Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 9:27 pm

How Important Should Winning Be?

No single decision is more important in coaching than how you prioritize winning, fun and development.

Many coaches face a dilemma about their objectives when they coach. Society clearly rewards winners. Yet society also looks to soccer as a means to help young people tryout life, build character and develop leadership skills. Coaches who want to help young people develop physically, psychologically and socially through soccer often find they are evaluated only on win-loss record. Perhaps altruistic at first, too many veteran coaches are conditioned by the organizations for which they coach, to pursue the objective of winning regardless of the cost.

That kind of philosophy must change and coaches must take responsibility for making the change. While society may be fickle about its objectives for soccer participation, coaches must resist the external forces that encourage them to win at all costs. Now more than ever, coaches need to be clear about their objectives when coaching.

It’s important to keep winning in perspective and remember that striving to win the game is an important objective of the contest, but it is not the most important objective of soccer. It is easy to lose sight of the long-term objectives of helping players develop physically, psychologically, and socially while pursuing the short-term objective of winning, because the rewards for winning are immediate and fulfilling.

Winning or striving to win is never more important than the athlete’s well-being, regardless of the mixed messages our society sends. Coaches need to ask themselves if they will be able to keep those long-term goals in sight not only during practice but also in the heat of a contest. Can they keep those goals not only when they are winning but also when they are losing?  Or when they have the support of their administration and also when the administration is pressuring them to win?

When winning is kept in perspective, soccer programs produce young people who enjoy the sport, who strive for excellence, who dare to risk error in order to learn and who grow able to handle both praise and constructive criticism. When winning is kept in perspective, there is room for fun in the pursuit of victory or, more accurately, the pursuit of victory is fun. With proper leadership, soccer programs produce young people who accept responsibilities, who accept others and most of all accept themselves.

Successful coaches help their players develop physically, psychologically, and socially. Successful coaches strive to achieve their personal goals without jeopardizing their player’s well being.

Success is not just about winning. The basic problem in this issue of worthiness is that young soccer players learn from parents, coaches and teammates to gauge their self-worth largely by whether they win or lose. The devastating result of this belief is that young players can maintain their sense of self-worth only by making others feel unworthy. The most important thing you can do as a coach to enhance the motivation of your players is to change this yardstick of success.

Winning is important, but it must become secondary to striving to achieve personal goals. Success must be seen in terms of players exceeding their own goals rather than surpassing the performances of others. If you’re coaching helps players understand and implement this principle, you will do more to help them become excellent students of the game, successful adults than by any other coaching action.