How Do They Know

This book will challenge your definition of a coach and his or her responsibilities. It will make you conscious of the problems that come with being a coach on all levels and give you an opportunity to be a part of the solution. It will force you to think critically about the issues at hand so when you finish, not only will you be a good coach, you will also be a great leader, community ambassador, and, of course, a great teacher of the sport you choose to coach. You will realize that there’s strength in needing others, not weakness; you can’t fall off the middle. At first they will ask what you are doing, but when you finish, they will ask how did you do it. 

This is a coaching philosophy book—a guide wherein you will be given the basic understanding of what a coach should do. It will show you how to form your own philosophy and your own hypothesis. It will give you the tools to learn the theory of coaching, how to consume knowledge about coaching, and also how to apply what you’ll learn. This is not a book about what coaches are already doing because most coaches are doing it wrong. This book identifies the problems that players, administrators, and even some coaches themselves don’t understand—because they don’t see them. It’s why so many coaches have neglected to solve the problem—historical bias compounded with their inability to see or address the problem.

Since the players cannot say what they see, we are giving them a voice.  Your job, at the end, is to find ways to apply this knowledge in a way where you can use your level of understanding to teach someone else.