Teaching & Coaching

Teachers, professors, and coaches have been some of my best mentors in life. All of these professions are very similar in my eyes and as a student-athlete, a lot of time is spent with these people. They challenged me to not only be a better student or athlete, but most importantly a better person. They taught me skills that would help me throughout my career, and they did this by providing the best learning environment for growth and continued learning.

Some of my best coaches had teaching experience, and some of my best teachers/professors had coaching experience. I believe if you can teach, you have the tools to be a great coach. I also believe if you can coach, you have the tools to be a great teacher. If these tools are applied correctly, providing the best learning experience is always possible.

Here are some ways I believe teachers and coaches provide the best learning environments. (No specific order)

• Connecting the Why

  • Having your reasons why a certain lesson is being taught or why a certain training method or strategy is being implemented is important for the group's success. It builds trust, and provides everyone with a better understanding of what everyone is working towards.

• Providing Autonomy

  • Allowing individuals to be responsible for their own learning is invaluable. Educating and empowering individuals to take their experiences home with them and apply it on their own is essential to developing personal creativity.

• Asking Questions

  • Seeking a better understanding of why “x” didn’t work the way it was supposed to is important for problem-solving. Facilitating the appropriate questions can break down the process of the result. This allows more engagement within the current tasks or issues needed to be addressed.

• Building Relationships

  • Learning someone’s hometown or their favorite hobby can share a lot about them. Connecting on a personal level can help create the most effective learning or training environment for each individual. Personal connection can lead to a platform of more powerful and productive conversations to find solutions.

• Providing Feedback

  • Saying “good job” vs “you did [y] very well because of [x]” are very different qualities of feedback. Providing quality feedback, subjective or objective, can help individuals develop strategies to solve problems to find success. It is important to address the “good” and the “bad” to improve performance.

• Creating a Team Environment

  • Building a positive group environment can help individuals avoid being scared of making mistakes. With supportive classmates or teammates, everyone will support each other at the “lowest points” and celebrate the “highest points” together.