There is no doubt in my mind that the rewards of coaching
are the intangibles. I know it is not championships and records, those quickly
fade away, the real rewards of coaching are seeing young boys and girls grow up
to be responsible self sufficient men and women. Some of those young men and
women when they were athletes could not remember their shoes, or their shot put
but over time they learned. Now those young men and women are parents, some are
coaches, some are professionals and they are applying the lessons they learned
in sport. Yes as coaches we coach a sport, but more importantly we coach people
who do the sport. Coaching gives us an opportunity to influence young people
like no other profession because of the intensity of the competition and the
demands of day-to-day training. Don’t get so caught up in the technical aspects
of coaching that you forget to enjoy the growth you see in your athletes as
people. Just like we ask them to focus on the process we also should focus on
the process.