Qualities of a Winning Coach by Jack Leggett
In putting together my thoughts and ideas about what it takes to be a successful and winning coach, I found it necessary to share with you how it all began for me: My father coached football in high school and college and also had collegiate coaching stints in track, baseball, wrestling and swimming. My mother was the most supportive, competitive fan I know. I also had 3 siblings, 2 brothers and a sister who were all athletic. Our orientation was the athletic environment from day one. As a result of my father’s job, he had the keys to all of the athletic facilities. We had access to the swimming pool, racquetball courts, trampoline, weight room, basketball courts, tennis courts, indoor and outdoor tracks, access to the practice fields, and certainly access to all of the athletic events. During those times, our interest, enthusiasm, and love for sports and competition was cultivated. We traveled as a family from Maine to Massachusetts, then Washington, Oregon, Michigan and Vermont in order to chase the coaching dreams and challenges for my dad. Back in those days, taking your family from the East to the far Western part of the states was a strong indication that no distance could quell the excitement of a coaching challenge and the possibilities of climbing the coaching ranks and gaining coaching experience. It wasn’t a quest for money or fame, but rather a drive to learn, to create opportunities, challenges, experiences and to establish relationships in developing a Team.
The #1 quality that can lead to success and longevity in coaching is PASSION. If an aspiring coach has the passion for teaching, developing players and a team, competing, and for the love of the game, the odds of success and enjoyment are much better. Passion will inspire and drive a coach to continue to learn, grow and develop. Passion will help the coach focus on his job and keep his priorities in order. If you love what you do, the ups and downs won’t kill you. You’ll continually be focused on the relationships created through coaching and allow you to enjoy the winning and better handle the losing days. Passion means love, and a love for the game and the job allows you to attack the day and the challenges while always looking forward to coming to work. A thirst for learning, competition, and developing relationships is the passion that drives you.
Strong communication skills are absolutely essential to the winning coach. A coach must be able to verbalize clearly to his players and his team in moments of victory or defeat. He must be able to relate to his players so that they understand what is expected out of them. His knowledge base can only be passed on to his players and team through clear and precise communication. The confidence and inflection in the coach’s voice, along with his body language, should be able to get the knowledge and message across to the players. I have seen many coaches, athletes and clinic speakers who have great baseball knowledge of their sport but do not have the communication skills to pass it on to those listening. The power of the voice, the timing of the message, and the confidence in which it is delivered determines the value and understanding of the knowledge passed along. Precise and concise communication is essential to being a successful coach. Communication to a receptive audience at the right time is critical. Sometimes the timing after wins, losses, individual successes or failures can determine whether or not the message is received at its optimal level.
A successful coach needs to have a confident and extensive knowledge base for their sport. A clear understanding of the fundamentals of the game is important, and it helps if the coach has a broad knowledge of the skills needed to be successful in the sport. You learn as you go and by trial and error, but you always need to be in the hunt for more knowledge. Gathering skill development drills and drills for technique improvement are essential to extended success. Skills and drills usually evolve and change as time moves on, so it’s very important that the coach is willing to adapt and change when necessary. Gimmicks, trick plays and a reliance on talent can lead you down a short period of success at times, but innovation and the ability to teach the long lasting fundamentals to motivated, talented athletes provides a better chance for long-lasting positive results . I have found that a solid foundation in the fundamentals allows a coach to prepare his team for success for a much longer period of time and allows for the stronger development of the athlete. A strong foundation of fundamentals in a team can overshadow some other inadequacies, and the same is true for an individual athlete. He or she can overcome some deficiencies in strength, size, speed and power with the mastering of strong fundamentals.
Evaluation skills are very important for the winning coach.
They have to be able to evaluate their team and their players to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. Coaches need to continually assess the needs of the players and the team.
Practice schedules and workout routines can then be planned accordingly to improve the players and the team. If the coach is in the college arena, he needs to be able to recruit athletes that will help the team win and have the ability and aptitude to improve. The ability to evaluate when players and teams need rest or need constructive work is necessary for success as well. Coach’s eyes need to be looking and evaluating constantly in order to make good decisions during competition and know when to make strategy and lineup changes. Coach’s eyes need to be constantly scanning their players and the team to assess the needs and get an edge toward winning and improvement.
After constantly evaluating their players and team, a coach must be able to organize practices, drill, and workouts to achieve winning results.
Organized practices achieve efficiency, improvement in the players and team, and utilize time wisely. Players know what they need to accomplish in practice. They know what their schedule is for the week, have a plan in mind coming to practice, and know what they have to accomplish. Disorganization and lack of direction creates confusion, sloppiness, and a lack of discipline, which in effect, creates a losing atmosphere. Organize the year, the schedule, the season, the week, and the day and your players will be more successful and productive. With an organized mind, practice schedule and daily plan, you will have a better chance to win.
Along with organizational skills, you have to have the ability and desire to lead others.
It’s a responsibility that follows you 24/7… Players will look to you in success and especially during adversity. Your words of wisdom in times of stress, failure and success is critical in the development of your team. How you handle yourself with your players, opposing teams, the press and fans will be evaluated constantly. You have to be walking the talk to your team the right way after both losses and wins. Your words and body language will indicate all that you are thinking. They will all follow your lead. Sacrifices will be made along the way to set an example for your players. Your actions and behavior will be emulated by your players, team and fans. It is a very powerful position as many people depend on you, follow you and look up to you. Young people need examples to follow, and the coach is one of the most impressionable people in their lives . You must keep that in mind whenever you talk and whatever you do.
A winning coach also has to set the Goals and parameters for the team and players. Teams and players must know where they are going and how to get there. If they have a clear understanding of the goals, they are much more likely to work hard and follow the rules. The parameters of discipline concerning appearance, dress code, travel behavior, academic expectations, social expectations, and work ethic on the field and in the weight room need to be set so that the players know what is expected. The coach can then do his job without repeating the expectations daily, and the players can practice and play with a clear understanding of what’s expected.
After setting the goals, a coach must establish the Culture. By this, I mean put a brand on your team, emphasizing important issues like the proper discipline, hustle, style of play, enthusiasm, style of practices and energy around the program. Your ability to motivate your players in times of winning, losing and adversity is a necessary attribute. All players need extrinsic motivation to work along with their intrinsic motivation. Pre-game talks, post game talks, individual talks, team talks, and the ability to tailor them to get the most out of the athletes and team is an essential quality of a winning coach. A culture of trust has got to be created in order for these motivational moments to be effective. Most of the lessons taught will be remembered for life, and most of your players will pass them on to others if you’ve made the impression you have hoped for. When players are fighting through adversity, they need you to help with recovery. When they are performing well, they need you to keep them on the right path. The ability to challenge your athletes and your team, regardless of past performances or results, is a great quality. In motivating and challenging your players and team, you must be able to be honest with them. Changes and improvements can only be made by being honest in your evaluations. Teams and players need to know where they stand and what their roles are in order to improve and win together.
Perhaps one of the most important qualities of a coach is his ability to constructively coach and encourage. Both are necessary to bring out the best in the players and team. Players and teams need to be challenged and coached with honest evaluation. The ability to constructively coach in order to improve and to encourage when things are not going as planned are essential.
Handling failure, because it will happen, is necessary for survival in the coaching life. Persistence, fighting through the adversity of winning and losing, social media barrage, or fan displeasure is important to survival. As a coach, your mental toughness will be tested often and will make or break you in this profession. Failure is tough to take. It hurts your pride, and sadly, your results will give fans and outsiders a reason to judge.
Resiliency and your ability to bounce back is a necessary quality of a winner. The toughness to overcome defeat is essential because it will happen. Whether a coach likes it or not, your body language and your poise is being looked at and judged throughout your practices, games, speaking engagements, and the way you handle your players and your team. People can tell, just by looking at you, that you believe you can win or that you’ve lost your confidence in your players or the result of the contest. It is essential that your body language never exhibits defeat, lack of belief, or that you are beat mentally or physically. Your players, fans, and opponents see you. They are watching you. Stay poised. Emotion is a good thing, but you must try to make it a positive vibe as often as possible. There are times where excitement and emotion take over, and when exhibited in the right way, it can portray a feeling of togetherness and fun. Poise leads to good decision-making skills because your mind is calm and confident. To manage a game and decide on strategy and personnel moves, you have to have good game management skills. This comes from inner confidence and the knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of your players, your team and your opponents. Games are won and lost by good decisions and knowing your personnel, your opponent’s personnel, the situations and the game experiences. It helps to surround yourself with good people who have:
● a strong knowledge base, ● experience, and ● confidence.
It has long been said that: you can tell what kind of person you are by the people you surround yourself with . It’s something we all tell our own kids, and you should talk to your players and team about it. But from a coaching standpoint, it always helps to be surrounded by knowledgeable, confident, and loyal assistants and support staff within your organization.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Along with all the qualities mentioned, is the fact that a coach who aspires to win must have a willingness to work hard and work long hours. A strong, persistent work ethic is necessary if you want to coach. Keep in mind that through experience, a winning coach will learn to work smarter, not harder! By putting in quality and productive effort, positive results will come if a coach can develop some of the important qualities mentioned. Enjoy it, and remember, stay balanced, have outside interests, and always believe that coaching is about the relationships created through the hard work and teamwork you experience together. Remain professional in all you do in the face of adversity and when not always getting the outside support you need or want. Budgets are tight, facilities always need work, and sometimes, you really don’t have enough help. So be creative, look on the bright side, and improvise to win. Excuses are not acceptable and not something to lean on. The bottom line is that it’s a results oriented job. Everyone cares about the score. Everyone knows how to coach, especially after the game is over! So enjoy the “dance” as Garth Brooks says, because wins and losses are fleeting… the journey is the reward!
For more from Coach Leggett, visit
JackLeggett.com