Though his days as host of the elitefts Sports Performance Podcast are over, Mark Watts is not yet done with podcasts. This week he was featured on Episode 77 of the Central Virginia Sports Performance video podcast with Jay DeMayo, where he discussed coaching in 2017, building confidence in athletes, and how to stay focused on the things that really matter.
In the podcast, Mark and Jay begin by discussing the art of coaching and all of the changes Mark has seen in the industry over the years. Mark shares that one of the best things for his understanding of coaching was having the opportunity to step outside of the grind and reflect on everything that he did and didn't do well as a coach. Mark transitioned from coaching into the Director of Education role at elitefts, and is now a teacher. He credits the years since he left coaching as some of the most valuable for reflection and evaluating the successes and failures of his strength and conditioning career.
Discussing the state of the industry in 2017, Mark says that information is so abundant today that young coaches are almost overexposed. Strength and conditioning coaches are searching for recognition and identity confirmation while trying to add value to their organization, but they're forced to do so in a profession that does not reward those things.
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It's a double-edged sword that makes it difficult even to talk about. A strength and conditioning coach cannot take credit for the success of the team or individual athletes. If one team you coach is successful because of the strength training program, then why aren't all of the teams you coach winning championships? And if you take credit for the team performing well, will you also accept blame when they fail? A strength coach can't and shouldn't do so. The players have to play, and coaches cannot steal the spotlight from the athletes they're trying to build.
What this leads to is one of the foremost challenges all strength and conditioning coaches face: there is no quantitative, objective way to evaluate the success of the strength coach. Going into detail about this topic and many other misconceptions in the industry, Mark and Jay analyze issues all coaches face, and how they should approach dealing with them. Mark additionally shares some of his most valuable lessons from coaching and explains how important it is to keep the focus on the athlete. He discusses the concept of mental toughness and points out the difference between being mentally tough and simply following instructions.
By the minute:
- (1:20) Introduction, guest background, and topics
- (3:17) Mark's departure from coaching and his reflection on his previous positions
- (7:41) Coaching is teaching
- (10:25) The number one athletic factor for predicting success in a given sport
- (13:00) Process-based vs. outcome-based evaluation
- (16:23) The coaching carousel
- (22:02) Social media and outside coaching pressures
- (26:05) At the end of the day, LeBron gets the ball and Phelps finishes the relay
- (28:20) What is mental toughness?
- (30:13) A coach's responsibility to build confidence in the team
- (34:55) Closing remarks
From the host:
"In this episode of The Podcast, I discuss the state of the field of strength and conditioning today with Mark Watts. Mark starts out sharing with us with how he’s gotten to where he is and how it’s impacted what he sees in the coaching field. He then gets into what he sees as some of the issues and misconceptions in and of the field. He finishes off sharing some things that he had the best success with for his athletes in the past that carry over to any field, and how keeping the focal point being the athlete is most important."
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