Principles of Coaching #1 - Enhance freedom, lower anxiety and inhibitions of players (Bot9 #305)
After the Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016, Tom Verducci wrote Tom Verducci wrote The Cubs Way in an effort to give readers the inside view of the team’s first championship since 1908 (https://www.amazon.com/Cubs-Way-Building-Baseball-Breaking/dp/0804190011). Within one section of the book, Joe Maddon outlines his principles of coaching. His principles led me to create my own list upon reading the book. The amazing part of creating a list like this is how they create your personal boundaries and order your actions professionally and personally. Over the next number of weeks, I’ll share my personal coaching principles and why they are so important to me. I’ll also share how the Bible informs these principles. I hope you enjoy the series and you feel led to create your own personal set of principles!
#1 - Enhance freedom, lower anxiety and inhibitions of players
The first principle is rooted in Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Christ has set us free. Period. This doesn’t excuse us to act in total anarchy, but it does turn us loose to be free in what we do on the field.
We have to remember that coaching sports is a relatively new profession in the scope of human history. Because its rise as a job coincided with America’s victories in WWI and WW2, many of the ‘old school’ coaching models are rooted in military control. ‘Old school’ coaching brings order to a game, often through harsh discipline and force, when necessary.
Because of its roots, the old school can represent the same ‘yoke of slavery’ referred to by Paul for some people. My desire is to allow a blend of the new school and the positive elements of the old school. The boundaries I allow are bigger and broader than most are comfortable allowing. This level of freedom is lived out in two areas specifically - passion and holding players loosely. I’ve found that both give the players lower levels of anxiety and fewer inhibitions as they grow and develop.
Passion
I want passionate, faithful young men. I want dudes who raise their arms and cheer when awesome things happen, guys who yell and scream and make noises for their teammates to celebrate their opportunities. I’ll stand firm for freedom passionately so not to force a yoke of slavery on our players. If they want to break out a sledgehammer when they hit a home run, great. If they want to throw a K chain around the pitcher when he strikes out the side, awesome. I’m not interested in building a generation of choir boys who never do wrong or hide when they do. I don’t want the faceless pupils from Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Passion is absent from so many elements of our society and the baseball field is an opportunity to develop it inside of young men.
Here’s the irony - players respond quickly to correction when they live in passion and freedom. Instead of living under the weight of control, they appreciate knowing they have the freedom to make mistakes and that you’ll guide them back on course when they need it. If you’re always on top of them forcing harsh discipline upon them, you squelch passion. They don’t know how to bring passion when you want it. Freedom feeds their passion and lights an incredible flame inside your team.
Hold Players Loosely
Another unnecessary yoke is creating a system reliant upon you and you alone as a coach. We encourage our recruitable players to play for clubs, to travel, and to play for teams outside of our state. They have the freedom to play wherever they want, with us or away from us, without any unnecessary yoke of guilt or shame. The by-product of this has been simple - they look forward to playing for us when our season comes around. They experience joy when they play for us and value the experiences we provide them.
We also encourage our players to train wherever they want. They can lift where they want, get treatment wherever they want, and get hitting or pitching lessons wherever they want. Does this drive me nuts sometimes? Of course it does. It would be impossible to believe in everyone and everything the players are being taught elsewhere. But, at the end of the day, it’s their experience. If all things work together for those who believe in Jesus, everything the players experience with you and away from you has value.
When you enhance freedom, and lower the anxiety and inhibitions of players, you become like the banks of their river. We should desire that their river looks more like the Mississippi than a creek which can dry up. The only way to accomplish that goal is to give them freedom so they might experience life. My relationships with our players has improved and continues to improve by giving them freedom, feeding their passion, and holding them loosely. They love our culture and look forward to playing for us. I’d encourage other coaches and leaders to implement this principle in their culture and experience the same joy we have!