What Type of Coach are You?

Merriam-Webster, describes a coach as, "one who instructs or trains an acting coach a birth coach; especially : one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a sport and directs team strategy."

There are two parts to this definition, one is a teacher, and one is a director. That is, one educates, and one commands.

These different roles change depending on the environment, and are manifested mostly in competition. In fact, I think all coaches operate along a continuum with 'teacher' at one end and 'competitor' at the other. Some coaches clearly focus more on teaching, some more on competing.

There is nothing wrong with a coach being at any point on this continuum. The problem exists when the coach is at a point that their athletes are not. The easiest example is where the result of a match in a junior competition is more important to the coach than the players. You can see this as it is happening. And you can imagine that coach berating the children at the end of the game for not wanting to win as much as he/she does.