Beyond your parents and your family, did you have a person or persons who made an impact in your youth that still positively affects you every day? It may have been a teacher, an older friend, or a former mentor who passed on some valuable lesson that helped shape the person you are. Maybe not everyone, but hopefully most of us have at least one person who inspired us. I have a few people who come to mind, but one stands out. Coach.
If you were an athlete or trained for an activity, whether it be sports, games, music, art, theater, self defense or whatever else, your coach plays a crucial role in the attainment of something you wanted to achieve success in. I’ve luckily I had several great coaches, good people who taught outside the classroom, shared their experiences, made time sacrifices to do something positive and influential for another person. I would like to thank every one of them for the values, lessons and imparted knowledge. I know they didn’t do it for the big bucks, but what they passed on is priceless.
As a young athlete I never gave much thought to the intangibles of competition. My job was simple. Win or at least beat my personal best. And of course Coach was there, advising and inspiring, or picking up pieces in a capacity that until years later, was vastly under appreciated. Ok, so sometimes Coach was on my back, but my immaturity often needed a check and being forced to look into the mirror was necessary. The intent was genuine, consistent and I value the example more with every year.
Good coaches in many ways are an extension and a combination of a teacher and a parent. Except the teacher and the parent are often swimming upstream, getting tuned out because the class or the life lesson are not what the student considers pertinent at the time. Still, parents and teachers endure the eye rolls, the avoidance, in an effort to improve the lives of the know-it-all we were. But the Coach, the Coach and you, your goals were more closely aligned. The Coach focuses on your goals and they want it for you. Sometimes more than you want it. Why? Because they get it! Ok, get what? A simple key to life. Being an integral part of the culmination of one’s goal is as much a key to life as achieving it yourself. Goals! A coal in life’s fire. A building block for the future. And giving back, putting themselves into something so personal to another is an essential component of a meaningful life.
You, the student, competitor or whatever, worked hard, put in the hours, put yourself into the situation where you could fail or succeed and experienced it from the inside. The view from the first person perspective, though, can be a bit blurry. Coach saw it from the outside where the view is sometimes clearer, and combined with their experience, we trust their wisdom to guide us. But it is their contribution, the effort they put into another person that brings full circle to the experience of goal attainment. You did it together, and these shared successes form complete circles, links in a chain, a bond that carries on through the accomplishments between you and, of course, Coach.
For Coach, the achievements are a symbolic medal or trophy of honor in the lineage of people they have guided. For the student, the athlete, the competitor, it is a playbook, a blueprint for future goals. How to prepare, to discipline, to ask more yourself and to achieve something important. They could push you where others, including yourself, couldn’t. And you’re stronger and wiser for it.
So when you achieve your goals or look back on the big ones, be proud of what you accomplished and think of the Coach who helped you get there. Where would you be without them? Then think of the people you helped in the same capacity, whether or not you knew it at the time. More links in the chain. Where would they be without you? Pass the knowledge and the lessons on through generations like Coach did. After all, in some way, there is a bit of Coach in all of us.
