As I have worked through my master’s program, my way of thinking about my job has been completely changed.  I have worked in various roles for the Michigan State Football program over the past almost nine years, currently as a graduate assistant coach.  I have always thought my job as a coach has been to get the team as prepared as possible for each game and to give them the best possible chance of winning.  The thing about sports, and football specifically, that I have always enjoyed is the strategical aspect.  I enjoy planning out an attack each week, trying to outsmart the opponents.  I am a very competitive person, and I come from a family with an athletics background, so football coaching is a profession that I always knew I would end up in.  However, the classes that I have taken throughout the Sport Coaching and Leadership master’s program here at Michigan State has made me rethink about what the role of a football coach, or any coach, truly is.  Football coaches are always measured on the amount of games they win.  Those outside of the program primarily only care about wins and losses; they are not concerned about anything else if you are winning football games.  That being said, I have learned that there are much more important aspects to coaching that I had not considered prior to my classes.  It is not just out-thinking your opponent that truly matters, but making a positive impact in the lives of others.  There are three classes that taught me the most about what it truly means to be a great coach: Promoting Positive Youth Development in Sport; Budget and Finance in Higher Education; and Physical Bases of Coaching.

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The first class that has helped me in my pursuit of coaching football is Promoting Youth Development in Sport.  This class taught me about the different types of coaching: transactional and transformative coaching.  Transactional coaching is simply using your players as a means to an end.  This type of coaching cares only about winning, and views the players as just a tool to reach this goal.  Transactional coaches motivate their players by punishing them when they mess up.  They do not care about the well-being of their players outside of what they can contribute on the field.  Transformational coaches, on the other hand, are most concerned with making a positive impact on their players.  They care about using their position as a coach to help their players grow as individuals.  This type of coach realizes that the way that they treat their players will impact them for life; almost all athletes can remember the impact a coach made on them, both positive and negative.  This class taught me how important it is to remember that when working with our players.

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Promoting Youth Development in Sport also educated me in the different models of how our players develop through sports.  There are many different inputs given, leading to the development of our athletes.  Some models show that youth development through sport happens naturally; without specifically targeting development, these models believe that it will still happen.  The models I most align with, though, show that the most positive impact we can make require the goal of developing our young athletes.  This class helped me form the opinion that we can develop our young athletes the most when we are doing things that are specifically targeting development.  We must also teach about the transfer of these skills into the real world.  These skills can be taught on the playing field, but that does not mean that the athletes are automatically able to use these skills off the field.  We must talk to our players about how the skills that they are developing on the field are able to transfer over into their everyday lives.  This will make them more productive members of society and allow them to live more successful lives once their playing days have concluded.

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One other class that I learned a lot from and that I believe will help me in the future is Budget and Finance in Higher Education.  This class taught me a ton about the costs of going to college.  Higher education has continually been rising.  The costs to attend college has been raising at a rate much higher than the rate of inflation; this has lead to higher education being more and more difficult to pay for.  This class helped me to understand why these costs are continuing to grow.  Additionally, I learned what we can do to help combat these costs.  I learned about the government’s role in funding higher education.  There are many different grants, loans, and scholarships given out to students from both the state and national governments.  Some of these are given out based on merit; they are given to the people who have earned good grades and participated in extracurricular activities.  Other scholarships are received based upon need.  These scholarships are given to those who otherwise may not have been able to afford to attend college on their own without this help.  I read about both points of view about how much money should go to both merit and need based scholarships.

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This class will be very useful for me as I pursue my goal of coaching football at the collegiate level.  My first full time coaching position will likely be at either the division two or division three level.  At these schools, you are often unable to offer full athletic scholarships to your players.  Instead, you can help your athletes attend your school to play football through financial aid and scholarships.  This class helped me to understand where this money comes from.  Additionally, it will help me try to recruit my future athletes to attend my school.  My understanding of how school can be more affordable will be a big help as money is often a big issue for potential student athletes.  I will be able to help explain financial aid, merit based scholarships, and need based scholarships as I recruit these players, and am hopefully able to bring the price of their schooling down enough to have them join my team.  The understanding of these topics is a big advantage over coaches with less knowledge.  When I am personally able to explain these things to them, it is much easier to communicate with potential future athletes.  Other schools may have to work through a third party, whereas I am able to directly communicate with them.

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Physical Bases of Coaching was one other very influential class for me.  I learned a lot about the ways that the body works when it comes to physical activity.  There was a lot of physics involved in this class.  I learned about the mechanics involved when the body performs tasks that we usually do not think twice about, such as running.  This class helped me think about what we are actually ask our athletes to do, and how, scientifically, we can be more efficient with all of our movements.  Additionally, I learned about the different muscle types: type one and type two.  I was taught about the tasks of each of these muscle groups, and when the body recruits these muscle fibers.  I also learned the best ways to train each of these muscle groups, and what to expect from different types of training.  This is helpful in coaching as I need to train my athletes based on the tasks I am asking them to perform.  A wide receiver, for example, must have their body built differently than an offensive lineman; this class taught me about how we can best train our athletes to do their specific job at the optimum level.  One other thing this class taught me is what muscles and muscle groups perform specific tasks.  This is very useful in coaching because I can know what muscles to target to get the desired results.  For example, the glutes, quads, and hamstrings are the muscles used most in running.  To increase an athlete’s speed, I should target these muscles.  This class has made a positive impact in how I will aim to improve my athletes' ability.  It helped me to learn how to improve the physical attributes which are most important for a position.  When my coaching career begins, I will likely be required to run a strength training program with my players.  This class has taught me how to most effectively train my athletes, leading to reduced injury and improved overall performance.

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This master’s program has caused me to completely rethink the ways that I think of coaching.  Instead of viewing football as just a strategical contest, I now view it as a chance to make a positive impact on others.  Other than what I learned in the three classes listed earlier, I also learned about leadership, how to develop employees within an organization, and the different forms of teaching and learning.  Working as a graduate assistant, I have learned a great deal about the strategical aspect of football.  I have learned a ton about both offensive and defensive football, including run schemes, pass concepts, pass protection, defensive fronts, stunts, blitzes, and coverages.  I also learned about the proper technique on how to do all of these things.  Schematics become irrelevant if they cannot be properly performed.  I have also viewed my work experience as a chance to experiment with what I learned in my classes. I was able to try out different forms of teaching to my players right after I learned about it in class.  I was able to use the development strategies from my classes with my players, who I could talk to about what they do or do not like about the things I was learning.  I was also able to talk to our strength coaching staff about the classes involving physical growth and development.  Overall, the greatest part of my program of study was that I was able to apply what I learned directly after learning about it.  I was able to take what I learned, use it daily, and form my own opinion about what I was learning.  I was able to incorporate things that I learned into my own coaching style.  I feel that my retention of what I learned was greater when I could use it immediately after learning it.  Instead of it being forgotten before I got the chance to apply what I learned, I was able to do it and have it become a part of the way I do my job permanently.  I am also able to gauge the effectiveness in the application of what I have been taught.  Some things I have learned are much more practical than others, and players will respond in different ways to different types of coaching.  With the age group that I am working with now, which I also hope to be working with into my future career, it is very useful to test these new coaching strategies as I am learning them.

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 As I continue to pursue my dream of coaching college football, I will look back on what was covered in this master’s program.  One of my classes required us to read a book that said continuous introspection and evaluation of yourself is a requirement to be a great developmental coach.  As my coaching career continues, I will look back and make sure that I am being a transformative coach.  I will ensure that I am doing more than just attempting to win games.  I will try to make the most positive impact that I can on my athletes, using my platform to help them grow as people.  This, I have learned, is the most important thing that I have learned throughout my time at Michigan State: the role of a coach is to make an impact in your players' lives not only on the field, but off it as well.