Knowledge of the game
is very important. You don’t need to be a great player to be a great coach. It
has been proved that some of the best coaches in the game have not necessarily
been the best players. John Madden, the celebrated NFL coach never played a single
game of professional football; Sven Goran Eriksson was not a great soccer
player and John Buchanan had not played more than 7 first class matches. What
all these people have in common is an in depth knowledge an understanding of
the game. They all have this ability to observe and absorb. Recognize, Analyze
and Strategize, and this things come with experience. They did not become a top
coach overnight, but spent years in the sidelines before they moved into
coaching a top team.
The coach need to
recognize the team’s strengths and weaknesses and work on them, just as he
works on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Modern coaching has also
involved the use of technology to capture ball by ball data and digital video
to study these attributes and the coach shouldn’t shun away from them.
No matter how good a
coach is, sometimes they do need assistance and they have to acknowledge and
act on it. You may need a specialist coach to help in a certain aspect of the
game and the coach shouldn’t let ego get in the way of several assistant coaches. You have a
defensive coach, an offensive coach and a special teams coach. Even the
quarterback and wide receiver have their own special coaches.
Excellent
Communication Skills
The coach needs to
communicate with his players effectively. This not only means how to articulate
what he expects of his players and explain what they need to do, but to also listen
to them and act as their counsel. This is an area where a foreign coach many
have problems with Malaysian players in general.
Good communication with
the player alone is not enough. The coach also needs to establish a good
communication and rapport with all parties that involve directly with their
sports. More than anyone else, the coach should know what kind of information shouldn’t
leave the dressing room. A coach’s unhappiness over the selection and his
personal opinion of some players is certainly not one that should leave the confines
of the dressing room.
The players need to
recognize that the coach is working for the greater good of the team and the
advice he gives is for the improvement of the individual player. The
recognition comes with trust and trust is gained by winning games and getting
the right result. If the team isn’t winning, then the coach needs to instill
team spirit and self belief so that they can start winning. Trust creates a
sense of community and makes it easier for people to work together.
It takes a lot more to
gain someone’s trust than to loose it. If Greg Chappell had expressed his
opinion to the players directly behind closed doors, he would have still had
the trust of his players, but by taking it directly into the media, he has made
the coach-player relationship vary fragile.
A Clear and Target
A coach should be able
to create a strong vision. He should be able to set clear goals for the team
and individual players. The coach should also be flexible. He should be
flexible enough to try something else. The modern coach has to have the ability
to think outside the box. He shouldn’t be afraid to rock the boat if that is
what it takes to get it to an even keel.
- Respectful
- Patient
- Assertive
- Supportive
- Enthusiastic
