So tonight I was chatting with other volunteers and we added up the number of hours we put into football on a voluntary basis. Mine is about 10-12 hours worth on a normal week without any funding bids or extra events, that is the normal training, matches and admin. If I got minimum wage for this I would earn £61.90-£74.78 pw but instead I spend a good amount on petrol each week. To most people this sounds complete madness, why would you do that if you don’t have kids involved etc? But I just love coaching! It made me think why? What really motivates me as a coach?
Tonight was a prime example. I got to the club early to set up and there were people up there cutting the pitches and sorting out markings. One a coach, the other his lad who plays for the club. Both willing to give extra to the club. Half hour before training my 2 young leaders turned up to set up the session they had planned. A little while later another 2 leaders turned up to help them. I would like to point out now these leaders are all aged between 13 and 16. They all want to give back to the club and they are all girls I coached. Then more coaches and more players turned up, everyone greets each other. It is such a friendly community I love the club I coach for, people are happy to give back to the club. I’m not sure i would enjoy coaching anywhere near as much if I was with a different club.
In total there were 7 squads up at our ground tonight. All players had smiles on their faces and all players loved what they were doing. THEY are why I coach. Seeing the older players interact with the younger ones, older players taking on leadership roles and developing as a person not just a player. Seeing that many kids up there enjoying something and improving as people and players is just amazing. It is evenings like tonight that give me a complete buzz. On top of that I spoke to many of the parents tonight about a few things ready for the new year and had volunteers to get involved and help out the coaches, all parents eager to help give their girls all the support they can, it is amazing. At the end of my session I spoke to the older girls, I asked them about becoming leaders and representing their team on our parent player committee and they almost argued over who would be on it as they all loved the idea.
Lastly I spent the rest of the evening (a good hour and a bit) chatting to other coaches, sharing ideas and chatting about things such as futsal. Coaches will always complain about the workload etc however when you talk to them about what they actually do when they coach it is like they get excited by it, they want to learn and share and that pushes everyone involved even more.
I can’t think of anything better to do with those 10-12 hours though and i cant wish for a better place to volunteer. After speaking with several coaches/young leaders tonight and seeing so many kids running around at the club it just makes me want to turn those 10-12 hours into 15 hours or more. So why do I love coaching? Because I love seeing people develop, coaches, leaders and players, I love to be part of a group of people all enjoying helping out and doing what they do!
An article I found written by sports lecturer and coach chloe brown, get her web site and original aritcle checked out pronto.
Source http://cblilwebspace.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/why-i-coach/
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