Why do you coach?

If you coach a team or person either in sport, work or life, have you ever asked yourself why you do it? Is it because your child plays for that team, or maybe it’s a job that pays your bills?

I am very fortunate that I coach for these two reasons but they are only bonuses. For me, the reason I coach is that I love coaching, and most importantly, I get to help inspire people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a big or small difference. You are still making a difference.

Last week I returned from another camp with the Northern Ireland senior men’s football team, and I had the pleasure of witnessing two young men make their senior debuts. The difference between these two debuts and others was that I had been part of their footballing journey since they were 13 years old.

Sam McClelland who is 19-years-old, came on against Ukraine and Conor Bradley, 17-years-old, got his first senior cap against Malta. A fantastic achievement and well deserved.

I am very grateful to have the opportunity to watch these young players develop into the men they are today. I remember speaking with an underage team that Sam was a part of and saying that I would love nothing more to be in the stand watching you play at a professional club or play for the senior International team. To have the opportunity to watch them as part of the senior men’s coaching staff is the icing on the cake.

I don’t coach to take any credit for players’ achievement. That is all down to them and their decisions on and off the field. These two young men are prime examples of this. Sam has always been a leader, captaining every team he was involved in, and he had respect from all the players.

He takes a professional approach to everything from training, sleep, nutrition and even packing his bag! One day I asked him to open his suitcase when we checked out of a hotel, and everything was folded away neatly; other lads were coming down with anything and everything stuffed into their bag.

This doesn’t make or break you as a professional, but it’s another standard that Sam has placed on himself to be the best at what he does.

Young Bradley is made from the same cut. Firstly he stayed an hour extra every day after school so he could skip a year and move over to Liverpool to join the academy, add to this, travelling straight to Cookstown to train twice a week with Club NI, train with his club and play Gaelic for school and club.

We take a break with Club NI during the Christmas period, which is the underage set-up for Northern Ireland. Conor’s mum approached me to carry out fitness tests with Conor as he was going to use this time to improve his athletic ability. He joined a boxing club to work on his footwork, he did athletics training to work on his running technique and carried out a gym program to improve his strength and power. The best part is that at 14 years old, he asked and wanted to do all of this.

It won’t be any surprise to you that he improved in all the fitness tests. To witness this as a coach and share my story with other young athletes to help inspire and show them what it takes to make it at the top is priceless.

This is a brilliant reason to coach, but they are only one-per-cent of the thousands of young people I have coached. My mission is to inspire millions of people to lead a healthy, happy and more fulfilling lives. This can be achieved in several ways. You don’t have to sign a professional contract or represent your county at the international level.

These are brilliant to witness and be a part of, but there is so much more. Through my coaching, I want to educate people, make them ask themselves questions, and become better people. This could be done through a change of attitude, increase their confidence, improve their mindset and help them realise they can achieve anything they want.

Thankfully I have coached long enough to witness these changes, from players making international debuts to people stopping me on the street and thanking me for that one experience or coaching session I took years ago.

This is the reason I coach. What about you?