Today’s article is so important for any young strength coach and really any strength coach to read. Investment in coaches to make them great to so important!! Coach Zach Higgins is as good a coach as there is and a great mentor to upcoming coaches!
Being a young strength coach I am constantly evaluating myself, pursuing knowledge and looking for ways to develop. I often ask the question, what do I need to do to get better? I have been blessed and fortunate enough to have great mentors help me answer these questions and invest time into me as a young professional.
Building relationships: At some point in your life there has been someone who has invested in and cultivated your growth as an individual. As a former student athlete at Michigan State University, no one invested in relationships and the development of student athletes like Coach Ken Mannie. Coach Mannie was exceptional at building relationships and fostering growth with athletes. He invested time in nurturing the development of young people. He wanted to make sure people were great husbands/wives, fathers/mothers, and sons/daughters. Above and beyond the field of play, Coach Mannie cared about you as a person. Relationships act as a gateway into the life of our athletes. I can remember going into Coach Mannie’s office after I found out I was not going to play football anymore, I do not know if I was seeking advice or comfort. What I do know, is that I never would have done this had he not taken the time to invest in the relationship he built with me. As coaches we must take the time to invest in and form relationships with our student athletes and work colleagues, show genuine interest, and above all else show them we care.
When I got into the profession, under Coach Court, he always told me to make sure I was taking the time to invest in and build relationships with the kids. We talked about it all the time, and I believe that building relationships is a cornerstone of becoming a great coach.
Formulating objectives: It is important to evaluate yourself in all facets of life and to look for areas of improvement. Once you have identified areas to further your development it is important to create objectives on how to improve. Once you have identified things you want to get better at, go attack it! You must have great intent and motivation when setting out to pursue your goals. I have created a list of objectives for myself. 1). Read something daily, anything, just read. 2). Go on site visits and learn from others 3). Listen to and present at clinics. From a personal stand point I want to be a good son and be a good husband to my wife. There is always something we can do… Evaluate and GET BETTER!
Mentorship should not be easy: I attended a summer clinic at Sorinex a couple years ago and Ryan Horn gave an awesome presentation that still resonates with me today. He said that being a mentor should not be easy. It should make your life harder because you should take time and invest in people. While at The University of Cincinnati, I found myself in charge of the internship program for the first time. I found it to be more challenging than I initially thought. After coaching long days and working in the office, the last thing on my mind was taking time to talk with the interns. The easy thing to do would be to go sit down and take a break before I headed home for the day, but by doing this I would be depriving the interns of their much-needed development. I would also be depriving myself of developing further. The easy thing to do when you are tired and have been working hard is to put yourself first and others that rely on you to the side. If my mentors had done this to me, I would not be where I am in the profession. Mentorship is about giving back, just like the mentors in our life have given back to us.
Listen and ask questions: I think it is so important to the development of a young coach to listen to what your peers and mentors have to say. I have found out that I rarely have any of the answers, let alone all of the answers. However, I have also found out that if I listen and ask questions I can really learn a lot. So many times throughout my career I have held things back and not asked questions, and it has truly hindered my development. Now that I am a bit older, I believe transparency and communication help not only myself but often times my colleagues as well. During my internship I was also told, there is no such thing as a bad question. I often thought to myself, that in fact, there are bad questions. I learned that this is not the case. So many times during my career I have asked questions or heard questions that have helped others and myself. No matter how big or small, if you do not ask questions and push for transparency you are hindering not only your development, but also those around you.
Work life balance: I am going to attempt to give you my opinion on this; I have heard this phrase numerous times in my young career. Here are my thoughts, when you are home with your family, you must be present. When you are at school with your athletes, you must be present. Work until the job is done, then go home. If there is more to be done, get it done. Those who are super successful now cannot look back and say, “I wish I would have spent more time at home” because they would not be where they are today if they had. Life is full of sacrifices. If you are at home, you will sacrifice things in your career. If you spend a lot of time on your career, you are going to miss things in your personal life.
Loyalty: This is something that I have talked a lot about lately with friends, colleagues, and mentors. It is also something I hear a lot of other coaches talking about during presentations or round tables. I believe that loyalty is owed to those who have helped you, invested in you, and done things to further your career. I would do anything for my mentors, colleagues, and others who have helped me in my career. There are certain people in my life who have sacrificed for me in this career, and I owe them my loyalty. As a coach, I think its common to have disputes in the office; this is healthy in any job. We are not always going to see eye to eye, but that does not mean you switch loyalties to those around you. Even through difficult times where we might not understand “Why is the boss is acting out?” or “Why do we have to do this?” it does not matter. Stay loyal and fight for those who have fought for you!
Practice what you preach: Rick Court always used to tell me that the only disability in life was a bad attitude. This is a phrase I clung to. The people you surround yourself with, athletes and colleagues alike, feed off of energy. I think it is important to always bring positive attitudes to those around us, you never know how it may affect someone’s day.
As coaches we are constantly evaluating. Our goal is not to develop great athlete’s alone, but also great human beings to go out into the world after college has come to an end. We tell our athlete’s they must be work to become great sons/daughters, husbands/wives, and parents. We preach to them to take the time to develop in all facets of life. As coaches, we too must make an effort to be all of these things; after all, we are given a platform of influence.
Zach Higgins
Assistant Strength Coach
Univeristy of Cincinnati