7 Habits of a Servant CoachSample

Perhaps an overlooked aspect of serving your team comes from how you carry yourself on a daily basis. Yes, what you say matters, but your players will also be impacted by the integrity of your character throughout their time on your team.

The last habit of a servant coach is "walking the talk."

Your athletes will listen to your words. But they will also listen to your life. How do you carry yourself when things don't go your way? Are you quick to get angry? Do you say you're sorry? Do you model humility? Are you gracious in your tone? Your athletes probably know the answers to these questions about you.

One of the beautiful things about the Christian faith is that our relationship with God is based on forgiveness—not perfection. So don't beat yourself up if you haven't been faithfully living out what you claim to profess.

Confess. Repent. And start over.

In an interview from 2014, Coach Caldwell said, “You could walk into my parents’ home right now and you would not see a bunch of Bibles — though you may find one — or a bunch of signs of them professing their faith. But if you’re around them for 30 minutes, you’ll get a sense of their character and deep faith. From them, I learned to live my life by example and not to just talk about it.”

Coach, you serve your team well when the words you speak are consistently backed up by your actions on and off the field. Many of your athletes have no idea who Jesus is. Hopefully, after their time on your team, they will better understand Him through watching you.

Habit Forming Challenge: Here is a two step habit that I think will help you in this area. 1.) Ask God for help and then 2.) honestly assess. Before practice starts, pray to God something along these lines "God, I want to be the best representivitve of you that I can today. Would you help me to coach in a way that accurately reflects your image to this team." Then, at the end of the practice (maybe on the drive home) try answering this question: "Did I model Jesus today in how I carried myself in front of the team?" Asses that in light of what happened in practice that day. Then repeat this process the next day. Hopefully, over time, you grow in your ability to walk the walk!

Bonus: PS. If you enjoyed this plan, you may enjoy my new book The Christian Athlete: Glorifying God in Sports