A few days ago I ran across a post regarding coaching and my name was bantered about by several folks. First, I was flattered by people who recognized my long career of coaching. But the second thing that struck me was this question, “Can a non-player or someone who was not that good as a player be a good coach?’
That is a loaded question with many layers. Here is my take.
Can Andy Reid run a pass pattern like Travis Kelce? (USA football Coach and player-look it up)
Can Martin Scorsese act like Al Pacino or Robert Dinero?
So a coach does not have to be a great athlete or champion to coach but they do have to have athletic experience at the highest of levels in another sport, or have experience in the sport they are coaching.
If a coach has never gone all in-lifted the weights, ran the miles, did the plyos, eaten the sprouts and inhaled the spark recovery powder, how can they understand or motivate the athletes they coach?
I once had a HOF player say to me, “You don’t know what it is like playing in front of 200 people on center court.”
My response, “Really? Does 20,000 count? That’s how many people were in the stands when I played football in Germany.
For the record I did go all in for racquetball a few years. Those years of training took me to many finals and tournament wins for 5 years after when I was living off the training I did for three years. I found out that if you do not keep up with that crazy training schedule your skills leave fast.
Back to coaching. It is totally different than playing except for one thing. All good coaches have an undying belief that they are the best (as they should have had as a player) and that their coaching is superior to their competitors. Often they tend to disparage or discount the other coaches. Here are a few examples.
Coach X believes in the pinch. They preach and teach pinch, pinch, pinch. They see the corners as where the shots should go first. Coach Y believes in wide angle passes and down the lines. They believe that is where the shots should go first. Coach C has a tennis background and believes in the cross-court passing game. All of the above coaches have to have a counter-strategy or let’s call it plan b. Coach Pinch has to preach pass when opponents get too close. Coach pass has to teach pinch when the opponents play deep in center court. Coach Cross Court has to teach down the lines when opponents over-play one side of the court.
All of the coaches can coach athletes at the highest level if they keep employing strategies to counter opponent’s game plans and their athletes can execute.
Back to Coaches who do not play. It is hard to quantify just how good a coach is unless you look at results. World Team championships (5), Pan Am team championships (3), influencing other countries such as Ireland and Mexico, and coaching players who will definitely make the top 5 to ever play our game at the professional men and women’s rankings are the things I have accomplished in a coaching career. But all of that is in the past. I have to keep learning or I will stop being able to coach at the highest level. The game is constantly changing. To be a good coach I have to be changing also.
I love coaching but I’d give anything to turn back the clock and compete in open level racquetball again like I did for 15 years and age divisions for another 15. I loved the training, and the skill work and hated the footwork stuff in practice but loved it in tournament play. The tournament had to be the vacation from training if wanted success. That is passed on to the athletes I coach at all levels of play.
Onward and upward,
Go get’em tigers!