- Allow them to talk you into compromising the training.
Reality: You can't compromise your way to great.
- Allow them to overcome your willingness to coach with their unwillingness to learn. (Keep talking, keep teaching, and keep trying.)
Reality: It's the thousandth time you say something that it may penetrate. Don't quit on 999.
- Fall into the trap of trying to make them "feel better" after a swim in which they did not perform correctly.
Reality: Young people need "truth tellers" - not people who know how to blow smoke at them. Tell them where they are, and what they need to get better. They need coaching, not just kind words. Tell them how to get BETTER; don't just commiserate. Be direct and blunt in your assessments. The feather touch does not create change.
- Coach for the short-term reward rather than the long term good of the athlete. Allow parent pressure to influence you in this regard.
Reality: if we all 'coach as if the child will be with us forever", then all the children will be well cared for.
- Fail to get the athlete's parents educated on the sport. Nothing will fail faster than undereducated sport parents.
Reality: Take the time to educate parents. It will pay off!
- Worry about "getting speed" into the 10 and under athlete. (11 and 12 athlete, 13 and 14 athlete). Endurance based training has a 60 year history of success. But you want to be an experiment. Ho ho ho. You'll look like Santa Claus, of course "bringing more for less work", but then a day of reckoning will show up around age 13-15.
Reality: our goal should be speed at later mature ages. To do so requires endurance based training. Give it to them.
- Argue with the athletes parents about what diet the child should be on. Or whether they should go to church on Sunday or not. Or whether a family vacation is more important than the Fairport "A" meet.
Reality: How would you like every parent on your team to provide his/her input on your training plans? They have parental areas, and you have coaching areas. Allow them domain over their areas. Discuss the "gray areas" with the child's best interests at heart.
- Fail to "Listen" to…the athlete…the parent… other coaches…. just fail to listen, period.
Reality: You can only learn with your mouth shut. Seek to understand first, and then be understood. (Apologies to Steven Covey).
- Copy someone else's coaching.
Reality: You can try. Most fail. Develop your own style.
- Reinvent the wheel and fail to learn from anyone who coached in the 60 years of age group swimming before you started.
Reality: Honor all that has been learned about age group swimming before you came on the scene by learning about it. Learn from experience, your own and that of other coaches.
Top Ten Things Coaches Do to Sabotage Their Athletes - Page 4
(written with tongue firmly in cheek)
And finally, the Top Ten Things Coaches Do to Sabotage their athletes…(by accident, by accident!)
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