Coaching, the task of improving and nurturing skills within individuals and teams for their experiences in their chosen field. Having been a coach for the last year or so has been quite an interesting experience. A fair warning to anyone who wants to get into coaching, there will be a lot of times when there will be pure frustration when watching your team play, however, this does come with a large reward. Seeing your team improve even in the slightest from what you have told them is a very rewarding feeling and one that makes all that frustration worth it.

Coaching Rage Quit Neon Retrobution in the last year has been very much something of a privilege. While the team has changed a lot in that time, seeing players come and go, I can safely say watching every single one of them improve in their way has been something truly incredible. The team itself is a unique one, with a very much family vibe to it, makes coaching both more frustrating and rewarding. Being that close instills a sense of greater success but also greater frustration. The best way to describe it is going on a rollercoaster blindfolded, where you will never know which emotion will hit your next.

The whole purpose of this article, however, is just to give a couple basic tips that can help get you started if you are interested in coaching, these will mainly apply to coaching in Overwatch but can be used in other Esports titles.

First and foremost, pick your coaching style. I can not stress enough how important this is. Do not try and replicate how someone else coaches, that is a waste of your time. The most important part of coaching is bringing a personal touch alongside the professional aspect and the best way to do that is through bringing your own personality to coaching. Some coaches are more hands-on, others prefer a more relaxed approach and some go with a bit of both, choose your best!

Another important tip I can give you is be willing to adapt and learn as you go along. While you may be a coach, you can still learn a lot from the players that you coach. It is the same concept as even as a teacher you learn from your students. What is great about coaching a team is that every single player you coach has a unique approach to the game you play and through their approach, they can show you different ways that you can approach the game. Also on this note, you will make mistakes, it is bound to happen. It does not matter how much knowledge you have, most mistakes in situations are made because of a lack of experience, not a lack of skill or knowledge. So embrace these mistakes and use it as a learning experience to tackle similar situations that pop up later on.

The last tip I can give you is to have fun with it. You will find that the more excited you are for each individual or team coaching session the more value both sides will receive from it. If you are not having fun during any of the individual or team coaching sessions then you have to start reaccessing your approach, if coaching is not right for you at that point or the team you are coaching is not the right fit.

Ultimately I implore you to give coaching a try if that is what you want, it is an experience of a lifetime. Also, keep in mind that rank is not the biggest determining factor of a coach so do not let the fact that you might be at a lower rank deter you from coaching. To all the new and veteran coaches good luck with your coaching going forward and thank you for taking time out of your day to do so.