How Coaches Can Teach Student-Athletes That Their Voice Matters
"Your Voice is Valuable," a Lesson from Taneka Rubin's Coaching Journey
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A top 100-point guard wouldn't speak up on the court, that is, until her silence followed her to college, and her former coach made a vow she's kept since. Here's what that moment taught Taneka Rubin, founder of Winners Win Inc., about developing student-athletes beyond the scoreboard.
She was a top-one-hundred player in the country. One of the best point guards Taneka Rubin had ever coached.
But she would not speak up. Not on the floor, in the huddle, not even in the moments when her team needed her voice the most.
Taneka acknowledges that she let it go. The talent was undeniable, and there were other vocal players on the team. It was easier to work around the silence than to keep addressing it.
Then the girl went to college. And her former coach came back with news that stopped Taneka cold.
"She's not doing well. She just won't talk."
Taneka has carried that conversation with her…and it permanently changed how she coaches.
I made a vow that I would never let another kid come through my program and not teach them that their voice is valuable. - Taneka Rubin
The Whole-Person Development Approach
Taneka is the founder of Winners Win Inc. and co-author of Winners Win: Unlocking the Potential to Live Your God-Given Dreams, and her entire coaching philosophy rests on one conviction:
Developing the person outside of their sport is just as important as developing the skills of the sport. - Taneka Rubin
Talent gets a young athlete recruited. It does not teach them that their voice also belongs in that space.
This is the philosophy Taneka writes about in Winners Win, the idea of identity, character, and purpose are not side lessons to athletic development. They're the foundation it stands on.
I know what it feels like to carry enormous pressure…
…and still wake up wondering if the life you were made for is actually within reach. -Taneka Rubin
Who Needs to Hear This Today
Who in your life is talented, but has not yet been taught that their voice is valuable? Who is performing at a high level while shrinking in the moments that matter most?
Because what Taneka is building in a gymnasium, many of us are called to build in our own spheres of influence…our families, our teams, our businesses, our faith communities.
We’re not just developing skills; we’re developing the whole person.
This is one moment from Taneka Rubin's full Pushing Up Women Cover Story.
Her journey from Bamberg, Germany, to professional courts in four countries, to developing student-athletes at Montverde Academy…read her full Pushing Up Women Cover Story.
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