What makes a good coach?

 There must be some kind of law in coaching that goes something like this: The closer you get to a player's face and the louder you scream the better that player's performance will be.   I'm sure this is the mantra of many coaches because I see it all the time the most recent being this past weekend at my grandson's football game.  I'm happy to report it was not his coach who was doing the screaming-although he's been known to do so-but the opposing team's coach.

Frankly I find this coaching style stupid, counterproductive and in many instances downright cruel.  As far as I'm concerned there's absolutely nothing to be gained from humiliating a kid in front of a bunch of spectators.  To the contrary there is actually a lot to lose. 

I've done a little coaching back in the day.  My daughter played girls softball for 5 years and I coached her team the whole time.  We did very well-not because I'm a particularly good coach but because I had good players. Sure, they made mistakes but they knew immediately what they did and next time they tried to improve without me berating them.  

Why do parents tolerate such poor coaching habits?  I guess many of them think their child's coaches know what they're doing so they say nothing.  The fact is while many coaches no the mechanics and techniques of a given sport very well they don't necessarily know how to impart that knowledge on to players.  In other words they're lousy teachers.   Good coaches are good teachers.  It's hard finding a person who has that combination of knowledge of a sport and teaching ability.