From Player Development to Coach Development: A Parallel Approach
Bill Belichick, one of the most successful and respected coaches in NFL history, has consistently opened the doors to his meetings, allowing an inside look at his coaching approach. Over the years, he has been featured in three NFL Films documentaries that showcase his unique methods and the culture he has built within the New England Patriots. These documentaries provide rare, unfiltered access to Belichick’s strategy sessions, offering a masterclass in preparation, attention to detail, and leadership. Through these films, viewers have gained valuable insight into how he conducts meetings, communicates with players, and instills a level of discipline and focus that has been pivotal to his team’s sustained success.
Imagine standing in front of a room full of high-level athletes day after day, breaking down situational gameplay, analyzing unusual plays from the big leagues, or discussing strategic approaches — whether as a hitting coach outlining tactics for facing a particular pitcher or as a pitching coach preparing the staff to take on a new lineup and exploit hitters’ weaknesses. Each session is an opportunity to deliver insights, foster understanding, and guide players in sharpening their focus and decision-making. The challenge lies in ensuring that your message resonates and translates into a game-ready mindset for the players.
After each meeting, you walk out wondering, “How did that go?” You might assume it went well and believe the players took away key insights. But how do you really know? How can you be sure your teaching or coaching truly resonated with them?
It’s tough to tell. You could use game outcomes as a measure of success, but we all know how unreliable that can be. Players might have had a great plan, executed it perfectly, but still didn’t get the desired results. Or, perhaps mistakes were made on the field — mistakes you specifically addressed during those meetings.
So, how should we define success? What does it actually look like when a meeting makes a meaningful impact?
To truly evaluate the effectiveness of your meetings, one of the most valuable tools at your disposal is recording them. By filming or audio this creates an opportunity to step back and analyze your delivery, the players’ engagement, and the clarity of your message. These recordings not only help identify areas for improvement but also provide a tangible way to measure whether your points are landing as intended. Let’s explore how coaches can leverage recording technology to enhance their meeting effectiveness and ensure their teaching translates into meaningful results on the field.
Recordings Don’t Lie
The brain does something fascinating when you’re teaching or coaching — it juggles countless tasks simultaneously. It manages the room, anticipates what’s coming next, considers alternative paths for the conversation, addresses questions, and redirects focus as needed. With so much happening at once, it’s easy to walk away from a session thinking, “That went well,” without a clear, objective understanding of what actually transpired. You might miss key moments, fail to notice when your explanations weren’t as clear as intended, or overlook side conversations and distracted players. You might even catch yourself overusing a crutch word to fill dead air.
Recordings allow you to revisit those moments, watching for style, tone, and messaging to ensure the meeting was as effective as it could be. They provide an opportunity to identify gaps in your communication and evaluate how well players understood the material. You can analyze whether your messaging was structured and delivered as planned, while also revisiting the questions or comments players made. This critical reflection helps you better understand what players may need to improve their comprehension and engagement.
By recording your meetings, you no longer need to rely on memory to capture everything. Instead, you can focus fully on teaching in the moment — delivering clear, intentional instruction and considering the best ways to frame your ideas. Free from the pressure of recalling every detail, you can direct your attention toward refining your presentation and supporting players’ learning in real-time.
Continuous Improvement
Recording meetings creates a pathway for consistent self-reflection and growth as a coach. By regularly reviewing footage, coaches can identify patterns in their delivery that work well and those that need adjustment. This practice allows for fine-tuning explanations, pacing, and focus, ensuring that key concepts are communicated more effectively with each session. Over time, it helps coaches adapt to the needs of their players, improving how they convey complex ideas and strategies. Furthermore, recordings provide a record of progress, allowing coaches to evaluate how their teaching methods evolve and how adjustments influence player performance and engagement.
Watching the recordings can feel uncomfortable at first — it’s never easy to critique yourself — but the more often you do it, the easier and more productive it becomes. Getting past this initial hurdle is essential for running better meetings. If you stop at discomfort, you limit your potential for growth. However, once you push through, reviewing your meetings can become a source of pride and a cornerstone of improvement.
Ideally, these recordings should also be shared with a content area specialist or instructional expert. While watching the footage yourself is valuable, having an impartial guide can provide an additional layer of feedback that’s critical to your development. An instructional expert can help identify gaps you may not even realize exist, offering insights to refine your approach. Often I have heard of coaches who record their meetings, or watch them back alone and as effective as that can be the most important part of this is to break down the meeting with someone else. Ideally sharing a small portion or trying to highlight an area that you thought was really strong. This will help to narrow down the focus for you and the person you have chosen to help you.
Just as holding meetings doesn’t guarantee that players learn, recording meetings doesn’t guarantee that you improve as a coach. The second step — collaboration with an expert or trusted peer — is just as crucial as the recording itself. Having someone impartial review the footage or even a small portion of it can make a significant difference. Their perspective can provide clarity and actionable suggestions to help you continuously evolve as a coach.
To truly improve as a coach, we need a more systematic approach. One effective way to bridge the gap between perception and reality is to record your meetings. This allows you to analyze not just what you said, but how it was received by players, helping you identify moments of clarity and areas that need improvement. Just as athletes watch game tape to enhance their performance, coaches can use video recordings of their meetings to refine their teaching methods. Failing to record meetings means potentially limiting a whole generation of coaches from reaching their full teaching potential. Imagine a hitter never reviewing film from their previous game, or a pitcher never watching bullpen footage on Edgertronic. These practices would be seen as unthinkable by most. Yet, this is what we’re allowing coaches to do when they teach without a critical review process, especially those who may be teaching for the first time.
It becomes increasingly clear that coaches who aren’t formally trained as teachers but are tasked with standing in front of athletes who have signed multimillion-dollar contracts every day are at a disadvantage. By failing to provide them with a structured system for improvement, we are doing them — and their players — a disservice. It could even be considered neglectful to throw coaches into the fire without proper training and then criticize them for not meeting the high standards we expect from top-level coaches. Just as we don’t leave player development to chance, hoping that they’ll simply “get better” or “improve on their own,” we shouldn’t take that approach with our coaches. They deserve the support and resources to grow their teaching skills and reach their full potential.
It’s common to assume that a coach, no matter how skilled they are on the field, will automatically be able to teach and communicate effectively. The reality is, teaching is a specialized skill, and being an effective communicator doesn’t always come naturally, even to the most experienced coaches. I’ve seen coaches who are incredibly gifted at guiding players, analyzing gameplay, and making strategic decisions, but when it comes to standing confidently in front of a group, they struggle. The ability to clearly articulate ideas, engage an audience, and foster an environment of learning is an art in itself. This is why it’s crucial to recognize that coaching and teaching are not synonymous. Just because someone excels at coaching doesn’t mean they automatically excel at teaching. Without deliberate training and practice in communication, even the most knowledgeable coaches can fall short of their potential as educators.
