You will experience both comfortable and uncomfortable situations throughout your entire life. It’s human nature to strive for placing ourselves in comfortable situations, but uncomfortable situations are the key to growth. This is where you’ll experience unpleasant feelings, worries, difficulty, and uncertainty. These feelings won’t stick with you forever, but the discipline you gain from working through the uncomfortable situation will. You will never grow personally and professionally if only experience comfort. Uncomfortable situations are where you’ll gain expertise and learn discipline.
Early on in your strength and conditioning career, you’ll most likely accept unpaid internships. This can lead to a certain level of discomfort because you’re putting your time and resources towards something for no monetary gain. This feeling of financial discomfort is the key to your continued growth. I experienced this same discomfort at the end of my college junior year when I realized my goal of becoming a collegiate strength and conditioning coach. The discomfort started when I moved 12 hours away to a place I had never been for a collegiate strength and conditioning internship. I didn’t know a single person. I wasn’t being paid. I had to move into an apartment with people I had never met before where I later found a bedbug infestation in my room. This experience was no where near easy, but it did force me into a series of uncomfortable events that lead to a more disciplined way of coaching and living. This discipline made me into the coach I am today.
Another sure-fire way to gain discipline is by coaching a variety of sports with male and female athletes. I’ve coached everything from woman’s volleyball to men’s wrestling and it’s taught me to think quick on my feet and adjust techniques. One of the great things about this field is the ability to create programing in a multitude of ways. The key to success is stepping out of your comfort zone to learn new information that will better your team and expand your coaching abilities.
Dealing with uncomfortable situations in your career aren’t the only experiences that will lead to growth. Similar situations in your personal life will also shape what type of coach you will be. The main personal experience for me was the death of my father. I lost him during my freshman year of college. My father was there to support me at sporting events and always offered advice when it came to football and wrestling techniques. Losing him meant that I had to grow up fast and develop a discipline that is oftentimes only learned from a father. This is one of the main reasons I believe wholeheartedly that discipline is an essential trait you must form as a coach.
Discipline is a word you’ll hear often if you’re an athlete on my team. From moving to a different state, to coaching a new sport, or trying a new strength routine, they all require discipline. These can all turn into uncomfortable situations which will force you to grow. These situations are all a part of the bigger picture. When hard times come and adversity strikes, you won’t give up. You’ll chose the best solution, not just the easy one. These hard times will not only come during the season, but also in the offseason where you can assist your athletes in growing stronger and better.
Building this strong foundation in the offseason is not easy for coaches or athletes. There will be early mornings that consist of brutal workouts followed by late nights. Your body will be uncomfortable, and your mind will beg to slip into a complacent mode, but that’s not where growth happens. You must have the discipline physically and mentally to stay dedicated to individual and team growth. This is where exponential gains are made and how you will prepare for the season’s stressors. Through discipline and growth, your athletes will become more engrained as a team.
Your next challenge is helping your athletes to realize discipline is not a punishment, but rather a shift in behavior. The recipe for discipline as a collegiate athlete isn’t complicated. Set your goals and figure out what actions are going to help you reach those goals. Two things to remind your team of is that lack of sleep and filling your body with the wrong fuel won’t assist them in achieving goals. This will lead to decreased performance and leave you wondering why you would minimize your performance just to be like everyone else.
You will encounter many challenging situations in your life and if you handle them correctly you will leave them as a more disciplined coach. Show your team what discipline looks like and that in turn will lead them to trust you. Each athlete will leave a more disciplined version of themselves and in turn a higher performing athlete. Hold them all to this standard and the art of discipline will spread throughout the team.
Isaiah Myers
Associate Athletic Performance Coach
UNC Pembroke