A Coach’s Playlist
1. “ Teach Your Children”—Crosby, Stills and Nash
A coach has to be good at lots of things. Scheduling, strategizing, organizing, motivating, fundraising…the spectrum is wide and the expectations are high. But the most important thing a coach will ever do is teach. That’s the job, though it’s easy to get tricked into thinking there are more important things (like winning). Teach. Find ways to help others learn. Be innovative. Stay relevant. Teach well. That’s the heart of the position, regardless of how the job description reads. The other stuff is just window dressing.
2. “Hold on Loosely”—38 Special
Squeezing produces exceptional results with toothpaste, and sponges and lemons. But it’s the nemesis of performers. When singers force notes, they go sharp. When golfers squeeze their driver, they slice. And anybody who has ever shot a basketball knows that when a shooter tries to make the ball go in, it does everything but that. The harder we try to control a thing, the less it has room to be. Especially slippery things, like teams. Individuals bound together by a cause outside themselves beg for soft hands and gentle grips, and space enough to become. Like a fisherman’s thumb on the line as it spins around the reel, “lightly”, my dad used to say. “Press Lightly”.
3. “Don’t Fight It”—Kenny Loggins
Instead of wrestling with it, use it. Whatever the ‘it’ is. Today’s athletes have grown up in a video world. They’ve been socialized by a screen through the stimulation of short, quick messaging, and they’re drawn to the medium, addicted to it even. They consume what they see. So while technology might not be a coach’s forte, using it can lead to buried treasure. It’s the vein that lets you in. A lot of things that at first may appear as roadblocks might actually be on ramps, if we turn our heads just so. While fighting might be the instinctual response, it’s not always the best use of energy. The fight is best saved for the opponent. Why squander it on other things?
4. “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” --Journey
No matter how dire things might become, coaches must believe. Ted Lasso has helped with this. He’s given the time worn foundational pillar a scrub and a new set of clothes. But every coach everywhere understands that of all the things you can do, this is the one thing you can never stop doing. Belief is the juice that makes sports the siren song of the world. And no one is more responsible for spewing it than the person wearing the whistle around his neck. Coaches have to see what the rest of the world can’t. Possibility. Potential. A road in the dark that is overgrown with brush. Vince Lombardi said, “Winning is an all-the-time-thing”. Well, believing is, too. And it comes first.
5. “Follow Your Arrow”—Kasey Musgraves
“Be who you is” used to be part of the OC Cage Camp mantra. “Be who you is ‘cause if you ain’t who you is, you is who you ain’t”. Authentic coaches carve out credible paths. Ones players can see. And they need the clarity. Teams need to know where they’re trying to go and how they’re supposed to get there, and they see that best when their leader is most wholly who he is. It can be tempting to take some detours. The world is a noisy, bossy place that gets its kicks out of telling people who and what to be. But a good coach knows his path and the arc it traces. And he follows it wherever it goes.
It sounds trite. Even soft and ethereal. Like a thing a church greeter is supposed to be. But being a light is not for the faint of heart. Light does a bunch of really hard things. It carries energy and momentum. It creates colors when it hits glass. It reaches depths we can’t imagine and goes at speeds we can’t comprehend. Light is a worker, a life source. It transforms and changes things. The work a coach is born to do. Light illuminates and galvanizes, and without it, things don’t grow. Light is also hopeful. And alluring….just turn one on at night and see what all the bugs do. A coach who chooses to shine provides sustenance to those around him and possibility to those afar. A leader has no more important job.
7. “Give a Little Bit”—Supertramp
Give, without expecting in return. Give to your players. Give to your staff. Help them, push them, stretch them, make them better. Give to your school and your community and your state and your fan base. And give to your peers. Yeah, even those guys, the ones you chase relentlessly under the lights on Friday nights. Give of yourself. Not just of your time or your wisdom or your expertise. Give pieces of you. It won’t diminish who you are even if the pieces get broken or stepped on. What you give away always scatters seeds and comes back to you multifold. Give and watch the cup keep refilling.
What a challenge this is for coaches whose DNA is stamped with never quit. But pausing shouldn’t ever be confused with giving up. Sometimes situations just need time. Sometimes people do, too. And even though doing nothing runs counter to everything a coach may feel, sometimes nothing is the best thing you can do. A lot finds its way on its own.
9. “ Love the One You’re With”—Stephen Sills
It’s sure easy sometimes to wish you had the other guy’s guys. You know the ones. The fast ones, the super tall ones, the strong ones that seem to make all the plays. Or to yearn for the next guys or the last guys, the former having unproven potential, the latter having a nostalgic glow. The best thing you can do for your team, however, is love them. The ones you have right now. Warts and all. Appreciate what they can do, help them reach what they’re capable of, and sidestep bemoaning them for all that they are not.
10. “Take It to the limit”—The Eagles
Could a coach have a better theme song? Always and without question, run for the fence. Go as hard as you can, as fast as you can, as far as you can. A coach’s finish line is somewhere far on the other side of the tape. He is bound for the outer edges of things. Because for a coach, success isn’t about just being better than the other guy, it’s about stretching the best of yourself.
Sherri Coale
P.S.