| During the 2021-2022 school year I led a cohort with several baseball coaches. One of the coaches in this cohort, Todd Interdonato, head coach at Wofford, talked about his philosophy of accountability in his program.
Accountability
Todd said that he did not expect or encourage his athletes to hold each other accountable. I was super curious to hear his reasoning after he made this remark.
He indicated that the athletes have enough on their plate without adding something else. He didn’t think it was fair to ask his athletes to not only carry the load of school, practice, games, weights, study hall, etc, and then add holding their teammates accountable to this list.
He would add that he simply asks his athletes to remind each other of the standards and expectations. That’s it. Just reminders.
Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman
Then last week I read the book ‘Swagger’ by Jimmy Johnson, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
He talked about being the heavy hand and disciplinarian for his team so Troy Aikman could simply be a good quarterback, teammate, and friend. Once Jimmy left the Cowboys, the next coach, Barry Switzer, was not the disciplinarian. This meant Troy had to not only quarterback the team but also police the team.
The book indicated that this was tough on Aikman. It wasn’t until after Jimmy left that Aiman really appreciated what it meant to him to have a coach who held people accountable.
“We lack leadership on this year’s team!”
One of the pain points I hear often from coaches is a lack of leadership in their program.
What if instead of expecting our athletes to hold others accountable, we ask them to simply, as Todd would say, be good friends and remind their teammates of the standards and expectations? And then as coaches, we are the ones who hold our athletes accountable and be the disciplinarian.
PS. I do think every 5-10 years you get a special individual who is one of the best players, has sway and influence in the locker room, and can actually hold others accountable. I am finding this is more and more rare. |
