogous with the sous-chefs. The sous-chef is the second in command in the kitchen and have developed their ability to alter the recipe without spoiling the meal. They understand how to alter the ingredients but also know there needs to be a plan and it should be followed. The sous chef understands that the ratio of ingredients and their timing matter, and that you don't simply cook to your own taste.

The sous-chef also is the one that prevents the phrase, “too many cooks spoil the broth” They manage the kitchen staff and assign duties. This is the role of the 1st assistant in coaching. They may assign schedules and duties, and are instrumental in helping develop the younger staff.

After five years of successful program design, you might now qualify as a chef.
It takes time to learn your craft. After time serving as a sous-chef, you now think about bolder changes to the recipe because you have extensive experience "cooking". Every coach wants to do this, but you need to know the rules before you try and break them.

As a chef experiments, they don’t throw out their entire style of cooking and all that they have learned. They build on it and make smaller changes to their fundamental cooking philosophy. To use a line from Mike Boyle, “Chefs don't abandon their chosen cooking style after watching an episode of Hell's Kitchen, instead you are now making small changes to what should be a system.”

Learn to Cook
Figure out if you are a cook or a chef. If you are a cook right now, find some good recipes to follow. Find a chef to learn under and develop your skills. If you are on your own, find those recipes and mealplans and learn the appropriate time to serve each dish. Eventually you can become a chef, but go through each step to be a successful one.

Kryptonite

In the last post I talked about the idea of "super powers". What are you really talented at as a coach? It's an important thing to discover and then nurture to progress in your career.

The opposite question also applies. Just like Superman was weakened by kryponite, we all have things we don't do as well. Do you know what your kryptonite is? We all have them.

It's a hard thing to face for many of us, but just like every super hero has some weakness, so do coaches. Maybe you aren't as good at programming, or in-depth muscle physiology, or maybe its sprint mechanics, or peaking for competition, and so on. You have some weakness, what is it?

It's not just the science and knowledge side however, what about the ART of coaching? Maybe you struggle with the highly analytical, slightly Obsessive/Compulsive athlete. For some coaches they struggle with the athlete that challenges their system. Can you sell them on your methodology?

I have seen the coach that can do a good job with the older athletes just fall to pieces when a 10 year keeps pushing their buttons (I think pushing a coaches hot buttons is a super power many 10 year olds posess). Maybe you have to deal with parents who think they know the best training techniques.

One of the things that is important in the long run, is to recognize your weaknesses and then surround yourself with people that have that as a super power. Just like Superman needed the Flash to rescue him when he was chained up by kryptonite, you need a team. They may be just professionals you can turn to for ideas and answers, or may literally be part of your coaching team.

You have a kryptonite. Learn what it is. Work to improve it. Become part of a team that balances those strengths and weaknesses.