End of the Old School Coach

Bobby Knight threw chairs. Lou Holtz grabbed players by the facemask. Jimmy Johnson banished a player to the ‘asthma field’. These are three of the many well-known stories of how ‘old school’ coaches would treat their athletes. With the recent scandal of player mistreatment and subsequent cover-up by men’s basketball coach Mike Rice at Rutgers University, the era of the ‘old school’ coach has come to an end.

Today’s coach lives in a new world, a world dominated by new technology like cell phone video, social media and 24-hour news cycles. Coaches have to be aware that everything they say or do to their athletes during a private practice may be recorded and made public.

 Just as technology has become a game changer, it is important to note that today’s athletes are different than the athletes of the past. The top athletes in the world of basketball  are from the AAU generation and have been treated with ‘kid gloves’ by major shoe companies who fund the programs, as well as trained by  coaches who are afraid that the athletes might switch allegiances (Adidas to Nike) if they are coached in an ‘old school’ manner. For these reasons coaches must adapt and adjust their coaching methods.

While coaches can still be tough on their athletes to get the best out of them, they have to balance this out by building the athlete up as well. All athletes want to be coached; it’s the way they are wired. But the new generation of athletes expects to be coached by a leader with a ‘new school’ philosophy.