Current motivation
It's really hard to believe but we're back into the winter phase of our training. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I was writing this as a coach for Lake Oswego, preparing to work with the teams during our winter training. Now that I'm at Willamette, it's hands off till spring. It's a different sort of feeling and while I'd like to be able to work with the athletes, they are college students and their maturity level is greater than that of a junior and it's easier to lay out the positive and negative path ahead of them regarding training.
And I speak wrongly about that path. It is neither a positive or negative in the terms of good and bad but in terms of being able to do something in the spring or not. It can't necessarily be a negative, just an understanding that without a serious commitment to staying in shape and improving fitness over the winter, the ceiling for the spring is that much lower. It is not a negative that someone doesn't work out as much as you'd like them to. Why? Because their goals and your goals aren't matching. As a coach you can only coach a team as far as it wants to go and if they want to go far they will do what it takes to get there and if they don't then they won't. It isn't a negative that they don't want to go as far as you'd like; it is their choice and you must respect and work with that. Trust me, trying to push harder or further than that simply frustrates you and alienates them from you because they know you don't believe in them - their goals.
It's taken me some time to understand that and to buy into something that I tell my athletes at the beginning of the year:
How far we go is up to them. I have the tools that I feel they need to be able to achieve great things but it is up to them to use them. We can do many things or we can do nothing. We can do it this year, or there is always next year.
It may seem like a negative or defeatist attitude but it's not. It's realistic. Be realistic with your teams. Talk with them and find out where they want to go. You can't afford to be cut throat all the time. Some times you simply have to take what they want to do and shelve the ideas for another team or another time. The silver lining to coaching is knowing that you can try again next year. Usually.
And I speak wrongly about that path. It is neither a positive or negative in the terms of good and bad but in terms of being able to do something in the spring or not. It can't necessarily be a negative, just an understanding that without a serious commitment to staying in shape and improving fitness over the winter, the ceiling for the spring is that much lower. It is not a negative that someone doesn't work out as much as you'd like them to. Why? Because their goals and your goals aren't matching. As a coach you can only coach a team as far as it wants to go and if they want to go far they will do what it takes to get there and if they don't then they won't. It isn't a negative that they don't want to go as far as you'd like; it is their choice and you must respect and work with that. Trust me, trying to push harder or further than that simply frustrates you and alienates them from you because they know you don't believe in them - their goals.
It's taken me some time to understand that and to buy into something that I tell my athletes at the beginning of the year:
How far we go is up to them. I have the tools that I feel they need to be able to achieve great things but it is up to them to use them. We can do many things or we can do nothing. We can do it this year, or there is always next year.
It may seem like a negative or defeatist attitude but it's not. It's realistic. Be realistic with your teams. Talk with them and find out where they want to go. You can't afford to be cut throat all the time. Some times you simply have to take what they want to do and shelve the ideas for another team or another time. The silver lining to coaching is knowing that you can try again next year. Usually.
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