What Is Your Coaching Philosophy?

Aware of it or not, we all have a coaching philosophy. We base this philosophy on our experiences (directly or indirectly) in a particular sport, on our knowledge of a sport and on our own personal values and beliefs. Developing a coaching philosophy requires that you be able to assess your own strengths and weaknesses, be clear on what you perceive your role as a coach to be, and think about the impact you would like to have on the young athletes you coach--not only for the season, but for future personal growth.

So what is your coaching philosophy? The answer to this question lies in what type of playing environment you want to create for your young athletes. At 1st and Goals, our coaching philosophy is centered around the concepts of Leadership, Teambuilding and Communication. Because these are the primary building blocks of our program, we will go into more depth on each concept in future posts. And we will talk about how each helps us develop the physical and mental skills of every young athlete we work with; and how each is aimed at promoting team success.

But this does not mean that our focus is on winning--our focus is on creating an environment that gives our players opportunities for developing their physical and mental skills and gives our team the best possible chance of success. At 1st and Goals, you'll never hear us talk about a need to win. You will, however, hear us talk about preparing to win and playing to win (keeping in mind that winning doesn't necessarily reflect what's on the scoreboard). With this philosophy, winning becomes the fruit of our efforts and not the focus of our efforts. This philosophy is also a key factor in motivating players and in building positive relationships with them--getting to know who they are, why they want to play football and what they want to achieve throughout the season and beyond.

We understand that coaching youth sports is a volunteer effort and that coaches have limited time frames to work with. We also know that many youth sports coaches question the long-term impact they can have on young athletes in a short period of time; because of this, many coaches spend too much time on transitory outcomes. We're here to tell you that you can have a huge impact on the athletes you coach. If you develop a coaching philosophy that promotes Leadership, Teambuilding and Communication, don't be surprised when, 10 years from now, you are approached by a young man or woman thanking you for teaching them how to play a sport and how to succeed in life. It doesn't get any better than that.

What is your coaching philosophy?