1: Inspires Self Realization

As a coach, your job is to help the team members believe in themselves and consistently perform beyond their own expectations. To help them reach their full potential, you must motivate the players to think outside of their mental comfort zones. A good coach knows how to motivate athletes without using negative reinforcement, which can achieve short-term results but eventually does more harm than good.

2: Teaches Transferable Skills

To coach effectively, your lessons should apply to life as well as the game. This means teaching more than game-related skills. Every challenge presents opportunities to provide life lessons. This requires careful consideration of the messages that you relay. By providing relevant and nonjudgmental critiques, you can build the players’ self-esteem while providing valuable guidance. You can accomplish this by paying close attention to their statements and actions, verbally clarifying the responses and providing affirmative feedback.

3: Envisions the Big Picture

Exceptional coaches understand that player development is more important than personal career growth. As such, you should view your particular arena as a classroom. In the classroom, you are teaching your students skills that will help them achieve excellence by competing and winning in challenging environments. It is your job to instill your passion and commitment into the players, who expect this from you to motivate them towards victory.

4: Views Players as Individuals

A competent coach understands that the players possess individual characteristics. Understanding them takes time and dedication, which will show with your ability to relate to each teammate and maximize their performance, especially during difficult times. Great coaching requires a deep connection that only comes with trust and the team members accepting you as their leader.

5: Provides Personal Guidance

Excellent coaching requires the ability to treat athletes as more than sports figures. You must have a genuine concern for the players’ personal lives, rather than viewing outside influences as distractions. These occurrences present additional opportunities to reinforce learning. During these challenges, your actions may not align with moving the team toward victory, but you must place the players’ well-being before the game.

6: Able to Adapt

To coach effectively, you must adapt to changes quickly and understand that your team members will sometimes struggle to comprehend lessons. When this happens, it is important to understand the underlying reasons that the players did not recognize what you want to relate. Trying to force an individual to grasp a concept is counterproductive. Instead, you must open up a two-way dialogue to discover what the player is misinterpreting. With enough inquiry, they will eventually realize the insight that you seek to impart.

7: Can Relate with Players

Coaching requires excellent communication skills, which begins with mutual respect. If you have true concern for your team, you can often understand what the players are expressing, despite what they may actually say or do. However, occasions do arise where the team members have difficulty expressing an idea. When this occurs, you should listen carefully, then repeat – in your own words – what you believe they are attempting to express. By initiating a reciprocal dialogue, you can help your players overcome learning obstacles.