1st
impressions……..making LASTING impressions
As I enter my 19th year of coaching, I find
myself STILL excited about another Fall semester rolling around and the
challenges it will present. Looking back
I have to smile to think how far I have come both professionally and personally
and what a journey it has been. Recently
I was asked to share some thoughts about women in our field. What I’m going to talk about is basically 2
things that I think are vital in our profession….making good 1st
impressions and making lasting impressions.
I think that when we chose to get into this profession we
also signed ourselves up for being role models to athletes (both our own
athletes, and other athletes at our school).
I think we have an obligation to model what we expect our athletes to
be….strong, powerful and fit. When I 1st
starting coaching, I coached football as well as my teams. Football was a great motivation to me to
truly gain the respect of those athletes.
They were “respectful” of me because I was a coach, but I think most of
them thought they knew more about lifting than I did and therefore didn’t
really respect my coaching ability. As
silly as it sounds my thought process to fix this was “I am going to getting
bigger and stronger so they are confident in my ability to give a solid lift
out or a spot”. The harder I worked out,
the more muscle I built, the “smarter” I became in their eyes. Soon they were asking me for technical advice
on lifts or asking me about supplements.
They were no longer viewing me as a female, but simply as a coach who
loved the iron and who was bringing it day in and day out…the same that I was
asking of them. All I am trying to illustrate is that your
physical stature can impact how your athletes view you. Take a long look in the mirror and honestly
answer the question “if I was an athlete, would I trust this person to lead me
down the path of greatness?”
The other thing I want to touch on is making lasting
impressions with your athletes. I am a
“tough love” kind of coach. I want
things done a certain way, if they aren’t, then we keep doing it til it is
right. If an athlete or a team messes
up, we deal with it immediately and sometimes harshly, but then it is forgiven
and we move on. I hold my athletes
accountable for working hard, having a good attitude, being respectful of all
coaches and each other regardless of the whether they like the workout or not,
what kind of day they have had, etc. I
am also their number one fan…..no one is more excited when they hit a PR in the
weight room or do something spectacular on the field/court or even if it’s just
getting some well-earned playing time. I
treat all my athletes the same, whether they are a returning all-american or a
walk-on that is a practice player. There
have been times that I have jumped on kids and in hind sight maybe it was
either too harsh or unwarranted…..and I have always brought them into my office
and looked them in the eye and apologized.
I follow that up by also apologizing to the team and let them know that
I messed up and “owned” it publically.
Bottom line, if you have structure and discipline along with respect and
enthusiasm for your athletes, I think you are setting them up a great college
experience….and I guarantee that when they look back, YOU will have made a
lasting impression.
Unrelenting……ray
