Coaches Who Wear The 'Tough Guy' Hat On The Surface Never Make An Impact That Travels Beneath It
It's the vulnerable, relatable coaches who are the most impactful.
“The coaches who put on the ‘tough guy’ facade are usually the weakest ones.
It’s the venerable, relatable coaches who don’t mask or run from the mental/emotional aspects of athletic development who are the strongest.
Consequently, they are the most impactful, too.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I can promise you one thing about coaching.
The kids and their parents don’t give 1/3 of a single iota about how tough you think you are.
Do you have the skillset to help my child develop?
Do you have the social/emotional agility to connect and relate to him or her so that you can get through to them?
Are you a generally kind person who cares about the kids on and (especially) off the field so that you can give them something constructive to take with them when their playing days come to an end? Do you consistently prove that? Or just say that’s what you’ll do when it looks good to say it?
Those are the things people care about, or at least what they should care about.
And the reason is because when you’re coaching anything, it’s not actually about what you’re coaching.
Of course, if you coach baseball you need to know baseball.
The same is true for every other sport and/or physical discipline out there.
But guess what.
Sports have finite windows.
This is true for the kid whose days come to an end after the 8th grade and the man or woman whose day comes to an end after their 38th birthday.
Unless something tragic happens, the fact of the matter is every person on earth is going to be playing “life” a hell of a lot longer than they play sports.
So, if we know this to be true, would it not be wise to prioritize, not the “sport” per se, but the lessons IN sport that translate to the real world?
We’re doing a hell of a job of baking all the life parallels out of sport, from building camaraderie within a community of like-minded individuals and dealing with/overcoming adversity with the same band as we quickly encourage the sprint to perceived greener grass the second a “better” opportunity presents itself.
If you want to be a difference maker in their lives, I mean a REAL difference maker, it is critical to understand the landscape, level with them, and coach with a BIG picture POV.
I mean get into the shit with them.
Be tough on the surface all you want, but your impact will never travel beneath it.
