10 TIPS TO BE A GREAT COACH (PART 1)

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We all think we’d know what to do if we had a talented athlete in our care, until we actually do. We all think that we have the insight, as we were good athletes ourselves and if we’d been handled a little differently we would have made it.“I could’a been a contender, a somebody. I could’a had class…”. There is a good reason that Brando’s speech from the film On The Waterfront is so famous, apart from the genius of the acting writing and directing in that marvellous movie, it strikes a chord in many of us. We the unknowns, the ones who didn’t get their shot. Let’s face it that’s why many of us got into personal training or coaching in the first place, we think we could be the coach or the parent that we never had. That we wouldn’t make the mistakes that were made with us.Let me tell you this I had the chance to coach a gifted kid who shall remain nameless, and my mistakes were worse than any that were made with me. Not because I was dumber than my dad or any coach that I ever had or because I was less informed, or for any other reason other than the fact that I knew a great deal about the sport I was coaching, but little or nothing about all the other elements that are needed from diet to psychology, to realise potential. This the key point because that’s the best you can hope to do as a coach, and all you can do, is help to realise a kids potential, (the emphasis on help!).Jose Mourinio the Chelsea football coach says his main concern in life and in coaching is to surround himself with love, thats what he wants to cultivate in players. He tries to instil in everyone connected to him with a love of the game and loyalty within the team player for player and player for club, and also for their fans and the manager which he gives in return. This makes sense to me so that’s where we will start, love.

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1 Tough love:It should be made abundantly clear to every athlete what is required of them. They should not be indulged or given privileges because of the very fact of their being a potential sports professional. A disproportionate value is ascribed to the capacity to manipulate various round objects or bodies around various arenas with a specialised aplomb. Any value that the young athlete ascribes to their ability should be put into context, it isn’t brain surgery. They are not, with very few exceptions, important political and historical figures such as Muhammed Ali or Jesse Owens. They have to realise their place in the world and we should look to Tony Nadal, Rapheal Nadal’s uncle and coach for this example. Rafa was singled out by his uncle for special treatment when he younger. He treated him harshly making him pick up other kids balls at the end of sessions, and often sending him home crying after he’d been marked out for particular criticism. It was his uncles contention that Rafa’s superior talent required a stricter regime than other lesser lights. Even now he is somewhat denigrating in interviews suggestive of the fact that being a tennis player is no greater a profession than a plumber, on the contrary that it is less useful and that Rafa should keep this in mind. Witness the sense of entitlement that many an average professional player radiates and compare them to Nadal, not every player will be as humble but every player should have perspective. The all blacks management has insisted on imposing this kind of discipline on the players even to the extent that they sweep the changing rooms after training. The results speak for themselves. Better people make better teams.

Steve Hanson All Blacks Coach Instills humility among his players. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

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2 Supplements:Read everything by Patrick Holford that you can get your hands on. Not only is he the most comprehensive writer about diet and nutrition that I have come across, he also has a unique view of how to optimise health that crosses disciplines. On supplements he cuts through the misinformation that is fed through the media by interested parties, namely the drug companies, that don’t want us relying on cheap supplements and herbs for augmenting our health, but who wish us to become increasingly reliant on a widening array of expensive drugs. Many of these drugs are not needed as a much safer counterpart vitamin or supplement could be used. Not that every athlete needs drugs or supplements but there is a case to be made for vitamin, mineral and herb use in general to optimise an athlete’s health. Also do not confuse herbalism and homeopathy. Homeopathy is by and large nonsense whereas the efficacy of many plants and herbs in the treatment of inflammation and disease is well documented.

Patrick Holford Expert in Nutrition Supplements

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3 Yoga:Every athlete should be taught yoga. For a number of reasons. Yoga is a great tool for improving balance, emotional control, physical efficiency along with improving sleep patterns. There are any number of studies that prove its utility but the number one benefit for the athlete is it improves the neuromatrix, the brain-body link. The balancing requirement of the discipline exponentially increases the data the brain receives as to the body’s ongoing physical disposition. It improves the brains knowledge of the body because the brain receives an increased amount of information from the sensory receptors in the joints and muscles during yoga.

All Athletes should do yoga.

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The Very Talented Gareth Bale of Wales. Why was he a full back until he was in his twenties

4 Proprioception and kinaesthetic awareness:You’ve either got it or you haven’t. We’ll have you or haven’t you got it, talent I mean. What does that actually mean anyway talent? Let’s put it this way the constituents of talent given a base level of athletic ability can obviously be worked on. Not everyone is a Maradona or a Messi or Pele all of who were great at an early age. Some acquire greatness. Bergkamp for example, could we really say he was born great? Though not at the level of those mentioned above I think we can reserve a particular kind of admiration for him because of his imagination on the pitch. His work ethic was second to none. Obviously predisposition counts for much in sport as in life, but we should always be suspicious of any kind of determinism. People develop different aspects of ability at different ages and it’s very easy to pigeonhole individuals wrongly, planting a seed in their minds as to their limitations. Did every coach get it right with Gareth Bale? Why was he then a full back until he was in his twenties? It took a coach like Harry Redknapp to think outside of the box and move him to the wing. They even made the mistake of undervaluing his successor Andros Townsend. It was only due to his strength of mind enduring all those loan spells that he persevered and got his England chance. So it can’t all be in the genes as we have the same number of genes as rice, (that’s right rice not mice!) I suspect that much of the ability that we now view as God given is more down to application in the right environment, in developing kinaesthetic awareness and improving proprioception through correct training. Though I doubt we will ever produce another Maradona as we are probably a thousand years away from completely understanding how the human will influences development and performance.

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5 Metaphor and analogy:

Metaphor and analogy: if you want to be a great coach you have to be able to tell your athlete what they need to know in any number of ways. If you have children and are reading this you probably know how many times and ways you have to tell a child how to do something before it sinks in. A hundred maybe? Whisper it, it’s the same for adults! Only you can’t tell them the same things the same way all the time, they switch off! Especially if you can’t tell them what you just told them in an entertaining, analogous way. (As long as you don’t talk about feeding monkeys in reference to black athletes as the England manager Roy Hodgson recently did. Inadvertently offending one individual as the analogy was not in any way framed in a racist context). You have to be a bit of a storyteller, a blagger if you will, or if your not your assistant has to be. This is where imagination comes into coaching and it’s a key feature. Variety is not the only reason you have to have this facility. You need it because you are sometimes explaining difficult concepts to individuals who are often, whisper it again, challenged educationally for whatever reason. (Usually this is because they or their parents have neglected the need for education at some point and been consumed by their sporting ambition). We are all prone to the influence of the ‘halo effect’ this where it’s possible to have an almost mystical belief in the abilities of athletic or attractive people particularly tall people. This effect can be seen in the amount of respect afforded some celebrities who’s behaviour is mimicked by the public. They can issue all sorts of advice on issues they are simply not qualified in or even informed about and that advice, for instance on diets, will be followed. Because of this effect athletes, having become so closely identified with their chosen sport that they neglect their education, can still be viewed as having a level of knowledge or competence in other areas that they simply don’t possess

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5 Metaphor and analogy:

It’s worth pointing out to both the kids and their parents the bewildering stats on the number of successful athletes that go broke after their careers are over because they are not educated enough to manage their financial affairs. 78 per cent of NFL players file for bankruptcy for instance two years after their last game. Over indulging the athletes sense of worth and competence in the real world induces a loss of perspective. Often they don’t take advice because they think they have special ability outside their own discipline, even in the financial world. Coaches are not responsible for the entire welfare of their charges but they can help to form an accurate picture of what will be required from an athlete before, during and after their career to fulfil and protect themselves. As coaches through experience and education should know the pitfalls. It is part of the coaches brief not just to educate inside their discipline but also to instil in the athlete the understanding that there is a need for education outside of their chosen sport. To do so they have to be creative descriptively in relating difficult concepts to young uninitiated people, which will in turn help to inform in general their capacity to interact with the broader world. Its not enough for a top level coach to just know how to coach he will have to life coach to some degree to get the best out of an individual. Finally its worth mentioning to any sport obsessed kid or parent for that matter, that it was the Athens the state that championed all learning who defeated the Spartans who knew only the art of war.The next five will be next weeks blog as this blog is getting a bit too long. Some of the items we will cover then will be…Parental input for athletes, diet, social anxiety in young athletes, coaches dealing with governing bodies in relevant sport, graduated programs and discipline. By Danny Horgan,Co-Founder and Director of NU Gym

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By Danny HorganCo- Founder of NU GymIf your looking for a good place to start using technology with your teams and player please look at our products page on Football Coaches and Clubs

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