I know in this day and age strength coaches babysit athletes, especially football and basketball players. I understand why and completely disagree.
Part of the college experience is learning how to grow up and become a man/woman. These children always rant and rave about being a "grown ass man" and act like little babies. It's disgusting and it shows a lot about this generation - all talk, little to no action.
I'm not a babysitter. I won't hold kids' hands and walk them through anything. Screw up and you pay the price. Cry about it (which they do CONSTANTLY) and you're still going to pay the price. Only difference is they look like little, spoiled babies instead of just owning their mistake and paying for it.
My take in the weight room has always been very up front early in a training session and then backing off as things go along. This year I've started in the back. Very little yelling, exerting very little control (which eats at my nature) and passing my message through the kids that I trust and know care about their success.
What I've found, so far, is awesome. In my previous attempts to "run the show" I always preached about the team taking control of themselves. However, I always seemed to step in when the guys had an opportunity to handle things themselves, thus, taking control away from them. Exactly the opposite of what I was trying to accomplish.
Through a lot of reading (read a Saban book) I've changed my approach. For us, we don't have scholarships. I can't hold that stuff over their heads like at the FBS schools. It was put very well to me by a former coach at Arizona who finished out his career at one of our conference rivals. "At Arizona, you worked for us (the coaches). At this level, we work for them (the players)."
All I can really do is clear a little bit of a path, show them where they need to go and try to keep them on that path. I used to keep them on the path, myself. Now, I'm using the players to keep themselves on the path. I'm hoping to only step in if I absolutely have to.
I disagree with the common statement (paraphrased, but you know what I'm talking about), " Players win games and coaches lose game." I think this is stupid. Players win games and players lose games - period. Players play. Coaches don't. Now, in the media a coach has to take responsibility and all that crap, but in reality, players determine the outcome of the game. People blame playing callings and officials, but that a load of crap. Obviously there are exceptions, but they are EXCEPTIONS. Generally (most of the time), it's on the players. With this mindset, I'm handing things over to the them. If they're going to determine the outcome on 12 Saturdays a year, they can learn to determine the outcome in training. After all, what you do on Saturday is determined by what you did from January until August. What we get to see on Saturday didn't happen on Saturday.
There are certainly other ways to handle things, but this is what I'm doing. College athletics is about winning games, on the surface. But, if your goals aren't to develop young men and women that are ready to handle to real world I think you're missing the big picture of coaching.