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Some thoughts about insecurities!

Scott Harrington

The coaches' fundamental task is to make the team believe in you and your ability to lead them.


We've all been there. The feeling of losing belief. A loss of confidence in your ability as a coach. Players become less responsive to your words and actions. You sense a drop in leadership, and tactics and strategy starts to get questioned. There is a rise in innuendo and gossip, some of which might be about you as the coach.


Experiencing these things can affect every coach, especially if you consider yourself to be highly conscientious, empathetic, outgoing, or agreeable coach. I use these traits as a example as it tends to be the most thoughtful among us that feel these types of pressures.


Many things can cause these insecurities. A series of defeats, a poisonous character in the group, cliques and unstable player-hierarchy, pushy-parents, your personal life. There are many factors which affect our confidence and belief.


The worst part of this loss of confidence or belief in your own ability is that if there is one thing children, adolescents, & elite players can do, its being able to sense insecurity.


And let me tell you something. This is the first stage of defeat. IF you let if own you.


The first thing i'd say is if you take the decision to be a coach, you are signing up to be challenged on your leadership, and it can be difficult, not least if you are a young and new coach. It may be parents who challenge you, but players, whether that be children, young people, or adults are also good at it.


Tricks to tackle the uncertainty and insecurity

If you can become sharp on what situations you become insecure in, then you can find little tricks on how to tackle the uncertainty and take back the leadership. It may be a good idea to practice different strategies.


For example, you may feel tension in your body, and then take a water break and focus on your breathing. So you get in balance and can better maintain or take back the leadership.


Talk about your experiences and values

When you experience uncertainty, it is important to have a foundation to stand on. Therefore, it is good if you in the association talk about the coaching role, what is important to you as a coach and what experiences you have with other coaches.


As coaches we take a lot of experiences with us that we are not aware of. But when we become insecure, we often act like our own coaches did. Therefore, you need to be aware of what you have with you.


You have to know yourself and be aware of who you are. If you try to be something you are not, then it is not authentic, and players will be in doubt about you.


Meet the players at their level

As a coach, you are not automatically the leader of the group. You need to take the leadership on yourself and you need to be aware that there is no leadership without companionship. That means you need to create good relationships and trustworthy contact with the team and its individuals.


The coach's basic task is to build solid relationships with players so that they want to follow you as a coach. You do not have to be a psychologist, it is about being able to feel yourself and what you stand for, and that you can feel when you become insecure. Because then you can act on it.


When you as a coach work with the coaching role and your uncertainty, you will also be better at reading your team



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