So…You love being a youth coach! You achieve tremendous gratification and satisfaction from helping young athletes to develop their skills! You feel energized when you impart your sports wisdom onto young minds who are eager to learn!
With those positive factors consistently at play as you coach, the one action item that can easily come to mind is, convincing others to become youth sports coaches. Hello folks! Coach Paul here! Today, we will dive into some legitimate arguments that can be made, that can potentially and hopefully, bring your friends and family into the rewarding world of youth sports coaching.
Highlight The Positive Impact On Children
This reason, by far, should be the one to lead with, when talking to others about youth coaching. It can be safe to assume that as adults, we all realize the importance of being a beneficial impact on young people. Arguably, adults are saddled with some type of built-in authority figure mechanism that is always ready to act, to steer young people down the correct path of life and towards making good decisions.
If you have friends or family members who are/have been on the proverbial “fence”, with trying to decide if youth coaching is an endeavor that they would like to pursue, then you can act decisively, to help sway their decision. With this in mind, you want to emphasize the significant role that a youth sports coach can play in shaping the lives of young athletes.
Make the point to them that as a youth coach, they could be the difference in a young athlete making sound decisions or life altering choices. Discuss the opportunities that are afforded to youth coaches, to instill important core values such as:
Teamwork – a motto: You win as a team, you lose as a team.
Discipline – a motto: You must have discipline in order to be successful.
Perserverance – a motto: No matter the score, you must never give up.
These three traits cannot be ignored, for their tremendous positive impact on young athletes today. So with common sense and logic being applied, this portion should be an easy sell
Share Your Personal Experiences
With any worthwhile pursuit, there will always be setbacks and obstacles that may cause someone to second-guess a particular decision that they made, to go after something that they want. Some people fail miserably, while others keep their nose to the grindstone and find legitimate methods and strategies to overcome those challenges that they face. Whenever you are in the unique position to convince someone to begin their own venture as a youth coach, focus on the latter of the two…the overcoming.
If you have any profound personal experiences as a youth sports coach, then share the many facets of your journey, to those individuals who are still “on the fence”. It is crucial that you do not pretend that there are no challenges with youth coaching.
Instead, create a reasoned narrative that combines both the pros and cons of youth sports coaching. Impress upon them, the importance of you being able to work through the cons and being able to strengthen the pros at the same time.
State that doing so, aided you in your overall development as a coach and as a person. You can also stress to them, about the immense positive impact that youth coaching has had in your life. Continue, by talking about the valuable lessons that you have learned, the relationships that you have built, and the sense of great fulfillment that comes from helping others to succeed.
Highlight The Need For More Coaches
It can be quite fair to say that young people in today’s world, need/require/want multiple role models in their lives. They yearn for authority, discipline and structure. An abundance of youth athletes do not have the necessary external support and encouragement that is required, to ensure their athletic success and they can eventually fall through the cracks of society, if the issue is not firmly addressed. This is very unfortunate, as I am sure you would concur.
When you dive into this portion of the conversation, quickly raise awareness with them, about the shortage of youth sports coaches in many communities; perhaps even, in their own community. Appeal to their sense of community involvement, by explaining how their involvement in youth sports, can help address this gap and ensure that more children have access to organized sports and the many benefits that come with it.
5. Offer support and training opportunities: Assure potential coaches that they won’t be left to figure everything out on their own. Mention the various training programs, resources, and support networks available to assist them in developing coaching skills and knowledge. Highlight that they will be part of a community of coaches who can learn from and support one another.
In Conclusion?….How many of your friends and family can you bring on board?
Although youth sports coaches are not exactly bringing in a six-figure salary, it CAN be a very fulfilling and rewarding experience. Be sure to reiterate to others, that youth coaching not only allows one to positively impact young individuals’ lives and help shape their character, which can serve them well, in other aspects of their lives.
Remind them that being a youth sports coach can/will enable them to foster a genuine love for sports and for promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. By becoming a coach, they will have the opportunity to inspire, motivate, and guide youth towards success, both on and off the field/rink/court.
Finally, when you have made your final arguments to that friend or family member, simply ask them, “So…WHY NOT join me in this incredible journey of making a difference in the lives of young athletes?”. Hopefully they WILL come around!
Please feel free to leave a comment below, about this discussion! If you plan on implementing these steps, let me know how things turned out! If not, you can simply say “Hi!”. I like it when people say “Hi!”. As always…thanks for reading.