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I Was Privileged to Play, But I Was Born to Coach

I recently posted a Twitter poll with the question, "If a genie in a bottle offered you a chance to play the game again for just ONE season, but the catch is you would never be able to COACH again... what would you do?" The options:

❑ Play one season.

❑ Coach forever.

The results I received from the poll were not surprising, considering the people who make up a large portion of my Twitter followers. The majority of responses, 69%, answered the same way I would answer the question today, while 31% answered the way I would have answered it 20 years ago. It is interesting the way life and experiences change you.

If that question were posed to me between ages 22 and 35, I would have said, "One season!? Heck, just give me one more DAY to suit up and play!" There is nothing like being out on the field and playing a game you love with people you love. Nothing can compare to those feelings and emotions. Nothing can replace those experiences.

After my last day of playing competitive baseball, all I dreamed about for the next 10 or 15 years was what it was like to be a player. My thoughts and wishes were all in the past. If only I could go back and toe that rubber again. If only I could re-live my playing days. If I am honest with myself, those feelings are probably what led me into coaching. I just was not ready to give up being out on that baseball diamond.

The fact is, your answer to the original question of this post will reflect whether or not you were born to coach, or if you coach because it is the closest thing to playing the game that is available to you now.

Sadly, I see a lot of those latter guys. They still want to play. It is all they talk about. They even take reps in practice. They just cannot let go of the experience of being a player. And coaching is the closest thing to that experience. These are the coaches who play the game through their kids, which means when the kids don't perform to the level of expectation you would have for yourself, then you are disappointed. And trust me, that disappointment is felt by your kids.

Most guys who coach at a young age start out this way. I did. Like me, I would bet most guys can recall moments when they started making the transition from being a "has-been" player to truly embracing everything about being a coach. I would even go as far as to say for me, it was a privilege to play, but I was born to coach.

I have now coached the game of baseball for longer than I got to play it. Remember, for 95% of people in the world, the GAME decides when you will stop playing. Only the top players in the world get to choose the day they will stop playing. Everyone I know personally was not ready to be done playing. If we all had our choice, we would still be out there in our cleats (and we would spend a lot more time taking ice baths)!

I remember when I began to transition from just loving baseball to loving coaching baseball. In my own life, there has even been another transition take place, which I have talked about before. That has been an evolving emphasis from loving coaching baseball to loving COACHING (period).

Coaching is a calling. Baseball is a game. Coaching involves LIFE and building skills and loving and serving people. Baseball is just an avenue to be able to fulfill such a calling. Without the game, I could not have been a player. But without the game, I would still be a coach. It's bigger.

That perspective is what separates coaches. For some, it is about the game. For others, it is about people... the people that God puts in front of you and says, "Here are some lives I want you to impact." What an incredible weight and responsibility! There is just something different about the way a coach does things when that perspective is always in the back of his mind. He knows his purpose is greater than... just to be on that field again.

He knows he was privileged to play, but he was born to coach.

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