Coaching is Hard

“A tough day at the office is even tougher when your office includes spectator seating”

Such is the profession of coaching. Stands are filled with “Monday-morning quarterbacks”, “Second-guessers”, and “Know-it-all critics”.

Just ask Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks when winning back-to-back Super Bowl championships was within inches of becoming a reality.  

Coaches, at any level, are under much more public scrutiny that most leaders.  That’s part of the reason why coaching is so hard. 

Coaching is also hard for many other reasons.

• Coaching is hard because of the amount of time invested in practices, travel, and games.
• Coaching is hard because of the emotions involved and disappointments experienced.
• Coaching is hard because of the expectations of unrealistic parents and over-exuberant fans.
• Coaching is hard because of the pressured decision-making in intensely competitive situations.
• Coaching is hard because you can’t go out there and do it for them.

I also believe that coaching is so much harder today than just a generation ago due to the changing culture.  Some athletes nowadays seem to have a selfish, entitlement mentality which makes it very difficult to build team cohesion.

Millennial generation athletes seem to know little about work ethic, commitment, sacrificing personal goals for the good of the team, and submitting to the authority of the coach.

Many athletes (and their parents) just want maximum exposure to display their talents in order to secure a college scholarship. Parents also are not very realistic about their children’s abilities or potential. 

These athletes often follow the instructions of the dad from the stands rather than the coach in the huddle. That makes coaching especially hard.

I’ve always believed that coaching is a higher form of teaching. 

In coaching, there is a higher level of evaluation and expectation regarding the performance of your “students” (the athletes). However, there is also a deeper level of relationships between the “teacher” (coach) and the “students” (athletes).

There is much more blood, sweat, toil, and tears that are poured into the athletic arena than are experienced in a classroom setting. Another factor that makes coaching so hard.

Ralph Sabock, in his book, The Coach, says, “Classroom teachers exist in the relatively secure environment of their own little domains, where they can practically isolate themselves and the class from the world merely by closing the classroom door. Rarely, if ever, do they have to put the class and their teaching ability on display in front of thousands of spectators once a week and be judged by numbers on a scoreboard as to their competence as a teacher”.  

He further states, “Classroom teachers are in their own little world of four walls and a closed door, while the coaches have their students on display every week, sometimes in front of thousands of people, and coaches know that in the eyes of most spectators the performance of the team is a direct reflection on their ability as coach. If the team loses, the coach is poor, say the fans. Consequently, the ability to maintain self-control during and after the excitement of a highly competitive contest is not always an easy task”.    

At any level, “coaching is hard”.

In fact, just last week, these were the exact words spoken to me by one of my former college basketball players who is now coaching. He spoke these words immediately following a game his team had won.

It was an expression, I believe, not of frustration or regret, but of the genuine effort, care, and concern it was taking him to invest his energy, passion, and purpose into the lives of the young men he coaches. 

All this being said I don’t want to discourage anyone from going into coaching as a career.

If you firmly believe it is your passion and calling, you will find it a very rewarding and fulfilling profession, as long as you are in it for the right reasons…eternal reasons.

Winning records, championship banners, and conference titles are all so temporal. If your primary reason for coaching is the pursuit of these things, coaching will be especially hard on you.   

These “corruptible crowns” do not endure. The thrill of the moment and the memories of the accomplishment quickly fade.

The eternal impact you make on young lives is what makes coaching little “easier” and well worth it.   

Coaching is not as easy as some of the most high profile coaches make it look. If they were honest with you they would likely tell you the path hasn’t been easy, but has been worth it.  

Worth it through the “hard times” because of a lasting impact and an eternal focus.