I COACH...SO YOU DON'T HAVE
TO
Playing
Favorites
By JOHN LEONARD
Executive Director
American Swimming Coaches Association
One
day a few years ago, a club board member accused me of "having
favorites" on our club team. Several other parent board
members nodded their heads in agreement. The implication was that this was a
terrible sin. When I was a younger coach, I thought it was terrible also.
And he was right. I did have favorites. My favorites were
those athletes who most fervently did what I asked of them. Those that did,
I gave more attention to. I talked to them more. I spent more time teaching
them. I also expected more of them.
The
implication that he was making was that my favorites got
better than the others because they were my favorites,
and that was somehow unfair. He mistook cause for effect.
The
fact is, that the athletes who came to me ready to learn, ready to listen,
ready to act on what they learned and try it my way, even if it was more
challenging, more difficult than they imagined, were ready to get more out
of our program. And they were my favorites.
As
a coach, I have only one thing to offer to an athlete. That is, my
attention. Which means that I attend to their needs. The reward for good
behavior should be attention . . . attending to their needs. The consequence
of inattention, lack of effort, unwillingness or unreadiness to learn or
just plain offensive or disruptive behavior is my inattention to that
athlete.
How
could it be other than this? If you have three children, and you spend all
of your time and energy work working with the one that is badly behaved,
what does that tell your other two children? It tells them that to capture
your attention, they should behave badly. What we reward, is what we get.
As
a coach, I want athletes who are eager to learn eager to experiment to
improve, eager to work hard. I want athletes who come to me to help develop
their skills both mental and physical, and are willing to accept what I have
to offer. Otherwise, why have they come to me. And I am going to reward that
athlete with my attention. In so doing, I encourage others to become like
the athlete above. If I spent my time with the unwilling, the slothful, the
disruptive, I would only be encouraging that behavior.
The
link I want to forge is between attention and excellence. Excellence in the
sense of achieving all that is possible, and desired. My way of forging
that, is to provide my attention to those who "attend" to me. This does of
course result in increased performance for those that do so. I am a
professional coach, and when I pay attention to a person, that person is
going to improve. Over time, this makes it appear that my "favorites" are
the better swimmers. Not so at all. The better swimmers are those that pay
attention, and thus become my
favorites.
What the parents didn’t realize is that you must have favorites if anyone is
to develop in a positive fashion. The coach’s job is to reward those who
exhibit positive developmental behaviors. Those are my "favorites,"
and they should be.
|