EPT
Right now I somehow landed myself in the position of coaching three teams. I went to the admins and asked if there were any teams that needed a coach. And, after hearing some tales of woe, I was plopped into two teams in addition to the one I was kind-of-in. And it has been difficult. One of these teams I'm pretty much the only coach and on another team I only get a little help. The third team is better balanced for the most part.
I can already tell you after only 3 weeks into the season I'm feeling exhausted and this is a part of a nasty habit I have of promising more than I can manage-ably deal with in the future. It doesn't help that there have been a few bumps along the ride. I'm also hosting a tournament series called Let's Go, which started before all of this CPL nonsense.
I gotta say it's strange having to be so involved in various things. I don't even feel like they take up that much time if handled right, but I'm definitely overworking it. Being so involved now for the past month has been interesting to say the least. I mean, this is what I wanted, to get myself busting a move...but I realize obligations are not exactly my thing. My heart's just not in it. It was when I decided to sign up as a coach. The mind is a mercurial thing at times.
As for the actual coaching, it can be quite a time sink. Each week at least one team practice per team is ideal, but as my general energy levels lower and my attention gets taken up by school, that becomes less of a priority.
I did feel obligated to do these, but, as I've learned, CPL teams and the people that make them up are complex. There's not always a big obligation because depending on the team, some players may not be available, may not want to do team practices, and/or may just want to play their official CPL games. Also, I've learned not to put responsibility on myself to get everything done. I mean, all of these CPL students are older than me, they're capable of running stuff better than I am I bet.
And of course, let's not forget about the actual improvement and coaching part of the CPL.It's really quite difficult at times and again, varies wildly from team to team, to create this sense of obligation to teach. Because, sometimes, the pupils really aren't too focused on that aspect as much as having fun just playing games, which is perfectly fine. Also, it's really up to the individual players to really come up to you and ask to show interest in learning.
The teaching process itself doesn't go smoothly all the time. Sometimes, there'll just be conflicting personalities or problems regarding mentality that pertains more to sports psychology or something. I end up having to repeat certain things, and that's natural, but really it can only go so smoothly after the 6th time of doing the same lengthy explanation. Also, when it comes to Brood War, there really isn't a linear way to teach or learn that's been established. It's a lot of students learning for themselves most stuff, and obviously coaches can't help with that.
Sometimes, there'll just be a very large barrier that, well, you can't really solve until the student hunkers down and really focuses on fixing it. Otherwise mistakes end up repeating themselves and you can't really go beyond old advice or somehow tweaking the approach a bit.
Anyway, I guess I should start wrapping this up, yawn. Did I mention all of the administrative work? Submitting lineups and recording results at the end of each week can be stressful. Just recently I've heard from a friend that I should have the pupils help out in that regard. Of course, who really wants to do the boring stuff though? It's tough.
Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading and I'll probably or probably not start blogging more in the near future.
