#6- Coaching

Coaching. What is a team without a coach? What is life without organization? What is learning without teaching? What is discipline without rules? Coaches are the head of the team. The reason for the team. Our lacrosse coach is in charge of making plays for us, putting us in our right positions, organizing practice, etc. He is the reason are team comes together and can learn to work together. The coach sees things from the sideline of games that players don't. He can point out your flaws and weaknesses so you can work on them and he can also point out your strengths so you can emphasize them. Bob Naradelli said this, "I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, will never reach their full potential." Coaching is no easy task. In a world today, coaching is crucial to young kids just learning to play a sport and take in those wins and losses. It is hard because no matter what you do you will not please every player or every parent. Coaches have to have the patience and compassion to deal with all the politics in sports as well. An article in the New York Times by David Bernstein says this about coaching, “Coaches can be enormously influential in the lives of children. If you ask a random group of adults to recall something of significance that happened in their fourth or fifth grade classroom, many will draw a blank. But ask about a sports memory from childhood and you’re likely to hear about a game winning hit, or a dropped pass, that, decades later, can still elicit emotion. The meaning that coaches or parents help young people derive from such moments can shape their lives. But today’s youth coaches often struggle to provide sound, evidence-based, and age-appropriate guidance to players. Part of the problem is that of the 2.5 million American adults who serve as volunteer coaches for youth sports less than 10 percent receive any formal training. Most become coaches because their kid is on the team ― and they basically improvise. I did this in soccer and, through my over-eagerness, almost destroyed my then-6-year-old son’s delight for the game." This part of the article talks about how coaches have such an impact on young youth. There is a lot of pressure to know what to say to young kids in those crucial learning moments. Even now, I as a senior in high school, look up to my coach and his integrity. Our coach always respected us as players, and with that we needed to show respect to him in return. He also taught us how important sportsmanship is. No one likes to play against a dirty team with no mercy. We've been in the situation where we are losing so bad to a team and they just keep scoring on us and running all over us, it is no fun. But we have also been in those situations where we are the ones that are dominating the other team, and our coach pulls us aside an makes us play fair and smart and kind to the other team. I have always respected him for that and have learned how to treat other teams how I would want to be treated. What are some other things that make a great coach? A great coach is a valuable commodity. At any level, from that of our youth to national teams, a great coach can be the difference between disappointing performance and the highest levels of success. A great coach also guides athletes to better lives off the field, and serves as another type of educator in life. While the players on the field and other support staff are obviously extremely important, the role of the coach, whether they be the head honcho or a volunteer assistant, cannot be overlooked. So what makes a great coach, and is there anything that makes someone a great coach within the sport of lacrosse? Well, here’s the kicker… let’s just get it out of the way now: A great coach in lacrosse is probably going to be a great coach in any other sport, and vice versa. Coaching is only tangentially about Xs and Os. It’s much more about the players on the field, and how they feel.” (https://laxallstars.com/what-makes-a-great-coach/)