If you were a coach, what kind of coach would you be? Why?

Bologo

Bologo

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Alright, so here's another thread to bring up some good discussion.

The focus question here is "What kind of coach would you be, and why?" A coach, in my mind, is defined as anyone who acts as a teacher of anything. It can be sports, school, the army, etc.

Now, the question is not "what would you coach".

What I mean by the kind of coach you would be, is what kind personality-wise? For instance, how would you treat your sports team or class or something? How would you motivate them? How would you discipline them? Would you care if the less talented people stayed on the team/class/whatever?

Basically, there are 5 different styles of coaching (I'll put what I remember from my Kin class and a coaching website I visited):

Authoritarian
  • Very strict
  • Punish frequently
  • A personality to handle being "hated" in order to have respect
Easy-Going
  • Casual/submissive
  • Give the impression of not being very serious
Business-like
  • Not very people-oriented
  • Like to see 100% effort at all times
Nice Guy/Gal
  • Personable and co-operative, but may get taken advantage of by team members
  • Get on well with members that can relate to them, and who are self-disciplined
Intense
  • Easily transmit anxiety through their uptight attitude
  • Focus on the quality of their performance
  • May alienate easy-going players
Now, each kind of coach is good for different people, each with their own pros and cons. However, it's not usually the case where you see someone who fits only one of these styles.

I'm now going to answer my own question just so you guys can see what I actually mean by it:

The kind of coach that I would be is a mixed bag. I would treat my students fairly, but I'd also like to be tough. I don't believe that I would have it in me to constantly be punishing players like an authoritarian-type, or intense-type coach, but I would demand respect by just showing that I'm better at the subject than my students. I would motivate my students by showing them that having goals in life do not come just because you want them to. I would suggest to them to use positive self-talk when feeling low, because having a goal won't do anything if you can't convince yourself that you can do it. However, when you truly feel motivated to do something, it becomes a lot easier to learn, and you feel rewarded. I could not bring myself to tell a student to get out of my class if they were simply not good enough, because I feel that there's an emerald deep inside every field of gravel, and nothing motivates a student more than knowing that they can actually do it. However, if it's impossible to motivate them, I refuse to waste more time than the student in trying to get them motivated. I would not tell them to get out, but they can leave if they want, because effort is important.

Yeah, so that's my answer from what I can think of.

Alright, so what kind of coach would you be, and why? Let's hear what you have to say. :]
 
I think my personality would fall under two of the catagories, them being 'Authoritarian' and 'Intense'. I'd want to get the best out of my players, and I believe for that to be fullfilled you must put pressure on your tutees in order to shape them up to achieve their goal. You won't have any interuptions, violations or childish attitudes around when you're a ruthless and demanding coach. Don't get me wrong, though, as I believe that a change in character is required for private conversations between two adults when the sessions are over. I'd want to build a relationship between my tutees so we could deal with any non-related issues to the Football/Wrestling team (whatever coach you are).
 
Ahahahah. I am actually in one of these positions (section leader for marching band).

I would call myself one of the worst people to choose for this job. I am a mix of Casual and Nice Guy. Some background info: of the people I am in charge of three of them outright outrank me and two others are seniors, while I'm a junior. Add to this the facts that I am the only junior, we have no sophomores, and I am in charge of only two freshmen, you can see why my strategy actually works.

At any point, I can use the people who outrank me to threaten my point. This is because we have been together for the last two years and pretty much all agree with each other. There's also the point that the two seniors were in my position last year and are pretty much self-motivated. I really don't have to do any "leading" outside of the paperwork that comes with the role.

Now, I know this is actually a very rare case. Usually, a group will have a trouble maker and people who don't get along. I am spared these troubles, which I believe I would be ill-suited to handle. This pretty much means I don't get to work on those issues or see how I actually function as a leader.

And I'm going to end here because I have no clue where to go next.
 
Where's the inspirational option? Those are the kind of coaches that I work best under. Just seeing their passion for what they're doing is usually enough to get me kicked into action like none other. So, I'd say that this is the kind of coach I would be.

I guess I have my cross country coach to thank for this. He was so strategic about the scores and our training. He was like a 3rd grandpa to me, always telling us stories from past teams and the insurmountable odds that they overcame. He'd show up to practice some days and tell us how he couldn't sleep and had to get up and crunch the numbers on the score and hand us layouts of scores that we could attain to get the win.

In short, aside from my running know-how and competitive drive, I think that my blind passion for my sport would really get through to kids.
 
Authoritarian/Intense/Business-like.

I demand excellence from everyone I'm around, including myself. So I would just find it hard to allow mediocrity in the people I was coaching. I would not tolerate messing around when there's important business to be done, or distractions that have nothing to do with the issue.

My philosophy is that if you want to become better at anything, you have to work for it, and I would demand that people constantly improve, thus, they would have to work for it.
 
I would say my leadership style changes with the people that I am leading. I try to be easy going and very laid-back. However there are situations when it was necessary for me to be more intense and business-like (section leader in band two years ago). I generally find that the whole good cop/bad cop thing can work if you start out very authoritarian in the beggining, but ease into a lighter leadership role as the people you are leading learn to become more self-motivated and accustom to the system. Again I think different people respond to different leadership styles and its important to understand how to get the best out of people.
 
I think I would be a nice guy with a touch of authoritarian, which is basically describing my favorite coach. I think it is very important to like your coach, and be able to talk to them about whatever you need to, but that doesn't mean quality is not still important. Being a coach is really about getting the best out of the athlete, and I believe in order for somebody to do their best, they have to be comfortable with their coach and have some confidence in their abilities. Also, like mgoblue909 said, it's pretty subjective based on the individual you are coaching. While self-motivated people may just need some guidance and leadership, less focused people may need some strict rules in place.

and I would be a swimming and water polo coach because... those are the sports i do.
 
I would have to say I would be a pretty tough coach. I play high school basketball and know how my coach treats me but I think i would change some things.

I would be intense and a tough coach, always pushing my players to the limit. Asking them to leave it all on the court, but at the same time let them know I am pushing them to try to help them be the very best. I would criticize them, and yet praise them as well. Not sure if you guys know exactly what I mean but I tried my best to explain it.
 
I would like to think I would adapt to the needs of my team. Ideally, I would like to think I would just let them do their work, and help them whenever they needed help. But obviously if you are coaching small children that isnt gonna work.

So you firstly need to look at what your situation demands, so imo coming in with a preconceived notion of what a good coach should be can hurt you. But then again, very few people are likely to be able to change themselves in that way. I would probably struggle to present myself as an authoritarian figure, but I would definitely be able to pull it off to some degree. I mean it's not really hard to say "hey, if x then y" and then just stick to it.

The only thing I would say, that a coach needs to be as much a source of motivation as a teacher, in pretty much any situation. The hard part is working out how to do that, without coming across as being patronising or without scaring people off.

Have a nice day.
 
I think I would probably be Intense and Businesslike

I would want my players to acheive the best results they possibly could. At the end of the day, you're their coach, not their friend so you should try to put results before fun. On the other hand, a coach needs to be approachable so I'd try not to go too far, and to praise more than I critisise.
 
I don't really like teaching things, but I guess I would be Nice Guy/Intense.

I would want my students to feel like they can approach me about anything, not just what I'm teaching them. On the other hand, I am a very competitive/stubborn person, and I, along with my students, would love to see amazing results. If coaching a sports, I'd probably just remind them that at the end of today, all of the pain would be gone, but come tomorrow, the results would shine brighter then ever. The main thing is effort though.
 
I would be the nice guy.

I just understand that caring for my players would be much more important then the result of the game. My baseball coach is alot like this, he'll sacrafice alot to cover our backs. Lol one time he got ejected for covering our guy for sliding hard into 2nd.
 
I would actually try to be like my dad who has had amazing success as a football coach. He has always been very tough and commands respect above all else. He also puts talent up on his list. He would always take a person with more talent who may not know tactics and strategy quite as well as another kid because he believes you can always teach strategy to someone with raw talent but it's very tough to teach talent. But he's also very approachable. Like I said he coaches varsity high school football(head coach) and he offers to take players to combines or colleges and actually today he was taking two players to WVU for a combine. There has always been a strong relationship between him and his players. Like what FiveKRunner said before you have to have a passion for what your coaching or there's no reason to. That's really the kind of coach I want to be. My baseball all-star coach had a great quote last year making sure we give it our best, "As long as you don't get in trouble I don't care what you do this weekend(we were at a tournament), but in between these white lines it's business." So I guess Business + Casual + Intense. BTW I would be a football or baseball coach.
 
I would be like the coach in Bad News Bears. Nah, just kidding, I would be like Emilio Estevez in Mighty Ducks and Mighty Ducks 2 but not Mighty Ducks 3 because he abandoned them to the dog-eat-dog world of a prep school junior varsity hockey team, and I would not abandon my team, not for anything.
 
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