wayofchampions.com – Winning Youth Coaching

August 3, 2016

WYC 087 – Youth Basketball and Football – Pelle Nejman talks learning styles and developing culture

Pelle Nejman is a Philadelphia native and graduate from Penn State’s Sports broadcasting school. He is a teacher and coach in Danville, Pennsylvania. He has coached football and currently coaches girls basketball.

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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A few days left to sign up: Coaching Mastery – with John O’Sullivan

Many of you know that I work closely with John O’Sullivan and the Changing the Game Project. John’s is an internationally known writer and speaker, as well as a former professional soccer player and longtime coach. We share a lot of each others content as we work to transform youth sports and make it a better place for coaches to coach, and for players to play.

This week – for the first and only time in 2016 – John is releasing his amazing online video series called “Coaching Mastery.” He first ran this course in the Fall of 2014, and since then coaches from nearly every sport, from over a dozen different continents, have called it one of the most unique and inspirational coaching courses they had ever done. I was lucky enough to be one of the select few coaches John offered it to last year, and the things I learned really blew me away.

See, this course is not your traditional X’s and O’s course. It is all about things such as the psychology of performance and leadership, how to build a winning team culture, and even how to educate your team parents so they don’t drive you up the wall. He has some amazing interviews with some of the world’s leading experts in sport science and psychology, coaching, and leadership. The things you will learn in this course will take yoru coaching, and your teams, to a whole new level.

This course is truly one of a kind.

If you are interested in this type of coaching, John has asked me to invite all of you to his FREE video series, where over the next 2 weeks you will learn many of these things, and hear from some amazing experts. You also get a free eBook copy of his international bestseller Changing The Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids just for registering for the FREE series. All you have to do to get over an hour of this one of a kind coaching and leadership training, plus a free book, is go here and sign up:

Click here to get started

I know I am looking forward to the 2016 version of Coaching Mastery and I am confident that many of you will get a ton from this free video series. Its all new content, and I can’t wait to get started.

Again, if you want to join, just sign up here.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this course.

(I am an affiliate for this course, so if you decide to sign up – please sign up through one of the links above – Thanks!!)

Quote

‘Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle’ – Abraham Lincoln

My Cringe Moments

I talked WAY too much

Teaching Skills

Different learning styles – Some kids are visual, some audio, some hands on – So use multiple styles to teach
Break everything down into small groups. If he has 15 girls, he will break down into 5 stations of 3.
When running plays – split the court in 2 and stand in the middle and have 2 groups running a bunch of reps

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

It starts with you being calm as a coach. If tension is building in a game- call a timeout and tell a joke and be relaxed.

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

It all starts with establishing standards.
Post-game meetings: It’s best to praise and acknowledge accomplishments.
HUGE IDEA – Tell some of the other teachers at the school about an accomplishment that a kid on your team did – it’s really big for a kid to have another adult acknowledging them

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

Talk about the elephant in the room. After starting a season 0-7, Pelle started their next practice on a white board with the words ‘Why do we suck?’ – Girls got a kick out of it and had fun brainstorming about how to get better

The One that got away

After a terrible call by the refs at the end of the game – Pelle skipped the handshake line and chased down the refs in the parking lot – big regret

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Mini-games and it’s all about the # of touches

Favorite coaching book/quote

Quote: ‘Talent is a gift, but character is a choice’ – John Maxwell
Quote: ‘Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle’ – Abraham Lincoln
Quote: ‘Develop a cause beyond yourself, try to make the world a better place because you were here’ – Joe Hermann

Parting Advice

Develop a culture that you believe in with your team – and stick to it

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Related Episodes

Episode 22 – Kevin Furtado – Girls basketball coach

Reviews are the lifeblood of the podcast!- If you like the podcast- please take 2 minutes to write a review! Click here

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July 26, 2016

WYC 086 – Championship Culture – Live from the Way of Champions Transformational Coaching Conference

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Today’s episode is a bit different from the norm, instead of interviewing a great coach, this week’s episode is a compilation of the interviews I did while at the conference. There are a few sound bites with me sharing a lesson I learned, and definitely don’t miss the 18 minute interview with the leaders – I call them the 3 J’s – Dr. Jerry Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath. So hopefully this is a great way for you to be able to absorb a little of the great content even if you weren’t able to make it out to Colorado. Also – just FYI – they are planning to do 2 or 3 more of these conferences around the country next year, so stay tuned at changingthegameproject.com or wayofchampions.com.

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

–

Coaching Mastery – with John O’Sullivan

Many of you know that I work closely with John O’Sullivan and the Changing the Game Project. John’s is an internationally known writer and speaker, as well as a former professional soccer player and longtime coach. We share a lot of each others content as we work to transform youth sports and make it a better place for coaches to coach, and for players to play.

This week – for the first and only time in 2016 – John is releasing his amazing online video series called “Coaching Mastery.” He first ran this course in the Fall of 2014, and since then coaches from nearly every sport, from over a dozen different continents, have called it one of the most unique and inspirational coaching courses they had ever done. I was lucky enough to be one of the select few coaches John offered it to last year, and the things I learned really blew me away.

See, this course is not your traditional X’s and O’s course. It is all about things such as the psychology of performance and leadership, how to build a winning team culture, and even how to educate your team parents so they don’t drive you up the wall. He has some amazing interviews with some of the world’s leading experts in sport science and psychology, coaching, and leadership. The things you will learn in this course will take yoru coaching, and your teams, to a whole new level.

This course is truly one of a kind.

If you are interested in this type of coaching, John has asked me to invite all of you to his FREE video series, where over the next 2 weeks you will learn many of these things, and hear from some amazing experts. You also get a free eBook copy of his international bestseller Changing The Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids just for registering for the FREE series. All you have to do to get over an hour of this one of a kind coaching and leadership training, plus a free book, is go here and sign up:

Click here to get started

I know I am looking forward to the 2016 version of Coaching Mastery and I am confident that many of you will get a ton from this free video series. Its all new content, and I can’t wait to get started.

Again, if you want to join, just sign up here.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this course.

(I am an affiliate for this course, so if you decide to sign up – please sign up through one of the links above – Thanks!!)

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Interviews & Sound Bites from WOC Conference

Craig – Description of how to create self-affirmation 3×5 card
Craig – Description of fun Rock,Paper,Scissors,Cheerleader Energy Builder
18 minute interview of Dr. Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath: Self-affirmation; Building Energy levels at the beginning of practice; Building championship culture in our families; Taking ONE action; Simplifying your playbook; the importance of relationships: Video Link
Craig – 11 attributes of culture: Dr. Jerry Lynch uses the acronym STRONG FACTS to list the steps to build championship culture.
- Selflessness
- Trust
- Respect
- Oneness
- Never Quit
- Gratefulness
- Fearlessness
- Awareness
- Confidence
- Thoughtfulness
- Sacrifice
- I summarize the last ‘S’ in the acronym, Sacrifice, from atop the Flatirons at Chataugua
  - ‘The pathway to greatness is through suffering’
Interview with Maureen Monte: Author of Destination Unstoppable – Team success; Focus on the human system of success
Interview with Alicia Steinhilber – From Nashville FC Youth Soccer – Discusses the Iceland Thunder Clap and the New Zealand All Blacks ‘Haka’; Playing with the heart; Eye contact with your audience/team
Interview with Athletic Director and 2 basketball coaches from the host school Shining Mountain Waldorf School – Mike Hawkes, Tim Crouthers, Chris Bremner – The power of positivity; Learning to teach vs. spitting out information; Building confidence, especially in females; Eye Contact and being in a circle to start practices
Interview with Kevin Peters – Be a storyteller
Interview with Josh Severns – From Nashville FC Youth Soccer – Building culture is a process not an event. Trust takes time to build. It start with being a good example; Meditation and breathing.
Interview with Kevin Kirk – Golf Performance Center at the Woodlands – The power and influence a coach has
Interview with Tony Libert – Parents and coaches – Release the game to the kids; ‘Coaches are a flashlight not a search light’
Nate Sanderson, girls High School basketball at Springville High School and Breakthroughbasketball.com coach, shared a powerful 4 minute video from his team’s state championship game last year – the amazing thing to watch in the video is observe what the teammates do for each other after any mistake. Nate’s quote: ‘We needed to interrupt the negative thought process in the midst of games, so we implemented what you see in the video.’
- Video link

There are more than a dozen other great videos taken from the conference, check them all out here: WYC Facebook page

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Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter:

July 15, 2016

Special Insight on Culture – Live from the Way of Champions Transformational Coaching Conference

We’re taking a break in our 10 part series on culture this week to allow you to be able to peak inside the brains of some of the leading experts on creating championship culture.

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I was blessed to be 1 of the 68 coaches who attended this conference, and since I know many of you would have loved to be there, I wanted to share a few powerful lessons I walked away with. Also – just FYI – they are planning to do 2 or 3 more of these conferences around the country next year, so stay tuned at changingthegameproject.comor wayofchampions.com.

–

I could write many pages of notes on the lessons I learned, but I know many of you are like me, where you learn more through audio and video, so here are the most powerful videos that capture the essence of the conference:

18 minute interview of Dr. Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath. Broken into 2 parts:
- Part 1
- Part 2

Nate Sanderson, girls High School basketball at Springville High School and Breakthroughbasketball.com coach, shared a powerful 4 minute video from his team’s state championship game last year – the amazing thing to watch in the video is observe what the teammates do for each other after any mistake. Nate’s quote: ‘We needed to interrupt the negative thought process in the midst of games,so we implemented what you see in the video.’
- Video link
Dr. Jerry Lynch uses the acronym STRONG FACTS to list the steps to build championship culture.
- Selflessness
- Trust
- Respect
- Oneness
- Never Quit
- Gratefulness
- Fearlessness
- Awareness
- Confidence
- Thoughtfulness
- Suffering
- I summarize the last ‘S’ in the acronym, Suffering, from atop the Flatirons at Chataugua, in this 1 minute video:
  - Video Link
  - ‘The pathway to greatness is through suffering’
There are more than a dozen other great videos taken from the conference, check them all out here: WYC Facebook page

Also, for you audio learners, next week’s WYC podcast will be a compilation of the audio I recorded at the conference, so look forward to that. WYC Podcasts

Next week we’ll dive back into our 10 part series on culture and look at recognition and rewards.

Team first – Link to post
Team Cornerstones – Link to post
Positive Environment – Which dog are you feeding? – Link to post
Recognition & Rewards
Captains
Parents
Building Trust
Seek First to Understand
Coaching your own kid
Perspective & Giving Back