Coaching Improv is Hard

whew…

So I have been coaching student improv teams for like 6 months or so now, and I just started with a new team.

It is really hard.

I’ve done a fair bit of teaching classes and thought this would be similar. Not really.

It turns out that as a coach, you have to manage not only educating the team but also managing and balancing your relationship with each individual member (some are more needy, or more sensitive, or more opinionated, or more experienced, or more motivated, or…).

Then you ALSO need to have a handle on the trust and interpersonal situation WITHIN the team itself. Everyone can love you as a coach but also hate each other. Not good, and the coach has some ownership of that.

In a class, the stakes are low. On a team, you have members who are really ambitious and really want to get a lot better at the craft. You have members who might feel their teammates aren’t as ambitious or dedicated as they are. …And to be honest, it happens. I’ve been on both sides of that on teams I have played on.

Stakes are also obviously higher for the coach as well: I want my team to do well because, frankly, it makes me look like I know what I’m doing. Mostly just to myself—honestly, our community is really chill and understanding, and I doubt anyone would hold a student team’s performance too much against the coach. But still. I like to do well at things I spend my time on.

The other side of that is trying to motivate the team without pushing them too much or being too hard on them when things don’t go well.

It often feels like keeping about 100 different plates spinning at once. Yikes.

Anyway—there isn’t really any more to say in this post. Maybe this log will serve as a fun thing to look back on when I have someday cracked coaching and overcome all of the difficulties I’m currently dealing with.