The Benefits Of Coaching

As a coach, we are witness to a unique and very transparent window into our athlete’s psyche and their soul. Besides the members of their team, no one else besides their coach has the opportunity to see the real heart of those athletes on a daily basis. General George S. Patton Jr. once said: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Accumulating overloads of lactic acid, carbon dioxide, and pain within a runner’s body have a way of doing just that. We often see our athletes stripped of their facades and false bravado, as they struggle to find a way to finish their grueling workouts and because of that, see a side of these athletes that no one else in their lives may even know exists. It may be the primary reason that groups of people who go through

Nonetheless, the intangibles that coaching provides are many times far more valuable than we originally believed. The relationships we formed and sometimes still have are proof there’s more to coaching than wins and losses. Besides the day I married my wife and the birth of my two children, the greatest memories of my life have come from running and coaching. While winning championships and having the opportunity to work with national caliber athletes like Gavin Coombs and Tradelle Ward was something I 'll never forget. Nevertheless, even more meaningful over the years was watching young athletes set goals, work hard, and achieve success - sometimes for the first time in their lives. Seeing the look on their face when they achieved that objective, well, there’s not enough money in the world to buy that

Just a year or so ago, while shopping at my local Wal-Mart, I heard someone from down the aisle greet me with: “Hey Coach.” As he walked towards me, I vaguely recognized him, as it had been nearly twenty-five years since the last time I had seen him. He introduced himself, asked how I was doing, and then proceeded to tell me that he was married, had a good job, and had two young children, one of which was with him. When I coached him he was a tall lanky middle distance runner who had been part of a 4 x 800-meter relay team that had qualified for the New England Championships in his senior year. Those days were a thing of the past as he had obviously stopped running, and in the process, put on a few pounds since. When he introduced his six-year-old son to me, he said: “This is my running coach from high school.” Without, missing a beat, the son turned to his father and asked: “You really used to run? Seriously?” It was a harsh lesson in reality. For most coaches, things like that, are like icing on the cake. You don’t coach for that, you coach because of that. One of the first things I realized when I began coaching was, it had quickly become, my second