April 10, 2025 | Tagged Motivation
Why compassion matters as a volleyball coach

Be careful reading this instruction. Those who are overly tender and without inner power can think they are being “compassionate,” but are actually being conflict avoidant. This will lead to trouble. For coaches who squirm at the word compassion, you need this virtue. This is a powerful virtue that is crucial to creating transformational teams. If you want a mechanistic, heartless team that automatically does everything you demand, then understand when crisis hits, as it always does, you will not be prepared to navigate your crisis well.
If you desire a team that is truly a team, where everyone gets better because of your leadership, then you need to become wise at how to suffer with your team. This is what compassion asks - suffering with others by providing actionable ways that move a difficult, painful situation to greater health, wisdom, hope, and healing.
Compassion requires mentoring and emotional intelligence. To stop being blind to someone else’s suffering demands a level of listening and awareness. This ultimately helps you recognize suffering and know how to act in ways that heal the suffering.
Compassionate coaches understand how difficult this grit and resilience experience is and how powerful it can be for students to overcome challenges and recognize boundaries. Compassionate coache help students discover their thresholds while learning how to transcend to the next level.
If you struggle with the right compassionate balance, find mentors to come alongside you in ways that bring wisdom and healing. It's important to understand suffering should never be processed in isolation.
About NBC Volleyball
NBC Volleyball began in 1979 and has grown to be one of the largest overnight volleyball training programs in the USA and Canada. NBC Volleyball focuses on skill mastery, intrinsic value development, personal faith and proven sports psycholoigcal principles of talent and life development. NBC stands for nothing beats commitment and the belief that our daily habits reveal future achievement. For more information visit, www.nbcvolleyball.com