Michael Cross, Athlete Viewpoint
Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, able to fly, and possesses superhuman strength. Many successful coaches adopt a superman (or woman) mentality. They have to do it all, be able to carry the heaviest burdens, and do it faster than everyone else.
Even Superman had weakness – in his case, Kryptonite – a substance that made him completely non-functional. Just like Superman, we have our own personal Kryptonite. Maybe you know what your Kryptonite is, or maybe you just think you do. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know what your weaknesses are – especially from your student athletes through actual data and analytics?
One of the most important areas for student athletes and a frequent area of criticism is communication. Some coaches are great in this area, some aren’t. And most of us want to be better at it. Student athletes want genuine, honest, sincere relationships and that starts with how you communicate and engage with them.
In the following real-data example you can see that Coach #1’s athletes gave an average communication rating of 3.79 on a 5 point scale. The coach’s students consider him a better than average communicator. But notice this coach’s communication is below the national average in their sport (4.27). The green colors indicate “excellent” and “very good” student ratings with yellow indicating students rating “average” and red indicating “poor.”
Compare this to Coach #2 at a another school in the same sport. Student athletes rate the communication skills of this coach as nearly excellent with a 4.46 average rating compared to the national average (4.18). (The national averages change between the two examples since each individual head coach’s ratings are not included in the national averages when they are the comparison example.)
What may initially seem like a minor difference is clearly a strength for Coach #2 and an opportunity for Coach #1 to improve. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to know this information without utilizing comparative data. Coach #2 should feel great about their skills in this area and see the associated confidence boost that comes with positive student athlete feedback. And this likely translates to good recruiting as well. Coach #1 now has a chance to learn about how they can be a more effective communicator to successfully communicate with their current team and prospective student athletes.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can be a coaching Superman (or woman) while knowing your personal Kryptonite through high level data and analytics, check out our website at AthleteViewpoint.com or contact me at michael@athleteviewpoint.com to arrange a demonstration for your institution.