Coaches worry about what we can't control. That might include talent (not everyone can recruit), health (my best player missed the last season), and players' choices. High school and college coaches lose players to academic ineligibility, alcohol and drug abuse, and varieties of misconduct. Trying to be players' keepers can be a fool's errand.
Coaches worry about what we CAN control. We choose when to practice, how to practice, style of play, the technique and tactics (strategy) implemented. Will the players have the will and the skill to represent the program well?
But we can't worry enough about the relationships on the team - player to player, player-coach, and coach-coach. And we may not worry enough about how coaching impacts our families and our health. We can't take care of our teams if we aren't personally well and grounded at home.
Coaches worry about social media, the courage of anonymity willing to second guess and third guess every action. We worry about players using "Snapface" inappropriately. We concern ourselves with online bullying.
Some coaches worry about poachers, the unseen and unheard predators using influence and money to siphon talented young people from our program to theirs. It happens all the time. "Why play for them when you can play for us?"
Coaches are itinerant workers. "Job security" has the permanence of dry ice. The Japanese have an expression, "ladders against the clouds".
Then why coach? Because it's the greatest job in the world...teacher, student, mentor, sin-eater, leader, competitor.
Some coaches worry about poachers, the unseen and unheard predators using influence and money to siphon talented young people from our program to theirs. It happens all the time. "Why play for them when you can play for us?"
Coaches are itinerant workers. "Job security" has the permanence of dry ice. The Japanese have an expression, "ladders against the clouds".
Then why coach? Because it's the greatest job in the world...teacher, student, mentor, sin-eater, leader, competitor.
