I’ve been coaching for more years than when I was an athlete.  By no means am I the best coach you will find as I am continuing to learn and grow as a coach.  I have learned many traits that I admire from a lot of great coaches that I try to utilize with my athletes.

One of the things I’ve learned is that the coaches I had when I was younger, although I liked and respected most of them, some of their tactics would not fly today.  Some tactics would flat out not be allowed and other tactics would fall flat.

Coaches can still be “old school” by being tough yet fair and instilling discipline.  I don’t think those things should be considered “old school” to be honest with you.  That still needs to be implemented in today’s youth. 

You just have to be careful how you go about doing it.

Here are the top 6 differences between today’s coaches (in no particular order):

  1. You really can’t lay a hand on the athletes.  I have had parents say they’d be willing to sign something allowing me to “do what I feel is necessary” to discipline their kid.  I mulled it over, but declined. 🙂 That being said, in my day coaches would grab facemasks, slap helmets, grab jerseys, hair, ears, etc. to move the kid around and get their point across.  Just can’t do that in today’s day and age so you have to figure out a different way to emphasize your point.

  2. Recovery is analyzed a lot more than before.  I always take a look at my training plan and make sure I have enough rest built in.  I also look and see where I can get optional rest if the athletes are more tired than I anticipated.  I used to say, “well if I did all that when I was younger with little rest and had success, these kids can do it.”  It took me a while to flip that and say, “how much more success could I have gotten, if I had more recovery in my training when I was their age?”  Once I was able to wrap my head around that, I believe the results with my athletes took off.

  3. If recovery is important then so is knowing when you have to practice at 100% intensity.  Each and every practice can’t be “pedal to the metal.”  We had some lighter days when I played sports, but now you should strategize it more than ever.  You want them to feel at their 100% best each and every game.  They shouldn’t have a lingering tiredness from a previous practice they have to work out pre-game.

  4. You try to help mitigate stress as best you can.  These athletes have stress just like we did when we were younger.  Sometimes it is more, but often it is different.  The problem is that stress affects our nervous system and if we are stressed out (about anything), we can’t perform as well as we can.  My daughter stressed out about her grades.  When she had a heavy test week, her Whoop recovery score was not super high no matter how much sleep she got.  Some athletes stress about their significant other.  Do what you can to help mitigate their stress.  Sometimes you might have to adjust your training plan for a less intense workout.  If you can do that and not affect your season’s overall plan too much, then do it. 

  5. You might have to be flexible with your athlete if they play a club/travel sport.  Typically, the better athletes gravitate to playing club/travel sports.  Thus, if you want them to participate in your sport, you can’t give an ultimatum where if they don’t commit 100% to your sport then nothing at all.  What I learned is that line of thinking is truly an “old school” mentality.  You will lose good athletes.  If you can make it work, let them do both.  I’ve also learned that the players don’t mind the club sport athletes so much, as long as they could be counted on when they needed it.  It was really my bugaboo that I needed to get over.  And I did.

  6. You have to show you care about your team.  A lot of coaches would definitely show their emotion when you screwed up.  Yelling.  Screaming.  But, at some point you have to illustrate to these kids that you care about them not so much about their athletic success (which you should), but them as people.  If they know that you are emotionally invested in their well-being, you can get them to do anything for you.