Are you a coach or a teacher?

It's a provocative title, as I've often been asked this question, or versions of it. My answer is simple. When I coach - I teach. And that's the simple answer. While the sports (or music or dance) coach is concerned with the specifics of the sport, you want something to change. A physical, technical or tactical component, a better way to think or implementing a new strategy. Whichever it is, your job is to set the scene for the athlete to learn that change and to implement it in competition. How may times have we heard coaches bemoaning their athletes' performance ? "I spent the last three weeks teaching them the play, and they haven't learned it!" Sorry coach, if they didn't learn it, then you didn't teach it. More on this in future posts.