FCA: How has your own coaching journey led you to develop 3D Coach?
JD: I’ve loved coaching all levels—youth, high school, college—but found little contentment where I was at each level. It seems I was always looking for the next step. Being a Christian for many years and reading and hearing about “being content no matter the circumstance” was easier to apply in other areas of my life, not my coaching career.
When I lost my job at the “apex” of my career (Olympic development), I finally asked myself Why?
That led me on two parallel paths:
1. Coaching at a high school with a colleague who was asking the same question.
2. Going back to school (FSU) and working on my doctorate in coaching education.
After finishing the doctorate I was asked to start a degree program at the University of Central Florida. While developing the Coaching Methods class as part of the curriculum, I created the foundations for 3Dimensional Coaching.
FCA: What audience did you have in mind when you wrote 3D Coach?
JD: Any coach at any level. It is not the level you coach but the idea you are a coach. Whether vocationally, ad vocationally or volunteer, a coach has tremendous influence on athletes and parents. The coach for a girls’ 8 year old softball team has as much influence as Coach Dungy for the Colts. Coach Dungy will have more peripheral people observing him (media, fans, etc.), but the direct influence on athletes is the same.
FCA: How can coaches at any level benefit from reading 3D Coach?
JD: When the light bulb goes on that what I do (coaching) is also my mission field, everything changes! The coach now coaches with purpose on and off the field.
FCA: What kind of legacy do you hope coaches will leave to their athletes?
JD: Sports, in American culture, have become an icon of popularity from the very young to the elderly. We now spend more time watching, reading, or actively being involved in sport activities than any of other life’s discretional domains. Because of this cultural focus, the coach has become the “point person” for this societal phenomenon.
It is with unmatched joy witnessing the coach and his or her family fulfilling God’s purpose to be a great coach with an even greater message!
FCA: How is Jesus the Master Coach?
JD: Jesus went through everything a coach goes through, and He had a team of twelve disciples. The majority of His teachings were with the twelve. He knew if He coached them well, when He left they would carry on the call of the Great Commission. He had three captains, a loud mouth, a key player deny His authority when the season was not going well, and had another player transfer to the ”other side” because they promised more immediate gratification. They were all fighting over position and playing time. In fact, the whole process with His team took 3 1/2 years before He sent them into life—about the same length of time coaches have athletes.
As I studied current practice coaching methods of 21st century athletes, I realized that truth today (research) matches exactly how Jesus coached His team. I am still in awe. If research is truth and Jesus states He is the truth, then both must be the same. It makes the personal of a personal relationship with Jesus very relevant in the life of a coach. For a non-believing coach, it makes him ponder about who Jesus claims to be. For a struggling believer, it awakens the Lordship claims of Christ, and for the growing/maturing believer, it affirms the call of a purpose driven life.
In 3D Coach, join Dr. Jeff Duke as he details his own journey as a young coach transforming into a 3Dimensional Coach, and read stories of other coaches who have integrated this concept into their own programs, pointing to Jesus as the Master Coach.
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