A good college coach gets most out of players

This week LSU won the NCAA men’s golf national championship.

Watching the matches on the Golf Channel reminded me of the 2000 NCAA natinal championships that I was lucky enough to play in.

Playing college golf is special for a lot of reasons.

And as I look back on the experience, I recognize the important role a coach plays in the overall experience.

I was lucky enough to get to experience two college coaches.

One was the man who built the Kent State program into the nationally recognized team it is today, Herb Page.

So what did Herb do so well?

And what great qualities do I think all great coaches share?

I came up with four quick ideas.

Recruit Well

Obviously the players a coach brings in are key.

I’m sure Herb would have loved to bring in five guys like Ben Curtis every year. But that’s not realistic.

So while talent is important to find, I think the personality of the player is just as important.

Every coach is different.

And finding players to truly “buy into the program” on the front end is a huge factor in a team’s eventual success or failure.

Good Practice

This is a big one for me. Practice is important.

But to get really good, “good practice” is key.

One of the things that Herb did so well at Kent was to customize a practice schedule for us based on upcoming tournaments. If the course was shorter, we’d have planned practice stations where we’d hit 50 2-irons and 3-woods off tees since drivers wouldn’t be as important.

If the course had crazy greens, we’d spend extra time practicing clock drills around the most severe greens at Windmill Lakes (our home course).

The point is, “hitting balls” at the range can be considered practice.

But if a coach is really going to get the most out of his team, crafting a “good practice” routine has to happen.

Spread The Wealth

OK, this one might sound a little different, but here’s what I mean:

Every team has its own dynamic.

Some players are better than others.

And some players are closer friends than others.

But I believe in getting better through “osmosis,” so getting to play with everyone is vital.

Take my situation at Kent State, for example.

I joined the team with two other freshmen.

We had three seniors, Ben Curtis being one of them.

It would have been very easy for us freshman to fall into a routine where we played all of our practice rounds together.

But Herb made it a point to mix up our pairings.

At first, I was nervous and intimidated to play with Ben.

But in the end, getting to play with someone like Ben on a regular basis made me better.

And I don’t think that’s an uncommon result.

Know a good golfer who wants to get better?

Tell them to find some great golfers to play with.

I can’t really explain it, but somehow it works.

Raise Expectations

Sounds easy, but boy is this a tough one.

Everyone knows the goal: play well.

And it’s easy for a coach to say “go out there and shoot 65 today.”

But I think the best thing a coach can do is get his or her players to actually believe they are better than they were the day before.

This is what Herb did extremely well at Kent.

He brought in the right kids.

We practiced correctly. We played well with each other. A

nd in the end, the sum of it all was, I actually believed I got better.

I didn’t hope to hit a fairway. I knew I was going to hit the fairway. And we didn’t want to win a tournament.

We knew we were going to win the tournament. It didn’t always happen, but our coach succeeded with us because we truly believed we would.

At the end of my freshman year I expected more out of my golf game than I ever thought possible.

And that’s the sign of a great coach.

Jonah Karzmer is a former golf professional who writes a Sunday golf column for The Vindicator. In his spare time he sells commercial insurance and loves getting feedback on his weekly columns via email at Jonah@thekarzmerinsurance.com.