For my first blog post for Rogue Baseball I want to talk about an aspect of development that I feel is often over looked and a touchy subject for some coaches. Who should the athlete listen to? Which coach is right? Which coach gets the credit? These questions seem to have value to some but shouldn’t.
The goal of all coaches should be to help train athletes to their best abilities on and off the field. As an athlete you will have multiple coaches in your career. I had four different pitching coaches in my four years of college alone! But the point I want to get across is that I learned something VALUABLE from each and every one of them. No matter who the coach; or person for that matter, you should listen to the advice or knowledge they are sharing and take from it what will help you in your game or in your life!
I have heard too many stories of athletes being directed to throw or hit 5 different ways, this has got to be confusing to the athlete who has been told from the start of his career to be coachable, right? Being coachable is extremely important but knowing what helps you personally and knowing what doesn’t is just as important if not more important. Coaches are here to help guide the athletes in what they feel is “best for them” but in the end it comes down to each individual athlete taking the external influences, processing them and making all the decisions for their personal benefit. As a coach this needs to be acceptable. All coaches should want to help an athlete in any way they can and if that means swallowing their ego and admitting someone else’s advice works better for that particular athlete than that’s totally ok!
In the end if the athlete took bits and pieces from each coach and mentor and becomes a successful athlete, or becomes successful in the workforce or as parent, every coach can look back and know they did their job well.
Rogue Baseball