Skip to main content

#1 I am Authentic: Beliefs = Behaviors

    Recently I posted A Coach's Dozen: 13 Beliefs of Good Coaches.  In that post I failed to describe my 13 principles in any detail, but promised that I would over the coming weeks.  This post begins our journey.

    Good coaches recognize that WHY they do something is just as important as WHAT they do.  When it comes to coaching… motive must precede action.  It was legendary coach Pat Summitt who said, “They don’t care how much you know, unless they know how much you care.”  However, we have all experienced a particular moment I will call the “horse-shit” juncture.  It’s when the hair on the back of your neck bristles and you sense the story someone is telling you just doesn’t add up.  Researchers are convinced we all have a built in horse-shit detector, and I would argue athletes tend to be really good at spotting a fake.  Maybe for you it was a classroom, a field, or a court when your horse-shit indicator started blinking red and you thought, “Wow, this person doesn’t even believe the stuff they are say, why should I.”  It’s an almost tangible feeling of unease.  Good coaches on the other hand strive to bring a sense of authenticity to their actions both on the field and off.  Authenticity is having a direct and obvious connection between your beliefs and your behavior (Rink, 1993).  When that connection isn’t there, it’s just obvious horse-shit.
    It is not a coincidence the first chapter in almost all coaching book ever written is entitled, The Importance of a Coaching Philosophy.  Having a coherent understanding of how you define success is vital if you are ever going to pass along those beliefs to your players.  Four important things to remember when it comes to your beliefs include:
  1. Beliefs drive behavior.  Beliefs are the inner aspects of your coaching self.  Your behaviors are the outer actions the athletes see.  Beliefs are those mental constructs you create, based on experience, to help make sense of the outer world.  Athletes understand your beliefs by seeing your behaviors.  But that doesn’t change the fact beliefs come first.  (Feltz, Short, & Sullivan, 2009)
  1. Beliefs act as filters.  Beliefs allow you to focus on certain things and ignore others.  You pay attention to what you believe to be important and discount that which is not.  Without clearly identifying your beliefs you can become lost in a quicksand of decisions.  (Gilbert & Trudel, 2004)
  1. You can change your beliefs, but it’s not easy.  A common question surrounding beliefs is, can I change my beliefs?  Essentially, beliefs are the stories we tell ourselves and others to explain what’s important to us.  For example, “I think the key to success in basketball is…”  Since beliefs are mental creations it only seems logical to think we can simply create new stories.  Instead of asking can beliefs be changed, I think the more important question is, why would someone ever want to change their beliefs?  Your beliefs have gotten you to where you currently are.  And, I bet where you’re at isn’t that horrible.  You are happy.  You are successful.  Could your beliefs be all that wrong?  
The mistake coaches often make is not having bad beliefs; rather, the problem is not having a complete and coherent understanding of their beliefs in the first place.  I have come to call these individuals, Wayward Coaches.  Wayward Coaches are terrible narrators of their own stories.  Bestowing a sense of grit and courage for your athletes begins with understanding why your own security and accomplishment came to be.
  1. Coaches use beliefs to create a complete philosophy.  Good coaches create a belief-system based around 3 fundamental aspects of athletics; building athlete’s talent, team cohesion, and developing a specific sports scheme.  This Belief Triad become a coach’s philosophy--the story that guides their actions as a coach.  Having specific beliefs related to each of these elements is essential to your overall coaching philosophy.  (Barnson & Watson, 2009)
I have often described coaching as a paradox—a puzzle of contradictions yearning for a solution.  This puzzle is no better illustrated than when we consider the idea of being authentic.  Coaches must both do what they believe is right AND believe what they do is right simultaneously.  The internal vs. external back and forth between motives and action must be obvious to your athletes.  Good coaches don’t fake it.  Good coaches understand that their athletes will always sense if they are not being authentic.

Rink, J. E. (1993). Teacher education: A focus on action. Quest, 45(3), 308-320.
Feltz, D. L., Short, S. E., & Sullivan, P. J. (2008). Self-efficacy in sport. Human Kinetics.
Gilbert, W. D., & Trudel, P. (2004). Role of the coach: How model youth team sport coaches frame their roles. The Sport Psychologist, 18(1), 21-43.
Barnson, S. C., & Watson, D. L. (2009). The coaching belief triad: Placing philosophy within the coaching process. Journal of Contemporary Athletics, 4(2), 111-122.

Comments

  1. There are definitely coaches out there who coach to coach. You can tell it isn’t their passion. It’s just a JOB. I’ve come across many “coaches” who set off my “horse-shit” indicator. If you cannot be honest with your player and follow beliefs with actions, coaching is not the job for one. It is obvious when a coach believes in his team that they will perform better. It gives the players a confidence knowing they’re doing something right. Sometimes when I cannot relate to a coach, I believe something is off. Many stories almost correlates with one another

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment