Sage Advice for Novice Coaches
By Jana Riggins, Speech and Debate Director | Tuesday, November 18, 2014 9:44 AM
Fresh out of college and barely 21 years old when I first acquired the title of “speech coach”, I still vividly recall the nervous queasiness in my stomach when I took my students to their first tournament. They towered over me, being the vertically challenged person that I am, and my youthful countenance had tournament administrators asking my students, “Which one of you is the coach?”
I learned a lot those first years, luckily sometimes from mentors who came my way and sometimes through mistakes I survived. If you are a new UIL coach, here are some lessons learned that may help you along your journey.
You can never dream too big. You may be starting a speech and debate program from scratch, with no budget and perhaps little administrative support for this strange animal you’re attempting to convince everyone is a program that is essential for success in the real world. You may even be beginning with a zero budget. It probably appears that you are on an island apart from everyone. Don’t give up hope. As your speakers and performers start having success, people will take notice.
Start small. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” isn’t far from the truth when it comes to building a forensic program. Baby steps have to be made first. Recognize the importance of those small advancements. Just like the tiny tike who gingerly takes one or two small steps initially only to be running wild and free a few weeks later, know that you and your students are making progress. Celebrate the small successes.
Establish your philosophy of competition. Spell out clearly your squad rules. Make plain your expectations on preparation, responsibility and regulations. Get administrative approval for your program policies, designed to be clearly in line with district policies, before you review them with your students. Make those known in writing not only to your squad but also to their parents. Have both student and parent sign off on those policies, in the event you need that documentation.
Admit you don’t know everything. If you have never debated in your life or never competed in high school or college, admit to your students that you will be learning right along with them. They will appreciate your honesty. What they really want to know is, do you care about them and will you invest your time and effort in the squad? The brightest of students are attracted to competitive speaking events, so they naturally possess a curious academic nature. Yes, they are the nerds that love researching in the library and online, listening to the news, reading literature books so they know how to find the information they need to compete. They crave competition of the mind. What they truly need from you is encouragement, guidance and a commitment to working at being a good coach. It’s OK if you don’t know everything from the start.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Observe the coaches at tournaments that interact positively with their students and display genuine camaraderie with other coaches. Quietly watch to discover which coaches demonstrate integrity by supporting decisions that are rule-bound and fair, regardless of whether or not their student benefits from the ruling. They are the ones to seek out for advice.
Give your varsity competitors responsibility. If you are taking over an established program, it may not be easy to convince students who were loyal to the former coach that you are worth trusting and your way is worth following. Give those skeptical competitors important responsibilities so they have ownership in the success of the entire squad. Make the speech and debate program theirs. Allow them to assist in coaching the novice. It will make your life easier and your varsity students will have a greater appreciation for the challenges you face as a coach.
Know the rules and procedures. Your students won’t want to be “thrown under the bus.” You can gain their respect quickly if you know the rules. In Texas, there are multiple forensic circuits, so learn the differences and be certain you teach the differences to your kids as well.
Seek resources. UIL produces handbooks for every speech and debate event. Visit the online store and get copies. Check out the New Coach online page in the Speech section of the website. Email me and ask for a complimentary New Coach manual. Secure DVDs from last season’s state championship rounds to discover the standards your students must aspire to reach.
Build bridges at your school. Don’t exert your energy complaining about the lack of support, if that is the case. Put your energy into running an excellent program so no one can ignore the accomplishments of your students. Make special friends with the librarian. Your students need library resources and the librarian may be delighted that students are using the library for its intended purpose. Perhaps she’ll have extra budget money to share to buy prose and poetry books your squad needs for UIL or debate materials or laptop computers. Build a relationship with your custodian. If your squad is working as hard as it should be, your room will always be in disarray! Don’t forget to befriend the principal’s secretary, as well. Your kids will be so engrossed in research, they may not hear the class bell ring and they will need a late pass to class. They’ll be performing at a community service club luncheon and not make the fifth period bell. You always need a friend in the office!
Embrace your role as a coach, not a sponsor. A sponsor goes along for the ride like a chaperone. A coach is actively involved. A coach trains performers; a coach instructs players in the fundamentals; a coach directs strategy. That means, you should teach your competitors: rehearse them, critique them, observe their practice rounds, discuss their cases with them and question their evidence. Never let them enter a tournament without practicing in front of you. Make that an absolute requirement, no matter if they are novice or varsity competitors.
Pay attention to details. Contest dates and deadlines must be supreme. You endanger your students being disqualified if you don’t meet required deadlines. You can’t expect your students to adhere to deadlines if you aren’t modeling promptness yourself. Don’t make excuses – meet the deadlines for entries, for submitting judging forms, for paying fees.
Get ‘em on the bus! Nothing takes the place of participating in tournaments. You would be shocked if a football team headed into district play without preseason games on the schedule. Don’t take your kids to district without their own academic preseason invitational meet preparation. What you may not be able to teach them, tournament rounds can. They will gain valuable knowledge as well as poise through the experience of competition. That doesn’t mean you have to travel every weekend. In fact, I’m a firm believer that those who are hitting a tournament four times a month are simply repeating the mistakes made the tournament before rather than using tournament experience as a method to grow and improve. Give yourself a chance to breathe as a person so you come back to your squad rejuvenated, and don’t forget that you are coaching teenagers – they need a life beyond competition, too. But they also need practice to gain the confidence and experience they need to face tough competition.
Judge required rounds. Don’t pay your way out of your obligation. Sure, it’s tiring. I promise you it’s much more tiring to sit around in the coaches lounge waiting for rounds to be over. Actively engaging in judging makes you a better coach because you know first-hand what is happening on the circuit: what literature is being performed successfully, which cases and arguments are being run on the debate topic, what type of strategies are promoting advancement to the final chambers of congress and what organizational patterns are most effective in extemporaneous speaking. You won’t learn that grazing in the lounge.
Debrief following the tournament. Always, always, always debrief the Monday following the weekend tournament. Make every tournament a learning experience not a trophy hunt. Ask every student what he or she learned. You may be surprised at their response. I made it a graded writing activity to have each student scrutinize every ballot they received, recording the good and the bad. In addition, I had them evaluate what critiques were useful and which were not, and how those valuable critic comments would be used to improve their performance for the next competition opportunity.
Live like a role model because you are. Never question a judge’s decision in front of students. Handle it like a mature adult. Otherwise, you teach your kids to be whiners. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with every rank or ballot or questionable reason for decision. What it does mean is that you teach your students to respect critics. Discussing which comments are valid and which are not can happen next week in the classroom setting. It has no place at the tournament in front of your students. How you treat tournament officials is how your students will treat them. Live like a role model.
Love your students. The teachers and coaches who carry the most influence are those who demonstrate they care about their students – not for the notoriety a talented student might bring to the coach because of medals, trophies, championships or number of qualifications to state and national tournaments, but for the human being they are. Care just as much about the young student who never breaks out of preliminary rounds as you do the one who dominates the final round. If students know you care about them and you are willing to invest in them as individuals, they will walk the extra mile with you to give all they can to build a forensics program. You must first give them a place to belong. A place to be safe. A place to grow. They will return your efforts tenfold.
Good luck on your journey. Coaching is the trip of a lifetime.