5 Stages of Coaching

"Know when to hold'em. Know when to fold'em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run." (Kenny Rogers)

You may have already grown tired of my frequent referencing Don Meyers, but much of what I believe and have experienced in coaching, came directly or indirectly from him. At coaching clinics, he referred to their being 5 levels or stages of coaching that a person may go through. These are very fluid stages. No time table or charts will tell you which stage you are in, but if you are or are planning on coaching for an extended period of time, it is likely you can identify with one or more of these stages:

5 STAGES of COACHING:

􏰃   Survival 􏰄

You are trying to get through the season. You are learning who your team is and who you are. A certain degree of insecurity and anxiety is expected. You "jump" when the phone rings. Be careful, because the pressure you feel may be due to your desire to be a people pleaser. Compromise of your principles may be tempting to avoid confrontation(s). You feel overwhelmed but you are reluctant to delegate responsibilities because it suggests you can't handle the job.

􏰃   Success 􏰄

Gaining some recognition for your team. Confidence is growing. Danger is in dealing with temporary setbacks on and off the floor. Easy to over react to success and failure. Recognize you must adjust and deal with circumstances beyond your control. Easy to over estimate your value. Starting to feel the pressure to maintain any level of

success.

Satisfaction

Repeated seasons of success (DANGER ZONE). Complacency can easily set in. Keeping things in balance are more difficult. Easy to believe you are more responsible for team success than you are. Be careful. Temptation is you know longer need to evaluate your program and yourself. Start to believe you have more answers than questions. Easy to feel the pressure

to maintain the program at a higher level. Less satisfaction in achievement.

Significant 􏰄

When your name is mentioned people correlate it with your school (or visa/versa). Your school has become recognized as an outstanding program year after year. Careful, because pride can be a good thing and it can also take you down. Temptation to think you have arrived and you have nothing else to prove. You may have to fight some feelings of entitlement! You may need to fight to keep things in perspective. You haven't cured cancer. You are NOT the straw that stirs the drink. May start to ask the

question .... "Is that all there is?" Winning another conference title or going

to state doesn't satisfy ver long any more.

􏰃   Spent 􏰄

You don't bounce back quite as fast from disappointment(s). Practice and games are becoming more and more difficult. Your enthusiasm for the tasks at hand is beginning to wane. Your patience has decreased and you react more quickly to criticism. Off season is now spent trying to recharge and less about planning ahead. May be time to either change your scenery or step away.

I find it now hard to believe I spent over forty years coaching high school basketball. I once spoke to a veteran coach at a coaching clinic and his comment to me was that we were coaching "dinosaurs." He believed few people would remain in coaching as long as we did because it has become so time demanding and stressful. Is he right?