For Wondrous Words Wednesday, a look at the word “coach“.  For more wordy discussion, visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion; she’s the hostess of this fantastic meme where readers share interesting words they’ve discovered.

I coach U8 soccer, and let me tell you, it’s not easy.  Fun, definitely, but also exhausting. During one of my coach training courses, the instructor pointed out all the different roles coaches play:

• teacher
• mentor
• analyst
• public relations expert
• nutrition consultant
• organizer
• cheerleader
• fund-raiser
• mediator
• disciplinarian

Surely I’ve missed something… feel free to add to the list!

All these skills are required for a job that comes from the Middle French word for carriage.

Yes, that’s right.  Carriage.

Coach (noun) can be traced back to the 1550s from the Middle French coche , the German kotsche, and the Hungarian kocsi (which literally translates “carriage of Kocs”, from the name of the village where carriages were made.)

The meaning for a coach as an instructor or trainer first came about in approximately 1830; it was used as slang at Oxford University for a tutor who “carries” a student through an exam.  Coach in the “athletic sense” came about around 1861.

Pretty interesting, huh?  I swear, Online Etymology Dictionary has become my new favorite site!

If you’ve had the privilege to know good coaches, then you understand that they do much more than “carry” their people through competition and performances. They inspire, instruct, and sometimes harass. 😉  No one should criticize a coach until he or she has coached.  It’s a humbling, but rewarding, job.

(I also don’t think anyone should criticize a referee until they’ve done that job.  Talk about tough!)

That’s me with my little soccer people.  Can you feel the energy?  Do you also see that those 7 and 8 year olds are almost as tall as me?  That’s okay, I’m built low to the ground for speed and agility.  (Thanks Nancy for the picture and Leslie for the short quote.  We just won’t tell anyone how clumsy I am.)

What would be your definition of a coach?  Can you add any more roles to that long list?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me today!

Julia

Do you like to learn about the history and meaning of words?  Then you’re in the right place. Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme for people who like to dig into words.  Visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion to learn more.

My word this week won’t be new to you, but I bet it’s etymology will surprise you.  I recently attended a workshop given by David Benzel called “To Push or Not to Push: What Your Child Needs to Succeed.”  David founded the non-profit organization Growing Champions for Life which offers education to sports parents on how to foster a healthy relationship with their children.

David offered practical advice for how to parent without pressure, including:

• focus on effort and progress more than talent or results
• all competitive events end with either success or a lesson (note: not failure)
• motivation comes from inside, so we can’t motivate our children, but we can inspire them

All this was great, and the mom in me loved what he had to say (and feared that I have some characteristics of the “Tiger Parent”.  Oh dear.)

But the word nerd in me perked up when he ended his presentation talking about a word we hear so much in sports: compete.  Especially in our country, people use “battle language” when they talk about competition.

Beat, destroy, annihilate, kill.

But the word comes from a very different place.

compete: verb from Latin competere to seek together, from Latin com- + petere  to come together, agree, to go to

David suggested that we should help our children see how to use competition to strive together to improve.  This especially applies to situations that have an individual focus within a team setting, like swimming, track, or wrestling, but this approach can work anywhere, in sports, school, and among siblings.

Wow.  To strive together.  That sounds so much better than “attack”, doesn’t it?

Word Nerd Workout

Did you know the origin of the word “compete”?  How can its etymology change the way you think and talk about competition with your kids/self/friends?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Julia