The Coaching Process

Coaching is a high touch not a high tech process. It is a process. You can’t coach by mail or email; you need to be there day to day with the athlete. Anyone can write up workout. I have volumes of workouts that I have used over my 37 years of coaching, it is not the workout, it is the implementation of the workout. You can have the greatest workout on paper and go out to the field and after warm-up see that it is just not going to happen. You adjust, you have a contingency pan. This is impossible to do if you are not there. If you are not there you are an advisor, not a coach. That is fine and works for some people. Go and watch a workout with Gary Winckler, Dan Pfaff or Joe Vigil coaching and you will see what I mean. There is total involvement. They are there for the athlete. They watch every step. Nothing is left to chance. You can’t do that if you are not there. I know from personal experience that not being present does not work. I have tried to “help” some athletes by sending workouts and sometimes just workout ideas, it does not work. Eyes and ears, feel and touch are the secret to great coaching.