To me, being a confident coach means being able to admit that you don't know it all. Surprisingly, there seem to be a lot of people out there who just aren't interested in learning new things and getting better. They must have it all figured out, because they have no time or need for new information.
I think the biggest strength a young coach can have is the ability to admit and embrace the fact that they don't know everything. Seems pretty obvious, but admitting that can be a tough thing for some people to do.
One of my favorite experiences is after having and in-service or going to a conference is walking away feeling dumb. That's how I judge how good the presentations were. Not dumb, as in "I might as well have hit myself in the head with a hammer for 2 days", but dumb as in "Holy S***, I've got some reading to do!"
This past weekend, we had Istvan Balyi in to speak here at Stanford. If you are unfamiliar with Istvan, he is basically the world's leading expert on periodization and long term athlete development, or LTAD. For those of you in the hockey community, his work is at the foundation of USA Hockey's new American Development Model. If you are involved in any other sports, Istvan's work can be seen in the sport programs of pretty much any country that competes in the Olympics.
Anyways, he spoke to our staff for 2 days on a myriad of topics, and needless to say, I walked away with pages of notes and a whole lotta reading to do!
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