Self-coaching

D K Asked 5 years ago

Greetings Team, in following to my previous question named Sunrise,I found out that although my (I hope) soon-to-be coaches are extremely skilled ones,even they are not specialized in the field of defense and do not have the knowledge to help a defender to develop at his best. I have been informed by one of them himself,that if they were about to do a multiball or create drills for defenders,they had to be instructed by powerful defenders how to do it. They have some overview knowledge of how to play AGAINST defenders,and some basic info about how to play AS a defender,knowing mostly what you describe in your Playing As series. However,they are not able to pinpoint the details in certain rally,slight technique flaws etc. of a defense play. I noticed this at coaching tutorial for professional coaches led by Jie Schopp,professional Chinese-born German defensive coach. She was pinpointing even the slightest flaws in techniques of even national class defenders and was able to effectively create practise drills for them. I was not even able to tell difference before and after her tutoring,despite that I usually notice very slight details overally. Thus,I did a research and I realised there are 3,exactly THREE COACHES out of 1176 certified coaches in my entire country,who are able to coach a defender. Two of them are out of my range,hundreds of kilometres away from me,and the third one is extremely expensive. Thus no access for me. With all of this in mind,I would like to ask you what are the skills and abilities a PROFESSIONAL coach should have (apart from psychological things like passion etc,I am talking purely about things that help his trainees to perfect their technique and strategies). Reason of my question is quite basic: as i am not able to find a defensive coach in my region,I have only one choice left: to try to learn to coach myself in this area. I am aware that noticing one's own mistakes is very hard and that the other person than me will always see more than me. But I am afraid this is my only way. Thanks a lot Dan PS: with this,I am not trying to say you are not good coaches or something. You are great coaches,but currently I need someone defense-specialized in my area.

Alois Rosario Answered 5 years ago

Hi Dan,

I think it is important to just do the best with what you have.

A good coach will be able to learn to help you.  Observing your style and noticing the differences the best they can.