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Coaching is cool, especially for me. I'm not a natural athlete, either. The things I do well in athletic endeavors are because I worked to *learn* how to do them; there was no instinctual reaction force that gave me the ability to do them. I've coached baseball and softball (both fast- and slow-pitch, men's teams, women's teams, girls' teams, and mixed adults), soccer, tennis and bowling. With baseball and softball, I had *some* natural ability, I guess, but never star quality in any particular skill. Soccer and tennis are perhaps the oddest possible thing for me to coach, with tennis being the absolute oddest. I'm slow of foot - very - and since I never even picked up a tennis racket until I was in my 30s, the kindest thing one can say about my swing is that it would look decent on a baseball/softball diamond
In both soccer and tennis, though, I could watch the players as they practiced or played, and see exactly what they needed to do differently to be successful... and then show them, in slow motion, what that was. I can hit a killer topspin backhand standing in one spot and having the ball gently fed to me exactly where I want it so that I can take a moderately paced swing to show a player how to do it. But put me in a match, and I'm SOL on just about anything I have to hit a backhand on, unless it's not got much pace and bounces at least waist-high. Then I can cut the hell out of it... in effect, a backhand drop shot that really pisses people off. I'm also hell for opponents at the net in doubles, since I'm 6'3" and have looooong arms and quick hands... I could poach a lot, and catch a lot of shots that were intended to be passing shots.
Soccer was much the same. If I had to run half the length of the field, dribbling and/or passing, and then take a shot, I'd be lucky if it didn't end up behind me. Feed me a shot where I want it, though, and I could curl it either direction (*and* up or down) with either foot.
My greatest skills as a soccer/tennis coach involved those types of things in a practice setting, and in watching both my players and the opponents during matches, and guiding my players to take advantage of their strengths against the weaknesses of the opposition. We beat a lot of players and teams with better technical skills simply because we had better strategies to cope with those skills and maximize our own.
My greatest pleasure as a coach, though, was not winning per se. It was seeing my players grow, both as athletes and as human beings. That's why I much preferred coaching adolescents over adults. I could make more of a difference in their lives. One thing I always told my players - and meant - was that I didn't care what they did as individuals, stats-wise. What I cared about was that they performed as part of the team, because it was a team sport, and the team won or lost, not the individual. If I couldn't teach them anything else (and some of my players were superb athletes that I could offer next to nothing in terms of physical skills), I wanted to teach them that if you play on a team, only what happens to the team is important. Personal accomplishments are nice, but if they don't contribute to the team's accomplishments... <shrug> who cares? When I saw a strong player get her head out of her egotistical ass and voluntarily start helping weaker players improve their skills, for the sake of the team... that's when I knew I had succeeded with that player.
Some people, no matter how mad their skills are, just don't have the capability of transferring the knowledge of how to exploit those skills. Others, with lesser skills, can.Thanks for that SW! Coaching is a wild thing. I had a world class dirtbiker who tried teaching me some basic stuff and I just couldn't get it, then this mediocre rider took me aside one day and pointed out a few things I was doing wrong and how to fix them - my riding skills improved a hundred percent in one day.
Yep, alla time. What I did depended on the circumstances.I'm curious, did you ever have a player that was just really, really bad at the sport, no matter how much coaching she received? If so, what did you do?
After 1 year and 5 months of hard work, I weighed in today and found out that I am finally no longer obese. With a BMI of under 30, I am considered overweight now. I have 30 pounds to go to a healthy BMI and 40-45 to achieve my tentative goal. I'll be talking to my doctor this week to determine the recommended weight for me, but I can take pride in what I've accomplished so far.
i made homemade lemonade!
made with splenda so that i can drink it without freaking out my blood sugar and insulin.
its yummy yummy yummy
I make it out by the curb so I can sell it. I love lemonade stands, and still stop whenever I pass one while driving through a residential neighborhood.I made iced tea today. I sweeten it with Splenda by the glass as I make it. I so miss sweet southern tea, but Splenda takes some of the ache away. I haven't made lemonade yet this summer, but I should. How'd you make yours?
After 1 year and 5 months of hard work, I weighed in today and found out that I am finally no longer obese. With a BMI of under 30, I am considered overweight now. I have 30 pounds to go to a healthy BMI and 40-45 to achieve my tentative goal. I'll be talking to my doctor this week to determine the recommended weight for me, but I can take pride in what I've accomplished so far.
I made iced tea today. I sweeten it with Splenda by the glass as I make it. I so miss sweet southern tea, but Splenda takes some of the ache away. I haven't made lemonade yet this summer, but I should. How'd you make yours?
1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He
acquired his size from too much pi.
Grooooooannnnn...1....safe sects.