Why am I coaching?
Every week, before a game or a session, I feel this “positive” pressure—the weight of preparation, the responsibility of making sure the sessions we built during the week were the right ones, with the right focus and mindset. Of course, you can’t control everything—and maybe that’s the real beauty of football, or of any sport.
There’s a French saying: “Le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres” (the misfortune of some brings joy to others). At the end of the COVID-19 period, I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt the need to coach a football team. In truth, that desire was always inside me. Back in France, or even when playing abroad with strangers, I always had the urge to guide, to coach, to lead.
For me, coaching is a feeling—it’s stepping away from everything else and becoming fully immersed in a session or a game. After COVID, that need grew even stronger. The world had become 100% virtual, and coaching was my way to connect, to speak, to truly live again. Coaching doesn’t even start on the field—it starts long before. My parents used to tell me, “First impressions matter” when they asked me to dress properly for school. I guess that’s why, to this day, I still ask my players not to show up on matchday wearing Crocs.
I believe coaches carry a mission—not only on the field but especially outside of it, in the world we live in now. Live the moment. We’ve lost the ability to truly live in the moment. Too often we hear but don’t really listen. “Hey, how are you?” has become a polite habit, without real intention to know more. Before one session ends, the next coach is already asking for the field. After training, players quickly grab their bags, phones, headphones, ready to disappear into Snapchat or Instagram or new App we didn’t know it exists.
Our world is filled with noise—violence, social media pressure, and a virtual reality where people feel they need to hide just to avoid being judged. Some talk about “vulnerability,” but what we really need is authenticity. This is where our mission as coaches lies: to empower this new generation, to give them the courage to express themselves, to let them feel free to talk, to laugh, to share an opinion—positive or negative—knowing it will be heard and valued. That is the essence of building a team.
I hope you can find some truths in these paragraphs. Talk to you soon (need to help the wife now…).
Coach Rod.