By Tatiana Batalla, Marketing department of ES Academy, Florida
On National coaches day, coaches from around the world are appreciated by all their athletes, institutions, and countries. But what do you think about it? Go back in time, when you were a young player, wearing oversized tennis shirts a backward hat grinding on the court every day. You were playing intense and long matches, traveling away from home, and staying at random hotels. When do you think about these situations, who was next to you? Your coach. At that moment you just saw him/her as your coach.
A person who would watch your matches and talk to you afterward to give you tips or some advice on how to become better for your next match. Maybe at that moment, you didn’t see that person as anything else than just your coach. But, think about it, now that you are older and probably see things from a different perspective. Do you see that person only as your coach? That person who you called your coach that was next to you probably woke up at least 2 hours prior than you, he/she created a game plan, prepared the practice sessions, booked the courts, figured out your transportation, figured out who you were going to hit with, your tournament schedule, the meals, the budget for the tournament, talked to your parents, prepared a good speech and went to pick up your rackets. All before you woke up, I am probably forgetting about half of the things he/she did prior to your match. How about during the practice year? What you saw your coach doing was working 2-3 hours during the practice sessions, feeding you balls during the drills, organizing a good match play, making corrections, and giving you a recap of how the practice went. What you didn’t see is that your coach prior to that practice session, he/she had to go to the gym to stretch to be able to hit with you at the highest level possible, he stayed up most of the night to watch youtube videos and visited practice sites to learn more skills on how to help you become a better player, he came to the practice courts to change the balls from the basket, prepared cones and other materials for the session, created a set of goals for you to achieve during the practice, brought a tripod to record the session to analyze it later on, and even went outside of his comfort zone to create a mental plan for the on-court session that suited your personality and the type of player you are. After practice, he/she spent extra time talking to you to work on that extra step, he/she went to stretch with you, talked to the physiotherapist to let them know about any types of recoveries needed or any injury preventions for you. Have you thought about what role they play in your development? Probably your coach/tutor talked to the school to see how you were doing, created a tournament schedule for you that adapted your goals and needs, created different types of services available for you that helped your development. That coach stayed up for tournaments that finished at 1 am, he/she probably dealt with your emotions, he/she remained calmed and found a solution when you didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, that coach probably worked for an entire week without days off not visiting his/her family to put you as a priority. That same coach you once screamed to and told him/her you didn’t need him/her next to you when you had a moment of anger you paid the blame on him/her saying your development wasn’t good enough, that coach who you disrespected at some point because you were unhappy about a result in your match. That coach probably did his/her best to be able to help you improve, become better and achieve big things. If after reading this you realize there is someone like that in your life then, we both agree that the national coach day shouldn’t be a one-day thing, because if the work never stops, the appreciation shouldn’t either.
To show you a little more about what we mean we have asked some of our coaches what are the unique characteristics they see in a special player they like to coach: “Her sweet and hardworking character makes me want to do an extra step” “His precision on the court will always give me a reason for being as precise” “The teamwork character he has shows me how much he wants it” “The way of resolving and wanting to improve is unique at her age” “Her willingness to strive, her love for the sport” “She will always give her best without regrets” “The respect was built by him before I would enter the court” “He never ignored the lost matches, he appreciated them even more” “She takes me out of the comfort zone every time, and believe me I never thought anyone younger than me would teach me so many things.”
Come become a great coach learning next to our wonderful and successful group of professionals who will teach you how to become the best at what you do and succeed with your athletes!
Marketing department of ASC Florida
Tatiana Batalla & Ivette Nieto
