Drilling down into what’s important
Firstly, you will need to know a little more about the technical skills of the coach.
“[You will need to know] what the coach’s skills are, what the coach brings to the table,” Joyce said.
Identifying these qualities might be tough, but by doing your homework and asking other athletes for feedback, you will boost your chances.
When you have identified if the prospective coach has the technical competencies to coach you, then you can move on to stage two. Here you have to see whether the coach matches your values. To do this, you’ll need some good self-reflection.
“So you need to know what your values are, what your mission purpose is, all those sorts of things,” Joyce said.
If you can match both the coach’s competencies and their values to yours, there’s a chance you might have a good fit. But let’s take a second to learn from the dating world – just because two dating profiles match, it doesn’t mean you’ll actually get on well, and let’s be honest, you don’t want to pay for dinner and not get a second date!
“Like on paper, you can say that this boy or this girl seems like a perfect match for me, but it’s only when you’ve had a number of dates that you can say whether they will be a really good match for me,” Joyce said.