Current teenage culture seems to be (and I may be mistaken) of consisting of small groups of cliques. When you talk to your team about leadership, you may get some glazed eyes looks. Leadership may be viewed by many teenagers as being a "rah rah" type of personality. I beg to differ. In fact, my experience suggests that the overtly verbal person is far to often NOT a leader. This verbal expression is often just the individuals perception of leading.
When you start to analyze what characteristics you are looking to develop in a team leader, you need to ask yourself the question, "What models do these teenagers have or have experienced that they can learn from? You, as their coach, demonstrate what characteristics of a leader to your staff & team?
During my time as a head coach, I wanted our seniors to feel the program was their's. Seniors, in most cases, have more experience and we hope have matured because of it. We wanted our seniors to be first in line for drills, we encouraged them to be willing to teach the younger players our culture. Some seniors did well in leadership roles and some did not. In my experience, younger players do not handle leadership roles well.
I never believed in have permanent team captains. I did not like singling out one or more players. If you have the wrong player(s) as team captains, you will more than likely have a poorly lead team. We tried to encourage each of our players to be their own captain. When the team elects captains it results often in naming the most popular players as captains. The most popular players are not necessarily the best leaders.
More than likely during the course of a season, there will be moments of tension. There will be periods of adversity. These moments will reveal who your true leaders are.
Part of your responsibility as the lead coach is to model behaviors you want to see and develop in your players. In my opinion, you want to model for your players the following ....
1) Emotional control
2) Self discipline
3) Unselfish attitude ... The TEAM is more important than any individual
4) Accept responsibility for your actions
5) Be willing to apologize for your actions when necessary
6) No one and I mean no one is perfect. (The key to happiness is a "short" memory.)
7) A teachable attitude
8) Humility
I was a classroom teacher for many years. I felt I taught some very important information but I also believed the athletic experience provided some learning experiences you could not duplicate anywhere else.
From time to time, a coach needs to and. should do some self interspection. For example, ask yourself when you are in a reflective mood, "Would you want your child to be coached by you?" It is very easy to be so consumed by day to day responsibilities that we fail to understand how we are coming across to our student/athletes.
According to some "so called" experts, coaches are important role models for today's youth. We can't and won't be perfect, but lets take our responsibilities seriously. Winning and losing are not and should not be the only measure of our success.
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