Sports coaching as a career and business

The Quality of coaching plays an integral part in the making of a good sporting team. Successful teams and successful individuals in sports, dedicate their achievements to the quality of coaching they were exposed to from an early age. One can look at the examples of great sportsmen like Sachin Tendulkar; Tiger Woods; Andre Agassi; and teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid football teams, Australian Cricket Team; etc. All speak volumes about the contribution made by their coaches and their coaching methodologies. Therefore the demand for quality coaching will always be there. And from the commercial perspective, the business is going to flourish, for right candidates of course.

Coaching as business or career option has been prevalent in western countries for quite some time. In fact in USA, as per Harvard Business Review; Baseball, Basketball and American Football coaches salaries rose to 46% at an average of $1.36 million in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division. One of the American Football coaches Nick Saban will be earning $44 million till 2018. And there are more than 100 colleges in USA where the Head Coach Salaries are more than $1 million and over $3 million for few coaches.

Apart from US, in European and developed countries, Coaching is looked upon as a respectful profession. Though in India and Asian countries, though the trend has been emerging, it’s still a long shot from the American figures. In India, coaching is gaining its ground. Sports Authority of India has world class facilities at National Institute of Sports, in Patiala and coaching classes for all sports are conducted here. The only drawback with the methodology followed in NIS is that, it equips coaches with all the theoretical knowledge in the world , but practicality is still wanting and it shows on the field by their poor results.

ESPN named Vince Lombardi “Coach of the Century”. Vince Lombardi is remembered for his dedication, his infectious enthusiasm and his unforgettable quotes that continue to echo in locker rooms from around the world. Vince Lombardi was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1971, the same year that the Super Bowl trophy was renamed in his honour. Considered as NFL‘s most prestigious award, the Vince Lombardi Trophy is coveted by every player and coach in the league. The honour assures that Lombardi’s name will never be forgotten, and that his legacy as one of the greatest head coaches of all time will last an eternity.

Quality of coaches determines the quality of the Team and its Performance. In one of the European countries, it is mandatory for all levels of coaches in all sports disciplines to spend a certain number of hours with school children before getting certification. The philosophy is that, the basics are learned at the school levels or at their young ages, so it is important to have good quality coaches in the most important days of a child’s growing up years. Everyone should have the access to Quality Coaching.

Now an important and very relevant and very burning question is whether it is important for one to play the game to become a good coach? Or the good players always become good coaches?

In his book “The Coach” Rick Chalsworth has written quite often that anybody with the ability of writing and reading can achieve anything he or she wants. Coaching is no different. As a coach of any discipline, one needs to understand the basics of the game and with his/her work ethics any one can become a good coach.

To highlight this topic, here is an importance point for consideration; Jose Mourinho’s and Pep Guardiola, two major football club in the world are lead by two different personalities. One is a school teacher who learnt football through a coaching course and the other learnt football mostly on the field and is regarded as one of the best in his times. Let us leave the statistics a side, both are managing two of the greatest football teams in the world. So, the theory or rather the assumption that good players become good coaches does not stand. The benefit of being an ex-player cannot last for more than 6 months, after that how you manage and what results you translate only counts. In fact, there’s a reason to believe that ex-players are less equipped than school teachers who became managers.