Know Your Strengths As A Coach

Let me share something with hat could really change your coaching.

It’s not strategy or X’s and O’s per se, but for some it could be. It’s not scouting or player development, but again, for some it may be this too.

The one thing that most coaches overlook is knowing what they are naturally great at.

Golfer Greg Norman once said, “Know your strengths and take advantage of them…”

Too much of the time we focus on someone else’s strengths or our weaknesses. We have to stop doing this to be great at coaching.

Here are some of the strengths I’ve seen in coaches:

For some coaches their strength is building players confidence. This may be done through drills, but more than anything it’s the way that a coach talks to players and gets them to believe in themselves.

Other coaches are tremendous at analytics of the game. They can take a concept or stat and break it down in less time and with more accuracy than most other coaches.

And yes, some coaches strengths are in understanding the game, but this is something they learned over time and not something that was innate within them. Their innate strength may have been their focus, attention to detail, willingness to learn, or bringing people together.

The problem I see with most coaches is that they focus so much on what they don’t know or didn’t think of first that they miss out on what makes them a great coach – the stuff they are naturally gifted in.

One time I had a coach tell me I was a great offensive mind. Uhhh… I think he was just trying to get on my good side. I think I have a decent understanding of offense but there are a lot of coaches who know offense better than me. The reason I think this coach said this was because my teams tend to execute our offense pretty well. I keep things simple, focus on what works, but my strength is… drum role please… I get players to believe in what we do.

My strength isn’t in offense or defense, my strength is in building a team that believes in what we do.

I’ve seen coaches who are great at taking the complex and making it simple. Others have the gift of motivation and can get players to try harder than they ever thought they could. And still, other coaches are so organized that they make use of every possible minute in their practice plan. Each strength makes that coach incredible if they tap into it and use it fully.

My challenge for you today is to stop looking for what you’re not good at or what someone on social media says you should be good at and start to focus on what really can make a significant difference… what you are naturally good, maybe even great at.

If you have an area you’d like to improve on that’s great. Go learn a strategy or drill and get better in that area, but don’t lose sight of what makes you great.