Coaching Is Not Just For Athletes

The definition of coach (according to my google search) is to guide or instruct a team or person. 

I am a big believer in the power of coaching and I am a product of great coaching, who has seen first hand what can be accomplished when there is someone guiding me.  In my opinion coach and teacher are synonyms.  However, the true meaning of coaching comes out during the evaluation and assessment period. It is during these times that I believe we can learn a lot from athletic coaches. Parents, teachers and administrators can all use the principals of coaching to help teach those around them. 

As a coach and a teacher, my goal is to help my players/students strengthen their current skills and to teach them new ones. All skills are learned and mastered through hard work and repetition. The key to practice is that we have to be practicing correctly. If I only practice how to write with my right hand, I am never going to learn how to write with my left hand. Also, if I am practicing something incorrectly, I am going to master it incorrectly. The role of a coach is to guide us through these practices so we can learn how to perform the skill correctly.  During practice it is vital that feedback is given routinely. Feedback cannot be a once a week/month or year type of thing. During the learning phase it is vital that positive feedback is given so we know how we are progressing. 

I believe the true power of coaching lays in the fact that it's not about if you fail, it's about the process of learning and mastering new skills.  During the learning process we often learn many ways how not to be successful before we master the concept correctly. This is not failing, this is learning. Humans would never learn anything if we gave up after one unsuccessful attempt. 

As a basketball coach we are working as a team towards the same goals of learning the skills and knowledge of the game. How effective would it be if we practiced or had games everyday and once a month I sat down with each player and told them everything they were doing wrong?  I believe this would turn out horribly, yet we continually do this with evaluations on our staff and assessments on our students.  As teachers, we need to give continual feedback to our students.

My goal as a teacher is to help all of my students be successful as individuals.  This requires me to lead and guide each student through their individual learning journey.  It is time consuming and challenging, but I believe there is great power in the coaching model.