My second daughter and I started coaching Jr. Jazz basketball this year. My youngest is on a 5th/6th grade girls team and the Rec Center needed coaches. The last few years I've always hesitated to volunteer for coaching for one reason or another but this year I decided to go for it. I'm not a basketball player. I played with neighborhood kids growing up but there were no rules and it was more like football/basketball. My daughter that's coaching played one year with the Jr. Jazz league and learned a lot. But neither one of us have coached basketball before. Our six-girl team is made up of very new girls where the majority of them have never played or have very little experience. We were able to have one practice before the first game last Saturday. We failed miserably. The other team, like a well oiled machine, were running us back and forth across the court and it was a sad, sad game. But we were able to list the improvements that needed to be made and started addressing those issues at the next practice.
If any of you have been to these Rec league games, you'll notice the parents. More specifically, the parents who think they know all there is to know about sports and think their child is the next Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. In actuality, their child needs just as much work as the brand new person on the team. These parents are barking orders and side coaching during the game. And you see the stress it has on the child. We had one such person at our game last week and in the fourth quarter, that one girl with the wanna-be coach parent was pouting on the bench. She had had enough and she had given up. Not something a coach wants to see.
The first practice we held after that sad game, I gathered the girls around for their pep talk. And this is what I said: "This is the only time I will EVER tell you to do something like this. When we are playing our game on Saturdays, you are NOT to listen to your parents or whoever is there supporting you. You are to sit with the team at all times and ignore all voices except the coaches. Is that understood?" The girls smiled and nodded affirmation. This same training was shown in the movie,
Race, about track and field star Jesse Owens. The football team at the college strolls into the locker room and while they are yelling for the coach and track stars to leave, the coach is yelling over their voices to teach Jesse that no matter what the crowd says or how loud they get, he should only listen for his coaches voice. Nothing and no one else should get through his concentration. Let's see if the girls follow these instructions in our next game on Saturday.
How many of us are like those parents in the stands trying to coach from the sidelines? Let me tell you, it's not easy being in the coach's seat. Anyone can coach from the stands. Heck, I've done that in the past. I do that now when I watch football. But how many of us can see what other people should be doing in their lives yet we can't see what our own future should be like? How many of us shy away from being in that hot seat when it comes to major and career exploration yet we can call out from the sidelines all kinds of advice and suggestions to everyone else? What would it take to get you from being the "sideline coach" to the actual coach and start taking control of the game (ie. your life)? What tools do you need to become a better coach in your own life so you can tune out the other voices around you and focus on what would make the best YOU?
Salt Lake Community College is a great team. It's an awesome team. And we work together to teach you how to play, how to learn, how to grow. We also teach you skills that will help you throughout your life. One of those skills is taking the initiative to start researching your major and career path. We have our #100daysSLCC campaign that uses social media and guides you through the major and career exploration process. We have career assessments that can help you discover your personality and your interests so you can narrow down your scope of career paths. We have a free online course that can help you work through the exploration process because it takes time.
The time to sit in that coach's seat is NOW. Tune out the people in the stands. Listen to your fellow coaches (ie. advisors). Take advantage of the tools that will guide you to the winners circle. It's not too late.
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