"Soft skills" matter. Ability to communicate, inspire, teach, and have empathy while cultivating relationships separate coaches.
My wife and I celebrated our fortieth anniversary in York, Maine dining with my high school basketball coach Sonny Lane and his wife, Paula. Effective coaches and teachers often form enduring bonds with students and their families.
Those bonds form not only in the crucible of technique, tactics, execution, and shared sacrifice. We build them on the foundation of what we learn about economics (allocation of limited resources), politics (how we resolve conflict over earning and sharing power), and sociology (structure and function of society).
Economics inserts itself broadly in allocation of practice activities, playing time, and sometimes in budgeting.
Former House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill said, "all politics is local." We inhabit shared islands with players, families, administrators, and the community. Politics impacts team selection, allocation of playing time, scheduling, participation fees, team rules, playing conditions (signs, pep bands) and even health care. We are not tinpot dictators.
En route to selection for the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, Coach Lane survived an investigation about playing time and the importance of winning in high school orchestrated by a local politician. This occurred just three years after a championship football team was rewarded by a trip to Bermuda!
To varying degrees, we are immersed in race and culture wars, gender issues, and socioeconomic struggles. Bullying and cancel culture aren't just phrases. What happens when your player can't come to a game because she has to work to help provide for the family? Has a private school chanted to your players "you can't read."
Society and community may tell us, "shut up and coach." As a middle school coach, I'm not invested in political or religious education. But I share stories about leadership and women's empowerment. The girls learn about Arlene Blum leading an expedition to climb Annapurna, Francis Perkins, the first woman to hold a cabinet post, or Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the Bowdoin professor turned Congressional Medal of Honor winner (above). Famously asked how a rhetoric professor became a war hero, he answered, "I can learn."
We aren't isolated or immune from society or its criticism. That makes 'cultural literacy' another tool in our coaching toolbox.
Summary:
- Soft skills matter
- Enduring bonds form in a complex crucible.
- We use economics, economics, and sociology in our daily work.
- "All politics is local."
- We are immersed in race and culture wars" whether we like it or not.
- "Shut up and coach?"
Lagniappe (something extra). Study how great players get advantage.
