As a coach or an aspiring coach, you probably already know your coaching philosophy, but putting it into words and onto paper can be a little more difficult. Most coaching philosophies are developed based upon how you were coached. You know the stories you tell about, "back when I played...". These usually lead to a story about the way you think about dealing with a certain situation or what you would do if you were the coach. These are your philosophies.
It is unwise to take somebody elses philosophy and sell it as your own. You must fully believe in your philosophy or people will see through you. When I was preparing for my first head coaching interview at Dayton High School, I sat down and wrote a 20 page program plan that covered everything I believed in about offense, defense, special teams, coaching staff, player discipline, community involvement, etc. I was very proud of my plan and was very confident in my interview. A committee member would ask a question and I would be able to tell them my philosophy on that topic and where they could find it in my program plan that was sitting in front of them. The reason I could do this is because I fully and totally believed in everything I had written in my program plan.
I must add that my philosophy was not fully mine in the manner that I created or developed some new way of thinking about a topic, but I was a great student of all the coaches I had had and worked for. My philosophies were generated from what I liked and didn't like about what coaches I had been around had done. Through my personal experience around coaches, I learned as much about what not to do, as I did about what to do.
All good coaches are life long learners. Because of this, my program plan looks different now than it did back in 2004. The reason for this is my experience dictated that there was a better way to do something, or maybe my surroundings didn't allow me to do things exactly the way I wanted to do them. My core philosophies did not change, but the way I did things had to change in order to be successful.
Hopefully this can help you in some way.
Thanks,
Coach Lickert
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