In sports like tennis and golf, it’s hard to not pin the blame on the individual who loses. Team sports are a bit different because winning and losing are dependent on so many different factors – from players’ personalities to home court advantages, and even luck. But most importantly, it depends on coaches.
It’s almost instinctive to say that most of the accountability should be on the players when it comes to how well the team performs. But “team performance” implies that it’s a team effort, and all teams are led by team captains and coaches, whose job it is to help their players perform the best they can.
Coaching is a job. Anyone who’s a supervisor or in a managerial position is responsible for getting the most out of their employees. Likewise, coaches are responsible for their players, and if they aren’t doing their job, then they shouldn’t be a coach. If 10 years have passed, and the team still sucks, then they should probably look into finding a new coach.
Sports are a direct competition; its hands on, and each team is trying to accomplish the same thing. So without an effective leader, they’ll lose every time.
When any general manager or team owner wants to dismiss a coach, they have a lot to consider. A coach can’t be evaluated based on the number of wins and losses alone; there a lot of variables that have to be looked at before making a decision.
When judging a coach to determine if they’re doing their job, you have to look for positive things that they’re doing. These things are often not readily apparent, especially with sports, where team dynamics are always in flux. The biggest things are the athletes’ effort and how they respond to the coach. Whether or not the athletes are giving their all is more important than winning or losing.
Athlete competitiveness and effort on the field are the biggest indication of how well a coach is doing. If the team is trying and keeps showing effort, eventually they’ll turn it around. As for practicing and working hard — it’s the coach’s job to get them to do that.
Another thing about coaches is that they have to deal with a lot of personalities. Players’ personalities heavily influence how well a team can work as a unit, and coaches have to be able to learn to work with that. Coaching can be as complicated as being a parent in a really big family, and some major and minor slipups will be made.
What is often the case is that team owners don’t give coaches enough time to find their rhythm. If there’s no instant gratification of consecutive wins, they’re fired. Coaches need time to change things, especially if a team wasn’t that great from their previous coaching. It takes a while to develop a team that’s cohesive, efficient and championship-worthy.
Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross didn’t fire Coach Joe Philbin. Despite the Dolphins’ not-so-great record under him, every year he’s there, there are small improvements in team performance. A lot of people may dislike him because of his decisions, but he makes up for it by taking his time. It doesn’t take one or two years to get to the Super Bowl; it takes years of patience and fine-tuning, especially when a coach has been with a team for a short time; Philbin has been with the Dolphins for three years. Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who has also been with the team for the past three years, is excited that Philbin is staying to coach for the 2015 season.
A coach’s job is to produce results: their athletes putting on winning performances, regardless of the sport. The caveat is that they have to be given time to do so. The Miami Heat has been plagued by injuries this season, starting with Lebron James’ departure. The team brought in new players, but now they have to deal with injuries, which play an important part of sports. They dictate who plays in the game, and they’re something coaches can’t foresee or control. Josh McRoberts, power forward, played well in the Heat’s first five games, but is now out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury. Shooting guard Dwayne Wade is the poster child for sports-related injuries and, Danny Granger, small forward, suffered as well. But the Heat are still in the playoffs, mainly because their coach, Erik Spoelstra, is doing a great job with the team, remaining patient and pushing forward. But who wins the Finals four years in a row anyway? No one.
In short, yes, coaches are responsible for how well their players perform; after all, it’s in their job description. But what you mean by “well” has to be the level of effort shown by the players, not an arbitrary number of wins and losses.
