We Hold Their Dreams in Our Hands

In the video below Brett Ledbetter shows a clip of the movie Whiplash to a group of coaches.  Whiplash is a movie about a young, talented musician and his hard-driving coach who feels like it's his job to do what it takes to get the most out of his students, even to the long-term detriment of the students.

They discuss the parallels of this music teacher and many coaches that we see that act as it it's their job to push their athletes as hard as they can to get the most out of them, using fear and intimidation at times, ignoring or ignorant to the long-term damage that they could be doing to their athletes mental health.

This leads to a couple of great speeches by Dr. Jim Loehr, a leading sports psychologist who teaches and encourages coaches to have the right mission as they lead young athletes 

We Hold Their Dreams in Our Hands

It's so important for coaches to understand the extraordinary power you have in the lives of athletes that you interact with.  

You hold their dreams in your hands.  You are the conduit through which they are going to fulfill what they believe to be their destiny.

Something important resides in your realm of control.  If you believe in them, if you support them, if you reach down inside of yourself and give them a sense of empowerment that they can do extraordinary things, you can be an enormous source in their life.

You can also, with that same power, literally take them apart, and in some cases, they are never the same.  

Our Voice Becomes Their Voice

A lot of times when you see the screamers, you see that the coach is ostensibly working to help their athletes become everything that they can, and they cannot stand anything but perfection because they know that their athletes are capable of it.  

These coaches draw the line in the sand that separates the winners from the losers, but what they are really doing is meeting their own needs.  It's not about the players, it's about the coach and the coach's tragic need to feel a success because he defines his essence with how well his athletes perform on the biggest stages, and it is the coach that is purified in making sure that his reputation was not contaminated.  

These coaches have the mission wrong, and when you do, you can do extraordinary damage to the lives of athletes because you yield extraordinary power.  The voice that you give to them everyday when you speak to them will one day be the voice inside their heads.  It starts with their parents and if you are a powerful role in their lives, they will take on your voice.  And remember, is that the voice that you want in their heads until they die?  Most coaches have know clue the power that they really, really yield in the lives of the people that they are working with.