March 29, 2021   |   Tagged Coaching,

Coaching During Difficulty

Coaching when life is difficult

Anyone can lead when life is good, but the great leaders and coaches are those who are great during tough times.

Part of the job of a basketball coach is to help students through challenging times. Many coaches make student-athletes worse in crisis. Why? Because they don't know how to comfort their kids who are in pain.

How skilled are you at comforting your team in difficulty? This skill is essential for the modern-day high school and junior high coach. A coach that contributes to athletes’ emotional pain does them a great disservice.

Comfort is not about coddling an athlete or babying them. Comfort needs to be reimagined as it was originally intended—to strengthen greatly. Do you know how to do this?

Ideas for the coach:

• Learn ways to speak that bring healing not division to your team.
• Learn to read the room. Do you know which athletes are in pain and which are not?
• Do you know how to provide research-based help for athletes who are in pain?
• Do you know when you are in pain and how that affects you?
• Can you identify ways you inappropriately try and navigate this pain?
• Where do you go for comfort?
• How effective is this comfort at making you healthier?
• Does your team become stronger in difficulty because of your leadership?
• Would this be verified outside your own opinion or assessment?

Move Kids out of Their Comfort Zone
The quest for personal comfort is a quest of failure. Comfort is a dangerous end game. We must have challenges, struggles, uncertainty to help us grow. A coach needs to create practices, experiences, and scenarios that move students out of their comfort zone.