Does the Player-Coach Transitions Works?
By Harold Johnson
In many sports is usual to see how players grow up in their different ages of their careers until their retirement, if they stay too many years with a single team eventually that player will became in some way part of the team, club, franchise or whatever it is, some of them turn into some administrative position, in some sports a retired player buy a part of the team so they became as one of the owners and other being the trainers or coaches, but it is clear that is not the same thing to play the sport than to coach or lead a team, so "how useful or productive can be have a former player coach?"
There are many reasons why players do that because in some way they don't want to quit the game, they feel are having important information or have lessons they want to share with younger generations of players, or they want to see new players learn and been successful with their knowledge, at the end this is not so important, the important to know if they have the ability and what is need it to coach a volleyball team.
A few former player coaches result to better coaches than what they were as players, may be they had the ideas, plays and know what to do but couldn't pass it to their own game, those players could have been too much technical or theoretical in their careers and have talent to read game or to organized the team but could apply the practical side of the game, so they have qualities to coach or teaching the game to others.
Have a career is always good in any position of work, and coaching is not the exception, obviously you must have some knowledge in a couple of stuff such as physical education for example, is not only know the position of each player and accommodate the team in the court, but what I am trying to say is this players have an advantage over a regular coach who never play volleyball, and is the experience of know how a volleyball player feels and know the tactical game from the inside, which are the usual mistakes and actually understand better your players.
A bigger preparation is the difference between a full time coach and a former player coach as a personal opinion, as I said experience is a relevant aspect but I don't think that only the knowledge of playing the game could be enough to coach a team, I think if a former player wants to start a coach career at the end of his/her retirement he/she must think be part of the coaching team as assistant first to adopted to this new environment of training and begin the studies need it to coach but in general might be useful to have a ex-volleyball player as a coach.
25/1/12
