There is a day when you are a new coach. And there was the day – quite a while before – when you decided to look into being a coach. That was the day when you said to yourself that you already were a coach. Yes, a coach to the new guy at work and to the kids on your son’s peewee soccer team. Hell yes! You already were a coach! And a pretty darn good one. At least none of the kids had quit, and you had a winning season, more or less. Yes, you already were a coach!

Soccer – Life – Coaching Is Coaching

Sure, coaching is coaching. Well, yes and no, ‘cause one day you decided to push your future over the edge, and give it a shot. A different co-worker asked for some advice, and you just gave your opinion. You said to yourself: what harm could I do? After all, MY team has a winning season. So you plucked yourself up and decided to be a real coach. New or not, you opened your mouth and the rest is history.

The Real Decision for the New Coach Is to Cut and Run, or See It Through

In the aftermath, you had two choices as a new coach: cut and run, or see it through. You could either retreat or forge ahead. Which is to say, you could get some real and formal training or continue to rely upon your intuition and your dominance on the peewee soccer field. You choice the wiser later path – or is it the former. Whatever! You chose to seek out formal training.

Regrettably too many Coaches Decide to Wing It

In a virtually unregulated and unstructured profession, it is an easier path to “fake it until you make it”. By which I mean to rely on your intuition and a little flare to give people advice and charge them money, without the benefit of a formal and science-based education. As a new coach, please have the good judgment and integrity to seek out and take rigorous, science-based training.

And by the way, best of luck on the soccer field!

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach