*DISCLAIMER...I wrote this article August 2015 on my old blog site & am now reposting it!*
With social media driving the population, it is hard to go a day without seeing someone post about an accomplishment, award or job they reached or earned. There is no problem with this, and people should be proud and post accomplishments.
However, despite living in a society that encourages honesty and humility, I believe that people, especially young people are not so fast to admit their mistakes. This could not be more true than in the work place. No person wants to admit to making mistakes in the workplace, for fear they will be judged for "not knowing how to do their job" and this is especially true for young graduates or people entering their first jobs.
Helpful hint: the sooner you realize you will make many, many, many mistakes in every aspect of your whole life, the sooner you will be able to address, prevent and not feel sorry about making one every now and again. This post is geared towards celebrating 5 things (Positives) I think I have done well in my first year of coaching, as well as 5 mistakes I believe I have made (probably have made more). My first coaching position was with a modified soccer team and currently I am a strength and conditioning coach for Penfield High School as well as for Next Level S&C.
(These are written in no specific order)
"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes". -John Wooden
POSITIVE #1-GETTING CLOSE WITH PARENTS
There are many domains to coaching, and a great majority goes past the field or weight room. By having positive relationships with kids, I have been able to meet some great parents and learn from them about the kids I coach. In addition, this helps tremendously with kids "buying in" when their parents & I have a connection.
MISTAKE #1-COMING UNPREPARED
When I got hired as a soccer coach, it was very last minute and as my first coaching position I too, was very last minute. With no coaching experience, handling 20-23 7th-8th grade kids at once by yourself needed better organizing & planning on my part. It's not just about the practice plans, but documents, health forms, making sure kids had rides home. It turned a 1.5 hour a day job into a 3 hour job all while commuting and taking classes. A positive I take from this is that now I prepare everything I do in advanced.
POSITIVE #2-INSTALL HUMOR DAILY
I think coaches, educators etc... forget how big of a role humor plays in development, trust, buy in and relationships. Look at Brett Favre, and every teammate and coach would say he was funny. I think coaches assume the hard styled/boss type role too much and in my short experience all I see is athletes afraid or hating their coaches. There comes time when you have to be serious and get to work, but if you can't loosen up as coach and learn to crack jokes, you should not be coaching.
MISTAKE #2- WENT A DAY OR TWO WITHOUT LEARNING
This honestly should be #1 if I was doing an order. There have been times I have went a day or two without reading/learning, and to me that is a mistake. Yes, I learn everyday in my own experience but if I am not learning from others as well, I am not getting as good as I can. I believe EVERYONE, despite their field should read an hour a day on material related to their field. For me, that can be any thing from anatomy & physiology, to programming and training but also coaching and wellness. I think any book can relate to coaching if read well enough. Regardless, everyday we should read, and I have made great efforts to learn daily outside my own experiences.
POSITIVE #3- REDUCED THE LIKELIHOOD OF INJURY
As a strength coach, my physical goals in training are to #1 cause no harm #2 reduce the likelihood of injury & #3 Improve performance (Thanks Boyle). With that said, in my experience with modified soccer and with training teams I have had only had one reported non contact injuries that have taken place in a practice or a training session in the weight room. The injuries that took place was a rolled ankle in a divot (got to love modified fields). I have had some contact injuries in games and practice which I am honestly OK with considering soccer is a contact sport and injury is a part of the game. I recently had two college athletes text me stating that they are of the few freshman who have not been injured yet in preseason. If I can help play a role in reducing injury, I have done my job well in my eyes.
MISTAKE #3-TRYING TO PERFECT EVERYTHING
I might get some flock and disagreement with this but after reading Mike Boyle's work, I agree with him that we need to focus on being a 90% people. Driven people who always strive to give 100-110% on everything often get caught up in that last 10% and never get anything finished. I will always strive to give a quality product or service but the fact of the matter is I used to obsess in the little 10% things that do not matter. For example in writing blogs, I got caught up trying to absolutely perfect, (Grammar, sentence structure etc..) and it made the task much harder and longer than it needed to be.. At the end of the day I am a S & C coach, not a paid writer. Get to the point, don't worry about the little things as much. With school, reading, writing, coaching, commuting, and trying to be healthy physically and socially myself, I have to limit the things that wont matter as much and focus on the "meat" so more can get accomplished.
"Remember, for a true hunred-percent person, a ninety-percent person still gets an A". -Mike Boyle
POSITIVE# 4-BEING RELENTLESS
May 2014
Graduated Plattsburgh with a degree in Criminal Justice/Minor in psych
May 2014
What the heck am I going to do? Wasnt content with my degree/career choice.
June 2014
Applied to Brockport State College-Kinesiology
August-2014
Started classes in a field I knew very little about besides the old traditional programs anyone could make up. (Bodybuilder? Powerlifter? Ahhh Strength coach!)
August 2014-August 2015
Busted my butt, learned a crap ton of science, became a soccer coach, learned some more, networked, talked to every single professor (barely did this at Plattsburgh), got some luck along the way, became a strength and conditioning coach at Penfield HS & Next Level S&C, worked three jobs to pay for school & much more. Bottom line, don't let time and the amount of work get in your way of reaching goals.
MISTAKE#4- WAITING SO LONG TO WRITE THIS
Its great to reflect on accomplishments but better to analyze mistakes. One thing I take from writing this is to continue to evaluate what I do. Can't over-analyze every single thing, but owing up to mistakes and how to improve drives us to improvement.
One year down...much more to learn, much more to accomplish. Stay Driven!