Five Common Coaching Mistakes and How to Correct Them

1. Trying to handle every aspect of the program on your own.

Correction: Delegate responsibilities to assistants, parents, and captains.

When Daniel Willaert, head coach of the Cretin-Derham Hall (St. Paul, MN) High School wrestling team, first started coaching, he worked himself into the ground trying to do everything himself.

After a couple of seasons, Willaert, who is also President of the St. Paul Wrestling Club, felt burnt out by February, even though he still had to finish the season (ending in March) and organize year-end duties, including the team banquet.

That changed when Willaert learned how to delegate.

“I finally figured out how to delegate responsibilities based on peoples’ interests and capabilities,” Willaert says. “I had an assistant coach who was into technology, so I put him in charge of filming matches, uploading into Hudl for our wrestlers to watch, and making the highlight video for our banquet. Another assistant has a strong interest in nutrition and healthy living, so he is the go-to person for our wrestlers to talk to about managing their weight and eating appropriate foods on competition days.”

Finding parents or boosters who can take on responsibilities also helps, Willaert says. Maybe you have a parent in your program with a zoom lens digital camera? Give that parent a “matside” pass for your home events to snap some action shots and print them off to post in the room and send to newspapers. Maybe you have a mom that saves all the articles in the paper for a scrapbook? Ask if she’ll make copies of the pages to print off in a booklet for all wrestlers at the banquet. Maybe you have an assistant who majored in kinesiology in college? Tell him that he is in charge of planning and implementing the conditioning part of practice for the first month of the season. Tell him that it’s his job to push the team and make sure they aren’t getting worn out late in matches. You can still be in charge of technique, but then turn it over for the last 20 minutes of practice and see what happens.

“When you turn over small parts of the program to someone else, and let that person know how valuable his or her contribution is to the success of the program, he or she will be more invested in the program, and also less likely to move on in a couple years,” added Willaert. 

2. Coaching every wrestler in your program to wrestle exactly how you did in college.

Correction: Show a variety of set ups, variations, and finishes for the same technique.

This one takes a little bit of a balancing act, says Willaert, who wrestled collegiately at Saint John’s University.

“I do strongly believe that there are certain fundamental techniques that every wrestler in your program needs to be able to execute, such as a stand up,” he says. “However, all that really matters to me is if my wrestlers are capable of getting that escape. They can do an inside step, an outside step, or push back from power position. Hand control before coming up or finding hands once on the feet doesn’t matter to me, as long as they are getting out.”

If you aren’t an expert on a certain set up, turn it over to your assistant, Willaert says.

“There are certain moves that big guys need to do differently than little guys, so if your assistant coaches are a different size than you, that can be a big bonus for your team,” he adds.

Another way to let one of your wrestlers shine is having an upperclassman show their variations or set ups that they have been successful executing in matches.

There are a lot of great coaches who have implemented a winning approach and style. But it doesn’t mean that one specific style is the only way a wrestler can succeed, says Rob Prebish, an assistant wrestling coach at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, VA, In 2017, Prebish was an assistant coach for the USA team that competed in the 20th World Maccabiah Games in Israel. Prebish is also on the coaching staff for the Virginia USA Wrestling nationals and will be in Fargo this summer for his 17th year coaching at Cadet and Junior Nationals.

“A big mistake coaches make is believing that their technique or system is the absolute best and no other coach holds a candle to their technique,” Prebish says. “I think coaches who believe that their system is the only/best system are limiting themselves in terms of development. Coaches should be constantly honing the craft of coaching.”

3. Waiting around for people outside your program to get involved/invested.

Correction: Ask people for help, share positive stories from your program, make the first move.

"There are a few lucky programs out there that have an athletic director or administrator who have experience with wrestling, but most of us need to spread the gospel to our administrators," said Willaert. "You are probably their only point of contact with wrestling."

So get creative, Willaert says. Invite them to matches and other program events, order an extra t-shirt for them, email them links to the “feel good” articles about a wrestler who has overcome adversity to be successful. Give them specific examples about how they can best help your program, such as the need to protect and maintain the mats or that bus schedules need to account for the weigh in time, rather than the start of the tournament.

The same can be done with other faculty and staff at the school. Have a “teacher appreciation” home match where each wrestler invites an influential teacher to the match. The teachers’ names can be listed in the program that night and they can be recognized before the varsity match starts.

To create a buzz and engage alumni, Willaert created an annual alumni event. He made a copy of every wrestling yearbook page from 1962 (when the Cretin-Derham Hall wrestling program was started) up to the current year and typed up a spreadsheet of all the names in the team picture. Then the school’s alumni office helped him locate email addresses for those names. He started an email distribution list to send updates on the team and invitations to the alumni event. The event now takes place each year when the Raiders host a rival school and that includes a social at a nearby restaurant for alumni, parents, and coaches.

“These events have helped build relationships that are very beneficial when it’s time to start fundraising,” Willaert says.

4. Only working with the best kids in the room.

Correction: Focus on the program, not just the stars.

“Coaches who only work with the highest level kids in the room are creating a culture of division on teams or programs,” Prebish says. “Separating teams and only working with the best kids is easy, but what about the rest of the team? Shouldn’t coaches hold every kid to the same standard?”

5. Failure to communicate.

Correction: Don’t assume everyone gets it or hears the message.

This includes wrestlers, parents, assistant coaches, administrators, boosters and supporters. Coaches can sometimes be stubborn. They might also be great coaches, but poor communicators. This doesn't just mean communicating during a practice or meet. This includes communicating outside of practice, and holding team meetings with parents before the season starts to set expectations and answer questions. It means listening to others, and then taking action, says Lee Pritts, assistant coach at Arizona State.

“Without effective and open communication,” he says,” I believe it’s almost impossible to have sustained success.”