When You Coach, You End Up Coaching Yourself

How Coaching Helps You Learn a Little About Yourself

Being a future teacher and all, I thought that being called “Mr.” for the first time was the weirdest thing ever, turns out, no it is actually coach.

I have become an assistant coach for my local high school basketball team, and without hours, the things I have learned about myself have been incredible.

Having to trust yourself into a leadership role can be extremely hard, and a little bit scary. However, the best things in life start with a little leap of faith and belief within yourself.

So, that is the first thing that I learned. If you feel uncomfortable about, but know you should do it, don’t let fear stop you.

You are going to make mistakes if you are new to something, and that is fine, but learning is almost all of the fun.

When you learn, you discover little pieces of yourself that you can add on to your self image. You gain a little more confidence because you realize that you can make things happen if you approach it with a pep in your step.

Being in a leadership role such as a coach is, you are also required to make decisions and calls.

Being thrown into the fire, admittedly I have made mistakes, and as I keep growing and learning about how to be a better coach, I will continue to make those mistakes.

When you make these mistakes, you learn what not to do, and you learn where to adjust and improve. Coaching helps you make these mistakes because you are required to make decisions. You can’t just be indifferent; you either sink of swim.

Lastly, coaching has taught me that you must bring a certain attitude towards each and every interaction with your players.

You can’t be an effective leader if your mind is not completely on trying to get your players or students better. If you give them a half hearted lesson, you will only see half-hearted results.

Understand that there are people in the world who are looking at you to lead them to help them get better. If you are responsible to these people, then you must take action and be strong for them. You must put your best foot forward and show that you are someone they can get behind, and someone that they can trust.

When you allow fail yourself on this, everyone else around you fails too. Don’t give in, be strong, and be there for the people that you care about, regardless if they are your players or not.

My advice to everyone is to find a leadership role that to thurst. It is going to be uncomfortable, but eventually the massive value that you get out of it will help you grow as an individual person.

And why wouldn’t you want to be even better?