As a coach, my mission is simple—make kids coachable. However, as the red squiggly line beneath the word I write reminds me, many dictionaries don’t recognize coachable as a word, but coaches do. In 2002 research, coaches from a variety of competitive levels (e.g. youth, high school, college, etc.) ranked coachability as one of the top three characteristics they desired in an athlete. Of a long list of choices, it was third behind a love of the game, and a positive attitude. While an athlete’s coachability is considered a commodity in the coaching ranks, few coaches walk onto the field ready to inspire it within their players. While comprehensive coaching programs exist to help remind coaches of their roles, the fact of the matter is, there is a high turnover rate in youth sports coaching. This is something that inhibits coaches’ ability to develop players’ coachability and possibly the reason its importance has yet to be defined. In order to define coachability, we must turn to those who exhibit it in excess, top athletes. Coaches describe them as, “Inquisitive”, “Attentive to instruction”, “Trusting of coaches”, “Willing to change”, “Teachable” and “Open.”
Where does coachability come from? As a sports parent, you would expect it to come from a coach. However, as volunteer youth sports coaches come and go where then does the foundational responsibility lie? With you. Athlete or not, you play an important role in the athletic development and skill improvement of your child. Many of the coachable characteristics top players demonstrate are more coached at home than they are at practice. There are specific developmental considerations you should keep in mind. Teach your child the values of responsibility, accountability, what it means to improve and how to transfer practiced successes into competition. What this does is helps develop your child’s emotional maturity, something many athletes lack but top athletes’ radiate.
Motivation is another area that plays a vital role in athletic success. Top athletes exhibit drive, commitment, determination, confidence and competitiveness. As a youth sports coach, I have found the development of these qualities directly relates to how much fun and enjoyment your child is getting out of his or her sports experience. As a sports parent, be careful at how much weight you put on building competitiveness in the early years.
Competitiveness, predictably, is a characteristic of top athletes. However, a 2001 study done on Olympic champions reported that there was an initial stage in the early years of athletic development that all 10 athletes reported to exist. In this first stage the research reports, “…the athlete developed a love for the sport, had a great deal of fun, received encouragement from significant others, was free to explore the activity, and achieved a good deal of success. Parents also instilled the value of hard work and doing this well during the early years.” Two stages followed, the precision stage and the elite years. Here, players work with a master coach or teacher and practiced until they achieved technical mastery and a level of excellence in their skill development. While the focus on competitiveness was definitely a part of the latter two stages, parents in the early phase, “…focused on their child’s happiness, a balance of fun and development, and the general developmental benefits of participation. While there was some emphasis on winning and success, these were not the predominant objectives of participation.”
Success models success and while few children will become Olympic champions, a champion in their own right often starts with the right sports parenting formula. Remember the characteristics and definitions of coachability as you watch your child grow and develop athletically. If at any point you see a red squiggly line indicating they are not the definition of coachable take appropriate action to change this. Their early athletic success in the eyes of a coach very much depend on you. See you in class.
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