Heros and Villian or Duality of Coaching

DC and Marvel  do a great job building characters that people can relate to you, see a contrast where the heroes epitomize good, they are idealistic and symbolic of virtue rarely taking life outside of collateral damage caused by the villain.  Marvel often makes it easy to identify with some villains because much of what created their characters was a type of oppression that humanity created in response to being different.  I think the same is true of a good coach.   A good coach will let you see past the veil that is your goal, and when you arrive, you will be burdened by a new goal.   A villain understands that there will be collateral damage.  In Batman vs Superman Lex Luther’s quote:

“Did you know the oldest lie in America, Senator? It’s that Power can be innocent.”

Contrast that with Uncle Ben from Spiderman:

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

A good villain is burdened by being right. A good coach/teacher is careful to demonstrate and teach how he is right or better, still to allow the student to come to his or her own decision on the matter through trial and error for the sake of progress.  The ignorance of the student background and the concept of his scaffold of knowledge or tabula rasa in areas creates a kind of fog of war for the student, and for the coach in some areas can create a falling away, however, it is for growth of the student.  The job of the coach is growth of the student that he or she may come into their own.  Building autonomy and confidence only comes with experience.

In some instances, however, it will be hard to distinguish a good coach from a villain or a bad coach from a hero because of the experience of the individual and the lenses they wear can create a sort of blind spot or parallel world.  The best I can explain it is as bishop on a chess board.  A bishop on black can never see a bishop on white.

Lastly what I can say of great coaches, villain or hero, is that they stand out.  I think it is their vision they will make many enemies on their way and lose allies with the bridges that they burn, because what they are willing to do often times what those that follow are not.  Their passion is as much a blessing as a curse.  Is there a line between passion and obsession?  I think another thing about people that are brilliant is that they are very close to a madness.