In my fourteen years to date as a football coach, I have developed some of these skills by experiencing a range of situations, that have not only tested my football coaching skills, but my skills and ability as a human being. I believe these skills have had more of an impact on my coaching ability today than the many coaching courses I have attended. Obviously the courses have developed my coaching knowledge; but my real life experiences have developed my coaching personality.
Some of these coaching experiences include; Coaching 4 year olds on summer camps in America, Elite Level Girls, Professional Academy’s in England, Disadvantaged Children, non English speaking players, Youth teams, Grassroots teams, Senior teams, the list goes on…….! The one thing I have learned from these experiences is, in order to be a good coach you must first be a good person.
Whether it’s better to gain coaching knowledge first and then develop your coaching personality is open to debate. My own opinion is that I’d rather see a coach that has a great personality to coach players and limited coaching knowledge than the other way round. I would go as far as saying that at certain levels of the game, it is more important HOW you coach, than WHAT you coach.
Ask yourself which coaches you have enjoyed watching in the past. I bet the names Jose Mourinho and Ian Holloway spring to mind. Now think back to when you played the game, I can almost guarantee that your favourite coach was the one you remember to have the best personality!
As coaches, our job is to teach, challenge and develop, but never forget it is also our job to INSPIRE, CARE, and ENJOY the journey! My advice is to remember why you got in to coaching in the first place, to “make a difference”. So go and make a difference being YOU!
Ian Holloway
You can follow Ian Dyer on Twitter @_iandyer and read more of his articles on coachingfamily.com
Ian Dyer