Nobody but the athlete and the coach who has logged the time on the court knows and understands that feeling.
A professional athlete must have confidence in the coach or the game plan, and multi-coaching will not work. If an athlete runs around getting different advice from different people they should go back to their coach and run it by their coach. This is for the simple reason, the coach needs to be in on the new technique so they can understand or disagree with the new technique. This is called “collaboration” and with my top open and pro athletes who have a good grasp of the basics, this is what we do.
When I coach an athlete I am all in! I put forth a huge effort and work hard to get my athletes to the next level. Four to six hours on the court working on details is not unheard of when people come to visit me. I coach athletes in the back courts and when they rise to fame here comes the experts who want to “help” the athlete. So I ask my athletes to collaborate with me when they hear someone give them some new idea. It might be a great idea but if that athlete begins to lose confidence in me, our relationship won’t work. When it comes time to coach that athlete up in a match, if they have been listening to someone else, the athlete’s confidence level won’t be there.
You want a coach to believe in you, the athlete? You must believe in the coach. When you start going to different people, you are throwing away the confidence that coach had in you. You cannot have it both ways-the loyalty must be mutual. If not, go get another coach and do not go back to the old coach. To me, loyalty has to be a two way street!
Some coaches believe that sooner or later they have nothing more to give to their athlete and they should let their athlete go to another coach. My issue with that is the assumption said coach has stopped learning, and offers nothing new. A good coach should always be learning and always yearning for new ideas of training and technique. That might mean collaboration, but not abandonment!
When an athlete comes to a good coach every lesson should be different. Why? the coach should keep looking at video and discovering how to change the game. Often my athletes get to the point where they begin to master the fundamentals, only to forget how they got to a higher level but I want them to keep improving.
The game is basically the same for everyone and all of us can improve. I have heard the inner-most fears, and facts of some famous athletes in our sport. That means me never sharing those facts, being caring and understanding as well as downright loving the athletes I work with! When I have nothing left to give, I will be dead, or incapacitated somehow. As long as I can communicate and think, I can coach.
So my approach is much like a team approach. My athletes are on my team, and we work hard together. I want my athletes have pride in themselves, be loyal to the coach and all of them work as hard as they possibly can no matter their level.
So to all you coaches out there-I know my main competitors in the coaching field feel the same way I do. I know many of the athletes who play for those coaches feel the same way my athletes feel. That is not a bad thing!