Article Review of
Personal Best – Top athletes and Singers Have Coaches. Should you?
By Sharon Hayes
EDU 7701
Dr. O’Hara
Spring 2015
St. John’s University
School of Education
This article was written by Atul Gawande an endocrine surgeon who realized he had
reached a plateau in his surgical career. Unsure what to do about it he recalled his high school
years where he had likewise hit a plateau in his tennis. An unplanned interaction with a tennis
pro at a medical meeting led him to appreciate the value in having another person provide
feedback on your performance. This led him on a journey to explore which professions had
coaches and their effectiveness. Once he was convinced they would be helpful he approached
his mentor, who had since retired, and ask him to be his coach. Despite making him feel
vulnerable at times this experience of being coached helped him improve through ways he never
would have thought of on his own.
The idea of having a coach in a classroom for the teacher has a lot of merit. Studies have
shown how teaching is improved through coaching. Attending professional development events
doesn’t always allow you to bring it back to the classroom. Best intentions frequently go awry
and new ideas or concepts frequently are never utilized due to lack of time. On the other hand, a
coach can observe you in your workplace, watching your performance and providing insight that
is directly applicable to you. However, for coaching to be effective each individual needs to be
receptive to the idea of having a coach because, as mentioned in the article, you become
vulnerable in front of the coach. Your weaknesses are exposed and you need to trust the coach
to utilize this information to help you and not harm you. Once you are receptive to having a
coach that person needs to be carefully selected to ensure you can have a good working
relationship with the coach. You want to trust that the coach’s suggestions will result in an
improvement in your performance.
On some level everyone questions their ability or performance. We all have good days
and bad. Frequently we get too close to our own situations so that we are unable to see the
2
‘forest through the trees.’ Having a coach whose sole purpose is to help you improve can be
invaluable. Almost like a friend you trust to give you the truth about yourself that you wouldn’t
want to hear from anyone else.
Reference: Gawande, Atul; “Personal Best – Top athletes and Singers Have Coaches. Should
you?”; The New Yorker, October 3, 2011
3