The Role of Coaching in Player Development

As a coach or leader of a program/organization when coaching today's generation of athletes - How can you get the most out of these young people? What buttons can you press and what buttons can you not press in order to motivate?

The question I ask every coach is, "How are your players going to view you five years from now?" Are they going to say that coach so-and-so taught me about who I am, put me in challenging environments to learn more about myself, or put me through trials and tribulations, but gave me a safety net to do it. Or, are you going to allow this generation to blame you? Because when they struggled, you didn't have a solution for them. Ultimately, at the end of the day, your job is to develop your players so that they look back and go, "Yeah, I'm a better person and player because that guy was my coach."