So, welcome back to your hunt for a new coach. In part one, I looked at the the various categories of coach that are out there and how they might best fit your team. With those descriptions in mind, here is a cross-matrix I designed to show how well these categories play with each other which will hopefully make your decision that little bit easier:
| Coach/ Rowing Org | Novice | Dabbler | Professional | Pre-Elite Athlete | Senior Elite Athlete |
| Club | Great Fit Low Risk | Great Fit Low Risk | Great Fit Low Risk | Questionable Fit Medium Risk | Questionable Fit High Risk |
| Scholastic | Good Fit Medium Risk | Great Fit Low Risk | Great Fit Low Risk | Poor fit High Risk | Poor Fit High Risk |
| University/College | Poor fit High risk | Good Fit Medium Risk | Good Fit Medium Risk | Good Fit Medium Risk | Good Fit High Risk |
| Pre-Elite | Poor Fit High Risk | Questionable Fit High Risk | Questionable Fit Medium risk | Good Fit Low Risk | Good Fit Medium Risk |
| Senior Elite | Poor Fit High Risk | Poor Fit High Risk | Questionable Fit High Risk | Questionable Fit Medium Risk | Great Fit Low Risk |
The concepts of “fit” and “risk” are open to subjective interpretation. Fit, or alignment can be defined in this case as, “Is the prospective coach actually qualified to do the job?” The risk element qualifies as how likely they are to do a good job. Can an elite-level athlete successfully coach a club masters rowing team? Of course, retired national team coxswain Yaz Farooq was happily ensconced as a coach at OAR (Oregon Association of Rowers) before taking the reins at Stanford and winning an NCAA National Championship in 2009.
There are certain expectations in place however, given a candidate’s background. For example, using the chart above we can see that a novice coach is best aligned at the club-level, assuming there are already more senior and experienced coaches in place that can teach and mentor the novice coach. On the opposite end of the chart, we can see that elite level athletes are best aligned to be elite level coaches. Is it because the drive and motivation that made them great athletes will transfer into coaching? Of course not. It has to do with spending time observing and evaluating other top level rowing athletes, understanding how they train, how they move, and what a truly fast catch looks like.
Unfortunatley, sometimes organizations make hiring decisions that have little to do with whether or not the candidate is well aligned for the position’s responsibilities. Hopefully this matrix can provoke some thought and discussion into how your organization evaluates a candidate’s fit, or alignment with a position.
Here is a mix of coaching hire anecdotes that represent good alignment that went well, and unfortunately some that were poorly aligned and did not go so well:
- A Club leader and regular masters rower with a full time career outside of rowing, picks up the megaphone to coach the club’s junior sculling team. Builds the team to one of the most successful junior sculling programs in the country, with ten consecutive years of Youth Nationals grand Final appearances and medals in multiple boat classes for girls and boys.
- A successful club team at a major university hires a former Olympian as Head Coach. This is a full-time position with benefits. The Coach is still training for elite level competition while managing a roster of 40 student-athletes. Two years later the coach decides to relocate to a new training venue and leaves the team with one eight of athletes remaining.
- Former national team athlete and Olympian is hired to coach a national team. Team then pursues an unprecedented run of international success including world and Olympic championships.
- Retired Olympic Medalist spends 10 years “cutting teeth” at the masters, junior and pre-elite level. This individual Is hired to lead a collegiate varsity team with no prior collegiate coaching experience and guides them to 11 years of consecutive top 12 finishes.
The consistent trend with all of these cases, good and bad, is that competitive experience ≠ successful coach. More often than not, the coach is successful because they are a good fit, and they are well aligned with the needs of the organization/team/squad. The lack of success can almost always be traced back to a lack of alignment, or in other words, poor fit.
As always, read the entire resume three times, check references, don’t be afraid to ask challenging questions, and good luck in your search!
Madder Consulting offers search and recruiting services for organizations looking for help. I offer a start-to-finish turnkey solution, or a la carte services specific to your needs. Contact me directly at john@madderconsult.com for more information.
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