My Coaching Experience, Part 2

The first couple of weeks were a learning experience for everyone involved.

I forget if it was at the team meeting or the first day of practice, but three female students asked if I was the new coach. I said, "yes." And one looked me in the eye and said, "we are your managers."

I loved their confidence and they became invaluable as the season went on.

I also made it clear that the managers were a part of the team and were to be treated as teammates. Growing up, our managers were called Mat Maids. To this day, they take pride in having been in that role. At my high school we actually had tryouts to become one. They had to take a test on scoring, school wrestling history, and create a promotional poster. Over 20 girls would try-out for the position and the ones that made it were a part of the team.

Only problem was I didn't think in today's environment that a Mat Maid would be politically correct, so I asked the girls what they thought of being called, "The Mama Bears (the school nickname was Bears)", after all they took care of everything for the team. They embraced it.

The few days of practice taught the staff about what we had to work with in terms of the level of technique. I had scripted two weeks worth of practices, but soon realized it was over-aggressive. Speaking with the staff we agreed to simplify and focus on fundamentals.

I began to emphasize to the team, something my father taught me: everyone knows how to do a move, the difference is understanding what makes the move work. This carries over into life. Everyone knows how to do their job, but some execute their work more effectively and efficiently then others do.

During nearly every practice I spoke to the team at the beginning and end of practice. Typically after stretching or even during it, I would give them any updates they needed to be aware of. Bus times, practice times, general information they had to be aware of, and then at the end after our conditioning we pulled together to talk.

The post practice talk was more personal. I'd ask, "what was something good that happened to you today?" or "who can tell me something positive about one of their teammates?" or "what do you admire about how one of your teammates practices?".

I'd also use this time to get their feedback. I'd pass around index cards and pens and ask them on the lined side to write down three things that were working well and three things they would like to change. No names, they'd fill them out and drop them in a duffel bag. 

That night I'd read through them all, summarize them, and present what stood out to me. I spoke to them about what I saw the majority of them thought was working, called out a few items that were outliers, but that I thought were important, good observations and why they were so.

​The main focus was on what wasn't working. They needed to understand why we were and were not doing certain things.