Tears of a Coach

As a player on a sports team you see the game (whatever game it may be) in the first person, you're right there in the heat of battle making the mistakes yourself and you (for the most part) control your own destiny. The youth today has changed so much even from when i was a kid. It might be due to the fact that I'm a young coach and therefore come off as inexperienced and therefore not as smart as a parent who coaches. However you would think that after several years of proving yourself to a team with the knowledge you have acquired over a career and the freshness this has from happening less than a decade ago, that these kids would just trust you.

As a Parent (or fan) of a player on a sports team you see the game in the third person, the luxury of being able to sit in the stands and say what you would have done is nice. I know being a husky fan and questioning willingham for years, but after being a coach and experiencing a practice where you work on something so hard and you tell the kids exactly what it is they need to do and then they go out and don't do it, weather it's from their parents telling them it's not important or a lack of execution really is one of the most frustrating things in the world.

As a coach of a team (no matter what kind of team) you see the game from (what i made up) the second person, you're like the composer of a symphony. You control the outcome (somewhat) but not the individual performances. it is your responsibility to prepare your team for the upcoming task at hand. Weather that be mentally, physically or a mixture of both it is your job to maximize the potential of those who look to you for guidance. it is also your job to take responsibility when those kids don't execute and your team loses.

As someone who has been in all three situations i would like to take a second to point out the overlap of all three. As a player it is your responsibility to play your hardest and do whatever it takes for the team to succeed. As a parent (or fan) it is your responsibility to provide your athlete with the tools needed for success (i.e. a ride, proper guidance to listen to their coach... etc.) and to cheer them on, not tell them what they did wrong, not tell them what to do during halftime. As a coach it is your job to prepare your team to succeed, by developing a game plan, by getting your team in the correct mental state and by being a leader when its time for the game to take place.

As a coach i would never ask a kid to do something that would be detrimental to them, as a player i would never think twice when a coach asked me to do something and as a fan or parent (not a parent yet) i vow to never second guess a coach, player or team due simply to the fact that as fans and parents we don't know what goes on in practice or in the huddle of a game therefore who are we to judge?

Moral of the story:

"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."
- Wayne Dyer