do elite athletes make bad coaches?

I’m a coach. And was a lousy athlete.

It’s easy for me to go along with the conventional wisdom that “great athletes make poor coaches”.

The sport came “easily” to great athletes so, the thinking goes, they cannot relate to the normal child.

Certainly this is wrong — in some cases.

Charlie Tamayo from Cuba is certainly one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. But he’s also a naturally gifted coach and motivator.

Click PLAY or watch Charlie on YouTube.

He’s wearing “old man” make-up at Woodward West Gymnastics Camp in California. Spotting Stalder on bars.

Do elite athletes make good coaches?

It may simply be the case that there are very few elite athletes in any sport. And that very few of those go on to be coaches.

This could be the simple explanation why most of the great coaches you can name were not elite athletes in their sport.