Tag: youth sports

The 4 Cornerstones Of Championship Culture – Part 6 Of 8- Leadership Development

‘If your dreams don’t scare you- you’re not dreaming big enough’ – Chasing the Lion
The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
4th Cornerstone – Developing Leaders
This week we have the privilege of being joined by TJ Rosene, head basketball coach and 3x national coach of the year at Emmanuel College, director of coach development at PGC Basketball, and co-host of the Hardwood Hustle podcast.
Captains
TJ had a very unique answer when I asked him how his teams choose captains. He said they don’t. I was very interested in this idea, in fact I wrote a previous blog post about this: click here.
When leaders arise who he wouldn’t have chosen – he is honest with them and works to develop them and train them how to be a better leader. He is also honest about what the 2 or 3 behaviors are that will affect their teammates adversely if they don’t work on improving them or eliminating them.
Leadership development
The first step is asking the players who wants to lead. They create levels of leadership around 4 traits: Character, Courage, Consistency, Communication. They define levels 0 to 3 with tangible steps on to how to reach level 3 for each characteristic, which is hard to attain.
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
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The Culture Journey Week #23 – The Bus Trip

Week 23
Regular Season week #2
Positive Energy
I continued what I have affectionately self-named ‘Coach Craig’s Goofy Games‘ to start each practice.
This week’s best game:Great Teammate Tips Challenge
After one of our seniors shared the 2 new tips for the week from The Hard Hat, we broke into 4 teams: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I gave them each a page from the sketch pad which we use to write the tips on (by the way – love this sketch pad I bought for $14 on Amazon: link) and gave them each a Sharpie and asked them to write down as many of the 8 teammate tips they could remember. The correct number ranged from 3 to 7 (the seniors obviously had an advantage since they are reading the book.) It was good to get the groups brainstorming together, plus put the emphasis on how much are they really listening to these tips being presented by the seniors.
Culture Update – The Bus Trip
This weekend we had 1 of our 2 bus trips, a 3 hour ride over to Knoxville to play 2 varsity games and 1 JV game. I had been thinking about this for some time, because last year our bus trips were a bit shocking to me how immature and disrespectful much of the conversation was. We discussed this as a coaching staff, and decided rather than trying to ‘police’ the conversation, to instead fill the time with productive activity. We brought a DVD with the 2015 Div II lacrosse national championship game which was 1 hour 45 minutes long and played that as soon as we left. Then we spent the last hour bringing up the different position groups to the front of the bus with the coaches to discuss the gameplan for the day. This seemed to work really well and our mindset getting off the bus seemed to be much more focused and excited to play great lacrosse vs. last year where they were just goofing off and not focused. The results on the field paid off as well as we played a great first half and won the first game.
The return bus trip was less organized but we stopped for pizza then most of the boys fell asleep as it was a long day and we were all pretty exhausted. Overall it was a night and day better experience vs. last year.
We also continue to have the seniors presenting 2 of the teammate tips from Jon Gordon’s The Hard Hat, this weeks we covered points 7 and 8:
7 – Do it for your team, not for applause
8 – Show you are committed

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 110 – Championship Culture Part 6 – TJ Rosene talks Chasing the Lion & Leadership Development

TJ Rosene is a 3x National  Coach of the year. He has already compiled over 300 wins as a college coach and has most recently put together 8 straight 20-win seasons. TJ also serves as the Director of Coach Development for PGC Basketball, and co-hosts the Hardwood Hustle podcast.

Twitter: @CoachTJRosene

Websites: pgcbasketball.comhardwoodhustle.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘If your dreams don’t scare you- you’re not dreaming big enough’ – Chasing the Lion

1st steps in building culture

  • The first step is believing
  • Then define key cornerstones

Buy-in & Building great teammates

  • Have your players brainstorm about what the characteristics are of the best teammates. Then ask the players whether you have their permission to hold them accountable to those standards.

Empowering players

  • The best time to have players figuring things out on their own is when there is less on the line. That’s true of lower levels of youth sports. That’s true of early in the season even at higher levels of athletics.

Communication needs 3 things:

  1. Truth
  2. Love
  3. Transparency

Start each practice talking for 5 to 8 minutes

  • This helps everyone to get to know each other and
  • My commitment Monday
  • Tough Tuesday
  • Thankful Thursday

Communication – Life skills

  • They have their athletes do the following when ordering at a fast-food restaurant:
    • Eye contact
    • Call the person by name
    • Ask them how their day is going
    • Express gratitude

Caz McCaslin’s 2 minute Coaching tips

  • Tough love – Set standards that build not just great athletes but great leaders
  • Remember the off the court impact you have is more important than what happens on the court

Captains

  • TJ’s teams have never elected captains. He just lets the natural leaders emerge.
  • When leaders arise who he wouldn’t have chosen – he is honest with them and works to develop them and train them how to be a better leader. He is also honest about what the 2 or 3 behaviors are that will affect their teammates adversely if they don’t work on improving them or eliminating them.

Leadership development

  • The first step is asking the players who wants to lead
  • They create levels of leadership around 4 traits: Character, Courage, Consistency, Communication
  • They define levels 0 to 3 with tangible steps

Connecting with kids

  • Sometimes you have to draw lines. It’s scary because we don’t want to alienate a player, but it is important.

The One that got away

  • Losing a national championship game – TJ had not prepared himself for what could go wrong.
  • You have to learn from the adversity and not live in the adversity

Best Stolen Idea

  • Don Meyer – Sent TJ a note and book within 48 hours of his passing. TJ learned that you’re never too big for any situation or person.
  • Be a lifelong learner!

PGC Basketball Clinics

  • 10,000 kids go through their camps every summer – check them out at: pgcbasketball.com

Parting Advice

  • Keep perspective. Define your legacy.

– 

Today’s Sponsors

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.

Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

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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The 4 Cornerstones Of Championship Culture – Part 5 Of 8- Mental Toughness And Relational Resilience

‘In society we think of competition as going head to head with someone else and trying to beat them. But if you look at the Latin root of the word – it means To Strive Together. You put your best foot forward and I’ll put my best foot forward. Even if I lose, I will thank you as my competitor for bringing your best that day.’ – Joe Ehrmann, paraphrased
The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
3rd Cornerstone – Creating Mentally Tough Athletes
This week we learn from Sara Erdner, PhD student in Sport Psychology & Motor Behavior at the University of Tennessee.
Sara has done research in the area of resilience, and here are 5 keysher research has uncovered as the keys to being resilient:
1 – Positive outlook
2 – Intrinsically motivated
3 – Focused
4 – Confident
5 – Perceived social support is high
Sara also has done a deeper dive into the fifth point which is about relationships. Emotional support is the key and the concept of empathy is critical. Empathy is striving to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.Empathy is important to overcoming and working through the shame that has been put on you by your parents or coaches or others in your life.
Some of these are harder to control than others – but certainly choosing to be positive, to be focused, and to show empathy to others are things we can control with our choices every day.
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
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The Culture Journey Week #22 – Defining Who We Are

Week 22
Regular Season week #1
Positive Energy
I continued what I have affectionately self-named ‘Coach Craig’s Goofy Games‘ to start each practice.
This week’s best game:Towel Tug-of-War King-of-the-Mountain Style
We repeated the towel tug of war game I have previously described (to see the details click here), but this time we did it king of the mountain style. I sorted our roster by approximate size and weight and put them in ascending order so we started with the smallest 3 athletes first. Then whoever won got to stay and we brought in the next 2 kids. So if you kept winning you remained king of the mountain. It’s always fun to see surprising kids step up, we had one of our first year players win 5 matches in a row at one point.
Culture Update – Defining Who We Are
This week was quite a roller-coaster ride on our culture journey. It started with a game last Saturday that was quite embarrassing to be part of. We played selfishly, we played recklessly, and we got in a fight which included one player from each team getting ejected. But instead of letting this define us, we used it to fuel a heart-to-heart with our team at practice on Monday. We discussed whether we wanted to be known for being a chippy scrappy team that easily lost their focus, or whether we wanted to be known for being a smart, aggressive, great lacrosse team that respects the game and their opponents. We tied in our ROOTS core values and discussed respect for the officials and opponents particularly. It was a great discussion, but of course you always wonder who much of it will actually play out when push comes to shove in a game.
We had our next game on Wednesday. We won a hard-fought game against a solid opponent 6-5. We only had 1 or 2 penalties, we played unselfishly, and we respected the officials and opponents. What a turnaround in one game. Maybe we needed everything to go wrong in that first game to see the picture of what we don’t want to represent.It did, and we will continue to use that as a reminder that we have to be continually focusing on our respect for our ROOTS values.
We also continue to have the seniors presenting 2 of the teammate tips from Jon Gordon’s The Hard Hat, this weeks we covered points 5 and 6:
5 – Share Positive Contagious Energy
6 – Don’t complain
Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 109 – Championship Culture Part 5 – Sara Erdner talks Mental Toughness and Relational Resilience

Sara Erdner is a PhD student in Sport Psychology & Motor Behavior at the Univ. of TN. She is a lifelong athlete including multiple triathlons and most recently Strongman competitions. Today she will share with us some of the research she has done on relational resilience.

Twitter: @serdner

Facebook: /sara.erdner

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘In society we think of competition as going head to head with someone else and trying to beat them. But if you look at the Latin root of the word – it means To Strive Together. You put your best foot forward and I’ll put my best foot forward. Even if I lose, I will thank you as my competitor for bringing your best that day.’ – Joe Ehrmann, paraphrased

Competition

  • Joe Erhmann talks about the word competition – ‘In society we think of competition as going head to head with someone else and trying to beat them. But if you look at the Latin root of the word – it means To Strive Together. You bring your best foot forward and I’ll put my best foot forward. Even if I lose, I will thank you as my competitor for bringing your best that day.’

Relational Resilience

  • Adversity – Perception is reality, so if you perceive a situation as adverse, then it is.
  • 5 characteristics of being resilient:

1 – Positive outlook

2 – Intrinsically motivated

3 – Focused

4 – Confident

5 – Perceived social support is high

Coaches’ & Parents’ role in resilience in athletes

  • It all starts with you. If you are not resilient yourself, it’s nearly impossible to develop resilient athletes. Are you positive & focused?
  • Self reflection is one of the most powerful thing you can do as an individual.
  • Acknowledging when you’ve done something wrong is important.
  • Emotional support is the key. The concept of empathy is critical. Being able to strive to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy is important to overcoming and working through the shame that has been put on you by your parents or coaches or others in your life.

Mental toughness

  • Traditional coaching behaviors such as yelling, throwing things – these old standards create negative emotions that drive fear and anxiety
  • Care, love, positive emotions – are the true ways to bring out the best performances

Caz McCaslin’s Coaching Tips

  • Developing a player athletically:
    • Teach them to have a great work ethic
    • Teach them to be constantly learning

Empowering kids

  • Ask open-ended questions
    • What do you think you would have done in that situation?
    • Are there other things you might add to that?
    • It takes more time, but it has infinitely more valuable

Positive Energy

  • Sara gets her positivity from her mom – Shout out to Sheryl Erdner!

The One that got away

  • Sara was in a triathlon and was so in the flow state that she forgot to do the 2nd lap of the biking portion.
  • She had a friend tell her – ‘These are the moments that will have the biggest impact on making you a better athlete, because it forces you to think about what happened and what you could do have done better’

Best Stolen Idea

  • Dr. Rebecca Zakrajsek, PHD from Univ of Tennessee – Had a book called The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha – she shared a story from to start each class. Started the class with positive energy. Eventually she started to ask the class what awesome thing happened to them lately.

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘Stop trying to prove yourself because you’ve already done it.’ There’s a difference in trying to prove yourself and trying to improve yourself.
  • Book: Grit by Angela Duckworth

Parting Advice

  • Start practices with something fun and something motivational/positive.

– 

Today’s Sponsors

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.

Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

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

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The 4 Cornerstones Of Championship Culture – Part 4 Of 8- Creating Mentally Tough Athletes

The best aren’t born that way. They work harder and practice more to master their craft.’ – Jon Gordon
The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
3rd Cornerstone – Creating Mentally Tough Athletes
This week we learn from Pete Jacobson, founder of Win Smarter and long time wrestling coach in New York
Pete has his teams focus on 3 things to create a culture of mentally tough athletes:
1 – Focus on the process not the outcome
2 – Embrace failure as a necessary step towards success
3 – For the kids to embrace #’s 1 and 2 – you need to embrace and live these as their coach
Do these 3 steps and you will create fearless athletes who are not afraid of failure. Their mental approach will be to embrace and get excited for challenges instead of fearing them.
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
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WYC 108 – Championship Culture Part 4 – Pete Jacobson talks Wrestling, Process over Outcome, and Embracing Failure

Pete Jacobson has been a varsity wrestling coach for 15 years. Coaching is a passion and a labor of love for him. It’s essentially been his “other” full time job for the last decade and half. Now with the many years of experience under his belt; dozens and dozens of books on coaching theory, sports psychology, performance nutrition, team building and motivation read and on his bookshelf; thousands of dollars worth of clinics, seminars and classes attended and PLENTY of trial and error, he is able to answer a lot more of these questions, so he has started a blog and resources called Win Smarter.

Website: winsmarter.com

Website with free WYC offer: winsmarter.com/wyc/

Twitter: @PJacobsonEmont

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

 ‘The best aren’t born that way. They work harder and practice more to master their craft.’ – Jon Gordon

Cringe Moment

  • Pete and his head coach butted heads a lot during Pete’s early years- Pete was like a typical young man who thinks they know it all

Teaching Skills

  • Incorporate fun competitions as much as possible
  • Group based competitions helps create great culture, and keep mixing up the groups

Self-confidence and peak mental performance

  • Pete recently observed 2 NFL coaches’ reactions to their kickers missing game-winning field goals in overtime of a game. One coach said ‘he is a professional and has to make that kick.’ The other coach said ‘he made a bunch of kicks that even put us in the position to win the game. He’ll make a bunch more for us and we love him.’ Which coach would instill more confidence in his kicker going forward?
  • 3 pillars Pete’s teams focus on:

1 – Focus on process over outcome

2 – Embrace failure as a necessary step towards success

3 – For the kids to embrace #s 1 and 2 – you need to embrace these as their coach

Free E-book on mental toughness

Caz McCaslin’s Coaching Tips

  • Developing a player’s mental capacity
  • Winning requires: Resiliency, concentration, and a willingness to embrace the grind

Championship Culture

  • Defining core values: TAAO

Teamwork

Attitude

Accountability

One More

  • Before the season begins they do 2 things:

1 – Off-site team building ropes course

2 – Team community service project

  • In season:
    • Buddy week – Pair up kids that don’t know each other that well (ideally they have the same lunch) – then at end of week they have a contest to see who knows their buddy best
    • Coach Appreciation dinner – They assign groups and each group comes up with a skit to ‘make fun’ of the coaches. Make sure you define what is appropriate. 🙂

Favorite coaching book/quote

Win Smarter

Parting Advice

  • You know a lot but you could learn much more. Go talk to as many other experienced coaches as you can.

– 

Today’s Sponsors

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.

Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

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

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The Culture Journey Week #21 – Ninja Entourage & Coaching Staff Trust

Week 21
Spring practice week #4
Positive Energy
I continued what I have affectionately self-named ‘Coach Craig’s Goofy Games‘ to start each practice.
This week’s best game: Ninja Entourage
Shout out to Scott Hearon for teaching me this one:
Partner off. Do the motion of shaking the other person’s hand, but, point your pointer finger straight out towards the other person. When game starts, both players try to touch their pointer finger to any part of the other persons body except the arm he is fighting with. Whoever touches wins. Winners advance and find other winners to compete against, whoever lost joins the entourage of whoever beat them. Keep going until you’re down to 2 people for the championship match.
Culture Update
Our coaching staff continues to improve our internal trust and respect of one another. This takes time. The 8 week sessions we did in the off-season seem to be creeping into a higher trust and respect level amongst one another. With the understanding that the most important way we can influence our team’s culture is to demonstrate teamwork as a coaching staff.
We also continue to have the seniors presenting 2 of the teammate tips from Jon Gordon’s The Hard Hat, this weeks we covered points 3 and 4:
3 – Choose to be humble and hungry
4 – Pursue excellence

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

Continue Reading

The 4 Cornerstones Of Championship Culture – Part 3 Of 8- A Cause Bigger Than Yourself-Leaving A Legacy

‘It’s better to have flown than to have landed’- John Wooden

The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
2nd Cornerstone – A Cause Bigger than Yourself – Leaving a Legacy
This week we learn from Ted Quinn, director of coaches programs at Nations of Coaches. NOC is a group whose mission is to equip, serve, and connect with men’s basketball coaches.
Ted broke down creating championship culture into 2 priorities:
1 – Know your why
2 – Prioritize building relationships with your players. Get to know them before getting to know their game.
The first priority as a coach is to know why you are doing it. Being a coach is a calling and usually is a huge time commitment that takes you away from your family a great deal. You need to understand what legacy you want to leave behind. Is it your win/loss record? Or is it more important to be a role model to the young men and women you coach, develop them as athletes and as people, children, teammates, future parents, workers, and leaders?
Know your why. Write it down and remind yourself of it daily. Say it out loud to yourself and to others. Leave the right kind of legacy.
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
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WYC 107 – Championship Culture Part 3 – Ted Quinn talks Knowing your Why and Nations of Coaches

Ted Quinn is the director of coaches programs at the Nations of Coaches. Prior to that Ted had spent  seventeen seasons on the sidelines. A coaching career that saw him serve at Wakonda High School(SD), Mount Marty College(SD), Graceland Univerisity(IA) and Nyack College(NY). In addition to his coaching career, Quinn has also served as an Executive Board Member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches(NABC) Ministry Team and an Advisory Board Member of Nations of Coaches. He and his wife Jackie have been married for eighteen years and are the proud parents of ten-year-old daughter Jenna and seven-year-old son Kellen.

Website: nationsofcoaches.com

Twitter: @NationofCoaches

Facebook: /nationsofcoaches

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

 ‘It’s better to have flown than to have landed’ – John Wooden

Nations of Coaches

  • Serve men’s college basketball
  • Mission is to serve, equip, and connect to support coaches

Character Coaches

  • The biggest jump from losing to winning is improving the culture within your locker room and around your program.

Caz’s Coaching Halftime

  • Coach towards victory instead of just trying to win

Building a team with great culture

  • The first step – is as a coach to ask yourself why you are doing this
  • Then – prioritize building relationships with your players. Get to know them before getting to know their game.

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Ted values the relationships with his players. He even had the opportunity to be the minister who led the ceremony for one of his player’s marriages.
  • A player you invest in becomes a son or daughter to you.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Tony Bennett at Virginia – The simplicity of their defense is their key. They just have a few rules and they don’t bend on those rules.

Favorite coaching book/quote

SEC Legacy Breakfast

  • Host speaker – Brice Drew – Head Coach at Vanderbilt
  • Wed, March 8th at 7 a.m. in downtown Nashville – A few tickets still available
  • Website: nationsofcoaches.com

Parting Advice

  • Get to know your players at a heart level before you worry about getting to know their game
  • Know your why

– 

Today’s Sponsors

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.

Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

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

– 

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

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The Culture Journey Week #20 – Smart-Aggressive – A Poker Analogy

Week 20
Spring practice week #3
Positive Energy
I continued what I have affectionately self-named ‘Coach Craig’s Goofy Games‘ to start each practice.
This week we did the best game we’ve done yet:
I had forgotten one that I had learned from Dave Cisar at Winning Youth Football (I am a HUGE fan of his coaching guide!) It’s called towel tug of war. Use an old full-sized towel, wrap duct tape around both ends and in the middle. Have 3 somewhat equal-sized athletes each grab the towel with one hand at 1 of the 3 taped spots. Put a cone about 4 to 5 yards behind each player (should form a triangle.) Then it’s tug of war to try to touch your own cone. You can only have one hand on the towel and you must be touching the towel when you touch your own cone.
The added fun that Cisar adds – have all the players that don’t participate line up behind the person’s cone who they think is going to win. Then all the people who line up behind the wrong cone have to do a quick 5 push-ups or something similar for picking wrong. This adds a lot of loud fun cheering from all the players.
Smart-Aggressive – A Poker Analogy
It’s always a fine-line to challenge kids to play aggressively but not force things and take dumb shots. I was thinking about it this week and it’s really similar to effective poker players. I used to run a poker club of 20 really good poker players and we would send the winner of the club to Vegas to play in a World Series of Poker event. I was able to win our club twice and got to play in Vegas. Poker theory is pretty consistent in that the best players play a tight-aggressive style. I was thinking this week that this is how we want our players to play, although I renamed ‘tight’ with ‘smart.’
Attached is a visual of this, let me know your thoughts. I am going to roll this out to our team today.

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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The 4 Cornerstones Of Championship Culture – Part 2 Of 8- A Cause Bigger Than Yourself-Leaving A Legacy

Ultimately, life is about relationships and having a cause bigger than yourself – Joe Ehrmann in Inside Out Coaching
The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
2nd Cornerstone – A Cause Bigger than Yourself – Leaving a Legacy
This week we learn from Scott Hearon, founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. This group’s entire focus is to equip and support coaches in their work to build excellent programs that transform the lives of their players and empower them to perform to their greatest potential.
Scott’s group uses Joe Ehrmann’s book Inside Out Coaching as a key part in their training of coaching staffs. The high school lacrosse coaching staff I am a part of recently had the privilege of going through this training.
Unlike most coach training, the focus of most of our time together was not on how to teach better or run more efficient practices, but rather was to understand each of our pasts and uncover any tendencies we have to lose focus on the real reasons we coach.
Scott taught us that the single most important thing the kids watch in us as coaches is how we relate to and treat each other. A great analogy he used was the best thing we can do as a parent is to love our spouse.
One of the biggest legacies we can leave with the players we coach is to demonstrate that we not coaching to impress anyone else, but instead we are coaching because we love the game, we love the coaches we coach with, and we love our players.
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
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WYC 106 – Championship Culture Part 2 – Scott Hearon talks Leaving a Legacy and 4 at the Door

Scott Hearon believes athletics can be the most effective forum for growing people, and has coached and mentored in many different arenas hoping to make a difference. Scott feels a call on his life to help men make sense of who they are and why they are made so that they can lead lives of deep influence, purpose, connection, and freedom. Scott is the executive director at The Nashville Coaching Coalition, whose mission is to connect, support, and equip athletic coaches in their work to build excellent programs that transform the lives of their players and empower them to perform to their greatest potential.

Websites: NashvilleCoachingCoalition.com; TheCoachForum.com

Twitter: @TheCoachForum

Facebook: /TheCoachForum

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

 ‘If you want to make slow change, coach behavior. If you want to make sustainable change, help change their paradigm.’ – Stephen Covey, paraphrased

Early Influence

  • Scott during high school read the story about Joe Erhmann’s team in Season of Life and looked around and didn’t really see the type of mentors from the coaches he had in his life

‘To be a man, you have to see a man’

  • Boys and girls need to see role models. The best thing we can to demonstrate this to the players we coach is to work on our relationships with each other as a coaching staff.
  • The most dangerous coach is one who is not confident with who they are and are trying to prove themselves
  • From Joe Hermann’s book Inside-Out Coaching, the goal is to be a transformational coach instead of being a transactional coach. You can’t try to fulfill your insecurities by using kids to accomplish your goals.

Building a team with great culture

  • The first step is defining your core values and what you are all about
  • This begins with the relationships and communication within the coaching staff
  • Then have each coach write a mission statement about what this coaching staff’s priorities are going to be
  • Then relay this philosophy to your parents so they are on board with your approach

Caz’s Coaching Halftime

  • Develop the whole athlete, on and off the field
  • Coaches are the #1 position of influence on today’s youth

Building Self-confidence

  • 2 biggest things kids need: To belong and to matter
  • When kids understand their role and know they are valued regardless of their performance on the field, they become free to play all-out without fear. ‘Play Free’
  • The Thrive Center for Human Development

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • A really gifted athlete on a team Scott was working with was struggling with controlling his emotions. Their team’s coaching staff spent time with all the seniors before the season, and hearing this young man’s struggles personally with how hard his life had been opened things up with their relationship to connect with him personally.

The One that got away

  • Scott was on a coaching staff and during a game sensed that they needed to call a timeout and encourage their team. But he was new to the staff and didn’t say anything, which he regrets.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Apologize as often as you need to
  • 4 at the door – 4 things to do every time you talk to your athletes:

1 – Look them eye to eye

2 – Shake their hand

3 – Call them by their name

4 – Share one thing of personal value to them

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘If you want to make slow change, coach behavior. If you want to make sustainable change, help change their paradigm.’ – Stephen Covey, paraphrased

The Coach Forum

  • NashvilleCoachingCoalition.com
  • The Coach Forum – TedX-type talks one day coaching forum in July: Twitter: @TheCoachForum
  • Coaching with Heart – Weekend retreat April 7-9 – Teaching coaches how to coach with heart

Parting Advice

  • What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

– 

Today’s Sponsors

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.

Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

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

– 

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

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The Culture Journey Week #19 – Coach Craig’s Goofy Games, No Captains?, & Struggle

Week 19
Spring practice week #2
Positive Energy
I continued what I have affectionately self-named ‘Coach Craig’s Goofy Games‘ to start each practice. It’s hard work continuing to come up with creative games, but once we’ve done 10 or 12 different ones I’ll probably start circling back and repeating or letting the kids choose one they liked. Here is how I have structured what we’ll do each week:
Monday – Seniors share 2 of the Teammate Tips from The Hard Hat. I purchased an 18″x24″ drawing pad and we’re going to fill in the 21 tips as the season goes on. I’m thinking about asking the seniors if they want to encourage the team to each tap the list on the way out to do their group warm-up run each practice. (Think ‘Play for your teammates today’ type sign.)
Tuesday – 3 man competitions and everyone votes on who they think will win, losers do punishment (towel tug-of-war, 3 man ground balls)
Wednesday – Entourage-type game where players compete then losers cheer (rock, paper scissors; high-10 off-balance push; 1,2,3, yee,haw,clap)
Thursday – Position group games (Tell a story 4 words at a time; topics without repeats; put cards in order without talking)
Friday – Fun Friday – play a different sport (ultimate frisbee with tennis balls; sharks and minnow tag with tennis balls; kickball)
​​​​​​​I’ll be taking notes on how to play each of these games and will send something out when the season is over.
Captains
Interesting follow-up on captains. I definitely lost sleep over the weekend as I thought about the one kid who didn’t get voted as a captain (another one didn’t get voted either but I don’t think he had any expectations around being a captain.) I was interviewing TJ Rosene (from PGC Basketball, the Hardwood Hustle, and head coach at Emmanuel College) this week and I asked him about captains – he gave me a really unique answer: ‘We don’t vote for or assign captains. There are always a few players that step up as leaders. When the ref asks for our captains to come to center court, without looking at me, a few of them just naturally take their role as leaders.’
Anyone else ever try this approach? It really got me thinking and I can see the benefits of not having a popularity vote or having coaches have to choose and alienating kids.
Struggle
The biggest struggle we are having right now is how to quantify and track skill progress. We don’t really have any tangible measurable so the boys can get the satisfaction of knowing they are improving. John, Will or any other lax coaches – any lacrosse ideas for this?

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – Part 1 of 8 – Core Covenants

‘Leave the jersey in a better place’ – The All Blacks in James Kerr’s Legacy 
Core values
This week we kick off the series discussing the importance of establishing your core values. This is defining ‘who we are’ and ‘how we do things around here.’ Our guest in this week’s podcast, Coach Lisle from The Hitting Vault, shares that he and his coaches establish their core covenants first, and then they only have 2 rules:
1 – Don’t be late
2 – Don’t let down your teammates
This really covers all the bases, because if you do something selfish, you will always let down your teammates. So don’t.
Your program needs to start with a cornerstone that clearly states how you do things. Then point everything back to this in how you act and how you make all decisions.
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
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The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – Intro

‘Leave the jersey in a better place’ – The All Blacks in James Kerr’s Legacy 
The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
Each Monday we will launch a new episode with interviews of great youth sports coaches around the country, and will also feature a 2 minute coaching spot with the founder of Upward Sports, Caz McCaslin.
The series will be broken into 4 topics:
1 – Core values
2 – A cause bigger than yourself
3 – Empowering & Defining roles- Create mentally tough athletes through their understanding of their role
4 – The role of captains and leadership development
A special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports – check them out at upward.org!
 
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Making It Fun Part 4 – 4 Additional Ideas To Build Positive Energy Into Your Practices

Lead with optimism, enthusiasm and positive energy, guard against pessimism and weed out negativity.’ – Jon Gordon 

This has been a great series for me to remember the importance of having kids love the sport they play. Sure there will be times where the kids need to learn the value of grinding out tough workouts, but there is no reason we can’t bring the energy levels up in our practices by incorporating fun competitive elements into most of what we do.
This week we will wrap up the series with 4 additional ideas for building positive energy into your practices:
Freeplay
This past summer my friend John, who coaches lacrosse, had parents drop off their kids from 4 to 6 every Saturday and had pick-up games. Their was 2 or 3 coaches there to make sure everyone stayed safe, but other than that the coaches stayed out of the way and let the kids figure out teams, resolve arguments, pretty much do everything themselves. This is great not only for developing their skills, but it also teaches them conflict resolution and many other great life skills.
Positive Conditioning – The winners get to run!
During competitions within your practice, instead of punishing the losers by making them do some type of conditioning, you tell the winners they have earned the right to get stronger while the losers watch. You have to put all your attention/effort into recognizing the kids who are earning the right to run.
Small area games like Futsal
Kids that play futsal touch the ball 12x vs. traditional soccer. Simulate these type  of small area games with lots of touches for each kid by breaking into small teams and play within a small confined space.
Involving the parents
Tell your parents: ‘Come ready and dressed to participate at practice’ – They can help you coach, but also kids love competing against the adults, so have competitions and scrimmages against their parents or with the parents mixed into the teams.
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The Culture Journey Week #18 – Icebreakers, Tough Decisions, & The Hard Hat

Week 18
Hell Week – Spring practice week #1
Positive Energy
As I mentioned last week, we started off the season with our head coach asking the boys what being a good teammate means to them, he wrote their ideas down, then had all the players and coaches sign the sheet agreeing to be held to that standard. This is a big change from the previous year, where I can’t remember specifically how the season kicked off but it certainly wasn’t in this type of positive mindset. Then we lined up all the boys in a single file line, I taught them the proper way to shake hands, and we had each player go down the line and introduce themselves to every other player on the team. Good start!
The next challenge for our coaching staff was to turn around the negative culture that had come down on last year’s team like a dark fog. One focus we are implementing is to intentionally start the practice with positive energy. We have done entourage, aka rock,paper,scissors,cheerleader, and a game called moosh-ball to start our practices the last 2 days. They are somewhat goofy games, especially moosh-ball, but that is OK because they have been very successful in getting a group of ‘trying-to-be-cool’ teenage boys laughing, cheering, and having a good time.

The other nice benefit of doing these games at the beginning of practice is that it provides an extra incentive to show up on time to practice.
Captains
We did face a very tough decision on who would be our captains for this team. We have 6 seniors on the team, so we wrote their names on a sheet of paper and let each player on the team vote for 1,2, or 3 players. The vote totals came out with one clear choice, then 3 more that were lumped pretty tight together. We had the debate over whether to add the #2 finisher and stick with 2 captains, or whether to have all 4 be captains. The other issue was the head coach had a different view on who the 2nd captain should be vs. myself and the other assistant coach. Much to his credit, after much deliberation, he had the other assistant coach and me fill out votes and see what that did to the totals. It did move a different boy into the #2 spot. I also really like the leadership of the boy who finished in the #4 spot, so we finally agreed we would go forward with 4 captains.
The Hard Hat
Keeping with our theme of being a great teammate, we have purchased 10 copies of Jon Gordon’s The Hard Hat – 21 Ways to be a great teammate. 1 for each senior and one for each coach. We are going to read the book with our seniors and discuss 2 different points from the book each week.
We have a long way to go, but the atmosphere around our team this spring is light years ahead of where we were this time last year.

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 105 – Championship Culture Part 1 – Matt Lisle talks Core Covenants and The Hitting Vault

Coach Lisle currently works with numerous MLB, professional and college players and is a former collegiate hitting coach.

Lisle’s knowledge is deeply rooted in all aspects of the game, but his passion and knowledge for hitting has proven to be a game changer for all the hitters he works with. Many know of Coach Lisle through his large social media following where his followers get encouragement, instruction, tips and insights on the game. His positive coaching approach has been a great motivator for players, parents and his peers. Coach Lisle has instilled his philosophy of teaching and sharing in the creation of The Hitting Vault, where their goal is to help every baseball and softball hitter unlock their power.

Websites: TheHittingVault.com & coachlisle.com

Twitter: @CoachLisle

Facebook: /coachlisle

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Good is the enemy of great’

Coaching your own kids

  • Matt coached his son along with his Dad as the assistant. His dad is very laid back while Matt is very technical, so Matt enjoyed watching how hard the kids played for his dad because of how much he enjoyed them and kept things fun.

Cringe Moment

  • Matt began coaching at a very early age (23 years old as head coach), so initially he was trying too hard to be ‘cool’ and be friends with the coach. Then he swung to the opposite extreme and became too shut-off. Eventually he found the balance of caring for the kids while not trying to impress them.

Teaching Skills

  • The challenge is to take complicated actions and teach them in words they understand with as few words as possible. Feel it instead of think it.
  • Every kid should have a bat/ball so they are following along with you. Matt also uses a 120″ screen and shows what the pros look like so they can see more examples of what great looks like.
  • Good analogy – Cars –  Your body is the engine of the car, it’s where the power comes from, your bat is the steering wheel.

Self-confidence and peak mental performance

  • The parents and coaches influence confidence more than the kids themselves.
  • Allow the players to fail and let know it does not affect how you feel about them. When they make mistakes, instill trust in them. Give them permission to fail and encourage aggressive play and mistakes are OK.

Championship Culture – Core values

  • Core covenants – This is what we’re all about
  • 2 rules on this team:

1 – Don’t be late

2 – Don’t let your teammates down

  • Captain’s meetings every Friday morning to train their captains

Rewards

  • Don’t reward average
  • Get excited and celebrate exceptional effort and performance

Best Teambuilder

  • Team Olympics – Team handball can be a great game

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Treat each athlete like one of your own kids and try to instill love and guidance in their lives

The One that got away

  • Matt’s team in 2012 coached a great team. They were undefeated going into the last game of the season, and the coach of the other team in the last game was Matt’s dad. They lost 2-1. Matt had not started his best pitcher because they had pretty easily beat this team earlier in the year.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘Good is the enemy of great’

The Hitting Vault

Parting Advice

  • Love your athletes the way you love your children

– 

Today’s Sponsors

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.

Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

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

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Making It Fun Part 3 – Developmental Stages & Levels

‘The sweet spot: that productive, uncomfortable terrain located just beyond our current abilities, where our reach exceeds our grasp.’– Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code

Do you know what athletes think is fun?

Getting better.
Fun games help keep the energy level high in practice and are important, but there is no substitute for the #1 way to have practices that athletes love: They need to feel tangible progress towards getting better.
3 ways you can implement this immediately:
  • Live by numbers – Create core drills that can be measured numerically. The focus is on improvement.
  • Developmental stages. Kids graduate from levels by testing out of levels. Instead of belt colors (like in Karate), you can have shirt colors. When they are ready to master a skill, they test on it, and move on to the next level after passing the test. Moving up a level is a big recognition – have some type quick ceremony and do something like ringing a victory bell.
  • Stuart Armstrong from The Talent Equation is a master on this subject – He says to design your practices like a video game designer:
    • Create ‘levels’ that are within their reach, but it’s a big stretch that might feel just out of their reach. So when they figure something out – ask them ‘are you ready for level 2 now?’
    • Use terms like ‘power-up’ and ‘freeze’ to mix up games during practice. One team can ‘freeze’ the other team for 5 seconds
Be intentional with your practice design to focus on each kid knowing what their next step of progress is, and celebrate like crazy as kids reach their next level!
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The Culture Journey Week #17 – What Makes Up A Good Teammate & Handshaking

Week 17

Final pre-season Coach Meeting
We had our final pre-season coach meeting last night. I am encouraged by the progress we have made as a staff over the past few months. We are not perfect yet, but there is power in just sitting down and getting to know each other, listen to each others’ stories, and talking about our visions for the team. Even though we all have very different styles and certainly don’t see eye-to-eye on each others’ philosophies, there is a tangible growth and respect amongst each other that makes being together more and more enjoyable.

​​​​​​​As we come into the upcoming Hell Week to kickstart our practices, there are 2 things we are doing at our first practice that I am very excited about:

1 – What does it being a good teammate mean to you?
I am pumped about our head coach recommending that we start out our first team meeting next week by asking the team what their definition is of being a good teammate. We are going to have a large sheet of paper where we write all of their responses down. Then we are going to ask them if they all agree to being held to these standards, and if they do to sign their name on the page with these descriptions.

2 – Handshaking
The head coach also said he wants to start off the first practice with the kids lining up by class, then having each elder class shake hands with the younger classes and welcome them to the team, shake their hand, and tell them they are glad they are here and they will support them and help them any way they can.
I thought of James Leath’s post about teaching kids how to look each other in the eye and what a proper handshake looks like, so I asked the coach if we could teach the kids the proper way to shake hands and he liked the idea. Check out James’ article on this and what his first practice each season looks like (I have learned a great deal from James but this is my favorite must-read article): First-Day-of-Practice

We also discussed having all the coaches take turns talking through our ROOTS values (taken from PCA) over the course of the season so that we don’t lose sight of them the way we have historically. Quick, 5-minute or less, stories we can share to keep sight on who we are and how we do things.

It’s been quite a journey over the past 17 weeks getting ready for practice #1. We’ve taken baby-steps towards turning this team’s culture around, I’m pumped to get it started! These boys are worth it!

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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Making It Fun Part 2 – Fun Games That Teach Skills

‘Nobody ever said “Work ball!” They say, “Play ball!” To me, that means having fun’ – Willie Stargell
Thank you to the many coaches who responded to my recent email asking what your biggest challenge currently is in coaching. One of the common responses I received involved coming up with creative new games to keep practices fun and engaging while teaching fundamentals and deleting the players’ skills. This week I’ll share some of the great games that many of my podcast guests have shared with me over the years. They are organized by sport, but be open-minded and look at other sports outside of the one you coach because many of these games can be tweaked to do in just about any sport.
Baseball & Softball
  • 1 kid is at home base, 1 at 2nd  – and they race to reach the other’s base (home to 2nd; 2nd to home)
  • Throwing/catching games – They start up close with a partner, then keep taking 3 giant steps back, once they drop a ball they’re out – but even after they’re out they can keep throwing (so they’re not standing around)
  • Keep everything competitive – Coach will break up into 2 teams of six and then have them all bunt and keep track of which team lays down more successful bunts, do the same with hit and runs, etc.
  • Baseball hitting game – Each player gets 7 swings and earns points based on result(kind of like Home Run derby)
  • Last player standing – player bats with 2 strikes – if they hit it fair they keep going.  If you strike-out you go play defense.  Then you add complexity – they have to hit it to the grass, etc.  Great game to teach the athletes to play in pressure situations.
  • Throwing accuracy – Kids weren’t hitting their targets when throwing – so she put a ball on a cone at 1st base and they took turns throwing from shortstop trying to hit the ball on the cone.  Then she said first one to hit she would give $1.
Basketball
  • Defensive slide duck-duck-goose: You play the normal game but have to do defensive slide when running around the circle.
  • Jump stop Mr. Fox
  • Split the kids in half and have them do drills towards mid-court so they meet their teammates and can watch/learn as they go
  • Break into 3 person teams and have shooting competitions
  • Spider – Ball handling game – 4 or 5 defenders, 3 or 4 offensive players – Players have to dribble to the other end of the court while the spiders are trying to knock their ball out of the court, if you get your ball knocked out you join the spiders.
  • Dribble tag – put it to music and do it for 5 to 7 minutes to keep it fun
  • Passing tag – have to pass the ball and ‘tag’ someone. Stop, catch, pivot, then tag. Timed drill –team with the lowest time wins. Can do it with more than 5 per team.
  • Cool dribbling drill – Put change (quarters, nickels, dimes) at spots on the court – kids have to go pick it up, then go put the change back using the opposite hand
Football
  • The give-up drill – 3 blockers defending a pad vs. 1 player
  • Defend the box
Soccer
  • Knockout
  • Bring out different style balls – tennis ball, big huge ball
Don’t stress yourself out doing continuous research on the perfect game. Find 4 or 5 that your kids enjoy and mix them throughout your practices to keep the energy level up and the kids having fun!
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The Culture Journey Week #16 – Competition For All Positions

Week 16
Player-Parent Meeting – Competition for all positions
This week kicked off our spring season with our parent-player meeting. I won’t bore you with too many of the details, but one of the statements that our head coach shared jumped out at me:
No guaranteed spots, open competition for all positions
I can’t remember whether this was in the slide deck in previous years, but our coach emphasized it and if we truly enforce this our team’s culture would vastly improve. As I have shared previously our team’s culture has been defined by individualism and entitlement. Our meetings as a coaching staff over the past 8 weeks have been centered around how do we drive accountability into our culture. A major step in doing this will be to use the bench as a motivator. We need to have open competition and let the players know that their behavior will dictate their role on this team. If players come with a willingness to work hard, learn, and be a great teammate – they will earn the right to play significant roles on this team. But if players come to goof off and their primary goal is to show up their teammate, they can enjoy their time watching the game from the bench.
Next week we have our final coaches meeting before our practices kick-off. My primary goal in this meeting is to ask the head coach to clearly define the assistant coaches rolesWe need to feel empowered to own our position group. Not to take away his power, but to help him meet his vision for this team by taking pride in our position group and passing that pride down to be owned by the players in each group. 
Head coaches – are you empowering your assistant coaches and valuing their input? Is their role during practices and games crystal clear? This is a great reminder to all of us of the importance of clear roles for everyone on the team – the players, the coaches, the parents.

Have a great week and keep fighting for your culture everyday!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 104 – Youth Coaching – Allistair McCaw talks 7 Keys to Being a Great Coach

Allistair McCaw is a Sports Performance Coach, Speaker, Author, Coach to Olympians & World Champions, Passionate about improving athletes, coaches & teams. Allistair is from South Africa. His family was very athletic, his mom tried out for the Olympics in the 400 meters. He grew up playing a multiple of sports, he wanted to play professional tennis, but due to financial pressures he switched at age 14 from tennis to running. He was a junior national champion, and went on to become a duathlon competitor. He has since switched to running marathons and just completed his 28th marathon.

Website & Book: themccawmethod.com

Twitter: @AllistairMcCaw

Facebook: /mccawmethod

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘World-class athletes are better able to handle repetition better than the next person.’

The marathon/racing culture

  • It’s a unique environment where everyone is cheering for each other

Book: 7 Keys to Being a Great Coach

  • Allistair’s dream was to write this book to help share what he has learned
  • Link to book: themccawmethod.com

Key 1 – Standards

  • It all starts with your standards – Rules for your life. Standards is a much more palatable word than rules
  • 3 important standards for coaching:
  • 1 – Standards for yourself
  • 2 – Standards for your workplace/coaches
  • 3 – Standards for your athletes

Key 2 – Your Methodology/Philosophy

  • What do you believe in? How do you believe in achieving this?

Key 3 – Great coaches adapt

  • To the unexpected. They are calm, controlled.
  • Adapt to the generation you are working with: Listen better. Discipline. Communicate in their style: they want short bursts of information (they are the Twitter-generation.)

Key 4 – Have great energy

  • It all starts with you. You have to exude passion. People should look forward to seeing you.

Key 5 – Interpersonal skills

  • Respected. Likability. We are in the people business who play sports.

Key 6 – The fundamentals

  • Great coaches have teams that are great at fundamentals.
  • Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code:  ‘Mastering the mundane.’
  • World-class athletes are better able to handle repetition better than the next person.

Key 7 – Invest in yourself

The One that got away

  • 2002 World Duathlon competitions in Atlanta – Came in 2nd. Lost by 40 seconds. Gave it his everything so it wasn’t a failure. But still had a disappointed feeling.
  • Allistair’s advice to young people – don’t have any regrets

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Michael Boyle – Training exercises and how he relates with people

Favorite coaching book/quote

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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The Culture Journey Week #15 – Servant Leadership, Life-Lessons, Codes-Of-Conduct

 
Meeting #7 with Coaching coach – Servant leadership, Life-lessons, Codes-of-conduct
Had our seventh meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the chapters 6 through 8 of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann.
​​​​​​​Chapter 6 is about building community. In it is one of the best descriptions I’ve seen of what leadership and being a captain is all about:
Biff tells the seniors they have now earned the right to serve the freshmenServant leadership is the antithesis of self-promotion, of competing for positions of preeminence. It’s the opposite of hazing. It’s downward mobility based on the belief that if you want to be a leader you must first know how to serve.
​​​​​​​Next we invite the freshmen over and the varsity players give them an ovation. A couple of the captains will welcome them and let the frosh know how courageous it is for them to be here. They are admired and welcomed into our community.’
What could our team look like if we taught our captains and seniors to lead this way? That is one of the goals for our upcoming lacrosse season.
Chapter 7 is a discussion on teaching life lessons through sports. We did an exercise as a coaching staff where we each listed the top 3 educational points about life we want to teach the kids we coach. This was an excellent activity to better understand what really makes each coach tick.
This is also the chapter where Joe shares what his teams do on Homecoming week, specifically with regards to what they teach the boys about respecting the girls they are going to take to the Homecoming dance. This includes the boys writing a short letter describing how they will treat their dates and then several of the players are selected to share these with the team.  Powerful, powerful stuff – if you want to see more details on this it starts on the bottom of page 179 of the book.
Chapter 8 is about clear communication, and Joe reinforces the best way to do this is by having 3 different codes of conduct:
  1. Coaches’ code of conduct
  2. Parents’ code of conduct
  3. Players’ code of conduct
We did an activity where we rated from 1 to 5 how our communication with these 3 groups is on our team. The biggest eye-opener from this activity was we realized we put a players’ code of conduct in place at the beginning of the year, then rarely ever discuss it again the rest of the season. 
Next week we wrap up our sessions with Scott, have our kick-off meeting with the players and parents, and then in 2 short weeks we are off and running with practices!
I hope your seasons are going well – you have to fight every day for your culture – so start off 2017 fighting the good fight! It is worth it!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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Making it Fun Part 1 – Hidden Conditioning & Icebreakers

‘You can make more friends in 2 months by becoming interested in other people than you can in 2 years by trying to get other people interested in you’ – Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People
Today we’ll share 2 different types of ideas you can use in your practices:
1 – Icebreakers
2 – Hidden Conditioning
Icebreakers
Don’t underestimate the value of starting your practice with some type of activity to switch your athletes’ mindset from school, friends, homelife, etc. to being on this team. Here are some great ideas (thanks to Will Drumright and James Leath for sharing some of these):
  • Rock, paper, scissors, cheerleader – Everyone pairs off and plays best 2 out of 3. The winner moves on and finds another winner, the person who lost becomes cheerleader (or entourage if you want a more masculine word) for whoever beat them. Continue until down to 2 people. Make a big deal about who has the best entourage before the championship match. You can have coaches watching the entourages throughout the whole process and give award to the final 2 players and also the 2 best cheerleaders.
  • ​​​​​​​Clumps – Start by everyone running around then leader yells out a number and the players have to form clumps with that number of people.
  • 1,2, 3 – Partner up. One person starts with 1 the other says 2, then the first says 3, and so on. (try to mess up your partner, different voice inflections, etc.) After a couple rounds change 3 to a clap. Finally, change 1 and 2 to Yee and Haw.
  • The Pigeon Game: You start telling a story, when the kids hear ‘Pigeon’- they race to the other side. You make it fun by trying to fake them out, i.e.: ‘there was a boy name PETER who really liked PICKLES…’
Hidden Conditioning Games
​​​​​​​Starting or ending your practice with hidden conditioning games instead of wind sprints can improve the ‘funness’ of your practices immensely. Remember – it’s a game and the #1 reason kids play sports is to have fun! Here a few great ideas:
  • Play your sport with a different ball. Way bigger or way smaller than the normal one.
  • Ultimate frisbee is a great game for conditioning for any outdoor sport
  • Dodgeball and tag are classics that kids always like. Instead of kids standing around after they are knocked out make them jog around the outside perimeter of your game.
  • Fox and hound – Hounds have the ball, foxes chase them, if fox tags you, you have to give them ball
  • Relay races
  • Four-corner tag – 4 players at a time – each kid starts in a corner and runs to the middle, then you yell out a corner number, and the kid from that corner has to tag the other 3 kids in 10 seconds.  You see some great open-field juke moves with this.
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WYC 103 – Youth Baseball & Softball – Marshall Lehr talks playing to win vs. playing not to lose

Marshall Lehr is a baseball and softball coach in Texas. He is the father of 4 and has coached many of their teams growing up. He is a passionate believer in the power of sports, and specifically baseball and softball. He is also a great student of the game, having recently gone through John O’Sullivan’s Coaching Mastery course.

Website & Blog: marshalllehr.com

Twitter: @MarshallLehr

Facebook: /marshall.lehr

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place’ – George Bernard Shaw

Coaching your own kids

  • Make decisions based on results more than potential (it is easy to see the potential in your own kids, but the results need to be the criteria used)

Cringe Moment

  • Marshall had two moms complaining to the ref and instead of diffusing the situation he got in an argument with them.
  • Diffuse situations with the phrase ‘I can see why you think that’

Teaching Skills

  • ‘The ability to learn faster than your opponent may be your only true competitive advantage’
  • Make everything competitive to raise the energy level – You can buy one of those little scoreboard flip charts
  • Game – Pull out a stop watch and see how quick the girls can get fly ball into cutoff

Championship Culture 

  • A healthy learning environment is one where kids are playing free and aren’t afraid to make mistakes
  • Keep one error one error.
  • Book: Top Dog – Penalty kicks:
    • Kicking not to lose: 63%
    • Kicking to win: 93%

Rewards

  • They had toy WWE belt they gave to best defensive player – and would use Discount Double-check motion during games to lighten the mood and excite each other
  • First out after an error is huge – so after games they would recognize who made the play to get the first out after an error

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Marshall sends notes in the mail to his kids – there is a service where you can print pictures off Facebook in a card format.
  • Reinforce with kids their importance is not dependent on their sports performance

The One that got away

  • Marshall got a 2nd & 3rd chance – He had a kid struggling with pitching and took himself out of the game. The first time he let the kid leave the game. 6 months later the kid wanted to take himself out, Marshall asked the kid to get him 1 out. The kid still struggled. Then 6 months later he asked the kid to get him 1 out and he worked out of a bases-loaded no outs situation without giving up any runs.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • The decision is part of the skill – learned from Mark Upton
  • Compete and measure it!

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote/Book: ‘We went out looking for exceptional kids and what we found is exceptional conditions’ – Benjamin Bloom in Developing Talent in Young People. Be the coach to develop exceptional athletes and people.
  • Book: Mindset by Carol Dweck

Parting Advice

  • You can’t teach everyone the same way
  • Have a preseason meeting with your parents to set expectations. ‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place’ – George Bernard Shaw

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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2017 Is Going To Be Epic. Let’s Start By Having Some Fun!

‘Nobody ever said “Work ball!” They say, “Play ball!” To me, that means having fun’ – Willie Stargell
What better way to kick off the year than to talk about one of the fundamentals of why kids play sports – having FUN! Next week we’ll kick off a 4 part series as we look at great ways to make our practices more fun. If you’re like me you’re always looking for more fun games to bring up the energy level during your practice, so I’ll share some of the best ideas I’ve learned along the way. Here’s what the series will look like:
Part 1 – Hidden conditioning games
Part 2 – Skill development games
Part 3 – Developmental stages & levels
Part 4 – 4 additional ways to bring the fun: Small area games, Freeplay, Positive conditioning, & Involving the parents
Happy new years and here’s to an epic 2017!
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WYC 102 – Youth Coaching – Steven Cournoyer talks inspiring teams, players, and parents from the inside out

Steve Cournoyer has coached 38 different teams, from AAU basketball to 3rd grade kids, primarily in baseball and basketball. He has authored an excellent resource called The Inspired Coach – A guide to inspiring teams, players, and parents from the inside out. He has served our country in the military for over 10 years and worked as a medic in the operating room.

Website & Book: theinspiredcoach1.com

Twitter: @InspiredCoach1

Facebook: /theinspiredcoach

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘If you change the way you look at things, what you look at changes’ – Mahatma Gandhi

Coaching your own kids

Assistant coaches

  • It all starts with communication
  • The goal is to develop the kids and help them fall in love with the sport.
  • Steve has a rule that the coaches don’t coach their own kids, they share those duties so that no one has the stress of trying to coach their own child

Parents

  • You must set the expectations with the parents
  • A parent meeting is a no-brainer
  • Make sure you’ve let the parents know your background, especially if you’re a volunteer coach
  • Set expectations for playing time – is it all equal?
  • Coach the parents on how to cheer – if they give conflicting messages it is very confusing to the kid. ‘Cheer to inspire instead of cheering to instruct’

Players

  • Ask the players ‘Why are you here?’
  • Discuss their philosophy and the philosophy the team is going to have
  • Create some glue to pull them together:
    • A team name (that is different than your given team name)
    • A team song
    • A team cheer (Boston Celtics’ championship team used ‘Umbootu’)

Self-confidence – Unleashing fearless players

  • Coach doesn’t talk about winning with his players. He does talk about it with his coaches, but not with the players. A kid should never feel like it was their fault the team lost a game.
  • Teach the kids: ‘Always be surprised when you miss a shot (or strike out, or miss a tackle.)’ “Fail miserably, but learn from it, then be surprised when it happens again”
  • Don’t use conditioning as a punishment. ‘The harder you work in practice, the funner the games are.’ You want the players to believe that their conditioning has a distinct purpose and challenge them to bring their best to it.

Best team builders

  • For basketball – takes 5 players on one side of the gym and 5 on the other, then puts 17 basketballs in the middle, and asks them to pass the balls and get all the balls going. It’s great because they fail miserably at first and laugh about the struggle, but usually by the end of the year they start to get it

The One that got away

  • Listen to your assistant coaches and give them specific assignments during games so you can all catch different things going on

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • ‘If you’re teaching 12 year-olds, and you treat them like 16 year-olds, they will play like 14 year-olds.’

Favorite coaching book/quote

The Inspired Coach book

Parting Advice

  • If you find ways to go out of your way to help your players fall in love with the game, you are going to be able to teach that game with greater precision.

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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The Culture Journey Week #14 – The Why

Week 14
Meeting #6 with Coaching coach – The Why
Had our sixth meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the fifth chapter of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann. In this chapter Joe asks 4 questions:
  1. Why do I coach?
  2. Why do I coach the way I do? (who has influenced my coaching style?)
  3. What does it feel like to be coached by me?
  4. How do I define success?
We all answered these ahead of time for ourselves, and thinking through these was a very good exercise to take us back to why we coach. Most of our answers involved encouraging the young men and women we coach to be better than they can even imagine themselves being. And none of our answers for how we define success had anything to do with winning or losing. It had to do with players developing both on and off the field
This led to an interesting discussion on our upcoming season. We start practices February 1st and have about 4 weeks of practice before our first game. I had created a proposed tracking system for incentivizing players to compete in these practices and as coaches we would post the results at every practice. This was met with little buy-in (I need to work on my sales skills.) The concern mostly was that this would work for higher-achieving teams but our kids aren’t to a level to implement something like this yet. I disagree. We did have a good discussion around this and around choosing captains, and our head coach did say he would take the sheet I proposed with him and think about whether there was any portion of it we could implement. Progress comes in baby steps sometimes! 
I would love to hear your feedback on my tracking system – you can see it at winningyouthcoaching.com/preseason-practice-point-system/
I hope your seasons are going well – you have to fight every day for your culture – so start off 2017 fighting the good fight! It is worth it!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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The 12 Days of Christmas – 12 Truths about Athletes – Part 4 of 4 – The 1 Thing Every Athlete Needs

The emotional glue of any culture is its sense of identity and purpose – James Kerr quoting Owen Eastwood in Legacy
Merry Christmas! I hope you have enjoyed this 12 Days of Christmas series – as a reminder here is what we’ve covered in our 12 Truths about Athletes series:
3 Truths about players (from Ingle Martin):
  1. They want to contribute
  2. They want to belong
  3. They want to know they have what it takes
5 Things Athletes want from their Coaches (from John O’Sullivan):
  1. Respect & Encouragement
  2. A positive role model
  3. Clear, consistent communication
  4. Knowledge of the sport
  5. Someone who listens
3 Components of Effective Communication: (from TJ Rosene)
  1. Truth
  2. Love
  3. Transparency
This week we’ll wrap up the series with:
The 1 Thing Every Athlete Needs:
  1.  Purpose (from James Kerr in Legacy)
​​​​​​​More than encouragement.
More than positive reinforcement.
More than brilliant X’s and O’s.
While all of these are part of being a great coach, the ultimate goal is to create purpose for every member of the team. That is what makes a master coach. The ability to value every player and make them understand their importance to the team’s success.
In Kerr’s book written about the All Blacks rugby team, he uncovers that the team’s success comes down to the fact they are obsessed with ‘This connection of personal meaning to public purpose.’
Kerr goes on to quote:
  • Daniel Pink in his book Drive‘Humans, by their nature, seek purpose – a cause greater and more enduring than themselves.’
  • Victor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning‘What man actually needs, is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.’
  • Nietzsche said: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
  • And for the All Blacks, their purpose is to “add to the legacy…to leave the jersey in a better place.”​​​​​​​
The most important goal for your team in 2017 should be for every player to know their role and clearly understand how they are contributing to the success of the team. It will be more fun for each player and it will make your team much more successful!
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The Culture Journey Week #13 – The Elephant in the Room

Week 13
Meeting #5 with Coaching coach – The Elephant in the Room
Had our fifth meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the fourth chapter of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann. In this chapter Joe discusses the 3 big lies being told to our boys about what it means to be a masculine man and the 3 big lies being told to our girls about what it means to be a feminine woman. I heard Joe speak 8 years ago and this was the message that stuck with me. We had an interesting discussion on these, it seems easy for coaches to confuse being competitive with having your identity tied to your success on the ballfield or in the boardroom. Teaching our kids to be competitive and strive for greatness is a great thing and we should be doing this as a coach. But teaching them that we will change our value of them based on their performance and success can be very destructive. Don’t know if all the coaches in our meeting totally bought into this lesson but it definitely sparked some interesting conversation and hopefully we will all be processing this and thinking through it going forward.
Scott also led us through an interesting activity around discussing the proverbial elephant in the room. Scott had us all draw a picture of an elephant on a blank piece of paper. My artwork ability was definitely the worst in the room. Then Scott led a discussion around every coaching staff having some elephants in the room around what’s going on with the dynamics on that staff and the leadership of that team. He asked us to each think about what our staff’s elephants in the room were, then to write done the primary one inside of our elephant. Mine is attached. I really struggled with being honest in mine, but I said a quick prayer then just went for it. Mine was ‘We are all afraid of Tom(the head coach.)’ Some of the other coaches’ statements were about the team not playing hard or caring very much, skepticism, and our inability to win. But mine was much more internal to us as a staff. Tom immediately acknowledged that my statement didn’t surprise him and he knows he comes across that way, yet he somewhat feels that is part of being the leader. It opened up a very interesting discussion and hopefully we can keep being honest with each other and learning how to improve how we work as a staff.
We’ll be off for the next few weeks with the holidays so look for the next post the first week in January where we’ll be looking into chapters 5 and 6 from the book, and I’m sure so more activities from Scott to stretch our comfort zones. 🙂

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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The 12 Days of Christmas – 12 Truths about Athletes – Part 3 of 4 – The 3 Components Of Effective Communication

Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication” – Coach K
I recently had the opportunity to attend a coaching clinic with TJ Rosense from PGC Basketball and the Hardwood Hustle (a couple of my favorite sports resources.) I took multiple pages of notes (if you get a chance to see TJ he is one of the best I’ve seen!) – but one of the biggest takeaways I had was his discussion on how communication is a cornerstone of his program’s culture. He shared that communication needs to have all 3 of these components:
  1. Truth
  2. Love
  3. Transparency
Effective communication requires all 3 components. TJ’s teams make a regular practice of this by spending 5-8 minutes at the beginning of practice discussing different topics, such as:
– ‘My commitment Monday’ – Players commit to one thing that week in practice
– ‘Tough Tuesday’ – Share something you’re struggling with
– ‘Wisdom Wednesday’ – Share a quote or something you’ve learned recently
– ‘Thankful Thursday’
– ‘Fun Friday’
– ‘Servant Saturday’
Of course all of these topics work best – if YOU start. The players need to see your honesty, love, and transparency role-modeled.
TJ finished our time sharing:
​​​​​​​”Everything about culture is a teachable skill that you can improve.”
Practice the skill of communication with your teams starting this week!
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The Culture Journey Week #12 – Dictators, Bullies, Narcissists, Saints, & Misfits

 Week 12
Meeting #4 with Coaching coach – Dictators, Bullies, Narcissists, Saints, & Misfits
Had our fourth meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the third chapter of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Hermann. In this chapter Joe lays out the 5 main categories of transactional coaches – dictators, bullies, narcissists, saints, and misfits. While we can all sometimes slip one of these types of coaches, Joe made the great point:
‘When I feel (one of these) coming on, I try to comprehend the emotion and regain my rational self. I refuse to let unhealed wounds dictate my behavior or coaching style.’
We all have triggers that can push us into one of these transactional coaching styles, next week we are going to discuss what those triggers are and how we can be conscious of them and stop ourselves from slipping into being a type of coach we don’t want to be.
We also shared the 3 coaching archetypes that we each use as role-models.I couldn’t narrow it to 3 so I came up with 5. I based mine on the coaching characteristics I prioritize – the 6 F’s: Fun, Fundamentals, Friendship, Fight, Failure is part of the process, and Forge your own path.
1. Fun – Aaron Kail – One of my lifelong best friends, I worked in several management jobs with him and his teams were always having fun while I was just leading to get the job done. I learned from him that people will work much harder when they are having fun.
2. Fundamentals – Dave Cisar – Author of Winning Youth Football – Dave taught me about how keeping things simple and being awesome at the fundamentals is much more effective than complex playbook and always trying to come up with the next clever play. It reminds me of Joe Daniel’s quote:
​​​​​​​’Keep things simple so that your kids build confidence: confident kids play fast, fast kids win games.’
3. Friendship & Fight – Herb Brooks – The USA coach from the Miracle game – The scene in the movie Miracle where coach asks each player ‘Who do you play for’ has been very inspiring to me on the power of coming together as a team and playing for a cause bigger than yourself.
4. Failure is part of the process – Carol Dweck – Author of the book Mindset – Failure is part of the process and to have a growth mindset is to embrace failure as the best teacher. I love the quote from Willie Cromack 
‘Who will be brave enough to try that new move we have been practicing in the game today?
5. Forge your own path – Doug Keim – A childhood mentor of mine, Doug always had great insight on what was on the hearts of the kids he led. He was a youth group leader and they would give us printouts of what we were supposed to talk about each week, but Doug would often crumble those up and throw them in the fireplace and ask what was really on our hearts. Living life passionately pursuing your dreams and re-writing what society is expecting of you is a powerful lesson that Doug embodied. This is a complicated topic because I firmly believe in living according to high standards and morals, but where this fits in is not trying to just go with the flow but instead thinking out of-the-box to solve problems by doing what is right not what is popular. I have seen this play out in my coaching by questioning everything we do as a coaching staff and not accepting the answer ‘We just do that because that is what everyone has always done.’
More great conversation came out of hearing each other’s coaching archetypes, some of whom ranged from William Wallace in Braveheart, to Coach K, to childhood coaches. This is a really cool activity to do with your coaching staff and I would strongly encourage you to ask the other coaches you coach with who their role models are.

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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The 12 Days of Christmas – 12 Truths about Athletes – Part 2 of 4 – The 5 Things Players Want from their Coach

The 80/20 rule for coaching
What we often do:
  • Spend 80% of our time strategizing on the gameplan and creating the next great Sportscenterworthy play on the back of a napkin.
  • Spend 20% of our time planning our practices to build culture, teamwork, and improving the fundamentals of each player on our team.
What the good coaches do:
  • Spend 80%(or more) of their time planning their practices to build culture, teamwork, and improving the fundamentals of each player on our team.
  • Spend 20%(or less) of their time strategizing on the gameplan and are never worried about creating the next great Sportscenterworthy play on the back of a napkin.
This week we look into the 5 things players want from their coach, as shared by John O’Sullivan at the Way of Champions transformational coaching conference. The 5 things are:
  1. Respect & Encouragement
  2. A positive role model
  3. Clear, consistent communication
  4. Knowledge of the sport
  5. Someone who listens
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of spending 80% of our time on things the players don’t really care that much about. Let’s be transformational coaches that are focused on being these 5 things instead of being worried about being seen as an offensive genius or game strategist. It’s what the players want and it’s what they need!
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WYC 101 – Championship Basketball – Kevin Furtado talks Benchmarks, Action Steps, & The Legends Clinic

Kevin was recently hired on at a charter school in Georgia called Lake Oconee Academy. He has been coaching basketball for over 26 years. Kevin grew up in San Jose California and played football, basketball, and baseball growing up. Kevin shares with us how he is creating the culture at Lake Oconee specifically with Benchmarks and Action Steps, as well as how he founded the Legends Clinic coaching conference.

Twitter: @kevinfurtado

Video of Legends Clinic Conference: loatv.org

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Building a New Culture

  1. Built to last
  2. Teach life skills & develop great people
  3. Core values: FIST: Family, Integrity, Serve others, Toughness
  4. Demanding culture
  5. Good never is

5 year Action Plan

See Kevin’s 5 year detailed plan here: Lake Oconee Academy Girls Basketball Action Plan

Year 1 Benchmarks

  1. Every level of our program will know our core values (from elementary school feeder programs through high school)
  2. Win 10-12 games
  3. Establish relentless work ethic

Action Steps

  1. Our players will be taught our core values at every practice and team meeting
  2. We will emphasize total team play in our system with tough team defense and unselfish passing offense.
  3. Every player will be held accountable for their effort at every practice. They use objective chart to track. Tracks: Attendance, Hustle, attitude, who took a charge, etc.
  4. We will perform 4-5 community events every season
  5. We will build our team room in high standards
  6. We will establish our little-dribblers program (kids perform ball-handling program at halftime of games). Great way to bring in more parents to your game too.

Great book reference: Jon Gordon’s The Hardhat

Legends Clinic

Free download of entire clinic: loatv.org

  • Coach Durden – Teaching accountability – He has one rule in his practices: No walking

Parting Advice

  • It’s all about making the kid’s have the best experience possible and growing the kids

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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The 12 Days of Christmas – 12 Truths about Athletes – Part 1 of 4 – 3 Truths about what players want

“I just want to get a jersey with my name on it and be part of the team”
“I am playing on this team to add it to my extracurricular activities for my college application”
“I want to win the state championship and be the MVP of this team to lead us to great accomplishments”
These are 3 responses from 3 different athletes I have talked to in the past year. I asked them the simple question “Why do you want to play on the team?.” Think about how different these answers are. Think about how differently you would interact with each individual knowing their goal. But if you are like me how often do we fall prey to not asking this question and listening to the answer?
As we approach the Christmas season, I want to share with you 12 profound answers to why athletes really play sports, and what they want from their coaches. I’ll break it into 4 weeks leading up to Christmas.

This week I’ll share with you 3 truths about what players want, shared by Coach Ingle Martin, multiple-state champion coach at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee:

  1. They want to contribute
  2. They want to belong
  3. They want to know they have what it takes
That’s it. It’s that simple. I have used these 3 facts as a basis of many of my coaching decisions since hearing Coach Martin share these. I hope they help you as much as they have me.
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The Culture Journey Week #11 – Dorothy, Moses, and Coach Simmons

Meeting #3 with Coaching coach – Dorothy, Moses, and Coach Simmons
Had our third meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the second chapter of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Hermann. This is a fascinating chapter where Joe shares his 3 coaching archetypes he uses as role-models – Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, Moses, and his college lacrosse coach Roy Simmons Jr. We shared as a staff who we each related the most to, and our votes were split between Dorothy and Coach Simmons. Dorothy embodies the ultimate team-player who believes in her teammates and how that belief turns into them each overcoming their own self-doubts. Coach Simmons’ strength is his empathy and self-awareness that allows him to not focus on his own winning or ego but instead focus on the needs of each individual. We ended this discussion by Scott challenging us to come up with our own 3 coaching archetypes and share them with each other at the next meeting. Who would yours be?
We also shared our coaching shields with each other. As a reminder from last week – Scott shared his shield with us and challenged us to create our own, with the 6 sections being:
1. Top left box: Draw an Early Formative Memory in your life (something from your childhood/HS years that had a significant affect on your life)
2. Top Right: Draw a more Recent Formative Memory (could have been 10 years ago or yesterday…an event or set of circumstances that affected your life)
3. Middle Left: Depict your Outside Self (the way you want to be perceived by others)
4. Middle Right: Depict your Inside Self ( those things inside of you that you work to keep away from others)
5. Bottom Left: Draw how athletics has enriched your life
6. Bottom Right: Draw how athletic experience might have harmed you in your life
Powerful and sometimes tearful revelations came from sharing these, really deepening our relationships and opening up follow-up discussions where we can really empathize and get to know each other at deeper levels. Next week we are reading chapter 3 from the book and sharing our 3 coaching archetypes with each other.

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 100 – Personality Science – James Leath & Will Drumright discuss Hot Topics in Sport Psychology from the AASP

The Association for Applied Sport Psychology National meeting was a few weeks ago – so for Episode 100 we invited 2 of our favorite sport psychology guys who attended to share with us some lessons learned.

James Leath has been a WYC guest previously in episodes 61, 50 and 31.  James’ first interview on the show, WYC Episode 31, was a huge hit and is the #1 downloaded episode all-time on the show.

Will Drumright is a sport psychology coach who has worked with Dr. Rob Bell, providing mental skills and performance psychology training to coaches, athletes, and teams.  Will focuses on the high school and middle school athletes.  Will is also a professional Ultimate Frisbee player and coaches the local high school Ultimate Frisbee team.

Both guys now work for IMG Academy, one of the world’s premier training schools for athletes in many different sports.

Sign up for James’ weekly Coach Notes: James Leath weekly Coach Note

Twitter: @jamesleath@wcdrummy15

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Energy Building

  • Rock-Paper-Scissors-Cheerleader – Great activity to start meetings/practices

How has sport psych work evolved over the past year?

  • Looking at the individual not just the athlete
  • A move from strategy and X’s and O’s to focus on developing people
  • Be-Know-Do
  • Personality science vs brain science

More emerging trends

  • Are you teaching your kids about failure? Don’t rob them of what it feels like to not be good enough. A carefree childhood sets up your kids to not know how to deal with failure, a bad coach, or a bad boss.

How about youth coaches?

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Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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WYC 099 – International Tennis Coach – Adam Blicher talks Goal-setting & Mental Toughness

Adam Blicher is an International Award Winning Tennis Coach specialized in Applied Sport Psychology with a Ma. in Sport Psychology from the University of Southern Denmark. During the last 5 years he has travelled to 20+ countries for tennis tournaments ranging from Tennis Europe & ITF Tournaments to Nordic- & European individual & team championships.

Adam uses the demands & stress of Competitive Tennis to help players become strong, resilient people that are able to problem solve in high pressure situations while showing great character. He cares about the results of the players that he works with, but he by any means cares more about who the players are becoming as a persons, as a result of their Tennis journey. Everyday, every competition represents another opportunity for players to grow as a person. Growth in self-control, respect for others, persistence & trustworthiness. No matter how far a player ends up going in the rankings, tennis can be used to strengthen ones character & it is his quest to show the players he works with how & support them in the process.

Website: adamblicher.com

Podcast: The Adam Blicher Show – The Traveling Tennis Coach Podcast

Twitter: @Adamblicher

Facebook: /Adamblichercoaching

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Begin with the end in mind’ – Stephen Covey

My Cringe & A-Ha Moments

  • I talked too much and made players who were dependent instead of teaching them problem-solving and letting them start figuring things out themselves.

Why what I’m doing is different, maybe even controversial

The old well meaning advice from Coaches & Parents saying to players: think positive, play freely, don’t be nervous & just go out there & have fun are all the direct opposite of how I approach the mental aspect of tennis. The natural state of man is not to be worry-less. The key is not to suppress the stress or worry, but rather to acknowledge it and work on enjoying the process of problem-solving and overcoming obstacles.

The 4 Pillars

  1. Technical
  2. Tactical
  3. Physical
  4. Mental

Adam: ‘You should spend equal time developing each area. You usually are more naturally gifted in 1 or 2 of the areas, but you have to practice all four. Coaches, Parents & Players often say that the mental part of tennis is the most important Performance Parameter of the four main pillars. Some even stretch it & say that the Mental Aspect of tennis accounts for 80 percent of performance within Tennis. I think that is absolutely baloney. You can be the mentally toughest player but if you keep shanking your forehand it really doesn’t matter. The reason why I do believe that we tend to think that the Mental Aspect is the most important is because we usually use a lot less time practicing it than the other three performance parameters. It is my quest to demystify the most common myths that are limiting Tennis Players & to provide Coaches, Parents & Players with an easy to follow & understand way of starting to practice their mental strength.’

Goal setting

  • Adam starts with having players answer where they want to be in 5 to 10 years in the sport. He then has them picture the party celebrating reaching this goal. He walks through having them picture what will be said by their parents at a toast at the party. Then picture what others will say – their friends, their officials, their teammates. Did they treat others well? Did they grind through tough times? If they had to travel a lot, did they call back home? Then he has them write the speech down, and they have the ability to change anything they don’t like about what is said about them. Adam then uses this written speech as their coach to hold them accountable to reach their goals. This way it’s not Adam instilling his values, but rather holding them to their own standards.

The mental aspect of tennis:

– Tennis is NOT 80 % mental

How Wawrinka had a panic attack & won the US Open

  • Wawrinka threw up before his match and did not want to play. But what is important is not how you feel but rather what you do.

Rafael Nadal struggles with self-confidence – so will you!

  • The act of self-confidence comes before the feeling. You have to act the part. Adam often creates alter-egos – i.e. Christopher Confident. Then Adam will ask his players – OK, what will Christopher Confident do when in this situation?

The One that got away

  • Adam stated that his pre-match talks used to be too long and give too many instructions. Now he will give 1 or maybe 2 cues at most before a match. And now he asks them after the match to evaluate themselves from 1 to 10 on how they thought they did, and then what would it take to be 1 higher in the next match.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Adam worked with a coach who had an incredible eye for detail on what players need to do to improve.

Favorite coaching book/quote

The Traveling Tennis Coach Podcast

Podcast: The Adam Blicher Show – The Traveling Tennis Coach Podcast

  • Talks to experts within the world of tennis with a track record of producing high-performing players

Christmas Calendar

  • Adam is releasing a calendar in December that has a plan to help work on mental toughness – check it out at adamblicher.com coming December 1st

Parting Advice

  • Start writing down your thoughts and experiences on paper

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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The Culture Journey Week #10 – Telling your story

Week 10 
Team Update
Good conversation with the coaching staff this week. The head coach had met with a few parents who had some questions about the team’s direction. He shared with them our commitment as a staff to drive more ownership and accountability amongst the team members. We discussed as a staff the changes we need to start making to make this happen. We began with discussions around our ‘Hell Week’ which is late January and kicks off our spring season. One really positive part of the discussion was around providing immediate feedback to the effort each athlete is putting forward each day that week. We discussed some evaluation criteria and how we could post results on a daily basis on how each individual is doing. This would include effort, attendance, attitude, teamwork, and other items TBD. A lot more work to do here but definitely starting to head in the right direction.
Meeting #2 with Coaching coach – Telling your story
Had our second meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the first chapter of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Hermann. If you haven’t read this book or heard Joe’s story in this first chapter Joe talks about some unimaginably painful things he endured growing up. The reason he shares this is that he has learned that as a coach that if you are still dealing with your own baggage then inevitably you will dump that on the kids you coach. Scott led us through a great discussion on a time we felt we really impacted a kid we coached in a positive transformational way, and a time we felt we selfishly dealt with a kid in a transactional way. It’s very cool to hear each other’s stories and better understand where we are each coming from.
Scott ended the time by sharing with us his story – displayed visually in 6 section hand-drawn pictures on a shield. I had heard Drew Maddux at Christ Presbyterian Academy discussing having his players share in this format, so it was very cool to see it firsthand. We closed with Scott giving us each a blank cardboard shield and gave us the assignment to draw our own stories which we will share with each other over the next few sessions. We are so blessed to be having this experience as a coaching staff. 

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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4 Gamechangers I’m thankful for in 2016

As we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday in the U.S., I decided to make a list of some coaches who have had a significant impact on me in 2016 whom I am thankful for. This list could include almost everyone I’ve talked to and interviewed this year, so to be scientific I decided to take the top 4 downloaded podcasts I recorded in the first 9 months of 2016.
4 Gamechanging Coaches I am thankful for:
Scott Rosberg – WYC Episode 075
Huge Takeaways:
  • Scott’s discussion around positive conditioning, where the winners get to run instead of using running to punish, has been the hottest topic I’ve covered this year.
  • Creating core covenants and then basing season-end awards around those convenants is another fascinating topic with practical applications from this episode.
  • Learn more at: coachwithcharacter.comproactivecoaching.info
Adam Bradley – WYC Episode 067
Huge Takeaways:
  • Adam is co-founder of one of the biggest gamechanging tools for coaches – Lead ’em Up. The reason this is such a cool product is that it factors in that kids don’t want boring lectures about character development, so this product gamifies the lessons. Adam has taught me a great deal about the importance of team captains and their importance in creating a winning culture on your teams
  • Learn more at: leademup.com
Stuart Armstrong – WYC Episode 068
Huge Takeaways:
  • Stuart’s work around task design and player development in Great Britain is changing the landscape of youth coaching. A huge takeaway from our conversation was his discussion around task design: ‘Task Design is critical – because many people get uncomfortable when they see someone struggling and not being able to get there quite yet- so they either jump in and solve it for them, or they move on. But this never allows the learning to happen. The moment when they are close to figuring it out is actually the sweet spot.’
  • Learn more at: thetalentequation.co.uk
John Doss – WYC Episode 081
Huge Takeaways:
  • John has become a close friend over the last few years, I believe in surrounding yourself with awesome people who are action-takers and risk-takers. John doesn’t just listen to, read, and study anything he can get his hands on to become a better coach – he takes action. John was inspired by one on the WYC guests in 2015, Willie Cromack from Episode 063, to do a service program with his team. They set up their Mission 2 Assist program to benefit a wheelchair lacrosse program and have raised nearly $10,000 to date. It is a genius idea because it kills 2 huge birds with one stone: focusing on assists instead of goals, and building gratitude with the team by focusing on a cause bigger than themselves.
  • Learn more: bblaxassist.com
2016 has been an amazing year, and I am so thankful for all the awesome people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and be inspired by. A special thank you to these four for all they are doing for youth sports
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3 Not-so-secret Secrets about Parents – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 7

One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
As we wrap up this series, here are 3 really good nuggets about relating with parents and being a parent-coach:
  1. Always remember that everything a parent does – is because they love their child.  In return – as a coach you ask the parents to remember that as a coach – you have to worry about all the children in the program (not just their one kid they love.) – Rich Czeslawski
  2. David Klein learned from his Dad: ‘You can please all of  the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.’ Almost without exception every team has 1 or 2 negative parents that you cannot please, don’t try to appease them and do the right things and stick to your guns.
  3. 3 things to say to your child after every game: – Dr. Lindsey Blom
    1. I love you
    2. I love to watch you play
    3. What do you want to eat?
A great resource to use as a coach to enhance your relationships with parents is from my good friend Janis Meredith – a very affordable book called 11 Habits for Happy & Positive Sports Parents. An effective use of these is to buy them for all the parents on your team and go through some key points in your pre-season parent meeting. If you buy 10 or more they are only $4 each.
Teams are not just made of coaches and players, they are a community of people supporting the same cause, so include the parents in your planning! It will enhance the experience for everyone.
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WYC 098 – Multi-Sport Athletes – Daniel ‘The Honeybadger’ Hayes talks Goal-Setting & Positive Visualization

Daniel Hayes is a top ranked middleweight boxing prospect and Trinidad & Tobago’s boxing ambassador.
Growing up Daniel played a wide variety of sports ranging from Soccer, Basketball, Football, Track and Field, Baseball and Swimming. At just 8 years old he started playing basketball and continued playing throughout college. At 16 he was already a certified lifeguard and a highly recruited athlete in multiple sports. In his senior year of high school he was recruited to play basketball for several NCAA Division 1 and 2 schools.
Hayes however decided to attend Thompson Rivers University where he and his childhood best friend were offered athletic scholarships.
Currently on his World Championship journey, Hayes fights out of the world famous Wild Card Boxing Club, home to superstar world champions Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.
Instagram: @ThisIsDHayes
Twitter: @ThisIsDHayes
Facebook: @ThisIsDHayes

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘It’s usually what we’re hesitant or fearful of doing that leads to our biggest strides and growth’

‘The Honey Badger’ – the important difference between hard work and talent

  • Honey badgers are fierce, scrappy animals- that is the type of athlete you should aspire to be

Motivation, self discipline and nutrition

  • Water is huge!

Impactful coach

  • Daniel had a high school basketball coach who benched him because of his attitude – it really changed Daniel’s approach to team sports

Training and skill development – Keeping it fun

  • Setting goals is fun. There is a positive dopamine effect when you cross something off a list. Track progression and check off milestones along the way.
  • Coach K on the 2008 Redeem Team – Reminded his team that in 20 years they are going to look back and deeply miss those competitive situations, so thrive on it in the present.

Developing Self-confidence

  • Visualization is huge
  • Self-mantra and inner monologue – ‘I am going to make this shot’

Developing culture

  • Constant accountability to one another
  • Setting team goals – and rewarding positive team-first behavior
  • High-fives, huddling as a team before a free-throw, anything that pulls the team together during the game should be a priority

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • The Selway Family Foundation – Underprivileged youth scholarships
  • Mentoring – Daniel loves helping younger athletes avoid some of the mistakes he made when growing up

The One that got away

  • Daniel got fouled at the end of a basketball game, and his head was full of negative images and thoughts: ‘If I miss this…’ – and he went on to miss both free throws. He learned the power of positive visualization and staying present and in the moment.

Best borrowed or stolen idea

  • ‘I don’t know if you’re going to win this fight, but I know you’re going to come out of it a better fighter just because of the experience you have gained’ – This was huge for Daniel because it took the pressure off winning and allowed him to just enjoy the competition and do his best.

Favorite coaching or leadership quote/book

  • Ray Lewis Ted talk – Persevering through pain
  • Book: Rafa by Rafael Nadal – talks about how he had faulty mental processing before he beat Roger Federer and how he overcame it

Daniel Hayes

Parting Advice

  • ‘It’s usually what we’re hesitant or fearful of doing that leads to our biggest strides and growth’

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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Culture Journey Week #9

Week 9 – Tourney wrap-up & Meeting #1 with Coaching coach
Tourney wrap-up
Well, not exactly a glowing report from our tourney last weekend, but a lot to be learned as coaches. Our team went 0-3 and ended the last game with a fight. We had moments of playing together as a team and doing things the right way, but many more moments of doing the opposite. As I reflected afterwards the words that kept running through my head were:
‘Anything you see on the field you either taught it or allowed it.’
This team does not have natural leaders and we have to coach accordingly. We cannot just sit back and assume things are going to happen the right way. We need to set standards of how we will play and behave and then hold everyone accountable to those standards. Setting those standards is step 1, then effectively getting buy-in from the team will be step 2. I think we skipped step 1 a bit as a coaching staff this fall and tried to get the kids to come up with the standards, but with the lack of maturity and leaders on this team we need to do a better job of creating the vision for what being on this team means. Excited for the opportunity to do this better in the spring.
Meeting #1 with Coaching coach
On a much more positive note, had a fantastic meeting last night with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. It was the first of an 8 week study on the book Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann. I cannot say enough good things about what Scott and this coalition are doing. He guided us through the introduction of the book where Joe compares what it means to be a transactional coach vs. a transformational coach, and what each of those types of coaches did to impact Joe through his athletic career. The coaching staff was very open and honest and I am so excited to walk through this journey with this group. 
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I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 097 – High School Football – Randy Jackson talks Culture Defeats Strategy

Coach Randy Jackson calls on his 26 years of coaching experience and research to share his ideas on how important culture and leadership are to a successful program, and what he has done to develop that successful culture in his own program.

Twitter: @CoachJacksonTPW

Facebook: Randy Jackson

Book/website: coachrandyjackson.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘All kids need 5 adults in their lives that care about their success- As a coach – be one of those!’

My Cringe & A-Ha Moments

  • Being too intense and impatient with some of the kids
  • ‘Early on I was coaching because I love the game. I still love the game but now focus more on loving the kids.’
  • ‘If you want to be more you have to become more’ – Coach has lost 30 pounds in the last year, as he focused more on taking better care of himself, and improving his mind. Turn off the radio and TV and read books and listen to podcasts.

Teaching Skills

  • ‘All kids need 5 adults in their lives that care about their success- As a coach – be one of those!’
  • Needs need affirmation and positive feedback
  • Teach fundamentals every day, but you have to find ways to fascinate your kids while doing it – make everything competitive
  • Pete Caroll video – Hawk tackling – How rugby tackling is safer and more effective. Company called Atavus – they certify coaches to be rugby tackling specialists.

Culture

  • Core Values – Coach worked with Brian Cain who challenged them to make their core values more prominent – Check out Brian Cain’s podcast: Link
    • 7 core values the kids came up with: Energy & Tempo, Compete, Tough, Family, Appreciation, Discipline, Finish & Payday
    • Each day of the week has a theme that is one of the core values
    • Players had to earn the stickers on their helmets by memorizing the core values
  • Yearly 4-Quarter process
    • Each quarter each player has one  word that is their focus
    • Quarter 1 – Offseason
    • Quarter 2 – Bootcamp
    • Quarter 3 – Spring football – ‘You versus yesterday’
    • Quarter 4 – Summer – Kaizen – ‘Continual improvement’
  • His book on culture: Culture Defeats Strategy – Full of stories and ideas on their core covenants and how they build culture

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Tom Hermann – ‘Finish’ – When they watch practice film – They have a coach hold up a flag so they know when the whistle blew – then they evaluate offensive linemen whether they had 2 hands on a defender or were chasing a defender. If not – it is graded as a loaf.

Favorite coaching book/quote

Parting Advice

  • Stay in a growth mindset – You have to keep learning
  • It’s about the relationships not the plays
  • If you don’t get the culture right nothing else matters
  • Fascinate the kids and build them up
  • Make everything competitive

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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5 Brilliant Ideas to Create Championship Cultures – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 6

“If you want to gauge the culture of a team ask the last guy on the bench how he likes being on this team” – Jim Tressel

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
If you know me at all, you know my passion is around developing great winning cultures on teams. Here are 5 Brilliant ideas to improve the culture of your team:
  1. Ingle Martin, state championship coach at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville – 3 truths about players:
        1 – They want to contribute
        2 – They want to belong
        3 – They want to know they have what it takes
  1. Tim Corbin – National championship coach at Vanderbilt –  Empty your bench in inning changes – Anyone on the bench, between innings, go out and throw/stretch to stay involved.
  2. Asking for commitment: When running team sprints, Jason asks each player to raise his hand when he’s ready to give his absolute best on the next sprint.  Raise your hand when they are committing to their teammates that this will be their best effort.  They don’t run the next sprint until they are all raising their hands. – Jason Hahnstadt
  3. Nate Sanderson – Nate’s team created a culture where they immediately gave high-fives to any player who made a mistake. The power of touch and positive encouragement was emphasized. They created an environment where they weren’t allowed to say ‘my bad.’ They make it a race to see who can be first to give a high five to someone who has made a mistake. Link to 3 minute video showing his team doing this in the state championship game: Youtube Link
  4. Strength Coach Will – Try to not overcoach during games – have your leaders figure it out. It’s not a video game – don’t try to control every action.

Culture eats strategy for lunch. Next week we wrap this series up as we discuss being a parent-coach.

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Culture Journey Week #8

Week 8 – Leading by example – Gameday

It’s been a fun, challenging 8 weeks in our fall practices leading up to our tournament this weekend. But absolutely no regrets and we’re slowly turning the culture around for this team.

Last week I shared what the leadership team came up with for our in-game goals. So this year we practiced applying these goals within everything we do in practice. The biggest highlights were in communication and building a positive environment. A few of the leadership team members really took to heart the importance of calling their teammates by name throughout every drill in practice and this week it really became contagious. I saw juniors and seniors asking freshmen to remind them of their name and then calling them by name throughout practice. We coaches could probably have done some type of game of some reward to have made this happen earlier in the fall, we’ll think through that before the spring. I also saw more fist-bumps and smiling during practice this week than I had at any point previously.

The leadership meeting this week was pretty brief, and the emphasis was us as coaches letting the players know we were handing over the reigns to them. We let them know we were going to rely on them to be our leaders and primary communicators.

There are several things it seems we are repeatedly reminding the kids of during the game, and we asked the leadership team to take over that role and help keep themselves and teammates accountable for:

  • Run the slow break
  • Call out what offense we are running and the players on the bench and field ‘echo’ those calls
  • Communicate on who is onside when running clears
  • Keep the communication on defense high throughout the game

The last and most important thing we discussed was positive energy. We discussed catching each other, and especially the new kids, doing things right. We discussed how yelling ‘You gotta catch that pass’ in any circumstance doesn’t help the other kid. Rather give them a fist bump after setting a great pick or winning a groundball. If you see a new kid doing something wrong, quietly show him the right way to do it on the sideline.

Should be a fun weekend. We are done practicing until the end of January, but next week our coaching staff starts our 8-week training on the book Inside Out Coaching, so I’ll keep these posts coming with updates from that.

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 096 – Free Online Coaching Courses – Kirk Anderson talks Coaching Education at the USTA

Kirk Anderson has been the director of coaching eduction for the USTA for 20 years. He has worked with the USTA and some of the top thought-leaders in the country to create free online courses that can apply to any sports, check them out at CoachYouthTennis.com. In 2003, Anderson received the International Tennis Hall of Fame Educational Merit Award, and he was named Person of the Year by Racquet Sports Industry magazine in 2006 and the Professional Tennis Registry Professional of the Year in 2012.

Website: CoachYouthTennis.com

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’ – Gandhi

1st Set – Intro/Coaching

Coaching your own kids

  • Kirk really wanted his kids to love sports and didn’t push for them to just play the sports he liked
  • Kirk’s son loved racing and when he was 10 years old tanked a match so he could get home to watch the Indy 500. Interesting how different the perspective/priorities of a 10 year-old are.

Cringe moment

  • 4 things kids don’t like about tennis lessons (or any sport):

1 – Standing in line

2 – Shadowing

3 – Being yelled at from across the net

4 – Picking up balls

  • Error detection and correction should not be our focus. Catch them doing things right vs. always pointing out mistakes.

2nd Set – Teaching skills & Mental Peak Performance

CoachYouthTennis.com – 5 years ago the USTA was struggling with getting young kids to want to come out and play. One observation was that tennis was being taught on a full-size court, racket, and balls that are the same ones adults use.

Created 6 free interactive online courses:

1 – Organizing and Supervising youth play

2 – The characteristics of children age 10 and under

3 – Communicating with children age 10 and under

4 – The rules and guidelines

5 – Tennis skill development

6 – Team and group management

Self-confidence

  • The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
    • Performance=Potential minus Interference – Think about how many voices are yelling at the kids during games – coaches, teammates, parents- Even if it is well-intentioned, it is interference.
  • 4 types of athletes:

1 – Highly motivated, high skill

2 – Highly motivated, low skill

3 – Low motivated, high skill

4 – Low motivated, low skill

3rd Set – Developing a winning culture & connecting with kids

Culture

  • Cross-Country coach: No excuses, everyone is accountable, everyone looking for ways to make everyone else better. And the coach jumped in and worked harder than everyone on the team. A lot of tough love but a lot of laughter as well.

Connecting with kids

  • Kirk has had many kids come back and thank him after success in life, kids that he didn’t even realize he had impacted

4th Set – 2-minute drill

Should winning be one of the goals for a youth sports coach, and if so at what age?

  • More important than making winning a goal, create goals around things you can control

The one that got away

  • Kirk coached a girl who came to him and said that the other player was cheating, Kirk said ‘I don’t care, focus on…’. Kirk realizes now that saying he didn’t care was the wrong message to the girl – he did care.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Dave Gleason – He has 4 rules:

1 – Listen to the coach

2 – Give your best effort

3 – Support your teammates

4 – Have fun

Favorite coaching or leadership quote/book

  • Quote: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’ – Gandhi
  • Book: It’s your ship – by D. Michael Abrashoff

Parting advice

Get away from error detection and move towards improvement and acknowledgement

Next

Books, coaching toolbox, presentations

 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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6 GameDay Strategies – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 5

“Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.” – Larry Bird

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
Here are 6 GameDay Strategies:
  1. Pre-game warm-up – ‘How you warm-up is how you play the game.’ They start with high-intensity pass-catch drill. Then 4-corner pivot drill. Fast-paced, 6 or 7 drills. Everything together (take warm-ups off together.) Part of development is players learning how to prepare to win. – Gene Durdin via Kevin Furtado
  2. James Leath: ‘I have one formation and 8 plays (really 4 plays that can go either right or left.) I often yell what play we are running out from the sideline. If I say “Sweep left” half the defensive players think it’s going to their left.’
  3. ‘You need to have a couple of end-of-game lead-protection strategies: we have a four-corner offense with a back-door cut built in; and a sidelines inbound play that is very effective’ – Andres Montana
  4. ‘There is no magic 8-ball with the secrets to winning. Have a simple philosophy and outwork your competition on the fundamentals’– Mark Linden
  5. Terry Francona, World Series champion manager, when asked if he gives a big pump-up speech before games: ‘I rarely say anything. We are prepared to do what we need to and are confident we’ll do it.’
  6. Dave Cisar: ‘I can usually tell within 5 minutes what our competition will be like on gameday. If they are unorganized, doing a bunch of warm-ups that don’t translate to gametime situations like sit-ups on a wet field, or overly hyped and yelling, I tell our assistant coaches to get the back-ups ready because they will be coming in early.’
Be a great gameday coach and take your team to the next level! Next week look into one of my favorite topics – culture and commitment.
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6 Mental Toughness Tips – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 4

“The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing but in rising again after falling” – Vince Lombardi

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
Here are 6 Mental Toughness Best Practices:
  1. “When coaching a kid in a game – if you want to pull them out to teach them something – don’t pull the kid out and put them at the end of the bench.  Pull them out, teach them, then put them immediately back into the game.  That way kids don’t see coming to the bench as a punishment, they see it as an opportunity to learn.” – John Doss
  2. “When you take the time to teach your boys, there’s an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that’s praise in itself” – John Wooden
  3. Ed Sheft – Mental toughness – You have to know you are better than your competitor
  4. Charlie ‘The Spaniard’ Brenneman – “The way I overcome fear and nerves is to know that I have outworked and out-prepared my competition”
  5. Chip Kelly – after tough loss, talked about moving forward not looking back: “We run a forward-looking operation”
  6. “Practice is everything” – Pete Carroll
Teach our kids to be tough by believing in them! Next week we’ll look at some great in-game strategies.
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Culture Journey Week #7

Week 7 – Communication & Goal-Setting for Games
Our plan this week was to focus on communication, but as we are only one week out from our Fall tournament, I decided to tie this into starting to set goals for what to accomplish in games to have a successful tournament. This was probably our best conversation yet, and all of the coaches except the head coach attended and interacted throughout the meeting.

A quick follow-up from last week’s frustration – I did set up a coaches meeting and it felt like the head-coach is seeing some value in what we are trying to accomplish. I really think the deep conversations around this are going to come through the coach training we are doing with the Nashville Coaching Coalition in November and December.
Here are the goals we came up with in this week’s leadership meeting. The nice thing about doing them this week is that we discussed making sure we are focusing on practicing these habits in our practices next week leading up to the tournament.
  1. 50% Face-off wins. Ideally this would be much higher, but last year we hovered around 30% so 50% would be huge. One thing we’ve done much better this year is we brought in a coach who is a face-off specialist and we’ve spent 30+ minutes practicing face-offs in every practice. The cool thing we discussed in the meeting was that this is a 3-man goal, because in lacrosse face-offs are often won by the one of the two wings winning a groundball. Last year we would just track who took the actual face-off and not pay attention to the responsibility of the wings. One thing this conversation did point out was that next week we need to spend more time practicing and teaching the wings the best way to position themselves.
  2. 50% or our goals be with an Assist. Again long-term this number should be higher, but 50% would be a huge step forward for this team. This was another good conversation, as the boys asked would it count if you made a pass then that player makes a good one-on-one move to score. Since the main reason for this goal was to encourage team-play and for the players to realize good offense involves passing and making good choices instead of selfish ‘hero-ball,’ and considering one-on-one dodging in lacrosse is still an important element of the game, we agreed that we would consider a possession where the ball has moved in our offense and then a player gets an opportunity for a good shot, we would consider this assisted. We’ll see how this goes in the tournament and can modify it for the spring.
  3. Zero turnovers on shots on goal where we have no one behind the goal to retain possession. (For those not familiar with lacrosse, it’s different from most sports in that if you take a shot on goal and the ball goes past the goal and out-of-bounds, the team with the player closest to where the ball goes out of bounds retains possession.) Last year we gave up too many possessions where we either had players out of position or a player rushed a shot early in the possession before we could set up a player behind the goal.
  4. We have an offensive slow-break play which we are supposed to run every time down the field that is not a fast-break. It requires all the players focus and remembering to run it, and we were horrible at having everyone execute it last year. So we set a stretch goal of running the play at least 6 times per game.
  5. 90% successful clears with Zero offsides penalties. This is mostly a matter of focus and awareness, but considering you are have a 4 vs. 3 number advantage on clears, you should successfully execute most of them.
  6. Zero dumb penalties. This was another interesting conversation. We discussed that penalties arising from aggressive plays by playing physically on defense and going hard after groundballs, while no penalty is ideal, we could live with a few of them per game. What we can not live with are retaliation penalties where a player is just frustrated and takes a cheap shot at the opposition. We left it with the coaches having discretion as to what a dumb penalty was.
  7. Communication after first couple possessions. Just like in basketball, communication on defense in lacrosse is imperative. It also is a sign of discipline and is very intimidating to the offense if you have 7 defensive players all loudly communicating their responsibilities. What we observed last year was our team would do this the first few possessions of each half and then it would wain. This is a little tough to quantify and track, but we agreed this would be a top goal. The coaching staff then challenged the non defense players that they could affect this as well even though they don’t play defense. All of the leadership team needs to set the example of the importance of communication in everything we do. Call each player by name when calling for the ball, address the coaches by their full name (not ‘Hey Coach’), and make sure they know the name of all of the new players and call them by name during practice.
I am going to create a tracking sheet that will simplify me tracking these goals during the games, which will also serve the dual-purpose of keeping me occupied because one of my personal goals for this season is say much less during the games and let them figure things out on their own. Should be interesting!

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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Culture Journey Week #6

Week 6 – Head coach buy-in

No leadership meeting this week as we got rained out. But there was still a lot going on. A few updates:

Head coach buy-in
Last week we finished the week with our leadership meeting coming up with consequences for missing practices. I wasn’t overly satisfied with the solutions we came up with, but did feel like it was a start and a move in the right direction. I passed them on to the head coach at the beginning of our first practice this week and asked for his thoughts. They were not positive to say the least. Without mincing his words, he felt that it didn’t fix the problem at all so we weren’t going to do it. This opened my eyes to the fact that the head coach and I weren’t on the same page with what we were trying to get done. I had a feeling this was the case, but this verified it. I consulted with several of the members of the culture mastermind I am part of, and it is apparent I need to set up a time to grab a coffee with the coach and get back on the same page. It has been a little awkward with me doing the leadership activities without much involvement from him, so this is a good time to make sure he understands I am not trying to undermine his authority and I have no desire to take over coaching this team. I’ll share next week how this meeting goes.

On a more positive note – I am continuing to challenge the players to communicate better by calling other players by names and the leadership team is picking up on this and doing the same. There is definitely a more positive vibe starting to happen in our practices. I also complimented one of the players who often can be a little tougher to coach at the end of practice on Wednesday because he had a great practice and was really focused and showed great effort – and the head coach thought I was being sarcastic and said ‘Really?’ – and when he realized I was being serious he went and gave that player a high five. Positive end to our week.

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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9 Tips to have Great Practices – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 3

“Practice is everything” – Pete Carroll

One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
Here are 9 Tips coaches have shared with me on Having Great Practices
  1. Use Mini-games – it’s all about the # of touches
  2. Everything in short bursts – John Wooden would talk in 20 second bursts
  3. Rick Pitino – ‘As I go through practice, I try to make corrections in 7 seconds or less.’ There needs to be a rhythm and pace to your practice. For youth- maybe this needs to be 20 seconds.
  4. Learned from Dave Cisar: Conducting everything at a much faster pace. Teach against air and instead of running a play every 2 or 3 minutes, run 4 plays per minute
  5. Design your practice in 4 quarters – and the energy level builds up throughout the practice
  6. Kids will lose focus as the practice goes on – so when you need their full attention teaching them something – do it early in the practice
  7. Passion and energy as a coach – including sensing when the team just needs a break or some fun – sometimes just play some loud music and have some fun
  8. ‘Short lines, lots of repetitions, learning fundamentals’ – In baseball – Instead of having one coach hitting to the infield – have two coaches hit to each side of the infield and players run to the next line
  9. Bill Bellichick – Put 6 hours of preparation into a 1 hour practice
Be organized and have a great system! Next week we’ll look at some great ways to build mental toughness.
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Culture Journey Week #5

Week 5 – Leadership Meeting Part 2 of 4 – Commitment & Accountability

This week we had our 3rd leadership meeting with the players. As a reminder, in our first meeting we brainstormed about what our goals were for this team, and then decided to break down the next 4 meetings into diving into some actionable improvements as follows:
1 – Excellence in Practice
2 – Commitment & Accountability
3 – Communication
4 – Keep eye on the prize: Team>Individual

Commitment & Accountability
This week we had a shorter meeting, which we spent diving a little deeper into last week’s discussion around players’ commitment. Specifically around practice attendance and being involved in our two fall fundraisers.

  • Practice attendance: We decided it was too cumbersome to track each player’s attendance for allowing them to participate in our Thursday scrimmages. After brainstorming, the boys really thought having to run additional laps at the end of the practice was the best incentive to not miss practice. We did also discuss that many of the players have jobs, tutoring, or other commitments that were also important and would be excused absences. So the consensus was that if a player was going to miss practice they had to send an email or text to one of the 4 coaches ahead of time for it to be excused. If they do not, they will run 2 sprints at the end of practice. I’m not a huge fan of using exercise as a punishment so I don’t totally love this solution, but we are going to try it for the remaining 3 weeks of our fall session. I welcome any feedback or suggestions for a better way to do this in the spring. Ideally, practice attendance should not be optional and peer pressure and playing time should eliminate this being an issue. But we’re not there yet, so we’ll see how this band-aid goes.
  • Fall fundraisers: This was a good discussion. The expectation is that every athlete attends both of our fundraisers, the only exception being several of our seniors are taking the ACT on one of the dates. We agreed that we are going to hold everyone else accountable for 100% participation and attendance and not really give anyone the option of not being there.

There still has not been a natural leader step up in this group. It’s an interesting challenge because the most talented players are not natural leaders, but instead several of the slightly-less talented players are starting to step up and become more vocal. I really look forward to the coach training we are going to do as a staff in November and December and discussing how we can use a program like Lead’EmUp to train our captains for the spring. Choosing the captains will be an interesting process because of the lack of selflessness and team-first attitude our best players struggle with.
I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 095 – From Spanish Teacher to MMA Fighter – Charlie ‘The Spaniard’ Brenneman

In 2007, Charlie Brenneman left the comfort of his hometown and full-time job as a Spanish teacher to pursue a career in mixed martial arts.

What started out as a dream soon turned into reality. Charlie fought at every level of the industry, including an 11-fight UFC career. After upsetting #6 ranked Rick Story in 2011, his life changed as he skyrocketed into the world rankings and went head-to-head with the best fighters in the world, such as UFC Champion Johny Hendricks and current top-ranked light heavyweight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.

The key ingredient in his climb to the top – HARD WORK.

Website: charlie-brenneman.com

Twitter: @SpaniardMMA

Facebook: /SpaniardMMA

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit’

What types of goals did you set when you set out on this course to fight in the MMA?

  • The goal is not the be-all-end-all. It’s the experience, knowledge, the process that you gained in the pursuit of the goal. Process vs. outcome

Your book is titled ‘Driven’ – what does it mean to be driven?

  • Charlie spent a whole bunch of time on the road driving around to be around the best trainers. So the title ‘Driven’ is a double-meaning of being driven and motivated while at the same time spending a bunch of time on the road driving to his training.

Self-confidence

  • Preparation = Self-confidence
  • Preparation trumps self-doubt

Mistake-recovery-routines

  • Don’t pretend something bad didn’t happen. But set a timeframe to allow yourself to feel sorry for yourself, then move on. This timeframe could be 3 seconds, it could be 7 days (in the case of Charlie after a tough MMA loss.)

‘Get serious about having fun’

  • It’s all about perspective – don’t lose perspective that playing sports should be fun

‘A fighter’s mindset’ Podcast:

  • ‘How you do one thing is how you do everything’ – Mike Tyson quoting Cus D’Amato
  • In everything Charlie does, he prepares for it as he would a fight: with discipline, with self-confidence, extreme preparation, resilience, perseverance

What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

His Dad: Humility: ‘Don’t go around telling others how good you are, let them tell you’

Favorite success or leadership quote? Favorite success or leadership book?

  • Quote: ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit’
  • Book: Extreme Ownership – Navy Seal author Jocko Willink

Parting Advice

  • ‘Be the change you want to see’

Charlie-Brenneman.com

  • Podcasts, book, blog, daily reading videos, and much more!

Website: charlie-brenneman.com

Twitter: @SpaniardMMA

Facebook: /SpaniardMMA

 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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WYC 094 – State Championship Basketball – Nate Sanderson talks Mistake Recovery & Mental Toughness

Nate Sanderson is the head girls basketball coach of Springville High School in Iowa. He has been coaching girls basketball for 15+ years and has turned around programs that were struggling and most recently was state runner-up in 2015 and state champions in 2016. He also is a speaker with Break Through Basketball.

Twitter: @SpringvilleGBB

Facebook: /SpringvilleGBB

Youtube: youtube.com/user/springvillegirlsbb

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.’ – Galatians

My Cringe & A-Ha Moments

  • 3 things they do better now then they used to:
    1. They are much more intentional about building relationships on and off the floor
    2. They work hard to create a culture of appreciation, where they recognize the strengths and contributions of every player on the team
    3. Utilizing Brian McCormack’s Game-based skill development. Creating games in practices that simulate game-like scenarios

Teaching Skills

  • 5 on 5 dribbling skills with pressure
  • 4 corner passing game. They stair step the level of defense, starting with less defenders then work their way up adding more defenders.

Culture & Mental Toughness

  • Nate’s team created a culture where they immediately gave high-fives to any player who made a mistake. The power of touch and positive encouragement was emphasized. They created an environment where they weren’t allowed to say ‘my bad.’ They make it a race to see who can be first to give a high five to someone who has made a mistake. Link to 3 minute video showing his team doing this in the state championship game: Youtube Link

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Nate had a girl who was a rising senior and hadn’t played that much. A new girl moved in in the summer, and instead of viewing her as the competition and isolating her, she embraced the role of mentoring the newer player. Unbelievable example of selflessness.

The One that got away

  • In the previous year championship game, the game was tied with 10 seconds left. They had not practiced this situation, so there was a little confusion about how to defend it.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.’ – Galatians
  • Quote: ‘Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care’

Break Through Basketball

Parting Advice

  • You are not coaching for kids to play varsity or college basketball. You are coaching for them to have a great experience this year playing the game.

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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7 Character Development Lessons – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 2

“You don’t handle people, you work with people” -John Wooden, when asked how he was going to handle one of his players

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is: ‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?
7 Character Development Lessons:

  1. You’re not developing an athlete, you’re developing a person
  2. It’s not about you being a great coach, it’s about you knowing and developing young men and women
  3. ‘It’s not what you get from playing, it’s who you become because you play’ – Character development is the key in coaching.
  4. Make whoever you are talking to feel like the most important person in the room
  5. Talk TO/WITH your players, not AT them
  6. Ken Stuursma shared a story with me about a conversation with an old-time cowboy, Lou Skeridan – who taught him that kids come to you with their hearts wide open, and you have 2 choices:
    1. You can build into it and make their heart bigger, or
    2. You can crush that and make their hearts smaller
  7. Robert Murphy shared a story about Coach Mike Denney – He taught Robert the importance of character and creating a family environment. He lived it too – he recruited Robert out of high school, and Robert chose to go to his rival – and yet every time he saw him he always came over and shook his hand and said hi.

Love ’em up! Next week we’ll share great ideas on practice formats.

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Culture Journey Week #4

Leadership Meeting Part 1 of 4 – Excellence in Practice

This week we had our 2nd leadership meeting with the players. As a reminder, in our first meeting we brainstormed about what our goals were for this team, and then decided to break down the next 4 meetings into diving into some actionable improvements as follows:
1 – Excellence in Practice
2 – Commitment & Accountability
3 – Communication
4 – Keep eye on the prize: Team>Individual

Excellence in practice
We went through our practice schedule from start to finish and came up with the following improvements to implement immediately. The head coach joined us for this session, but let me lead the session and let the players do 98% of the talking. Here’s what we came up with:

  • Communication: I asked the players if any of them knew all of the other players names, particularly the new kids. None of them did. They agreed to make an effort to learn every players name, and equally important to start calling each other by name as they communicate. This included the coaches. Instead of ‘Hey Coach,…’ they committed to ‘Hey Coach Craig,…’ They also committed to try to call one of the new kids by name each practice and tell them they are glad they are here.
  • Not cutting corners: We start each practice by jogging 4 laps around the field. There are varying speeds with the athletes, and I asked if we should run this together or continue to run in small groups based on speed. This was a really interesting discussion, but they agreed there was a social aspect to hanging out with their buddies and didn’t find it important for practices to run as a group. They did agree that for pre-game runs they should do it together, just not for practice. The one area they did agree was to stop cutting the corners on the runs. If the lines weren’t obvious, they asked for 4 cones for the fastest runner to lay out the first time he goes around the field.
  • Organize the ball-hunt: In lacrosse there are usually several times in each practice where you send the team out to go look for stray and lost balls. Two improvements they came up with: 1 – If you make a wild pass or shot, regardless of the drill, you should immediately chase your own. 2 – They came up with a system to organize how the balls are retrieved instead of chaotically throwing them back towards the middle.
  • Positive energy – We discussed the importance of having fun while working hard. I asked if they wanted to end practices having a couple players share something good they saw someone else do in practice. There were a few who expressed concerns of ‘sappy’ or ‘cheesy’ to this, but they all talked and agreed it was worth a try.
  • Practice attendance – Since it’s an optional fall session, we agreed that there were excusable reasons for missing practices. But random inconsistency was agreed upon as not being acceptable. Several players suggested punishments for kids who miss such as running laps. i threw out there the idea of instead of punishing unexcused absences, instead creating a reward for players who didn’t miss practices. We came up: Players who have no unexcused absences that week get to participate in a scrimmage that will be the last 45 minutes of our last practice of the week. Players who have an unexcused absence will do other drills during that time. An unexcused absence was defined as any absence where the player has not emailed our head coach ahead of time explaining why he would miss practice.

It was fun to watch the team during our next practice implement some of these new procedures. Particularly calling other players by name. Of course being high-schoolers they over-emphasizes this sarcastically, but it still added a fun element to the practice. There is slowly starting to be a more fun, positive culture. It’s amazing how just talking about everything is starting to have a positive effect on the team. Next week we’ll talk more about commitment and accountability.


I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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6 Tips To Be A Better Teacher – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 1

“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” -Ara Parasheghian

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is: ‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?
Check out these 6 tips to become a better teacher:

  1. It all starts with being organized and prepared
  2. Keep things simple
    • Keep things simple and only run a few plays and then practice them over and over again until you have perfected them. The details are important. RUN LESS PLAYS!
    • Be great at 1 or 2 things vs. being good at 6 to 8.
    • Having a very simple playbook – and letting the kids name the plays so they can remember them
  3. Whatever level you are coaching at – get to know the coaches at the next level, and ask them about expectations for new players – then implement some of these standards and let the kids know you are doing it to prepare them for the next level
  4. When teaching skills – break everything into 3 steps. Using this you can see progress every practice, not just at the end of the year:
    • Practice walking through it. You can do this without even including a ball at first.
    • Practice with slight opposition
    • Practice in game-type setting
  5. Talk softly around kids – Instead of yelling so the kids can hear you – train them to listen by talking softly
  6. Showing is much more effective than telling – use video recording of the athletes on an iPad or phone so they can see the corrections you are making (in their mind they almost always think they are doing it correctly already)

Teach ’em up! Next week we’ll look at lessons learned on character development.

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New Series – Best Stolen Ideas

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts” – John Wooden

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’


This week we launch a new 7-part series that will share 40 responses I’ve received to that question during the first 91 WYC interviews. We’ll break the series up as follows:
1 – Teaching & Coaching Styles
2 – Developing character
3 – Practice format
4 – Mental Toughness & Learning from mistakes
5 – Game Strategies
6 – Culture & Commitment
7 – Parent coaching

4 of the answers to this question actually directly addressed upping your coaching skills by learning from others:

  • From Coach K – Go learn everything you can, but then make it your own. ‘You’re going to write your own story, make sure you use your own pen.’ – Paul Niggebrugge
  • Everybody steals most of their ideas, the key is to make it your own and individualize everything based on the needs of the team/person – Corey Bridges
  • Go to other teams/coaches’ practices! At every level. – Lee Miller
  • Alan Stein: When watching someone else do a drill that you are going to implement- Ask:
    1. Why are you doing it?
    2. How are you doing it?
    3. What is the end result supposed to be?

Think about the learning curve we are getting by picking the brains of the mentors of 91 of the best youth coaches! Get your notebooks out and we’ll dive deep next week!

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Culture Journey Week #3

Week 3 – Player Honesty – “I hate being on this team”

No meeting with the leadership group this week, our next one is scheduled for next Tuesday, where we’ll analyze everything that happens from start to finish in practice and come up with actionable plans for improvement.

I did have an interesting conversation with a player after practice yesterday. He came up to me and I said “I hate being part of this team. I sometimes hope I get hurt so I won’t have to come to practice and see these guys.”

Wow. Heavy stuff. This player is an upperclassman and has been around this group for several years. I dug in and tried to focus more on listening than providing an immediate solution. I would say I did a pretty good job of listening 80% of the time and talking 20% (something that doesn’t come naturally to me, just ask my wife.)

I asked him, without pointing out specific players, if he could identify what makes him hate being part of this team. While talking through several different things, it seemed to keep coming back to selfishness by some of the team’s players, and nothing being done about it. He did not feel like the players on this team cared for each other and there was no excitement for building relationships and working towards a common goal.

I let him know that we, as a coaching staff, acknowledged there was a lack of chemistry with this group, and specifically that is why we established my role as a culture coach. We discussed that this culture will not be changed overnight, and I reminded him what I shared at the first leadership meeting, that as a leader you have to be willing to do what it takes to change the culture, even with the knowledge that it might not be completely fixed before he graduates. Great culture isn’t built overnight and it will be a slow process working to turn things around.

He honestly shared that the selfish behaviors he observes makes him fall into the same trap and want to play for himself too. I challenged him here to be part of the change he wants to see. I told him that if a few of the leaders and the whole coaching staff starts building positive energy and rewarding the right types of behavior, it will slowly start turning the tide. I told him he took a great first step by telling me what he was feeling, as burying these types of feelings and keeping them inside will eat you up.

Tough conversation, and a pretty big smack in the face as a coaching staff to have someone tell you they hate playing for the team you coach. But as I have shared previously, it was not totally surprising. The culture on this team has a long, long way to go. But admitting you have a problem and getting past denial is step 1 – so we are going to get there!

Thanks for following this journey with me, it will be life-changing for everyone involved!


I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first mastermind meeting, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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WYC 093 – Strongman Competitions to Youth Lacrosse and College Rowing – Will Ruth talks Connecting the Dots

Will Ruth is the JV Coach for the Bellingham Warriors HS Club Lacrosse team and the strength coach for the Western Men’s Club Rowing team. He is an NCSA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) as well as USA-Weightlifting Level 1 Sports Performance Coach and US-Lacrosse Level 2. In 2015, he became a Rowperfect UK author with his step-by-step manual for strength training for rowing, Rowing Stronger. He also is a Strongman competitor.

Website: strengthcoachwill.com

Ebook: Rowing Stronger

Facebook: /strengthcoachwill

Twitter: @willruth335

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Create the highest possible operating standards, develop the character of your players, and develop the culture of your team, and as the title of Walsh’s book says ‘The score takes care of itself” – James Kerr in Legacy

Connecting the Dots

My Cringe Moments

  • Learning boundaries with athletes – Understand and listen first
  • Devolved leadership, from James Kerr’s Legacy – since Will is coaching kids that are not that much younger than he is – he works hard to give them ownership

Teaching Skills

  • Whole-part system – Break a complex skill down into smaller parts you can focus on
  • Incorporate important skills into every drill – for lacrosse ground balls: include ground balls in shooting drills and every other drill you do
  • Be mindful of your Criticism to Positive ratio – Shoot for at least 5
  • Tharp/Galllimore study of John Wooden in practice: PDF

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • Focus on effort rather than outcome. You want them to play aggressive and learn from mistakes, not be afraid to make them
  • Will coached a kid who was moved to varsity as a freshmen and it stressed him out, so they moved him back to JV – so Will’s job was to get him back to loving lacrosse and not being stressed by it. One way Will did this was using a physical routine – of actually brushing off his shoulders after a mistake (mental reset routine)
  • Use the bench as a teaching tool not a punishment

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • It starts with developing leaders and captains
  • Try to not overcoach during games – have your leaders figure it out. It’s not a video game – don’t try to control every action.

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Will tries to bring up each kid to a higher level

The One that got away

  • Will lives the philosophy of looking forwards not backwards

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Devolved leadership from James Kerr in Legacy
  • Thirds system of practice planning – 1st 3rd is stick skills, 2nd 3rd is small-sided games, 3rd 3rd is more full games

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘Create the highest possible operating standards, develop the character of your players, and develop the culture of your team, and as the title of Walsh’s book says ‘The score takes care of itself” – James Kerr in Legacy
  • Lacrosse podcast: insidelacrosse.com/tag/Podcasts

Strength Coach Will

Parting Advice

  • Make sure it’s still fun. Remember what it was like to play at that age, and what did you like doing in practices?

– 

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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WYC 092 – Winning Championships through Superior Culture – Maureen Monte talks reaching Destination Unstoppable

Maureen Monte builds winning teams by harnessing the untapped talent in the locker room or the conference room and aligning it with success. Her approach has been honed with over ten years of experience in large companies, tech startups, and sports teams – from San Francisco to Singapore. She believes there are three universal truths about teams:

  1. All teams struggle
  2. There is untapped talent on every team
  3. Most teams haven’t defined what success looks like

She has authored a book Destination Unstoppable – about helping a hockey team win the state championship. It is more than a sports success story. It is a team success story – and the world runs on teams.

Website: www.maurennmonte.com

Facebook: Link

Twitter: @maureenemonte

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

”We win games because we have great team chemistry” – Mark Dantonio, Michigan State football coach

Building Winning Teams

  • Maureen has worked with IBM on building successful teams. She has studied the Clifton Strengthfinder to understand how each individual is gifted and can contribute to the team’s success.

How did the opportunity to work with the Cranbrook Varsity Hockey Team come about?

  • It was a talented team but struggling
  • She started at the top to see if the coach was part of the problem. He was not.
  • First step – Define success – Start with the what. Then define the how. Brotherhood, discipline, focus, unselfishness were all areas they identified as lacking. Then she had the players turn to each other and tell them ‘I refuse to let you fail.’
  • Next step – Evaluate the players’ strengths. 18 out of 25 had competition in their top 5 strengths.
  • The key was helping team tap their untapped talent on the team.
  • The coach made heroes in every role. The 3rd string goalie had the strength of harmony. The coach gave him the job of helping resolve conflict between the top 2 goalies.
  • Another back-up player had the strength of being analytical. His new role was to look at the other teams and analyze what was going on. He now added value.

2 keys to turn this team around

  • The coach bought in
  • The kids had a desperate desire to win, so they were willing to try something new

Using the Clifton Strengthfinders tool in a sports environment

  • The boys loved learning what others on the team were thinking
  • In a perfect world – start with the coaches, then the captains, then the whole team
  • The strength finder looks for patterns of excellence. It is 34 different strengths that involves how you think to solve problems, how you execute tasks, how you relate to others, and how you influence. It takes 35 minutes and costs $15 per person to identify your top 5.

Connection between success in business and success in sports

  • Defining success is key
  • Mark Dantonio, Michigan State football coach: ‘We win games because we have great team chemistry’

Biggest surprises about this experience

  • None of the kids afterwards talked about winning the state championship. That moment had come and gone. Being valued by the teammates and coaches, and the unstoppable mindset they had created is what they valued most.
  • One kid’s biggest strength was he was a learner. So he took on the role of making sure if a kid had a runny nose or cold, he would separate the water bottles so the other kids didn’t get sick as well.

What’s your favorite strengths?

  • Ideation – Thinking of new ways of doing things
  • Individualization – Each individual brings something unique

Favorite leadership book and/or quote?

Destination Unstoppable book

  • maurennmonte.com – Get 20% coupon for book
  • Great story, and great resources on how to build a winning culture

Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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Culture Journey Week #2

Week 2 – First Leadership Group meeting – Discussing goals

 

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We just had our first meeting this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

 

Week 2 – First meeting with our leadership group

We had 9 players made up of juniors and seniors volunteer to be in the group.

We ended our last practice of the week 25 minutes early and I met with them along with another one of the assistant coaches. I discussed with the head coach whether or not he should join us, and we agreed that he would not, but rather we would have the group present back to him the summary of what we came up with, a good opportunity for the kids to lead by presenting back to him.

Agenda for meeting:

1 – Discuss the role of being in this leadership group

2 – Review what successful leaders do

3 – Brainstorm on how we will define success for this team

 

1 – Discuss the role of being in this leadership group

I shared 4 keys to leading change, adapted from Stephan Schwartz’s 8 Laws of Social Change:

1 – Share a common goal

2 – Be OK that you may not get credit for any changes made

3 – Be OK that the change may not happen while you are still on this team (it could take years)

4 – Believe that a small group can make big changes

I then asked for their agreement and commitment to these, and they all agreed

 

2 – Review what successful leaders do

I shared that as leaders, the priority is not to fix everybody else, but rather to fix ourselves. I shared the quote ‘Anything you see our team do, we either: 1 – modeled it and did it ourself OR 2 – allowed it.’ So the goal of this group is to figure out how we can model the behaviors we want the team to have.

I again asked for their agreement and commitment, and they all agreed.

 

3 – Brainstorm on how we will define success for this team

I lead a visualization exercise as follows:

“Close your eyes and picture our end-of-season banquet last year. What were you feeling at the banquet? Were you proud of something you accomplished individually? Were you proud of something the team accomplished?”

“Think about that for a second. Now switch gears and look forward to the banquet at the end of the upcoming season. What do you want the team to be celebrating? What do you want to be proud of accomplishing individually and as a leadership group?”

Then I had the group share their thoughts on this by finishing the following sentence: “I will consider this season a success if: ___________”

The responses were interesting, some were very win/loss specific, but there were several that dealt more with culture. Here is a sample of the responses:

  • Have a winning season
  • Beat our rival
  • Finish in the top 3 and win at least one playoff game
  • Have awesome communication – On and off the field, during all elements of practice and games
  • Be committed: Show up to practice; Be on time; Try hard during our conditioning; Work on your game outside of practice
  • Show up to fundraisers
  • Less hero ball & don’t hold the ball more than 5 seconds
  • Have multiple seniors sign scholarships to play lacrosse in college

I shared mine at the end: ‘Have everyone who sees us see both how much fun we have and how excellent we are at what we do, so they want to be a part of it.’

 

Next week’s plan

We have 4 more full weeks left in the fall session, so we are going to break down our definitions of success into 4 categories to create actionable steps and cover 1 category each of the remaining 4 weeks.

1 – Excellence in practice

2 – Commitment & Accountability

2 – Communication

3 – Keep eye on prize – Team>Individual

 

Interesting Observation(s)

There was good participation for the first 15 to 20 minutes, then the conversation definitely started to drift. Probably good to keep our meetings with this age group to no more than 20 minutes to keep their attention span.

 

I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

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Culture Journey Week #1

I am excited to walk this journey with you. The plan is to give weekly updates on my journey in turning around the culture of a program I help coach. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/


The Background (I’ll only include this in this first post)
This is my 2nd year as an assistant coach for a boys high school lacrosse team.
My son is a sophomore on the team.
The head coach was hired and helped start the program 10 years ago. There are 2 other assistant coaches, one played for the program and is currently in his 3rd year of college, the other has been involved with the program right from the beginning.
There are approximately 30 kids on the team, only 5 are seniors, there are a bunch of juniors, only 5 or 6 sophomores, and 5 freshmen who have played for several years and 5 more freshmen/sophomores who are brand new to lacrosse.
Lacrosse is a spring sport that runs from February to May. We also do an optional fall tournament in early November with 8 weeks of practice leading up to it, practices are 3 days a week in the fall and 5 days a week in the spring.
I would rate the culture from last year as a 3 out of 10.
The good: The head coach means well and is very knowledgeable about lacrosse. The biggest malcontent player from last year was a senior and is gone.
The bad: The head coach struggles with ‘the curse of knowledge’ – he is older and has been around lacrosse his whole life, playing in college at the Naval Academy. This background also leads to him being pretty old-school in his style and not placing much of an emphasis on building culture.
Last year this team exhibited all of the ‘Five Dysfunctions of a Team’ by Pat Lencioni:
1 – Lack of trust
2 – Fear of conflict
3 – Lack of commitment
4 – Lack of accountability amongst the team members
5 – Failure to keep an eye on the prize

What’s been done
Over the summer
I approached the head coach in the offseason and let him know I had been to 3 different clinics/conferences over the summer that focused on building culture. I asked if I could take on the role as ‘Culture Coach’ for the team this year. He and the other assistant coaches were very receptive to this and acknowledged last year was one of the worst teams they had been around chemistry-wise.

Coaching staff training
I had the opportunity to meet with the Scott Hearon, the co-founder of a local organization called the Nashville Coaching Coalition. They do coach training to help programs build great culture into their program. 2 weeks after meeting with Scott he contacted me and said they had been given a grant and could train our coaching staff at no cost. This training includes meeting once per week for 8 weeks and we will go through the book Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann. The staff agreed and we are scheduled to do this in November and December.

Leadership/Captain training
I proposed we purchase Adam Bradley’s LeadEmUp program for $329 to train our captains, we are discussing this and hopefully we can do this in the downtime from November to January before our spring season kicks off.

Leading up to the season
I have since attempted to get us together several times to establish some core covenants as a coaching staff before our fall session begins, never got much response or traction with this.

Week 1 – Establishing a PLC (Player Leadership Council)
The head coach asked me for any ideas I had been thinking of to build culture. I proposed we get ownership from some of the leaders of the team. So here’s what we did:
At the end of the last practice of the week, here’s what I communicated to the team:
“Are you guys excited about this team this year?” – An enthusiastic “yes” response from most players.
“Do you think there are things we could do better than we did last year?” – Again an enthusiastic “Yes, many things” from most players.
“Well, do you know whose team this is? It’s not mine. It’s not (assistant coaches). It’s not even (head coach)’s team. This is your team. So we would like to give you guys the opportunity to make decisions about how we do things on this team. From how we practice, what we do in practice, how we do things in games, you name it, we can discuss it. So here’s what we’re going to do – we are going to form a player leadership council. Any junior or senior on the team who is interested in being involved, we will meet weekly during practice to discuss how things are going and how we can do them better. This is totally optional, and it will not replace the role of captains that we will vote on for our spring team. It’s just a chance to step up your involvement and develop some leadership skills. Think about it over the weekend, and if you’re in then let one of the coaches know at the beginning of practice next Tuesday.”

Next week’s plan
The plan is to use a room in the library that is right next to our practice field and have a 45 minute kickoff meeting with the PLC. We will have them brainstorm on what their vision for this team is, and what we can do better from last year. Then we will start the process of going through our practice format and discuss better ways of doing things. For example, starting right at the beginning – we run 4 laps to start practice. The players all run at different paces, and cut all of the corners. Should we run as a team or in position groups or keep doing it as we have been? Should we put cones in the corners and commit to not cutting them?

Question if you have feedback: I am debating whether or not to include the head coach in this meeting. Do we come up with suggestions/improvements and then have the players propose them back to the head coach in a separate forum? I am leaning towards this option because I like the idea of the players getting to develop their leadership, presentation, and selling skills.

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WYC 091 – Youth Baseball – Paul Niggebrugge talks Empowering Kids and Be Your Best Academy

Paul Niggebrugge was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil and moved to the United States when he was about 6 years old, not knowing a bit of English. He fell in love with the game of baseball, and went on to coach Caravel Academy Baseball Team for 30 years, won 4 State Championships and Qualified for the State Tournament 27 out of 30 years. He is 4th all-time in Delaware with 400 wins and in 2016 was inducted into the Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame.  He is currently a Nationally recognized trusted authority in Batting, Pitching and the Mental Game Coaching – Clinician, Evaluator, Educator and Coach providing instruction or information in over 30 states and 2 countries. And maybe the most impressive stat: Paul has been Married for 36 years and raised 6 happy & healthy children!

Website: www.BeyourBestAcademy.com

Facebook: /Be-Your-Best-Academy

Twitter: @BBABaseballDE

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Yell and tell is out. Empowering questions are in.’

Coaching your own kids

  • If you are aware of the pitfalls, it can be a great experience
  • Paul once had a coach who overreacted about issues with his own kid, and he decided it was best to not to continue to have him coach

My Cringe Moments

  • ‘I thought I knew it all’ and that my way was the only

Teaching Skills

  • ‘You can be critical without being negative.’ Whatever you feed grows.
  • Less ‘yell and tell’ and more empowering questions and sharing
  • There is not a right and wrong with their mechanics, it’s just where are you right now in the progression
  • 3 key elements every person is looking for:
    • 1 – Adventure – great experiences
    • 2 – Grow – mentally, physically, socially
    • 3 – Contribute and share what they’ve learned
  • Fun games:
    • 1 kid is at home base, 1 at 2nd  – and they race
    • Throwing/catching games – They start up close with a partner, then keep taking 3 giant steps back, once they drop a ball they’re out – but even after they’re out they can keep throwing (so they’re not standing around)

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • It’s all about empowerment: Focus, Feel, and Feedback (Funergy – Fun positive energy)
  • Kids love the classroom – Get away from the ballfields and ask open ended empowering question: why did we lose, what did you feel, how did you handle pressure
  • PEACE: Performance and Execution After a Critical Error
    • ‘You can’t teach a drowning man to swim while he’s drowning’ –
  • Before every practice and game – they spend 5 to 15 minutes connecting their mind and body – Coach Paul has created some sound waves they listen to with positive affirmations – Link to article about Neuro-training tool

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • No one is above the game.
  • We will not tolerate: SPEND: Sloppiness, Pouting, Excusitis, Non-verbals, or the Disease of Me
  • After our games you should not be able to tell whether we won or lost
  • 3 phrases they use: Game Hugs; Gamechanger; VIP passes(which can get them out of doing something they don’t want to)

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Paul had two different players who you never would have thought would have been able to be good baseball players, but they stuck with it and both ended up having great seasons

The One that got away

  • Paul makes it a practice to immediately evaluate losses, then

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • From Coach K – Go learn everything you can, but then make it your own. ‘You’re going to write your own story, make sure you use your own pen.’

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Book: Emergence– by Derek Rydall – Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens through you
  • Quote: ‘Not making a mistake is a big mistake. As long as you don’t repeat the mistake.’

Be Your Best Academy

Parting Advice

  • Yell and tell is out. Empowering questions are in.

Related Episodes

WYC 080 – Youth Baseball – David Klein talks Living a Legends Life

WYC 045 – Youth Baseball – Mark Linden from BaseballPositive.com talks practice planning and the pace that kids learn

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Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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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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WYC 090 – Overuse Injuries – Drs. Steve Grosserode and Jared Vagy talk Injury Prevention

Dr. Steve Grosserode and Dr. Jared Vagy were collegiate athletes and soccer players. Both suffered injuries that affected their ability to play and led to the pain of lifelong injury. Determined to figure out why injuries happen and how to prevent them lead both to pursue our Doctorates in Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California, the #1 ranked program in the country. It was at USC that they began to understand how to prevent injury. After nine years of study, the singular reason for continued injury became clear; misaligned movement.

Through many years of research and practice, they consolidated there plan into a three step process. The three step system popularized and they began teaching seminars internationally to soccer coaches on how to prevent injury. They soon realized that we needed to spread the word to as many players, coaches and parents as possible. They knew that if they could stop injuries from occurring, they would be able to change the course of a player’s career and life. They now have written ebooks and have an online academy to share what they have learned, much of which we will discuss in this episode.

Website: yourmovementsolutions.com

Link to the ebook from website and a link to the paperback version on Amazon available after Sept 1st:
screen-shot-2016-09-07-at-12-17-10-pm

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.’

Injury Prevention Discussion

  1. How do ACL injuries and other non-contact injuries happen and who is most at risk?
  2. How has sports injury prevention changed over the years? What does the current research show?
  3. Why do these injuries continue to occur in youth sports?
  4. What are the best methods to prevent injuries in youth sports?
  5. How do you make an injury prevention program specific for each individual player?
  6. What can parents and players do to stop injuries?
  7. How can coaches help prevent these injuries?

Lessons learned on these topics

  • Learn what to watch for in athletes – A knee diving in, body leaning off to one side
  • A large majority of non-contact injuries can be avoided – it’s by identifying high-risk athletes – there are 5 specific movements that put athletes at the highest-risk
  • Early sports specialization is a big cause of dramatic increase in ACL injuries
  • Videotaping athletes on the field and then analyzing their movements is a really effective method
  • 3 Step process for coaches

1 – Analyze movement

2 – Provide exercises for homework to change movement

3 – Coaches give cues to athletes when they see

  • Static stretching – Don’t do it before practice/game. 10 minutes of Dynamic stretching before the practice/game is good, then static stretching can be done after the practice/game – or even better is to do static stretching throughout the day. Muscle-Activation exercises with bands before you do the dynamic warm-up is the latest and best method – see more at yourmovementsolutions.com
  • Parents – Add an exercise to your kid’s bedtime or morning routines to strengthen their muscles

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘It’s not ease, but effort; it’s not facility, but difficulty, that makes oneself. There is perhaps nothing in life in which difficulties have not been encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.’
  • Quote: ‘If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.’

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Dr. Chris Powers taught how showing is much more effective than telling – so videotaping an athlete when you see a knee diving in, then showing them how it looks when they do it right, is very effective
  • Dr. Clare Frank – shared ‘the body takes the path of least resistance,’ so make sure you are providing them the right way to do things, even if it’s harder

Your Movement Solutions

yourmovementsolutions.com

Loaded with resources:

  • Articles, pictures, videos, tips, ebook (with free sample)
  • Online training academy for coaches

Related Episodes

WYC 030 Performance Training – Amanda Kephart from Akron General Sports Performance talks getting faster, stronger, and more powerful

WYC 085 – Performance Training – Bryan Schwebke talks Building a Strong Base

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Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winningscreen-shot-2016-09-07-at-12-45-35-pm

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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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 10 – Building a Program without Self-Entitlement

When NFL Pro-Bowler Joe Ehrmann lost his little brother Billy to a tragic fight with cancer, his introspection led to the realization that life is all about 2 things:
  1. Relationships
  2. Working for a cause bigger than yourself
Self-entitlement is a direct result of a focus that is opposite of those 2 values. It is no accident that the first and last components of this 10 part series on building championship culture involve creating a team-first and others-first environment. It is where everything starts and ends.
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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch Part 10 – Case Study – Building a Program Without Self-Entitlement

John Doss is the head coach of Brownsburg Lacrosse, which is a program located in a suburb of Indianapolis. John understands the importance of selflessness in building a championship culture. So he set out to look for a way to build this into his culture, both on and off the field. What his team came up with is brilliant. The best way to describe their Mission 2 Assist program is to share their value statement:

What do we value at Brownsburg Lacrosse?

On the field, we all want to score goals, but what we REALLY VALUE are the plays that lead up to those goals. The unselfish pass to an open teammate. The “hockey assist” pass that leads to that pass. A hard fought ground ball possession. Tenacious defense that leads to a big takeaway. A critical save and quick clear that starts a fast break. That’s what we value on the field.

Off the field we value gratitude and servanthood. We appreciate the fact that we get to play a game we love and know that there are those that are not so fortunate. Because of this, we want to help others that cannot play lacrosse or cannot play lacrosse in the same manner that we do.

Why are we telling you this? Well, we found out that there is a national wheelchair lacrosse league and a local group is raising money to start a team here in Indianapolis. We want to merge our values to help them. This is a group of athletes and competitors just like us and all they want to do is compete, just like we do. 

How did they accomplish this? They tracked the plays they value, these “assists” that led to goals, over the course of their season. Then they got sponsors to reward those “assists”. John describes how they set this up in WYC Podcast Episode 81, check out all of the details here: Link to show notes and episode
They used the walk-a-thon type forms to fundraise – but used assists instead of goals as the pledge criteria. By the end of the season they raised almost $10k for the Wheelchair Lacrosse Organization.

Check out the homepage for The Mission 2 Assist program to see short videos on their program and for a link to a video that describes WLUSA- the Wheelchair Lacrosse Organization: www.bblaxassist.com

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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 9 – Daddy Ball 101

One of the biggest culture killers in youth sports today is Daddy Ball. Should we just eliminate it? Is there a way to have parents coach their own kids and still have a great team culture?

coach-551562_640Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch Part 9 – The Mom/Dad Coach

I was an assistant lacrosse coach for 4 years, helping coach my son’s teams. Then he reached high school. The program he was going into was down a little bit down in attendance, and there only two assistants helping the head coach, and one of them was often working and not at practice. I approached the head coach and offered my services if he wanted another assistant to help in any area, particularly this was a team of 34 players so many of the kids played on the JV team, so I could help work with those kids when he was working with the varsity. (I hate kids standing around and watching.) Then I saw the look. ‘Oh boy, here’s another daddy-ball coach wanting to get in here and get his son all of the favoritism and playing-time.’ I could see the same look on the assistant coaches. Fortunately they expressed their reservations and after sitting down and discussing the expectations and my agreement to not show any favoritism, they were open to bringing me on board. Now I am going into year 2 in this position, and we have agreed to step up my role on the team and I will serve as the Character Coach.
It is possible to coach your own child on a team, and done well can be a wonderful experience, but you need to be aware of the possible negative effects that can creep up. Here are 5 tips that can make it be a positive experience:
  • Talk to your son or daughter about it before you agree to do it. Get their buy-in. Be very clear to your son/daughter that there could be negative comments from other kids and other parents. But also let them know that you are doing this to help every kid on the team and you will not be able to focus on them any more than the other kids.
  • Talk about the elephant in the room to the entire team. Don’t work too hard to treat your own kid as a coach – it’s good to be truthful and authentic in front of the team and treat your own kid from a parenting point of view sometimes.  Don’t be over the top – but kids enjoy and learn from watching you enjoy spending time with your child.
  • It usually works better to have assistant do more of the instructions to your kid. Also utilize your assistants to get an honest assessment of what position/how much your child should be playing. (Sometimes we need help taking off the rose colored glasses!)
  • Turn off the coaching hat. On car ride home – ask your child ‘Anything else you want to ask coach?’ Then go back to being a dad again.
  • The Team Manager can be a conduit to hear concerns/complaints from parents – embrace this! Have a great parent manager who keeps you in the loop of any concerns, and one that has your back and can help squelch 90% of the problems before they ever make their way back to you.
It is important for your child to have a positive sports experience early on – and if that means you need to step up and be coach, step up and do it. Don’t let the fear of the perception of being a daddy-ball coach stop you if you truly are doing it for the right reasons.
Check out the rest of this 10 part series on Culture: Go to blog posts
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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 8 – 2 questions every young athlete needs to be asked

Stephen Covey teaches in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: ‘Seek first to understand, then to be understood.’ To better understand the kids you coach, there are two questions to start with.

The-7-Habits-Of-Highly-Effective-People-Book-Review

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch Part 8 – Seek First To Understand

As coaches, we often jump to analyze, interpret and fix anything that is going wrong in our program. It is in our nature to continuously improve our program. And it should be. But the procedures and processes can distract us from why we are called to coach. If you have followed me for long or listened to my podcasts, you know my favorite quote is Frederick Douglass’
 ‘It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.’
Another quote, attributed to several different coaches, is
‘Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’
The only way we really get to know anyone, including kids, is to ask questions about them and hear their stories. 2 simple but important questions to start with are:
1 – What is your favorite thing about playing this sport and for this team?
2 – What is your least favorite thing?

Then you can start diving deeper. Here are a few tips:

  • Make sure you understand each kid’s expectations – are they on the team to just have fun, to put it on their resume, or to become a D1 college athlete?
  • If a kids loses his temper and explodes during a practice or game – go ahead and discipline him appropriately, but ask some deeper questions about his life outside the sport. Often there are stressors with their home life that are impacting them.
  • My friend Kevin Kennedy uses the phrase ‘Isn’t that interesting’ – Don’t be judgmental when coaching – rather, make observations and analyze why things are happening. Ask questions before judging.
  • I recently met the founder of an interesting company called First Team Reps – They have created a tool that provides feedback to coaches based on anonymous surveys of the players. Some of the questions help the coaches communicate better, such as ‘What plays don’t you understand?’ The cool thing is they end their surveys with the question ‘Are there any stressors outside of football in your life right now?’ They have found that since it is anonymous the kids are very honest and many will pour their heart out.
Tim Elmore writes in his Generation iY book: ‘Great teachers build a relationship so strong that it can bear the weight of truth.’ If kids understand that you have their best interest in mind, they will respond to and listen to coaching and constructive criticism. And more importantly, you will be building stronger children.
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Next week we’ll look into ways to build a championship culture when coaching a team with your own kid on it.
Check out the rest of this 10 part series on Culture: Go to blog posts
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WYC 089 – Performance Training – Former NFL wide receiver Corey Bridges talks training athletes – from NFL quarterbacks to Olympic ping pong players

Corey Bridges is a former NFL wide receiver who played for the Bears, Vikings, and Browns. He also had an outstanding football, track and baseball career at Newnan High School and football  and track star at the University of South Carolina, including many All-SEC honors and the SEC 60 meter sprint champion. He has spent the last 10 years training athletes from the youth to the professional level. Corey founded C4 Performance, Personal and Professional Sports Performance Specialist. C4 specializes in the following: Toning & Sculpting; Flexibility/Stability/Mobility; Body Fat Reduction; Stretching; Injury Preventive Program (FMS); Strength and Conditioning; and Speed Training. He was recently featured in a Sports Illustrated article leading up the the Olympics: si.com/vault/2016/03/29/ping-pong-physicality.

Website: nsta.net

Twitter: @CoreyBridges004@NSTA_ATL

Facebook: /Norcross-Sports-Training-AcademyC4-Performance-trainingfitness

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘If it is to be, it’s up to me’ – Max Bass

Sports Illustrated article – training a ping-pong player for the Olympics

  • Corey trained Timothy Wang, Olympic table tennis player
  • Corey didn’t know much about the sport, so he watched Timothy play and analyzed the movements, then created a workout routine to focus on the critical areas
  • Article: si.com/vault/2016/03/29/ping-pong-physicality

Coaching your own kids

  • Let them play. Keep it fun.

Strength and Conditioning

  • Always think through the purpose of every drill – ask a lot of why’s. Why are we doing this drill? Why are we doing it this way?

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • Give kids the opportunity to see improvement.
  • Take the emphasis off their individual achievement and turn it around to have them want to run through a wall for the team and for you

Culture 

  • Corey was part of a World Bowl Champion team. This team had great culture because:
    • They alternated starting every other game. Took away jealousy.
    • They sometimes had to play both ways because they were short on players
    • Being in a culture outside of their own (they were in Germany) helped them bond
    • Army term: ‘You gotta know who’s got your 6’

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Corey coached who a kid who made some bad decisions and got kicked off his high school team. Corey was patient and just committed to being a great listener with him. After earning his trust, the young man opened up more and more and Corey now is a mentor who has changed the direction of this young man’s life.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Everybody steals most of their ideas, the key is to make it your own and individualize everything based on the needs of the team/person

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • ‘If it is to be, it’s up to me’ – Max Bass, Corey’s high school coach

Norcross Sports Training Academy

  • Gray Institute – Gift Fellows – Corey did 3 year training program that changed his paradigm. Specifically on biomechanics.
  • Check out more at: nsta.net

Parting Advice

  • Don’t make it about you. Make it about the kids.

Related Episodes

WYC 030 Performance Training – Amanda Kephart from Akron General Sports Performance talks getting faster, stronger, and more powerful

WYC 085 – Performance Training – Bryan Schwebke talks Building a Strong Base

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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WYC 088 – Youth Hockey – Glen Mulcahy talks transformational long term development

Glen Mulcahy is a speaker with a down to earth flair who shares his knowledge from a lifetime of involvement in multi-levels of sport. Glen has a degree in Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia, is a contributor to One Million Skates and both an instructor and regional evaluation coordinator for BC Hockey. As a Hockey Canada NCCP instructor/mentor of adult coaches for BC Hockey, Glen has now certified over 2000 coaches in the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association since 2009. He brings a 360 degree view of sports that is unique, from that of a youth athlete, to a coach of various sports for 20+ years and also parent of two children playing both recreational and competitive sports.

His lifetime in sports includes honors while playing various team sports including municipal banners as well as provincial titles in Hockey, Football and Rugby.   His belief in focusing on transformational long term developmental vs. transactional short term immediate results orientated coaching you will find both refreshing and inspiring. Glen is passionate about sharing what he has learned to bring the game back to the kids and lead others to do the same.

Websites: paradigmsports.cachangingthegameproject.com/hire-a-speaker/

Twitter: @IncParadigm

Facebook: /Paradigm-Sports-1653362264912581

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Who you are as a person is far more important than who you are as a basketball player’ – John Wooden

Coaching your own kids

  • Glen was shocked by how early the parents are pushing for competitive games
  • Youth sports: It’s not about banners and wins, it’s about the kids. Teach them to love the game.
  • UPDATE on Travel Sports Math & # of Touches: USA Hockey has been implementing ‘Cross-Ice’ to create more small area games and increase touches

My Cringe Moments

  • Glen put both of his hands on a kid’s shoulders and was talking to him – the kid was laughing . The kid’s parents were watching and thought he was shaking their child and thought the kid was crying. Glen learned that as a coach you are in a fishbowl so be wise with all of your actions.

Teaching Skills

  • The curse of knowledge – sometimes it’s hard for athletes to remember how to go back and teach the most basic skills.
  • If you have many different skill levels – breaking kids into developmental groups can help all the kids stay challenged. Creative names for the groups helps also: Superman group, Batman group, etc.

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • P&R – Patience & Repetitions
  • Glen had a kid who couldn’t understand the concept of offsides, even after 3+ years of coaching.  Glen knew the kid played an NHL video game, so Glen asked the kid to turn the Offsides option on while playing the game. The kid did it, and totally understood the concept going forward.
  • Glen saw another coach berate his 13 year-old son for trying a new type of pass, so Glen focuses on encouraging the kids to be aggressive and that mistakes when trying something new are great.

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • 3 standards his teams have:

1 – Don’t be late

2 – No profanity

3 – Respect each other, your parents, your teammates, your officials, your competitors

  • Rewards – After games the kids go around and compliment something the person next to them did well.
  • MVP – Don’t just give MVP rewards to your leading goal scorers, recognize kids doing the dirty work

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Glen coached a kid whose father passed away at the beginning of their season, very tough season but the young man really connected with the team and with Glen.

The One that got away

  • Seek first to understand. Get to know what makes each kid tick. Glen had a problem whose behavior was really disruptive, and after exploding in a game – they talked in the locker room and Glen found out the kids parents were going through a divorce. Glen made the decision to let him back on the bench – but the referee came over and told him he wasn’t allowed to come back to the bench. Glen regrets he didn’t stick to his guns and went against his own gut.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • ‘When you steal a drill, the first time you have to give credit, after that it’s yours.’
  • Keep things simple, don’t overcomplicate things.
  • You’re not developing an athlete, you’re developing a person

Best Resources

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player’ – John Wooden
  • Book: Peak – by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool – About the 10,000 hour rule. Deliberate practice is more important than 10,000 hours.
  • Book: Legacy – by James Kerr – One of best culture and teamwork books.

Paradigm Sports & Changing the Game Project

  • Glen is a speaker with both Paradigm Sports and Changing the Game Project

Parting Advice

  • Focus on the players more than the game. Ask the kids why they play. Ask what they like and dislike about playing.

Related Episodes

Episode 42 – John O’Sullivan – Changing the Game Project

Episode 39 – Dr. Michael Phillips – Long Term Athlete and Coach Development

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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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 7 – Case Study – How A State Championship School Built A Trust-Based Program

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Coach Wooden often shared that ‘Love is the most powerful four-letter word.’ When building a championship culture, love and trust have to start at the top. Do your players trust that you have their best interests in mind? The answer to that probably comes down to whether you truly do have their best interest in mind. When it comes to loving your players and having them trust you – it has to be real. Do some introspection for your program – here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

  • Do you truly care more about the kids or about winning?
  • Does each kid feel like they are special? This takes a lot of effort, but each kid should feel they are special and have a special role that contributes to the success of the program.
  • Are you distracted by cell phones or thinking about other things while you are coaching at practices or games?
Case Study – One of the most impressive programs I have observed live out this philosophy of loving their players is Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville Tennessee. Drew Maddux and Ingle Martin lead their basketball and football programs, respectively. They specifically have built a program based on Joe Ehrmann’s philosophies. It didn’t happen overnight, they spent two years having weekly studies of Joe’s books with their coaching staffs. They brought in outside mentors/advisors, Randy and Scott Hearon from the Nashville Coaching Coalition, to help guide them through the process and keep them accountable. You could write a book on all of the things they are doing right – but here are 3 that really jumped out at me:
  • ‘To be a man, you have to see a man’ – Coach Martin focuses on developing himself and his coaching staff to be the type of men that the boys should emulate
  • Manhood Mondays – every Monday during the season they have different coaches and players create a shield with 4 parts to share with the team:
    • Tell a childhood story that defined them
    • Tell a recent story that defines them
    • How does the public view them
    • Who their private self is
  • Build a program not a team – If you have Varsity, JV, freshmen – various levels – treat them all as part of one program. Talk to each kid every practice and call them by name. Coach Maddux has a state championship program- but they don’t do cuts. If a kid wants to be in the program, then he is.
CPA is a program that is all-in on loving kids and developing future leaders. It starts at the top and it requires a deep desire for the kids to succeed, not for the coach’s winning record to look good (however the culture they have produced has led to remarkable achievements on the field and court, consistently competing for and winning state championships over the past 5+ years.)
So commit to truly loving the kids you coach. Recently I interviewed Coach Randy Jackson, a successful high school football coach in Texas, and he shared with me:
 ‘A child’s chances of being successful are vastly improved if they know 5 people truly believe in them. As their coach, are you going to be 1 of the 5?’
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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 6 – 5 Tips to Turn the Dreaded Sports Parent into a Beloved One

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The dreaded sports parent. We’ve all experienced them. We’ve all seen viral videos of parents heads almost exploding while watching 6 year olds play t-ball. I was coaching my daughter’s kindergarten soccer team just a few months ago when the police had to be called to separate two fighting moms. We would all like to eliminate these types of culture-killing moments, here are 5 tips on how to turn the dreaded sports parent into a beloved one:
  1. Set the standards. One of my favorite coaching axioms is ‘Anything you see on the field – you either taught it or you allowed it.’ Replace the words ‘on the field’ with the words ‘in the stands.’

    ‘Anything you see in the stands – you either taught it or you allowed it.’  

    When you establish core covenants and set the standards for behavior for your coaches and players, do the same for your parents. This team is not just about the kids, it’s about the coaches, the parents, the community – we’re all in this together.

  2. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Some coaches, especially as you get into middle school and high school levels, like to create a separation from parents and let the kids pass along all the info to the parents. I am a big fan of making the kids take responsibility for communicating to the coaches if they are going to miss practice or have issues with playing time, etc. But to expect the kids to correctly relay the coaches’ messages back to the parents is very unrealistic. Many things will get lost in translation (picture the telephone game.) So bring the parents into the loop. A lack of understanding is one of the main parental frustrations with a coach.
  3. When communicating, establish the parameters. One thing I find a must is the 24 hour rule. This is simply a matter of courtesy, that if a parent has something to discuss, please do not do so for 24 hours before or after a game. This allows cooler heads to prevail. Another parameter to establish up front is if there are any topics that are off-limits. Specifically on that list could be playing time, any other player, or game strategy.
  4. Help the parents become a team – Skip a practice and have a pool party – parents wear nametags so they can all get to know each other.
  5. Stick to your guns – Do not let the fear of a repercussion from a parent affect your coaching decisions. Coach Ray Lokar shared a story with me: He went against his gut – in a game-winning situation – he didn’t let his son (who was his best player) take the shot – he was too worried about the perception from the parents.  When you’re the coach – you need to separate out emotions and do what’s best.
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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 5: O Captain My Captain

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Part 5 – Captains
It’s easy for coaches to be control freaks. I am. It’s very hard for me to give up control of anything. I have trouble giving up control to assistant coaches, so it’s even harder for me to give up control to kids, i.e. captains.
But that is the old me, the one who often would get distracted by winning instead of developing young men. And ironically, the winning actually happens more for teams that have full buy-in. So this has become a huge learning point for me, developing captains that lead the team. Here is the breakdown:
Why are they important?
  • It’s your chance to develop the next generation of leaders! Teach them to be problem solvers, don’t do it all for them.
  • Buy-in. Work with the captains for establishing your team’s standards. Brainstorm with them on how to handle discipline – it starts with them!
  • Ask the captains what they are seeing in the game. Gametime should be minimal instruction – let the captains be your vocal leaders. Janis Meredith from Positive Sports Parenting teaches parents to use the acronym WAIT – Why Am I Talking – this often applies to coaches too. Listen more, talk less.
How do you pick ’em?
Your captains are held to a higher standard. If they are cutting corners when you are running laps then they probably aren’t good candidates to be a good captain.
There a tons of theories on how to pick them: do the coaches pick them, do the players vote, or a combination of these choices (coaches narrow it down to 5 then players vote, or visa versa.) I don’t know if there is an absolute wrong or right, but here’s what I have found works well:
  • Let the kids vote for 3 people
  • Tally the results, then look it over to see if there is a big gap between the totals. That can help you decide if there are 2, 3, or 4 captains.
  • You then pull aside each of them individually and let them know the responsibilities of being a captain. This is your chance as a coach to vet out anybody you have a concern over.
When do you pick em?
Waiting until the season starts is too late for a school team. Ideally at the end of a season, have all the non-seniors (returning players) vote for next year’s captains. That way you can be meeting in the offseason with the captains to plan for next year’s season.
How do I train them?
My friend Adam Bradley has developed a resource that is entirely dedicated to training captains how to lead teams. The cool thing is knows kids have short attention spans so he has made all the lessons in his 8 week character development series into games. It’s an awesome resource, go check it out:
What about non-recurring teams (travel teams, youth sports teams)?
All of the above applies, except for the timing. You probably will want to have several weeks of practice then have the team vote. Since you won’t have the benefit of an offseason to plan with the captains, the coaches will have to establish the standards and get buy in from the captains as early as possible.
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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

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

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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

Related Episodes

Episode 22 – Kevin Furtado – Girls basketball coach

 

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

Interview with 3 J'sWOC screenshot
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

Screen Shot 2016-07-25 at 11.03.45 PM

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!!)

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

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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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 4: Awards – You Improve what you Measure

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One of the easiest places to start when you are establishing a healthy, positive, championship culture is to look at what you are rewarding. In fact, if you and your coaching staff do nothing else but simply start focusing on recognizing and rewarding the right type of behaviors you see in practices and games, the culture of your team will improve dramatically:
  • If your team needs to quit being selfish – then reward the kid who gives the most high-fives during a practice
  • If your team needs to be tougher – then reward the kid who plays to the whistle and dives for the most loose balls
  • If your team needs to work harder – then reward the first kid back from water breaks and who doesn’t cut the corner or short the line when running
6 paradigm-shifting awards you can put in place to have a championship culture:
  1. Year-end Award Banquet – Instead of MVP – reward the MVT – Most Valuable Teammate. Or even better – have 6 awards: Most Improved, one for each of your 4 core covenants, and one for who best exemplified all 4 core covenants. And the same kid can earn multiple awards. Great podcast episode on this: Scott Rosberg (link)
  2. Celebrate a lot!  Kids will work harder when they are having fun! And spend most of your energy ‘Catching them being good.’ If you are focused on teamwork, and one of your big offensive lineman helps a scout team tiny defensive back up after a play and pats him on the butt – stop everything and acknowledge that action and celebrate like crazy!
  3. Levels – Establish levels that require mastering certain skills to move up – then celebrate like crazy when someone advances a level. 2 great podcasts on using this are Melody Shuman (link) and Robert Murphy (link).
  4. Living by numbers
    • Praise progress instead of purely praising results
    • Lee Miller from Elite Hoops Basketball – They have created 15 core drills that can be measured numerically. The focus is on improvement.
    • Quality at Bats – Instead of keeping on-base % or batting average – Keep the stat that rewards the behavior you want – a hard hit ball – Then set your lineup based on the highest Quality-At-Bat %
  5. Daily/practice awards:
    • Hidden victories in a game: taking a charge, diving for loose balls, assists more than goals
    • Leadership award – Who is serving the team? – Trophy passes around each week.
    • ‘Best communicator of the day – talk your actions, especially on defense’
    • Do awards in groups as much as possible – offensive line, etc.
  6. Postgame – spend the time having kids recognize teammates, not talking about all the things you have to fix
Remember, anything you see on the field – you either taught it, or you allowed it. So reward what you want to see!
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Special Insight on Culture – Live from the Way of Champions Transformational Coaching Conference

Interview with 3 J'sWOC screenshot
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.
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:
  • 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.’
  • 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.
  1. Team first – Link to post
  2. Team Cornerstones – Link to post
  3. Positive Environment – Which dog are you feeding? – Link to post
  4. Recognition & Rewards
  5. Captains
  6. Parents
  7. Building Trust
  8. Seek First to Understand
  9. Coaching your own kid
  10. Perspective & Giving Back
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WYC 085 – Performance Training – Bryan Schwebke talks Building a Strong Base

Dr. Bryan Schwebke is the founder of Paramount Performance as well as a performance physical therapist, coach and consultant. Bryan has worked with some of the world’s best athletes as well as many college and youth athletes. He is dedicated to providing athletes and their parents with the guidance, education and tools to safely and efficiently reach their goals.

Website: paramountperformancept.com

Facebook: /ParamountPerformancePT

Twitter: @ParamountPfrmPT & @BryanSchwebke

Youtube: Paramount Performance

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt’

Topics/Questions

  • What is the biggest problem you notice with the athletes you see on a daily basis?
    • Their base isn’t strong enough to support what they are trying to do
  • What do you think is causing this problem?
    • Throwing kids into strenuous environments too early – specifically travel teams
  • What happens if you don’t have a strong base ?
    • Performance is decreased and recovery time from injury is increased
  • How can you fix or build a strong base? How do you know if you don’t have a strong base?
    • You probably don’t. Have them evaluated by a physical therapist and create a gameplay. This could start around 5th grade.
  • What is the Athlete Centered Model and what is your Performance Team?
    • Instead of having 4 or 5 different people coming up with a gameplan for an athlete (physical therapist, nutritionist, skills coach, personal trainer) – have all of them work together to come up with a joint gameplan
  • What are the biggest restrictions to coaches and parents not being able to give their kids a good base.
    • Lack of education and understanding where to invest your time and money as a parent
  • Multi-sport athletes have advantages

Self-confidence & Peak mental performance

  • Visualization can be key to recovering from injury
  • It does NOT mean you are weak if you need to practice and work on the mental side of the game
  • Visualization – free throw shooters who had 60% average
    • Practiced 500 shots per day – improved to 70%
    • Visualized their shot for 20 minutes per day – improved to 83%
    • Practiced 500 shots per day and visualized 20 minutes per day – improved to 85%
  • Website: paramountperformancept.com

Functional warm-ups

  • Make sure it’s applicable to the sport you are playing
  • Needs to activate the muscles
  • A couple good examples:
    • Alan Stein’s basketball warm-up – Link
    • Amanda Kephart’s warm-up description – Link

Outside of practice:

1 – Forget your ego – You probably aren’t an expert in performance training – learn from others

2 – Promote multiple sports

3 – Promote education for parents and athletes on why it’s important

4 – There’s more to being a coach than just practicing – bring in other experts – nutritionists, personal trainers, sports psychologist

Favorite quote

  • Quote: ‘On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt’

Paramount Performance

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WYC 084 – Youth Basketball – Ryan Hohman talks Starting your own Youth Sports Program from scratch

Ryan Hohman has lived in the Pennsbury School District for 29 years and has been working with children since he was ten years old when his mother ran an in home daycare out of his home in the Thornridge section of Levittown. He attended West Chester University and graduated with a degree in education, and after two years of teaching in the city of Philadelphia, Ryan returned to Pennsbury where he has served as a Language Arts teacher and head basketball coach at William Penn Middle School for the past 10 years. Coach Hohman has established a reputation as a dedicated and passionate teacher both in the classroom and on the court. He has established Lady Falcons Elite Hoops to offer the level of basketball instruction that the girls of his beloved community deserve. Coach Hohman lives in the North Park section of Levittown with his wife Brooke and their two daughters Joley and Nola.

Facebook: /LFEHoops

Website: ladyfalconselitehoops.org

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘It’s about we, not about me

If you can’t find the youth sports program you want…start your own!

  • Ryan was frustrated with the lack of attention the leaders of the youth basketball program were giving to the girls side of the program
  • They did a bunch of research on how to start a non-profit, did a Gofundme, and launched program with 250+ girls in the 1st year and going into year 3 they will have 450+ girls!

Coaching your own kids

  • ‘You told me to pass more’ – Ryan was very stubborn when his dad coached him, and one time after scoring 27 points, his dad told him to pass more, so for the next couple games Ryan overreacted and took it to the opposite spectrum
  • Ryan goes with the ‘I love to watch you play’ after coaching his daughters
  • Ryan wants ‘Try-hards’ – kids that give it their all

My Cringe Moments

  • Most of all of Ryan’s cringe moments are sarcastic things he said to refs
  • The second thing was he used to take the results of all the games way too personally

Teaching Skills

  • You have to establish what the core fundamentals are that the level of kids you are coaching need
  • Make skill work fun and turn it into a game
  • With smaller kids it often starts with their feet!
  • Good game: Defensive slide duck-duck-goose: So you play the normal game but have to do defensive slide when running around the circle.
  • Another good game: Jump stop Mr. Fox

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • Biggest thing a coach can do to help his kids: SMILE. Remind them that this is fun
  • Jay Bilas’ book Toughness talks about ‘Next Play’ – you can’t worry about previous plays, bad calls, etc. – you need to focus on the Next Play
  • All you can control is yourself and preparation, so don’t worry about things outside of your control

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • Anytime they refer to people involved in the program they talk about the LFE Family. They constantly hashtag #LFEFamily
  • Establishing mentors within the program – Have the older girls connect with the younger girls
  • The standard is that everyone is going to work hard

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Ryan coached a team that had a really tough situation with a girl who had a serious eating disorder – the team rallied around helping this girl out and it actually brought the team together

The One that got away

  • They have one team that spooks his girls – the best thing he has found is just to be prepared.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Rick Pitino – ‘As I go through practice, I try to make corrections in 7 seconds or less.’ There needs to be a rhythm and pace to your practice. For youth- maybe this needs to be 20 seconds.
  • Tharp Gallimore study of John Wooden’s practice: What a Coach can Teach a Teacher

Favorite coaching book/quote

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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 3: Which dog are you feeding?

Feeding the Positive Dog
I recently have started reading Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus. The entire book is about the power of positive energy, and one of the great analogies he uses is how we have the choice whether to feed the positive dog inside of us or the negative one. The choice is ours. The same is true for the teams we coach. Are we going to create a positive atmosphere where everyone can thrive, or are we going to let energy vampires suck the life out of the program. Here are some great ways to build a positive culture and feed the positive dog:
  • Alan Stein – ‘You get what you bring as a coach’ – If you bring enthusiasm, and model the behavior you are preaching, and expect excellence of yourself – most of the time the players will respond in kind.
  • You have to deep down truly believe in each kid and what they can accomplish – then constantly be pushing them to where you know they can go. ‘When you take the time to teach your boys, there’s an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that’s praise in itself” – Coach John Wooden
  • Positive Conditioning – The winners get to run?!
    • You have to put all your attention/effort into recognizing the kids who are earning the right to run.
    • For poor effort: ‘You guys just lost your chance to become better. You lost your chance to condition.’
    • Learn more on how to do this from Scott Rosberg at Proactive Coaching on his podcast where he discusses this: Podcast link
  • Have kids play free:
    • Don’t pull them immediately after a mistake, if you do they will start to play tight and in fear.
    • ‘Make the right lacrosse play. Make the right decision and we’ll live with the results.’
    • Growth Mindset – we are a team that will: Teach kids that failing is a highly valuable part of the improvement process.  Eliminate pressure on the kids that makes them afraid to make mistakes.  Kids are often getting pressure from family members, parents, grandparents, uncles – so as a coach you have to be intentional to not negatively.
    • Will Cromack: Set goals to try a new move during a game that you have been working on in practice: ‘Who is going to be brave enough to try this new move during the game this week?’
  • Count high fives in a practice. Then try to beat that number in future practices.
  • Echo the coach’s commands – This echoing becomes fun for the kids and gets them all involved, and increases the energy level in the practice.
  • Say ‘Go make a great catch’ instead of ‘don’t drop this pass.’ When communicating instructions from the sideline – be careful not to go 0 for 2 – meaning your communication had: 1- a negative tone, and 2- no instructional value. Yelling ‘play harder’ or ‘catch the ball’ are examples of 0 for 2 communication.
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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 2: Who are we?

Who are we? Establishing Program & Team Cornerstones
10 years ago one of my good friends Byron shared something life-changing in our adult Sunday school class. He shared a family crest he had developed with his family. It was pretty simple artistically speaking, but eternally powerful. His family had brainstormed and created 4 or 5 values that represented ‘Who we are.’ This provided the foundation for making decisions in the future – they just bounced them against their cornerstones. My family has adopted this same philosophy. We have an annual session where we brainstorm about who we are. I’ve attached the latest rendition of what we came up with. We keep it fun and sometimes even silly, so please understand the ‘Dog-botherers’ comment is an inside family joke and we love animals. 🙂
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Now we all know that if you try to focus on 10 or 20 things you will focus on nothing. So we then decide as a group on 4 or 5 of these values that will be our cornerstones.
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The more I talk to great coaches, the more I see this same type of process happening in great programs and teams. It starts with the coaches establishing the cornerstones of the program. But equally important is getting the buy-in from the team, so doing this type of brainstorming session with your team captains every year will establish your identity as a team. Here are some of the great ways I’ve seen this implemented:
  • Andres Montana – Learned from Bruce Brown at Proactive Coaching – Gather the coaches and 3 captains in preseason and define your Core Covenants – who are you going to be that season. Brainstorm by throwing words up on a board, then narrow it down to 2 or 3 that are going to define your team. Then you can order the livestrong-type bracelets that have those words on it. Check out Proactive Coaching’s guide to creating Core Covanants: First Steps to Building Successful Teams
  • Ken Stuursma’s program core covenants – from Raising a modern day knight:
    1. Accept responsibility
    2. Lead courageously
    3. Reject passivity
    4. Expect a greater reward
  • Chris Stricker’s program core covenants: CALI – Commitment, Accountability, Love, Integrity
  • Drew Maddux has Manhood Mondays – every Monday during the season they have different coaches and players create a shield with 4 parts to share with the team
    1. Tell a childhood story that defined them
    2. Tell a recent story that defines them
    3. How does the public view them
    4. Who their private self is
  • Rob Elwood’s team have 2 cornerstones:
    1. Gratitude – We thank our parents, the referees, our coaches, our teammates
    2. Be organized, everything has a place
  • John O’Sullivan – Great teams don’t have rules – great teams have standards.  Rules are meant to be broken – standards are expectations that the team agrees upon and holds each other accountable to.
In his book Inside-out Coaching Joe Ehrmann shares the goal: ‘Be a transformational coach rather than a transactional coach.’ It starts with your cornerstones.
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WYC 083 – Youth Baseball – Troy Silva talks 9 Innings of Hitting

Troy Silva is the author of the #1 bestselling book on Amazon & iTunes for coaching baseball – 9 Innings of Hitting. Troy spends his days coaching baseball at Rijo Athletics in the Seattle area. Troy has spent his life playing and coaching baseball, including being drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1997 and playing 6 years of professional baseball. Troy is married and has 3 beautiful children.

Book: 9 Innings of Hitting

Twitter: @TroyPSilva

Facebook: /Rijo-Athletics-Baseball-Softball-49661522946

Websites: rijoathletics.com ; rijobaseball.tv

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Hitters have to be smart enough to have a  good approach and dumb enough to get in there and hit.’

Pretty swings vs. developing consistent swings in players

  • Swing instruction is different than hitting instruction – you need someone to develop the concept of hitting. It starts with the swing, but that’s just the first step in the process of hitting.

Each individual has different needs

  • Early on while Troy was coaching – he realized that kids weren’t necessarily getting better, they were just looking better. He was trying to teach them all one way to swing, instead of working with each individual’s strengths.

Mental Toughness

  • There is a huge difference between expecting to hit the ball vs. trying to hit the ball
  • Mental approach actually has a physical effect on batspeed

Mental approach – how do you not overthink when at the plate?

  • ‘Hitters have to be smart enough to have a  good approach and dumb enough to get in there and hit.’
  • ‘Free hitters up to be athletic and just get in there and compete’
  • Quiet the mind – it’s ok to be thinking about 1 thing while at bat – just don’t start complicating it by thinking of 5 or 10 different things you need to do

Teaching progression

  • A great start is just to have kids watch their favorite big-leaguer and copy what they are seeing.
  • Start with mechanics. Then it comes down to the individual and what they need to become a productive hitter. Great progression chart in the book 9 Innings of Hitting

Should we teach the ‘oppo first’ approach when setting up our batting practices?

  • You should learn power first and how to swing hard BEFORE learning how to hit to the opposite field

HIT – Honor, Integrity, Truth

  • As a Christian, Troy uses baseball to be a light in a dark world.
  • As a coach your job is to be a mentor and positive influence in these young peoples’ lives.

The One that got away

  • Being drafted as a pitcher was really tough for Troy

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Ed Sheft – Mental toughness – You have to know you are better than your competitor

Favorite coaching/leadership quote/book

  • Personal experience is the best teacher

Rijo Athletics and 9 Innings of Hitting

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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 1: Team First

Casting the vision for what the team is going to accomplish and getting buy-in is critical and what will drive your goals and practices. And the first step in building a winning culture is to create a team first mentality. Here are some best practices to get this done:

  • Ken Stuursma tells his kids every practice: They have to come to practice for somebody else. He states that selfish attitudes are garbage and selfish behavior is the first and most important thing to eliminate.
  • John Doss’ teams have helmet stickers with 3 chain links. In their pre-game talk they link arms and talk about how strong a chain is and how they are there to play for the person on their right and left.
    As a coach – make sure you ALWAYS do what’s best for the players, not what’s best for your win/loss record. Also, as a coach – do you say ‘My team’ or ‘Our team’?
  • Some coaches have only one rule: ‘Don’t let your teammates down.’ This one seems particularly pertinent with regards to Draymond Green’s behavior in the NBA playoffs.
  • Jon Gordon in his book The Energy Bus talks about having to eliminate ‘energy vampires.’ Lee Miller uses the analogy of every player and coach being either a proton or an electron – they are either bringing positive energy or negative energy.
  • Colby Patnode’s teams have 3 rules:
    – Protect the team
    – Protect the brand/game
    – Do your best


One of the hardest things to do as a leader is to get individuals to buy-in to doing something that involves the team’s needs being greater than the individuals. But when you do get this buy-in, that’s when something magical and transformative happens.

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WYC 082 – Youth Football – Greg Robinson talks offseason skill development & iYouthFootball

Greg Robinson has spent 6 years developing a non-contact system to train athletes ages 3 to 11 to catch, throw, and kick footballs. In 2015 he helped launch iYouthFootball to do just that. iYouthFootball is a system that can be brought to any town and can be taught by anyone regardless of their level of football experience. In this episode we discuss this system as well as other secrets to teaching kids skills.

Twitter: @iYouthFootball

Facebook: /iyouthfootball

Website: iyouthfootball.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

iYouthFootball

  • Complete training curriculums for coaches, orgs, and parents to teach fb skills on the field to kids ages 3-11.
  • Great chance to improve skills for a position you don’t get to play on with your team (i.e. a big/tall kid who wants to play quarterback but because of his size always gets put on the line)
  • They offer complete training packages and territory ownership to coaches, parents, and/or organizations
  • Website: iyouthfootball.com

Teaching Skills

  • Set the expectations up front. With the parents and the kids – This is what we are going to be learning, and these are the expectations of how you need to act so that we can achieve these goals.
  • Age-appropriate – Make sure you are making your drills age appropriate – this includes the size of the ball you are using.

Impacting Kids

  • The ultimate satisfaction as a coach is seeing the lightbulb go off when teaching a kid how to improve a skill

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Greg’s high school football coach is in the Pennsylvania hall of fame – and he was a disciplinarian, who kept things simple and would only run a few plays but they would practice them over and over again until they perfected them. The details are important. RUN LESS PLAYS!

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The Experts’ Reading List

The Experts’ Reading List 
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One of the great things about interviewing talented coaches from all over the world is getting to pick their brain on where their mind is being fed. So we’ll take a break from our coaching series this week and I’ll share a great reading list that I’ve compiled from my podcast guests. Then next week we’ll start up a new series on Building a Winning Culture.
I’ve read 12 of these, how many have you read? My challenge to you is to pick 2 or 3 to read in the next 6 months, that is what I’m going to do. I’ve just ordered Pete Carroll’s Win Forever, Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus, and Patrick Lencioni’s The 5 Dsyfunctions of a Team.
I’ve included hyperlinks to all of the books on Amazon, so just click on the name of the book and order it today! Don’t wait or you won’t do it. No excuses.
Also – my friend James Leath published a post with his reading list – check it out for some more great recommendations – Link
  1. Pyramid of Success by Coach John Wooden
  2. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie – the story ‘Father Forgets’ is timeless
  3. The Gold Standard’ by Coach K. – story of bringing together the Dream Team
  4. Raising a Modern Day Knight by Robert Lewis – story of bringing a boy into manhood
  5. Lead for God’s Sake by Todd Gongwer
  6. Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann – ‘Be a transformational coach rather than a transactional coach’
  7. Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx – about Joe Ehrmann
  8. Leading with the Heart by Mike Krzyzewski
  9. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
  10. The Best-Laid Plans of a High School Basketball CEO by Randy Montgomery and Matt Kramer
  11. The River of Doubt by Candice Millard – about Teddy Roosevelt dealing with defeat by challenging himself to a huge audacious goal
  12. Teaching to Change Lives by Dr. Howard Hendricks
  13. How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
  14. The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance by W. Timothy Gallwey
  15. The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone ‘Never cut anything, never dilute greatness, never pull back on your horsepower, and never put a limit on your ambition, drive, and passion. Demand obsession of yourself and all those around you.’
  16. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
  17. What a Coach can teach a teacher by Tharp&Gallimore – Followed John Wooden and analyzes the % of his communication
  18. The Sports Gene by David Epstein
  19. Mindset by Carol Dweck
  20. The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon – Get the energy vampires off the bus and surround yourselves with energy-givers and life-givers
  21. Double goal coach by Jim Thompson of PCA
  22. The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel Siegel
  23. The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
  24. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
  25. Coaching Made Easier: How to Successfully Manage Your Youth Baseball Team—A Step-by-Step Guide to a Rewarding Season by Rod Huff
  26. Coaching Basketball Successfully by Morgan Wootten
  27. Win Forever by Pete Carroll
  28. The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
  29. Positivity by Barbara Frederickson – Great book for self-talk
  30. The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine
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WYC 081 – Building Culture – John Doss talks building a program with awesome culture

John just finished his first year as the the Brownsburg Lacrosse High School Head Coach after 2 years as the 7th/8th grade coach.  John played collegiate lacrosse as a goalie at San Jose State University. He was named a West Coast Lacrosse League (WCLL) All-Star 3 times.  Coach Doss also played 3 years of post-collegiate lacrosse with San Francisco Lacrosse Club and still remains active as a player with DOGS Lacrosse in Indianapolis.

John previously joined us in WYC Episode 52, but I asked him to join us again to share the awesome ways he has built an incredible culture into his program.

Twitter: @laxcoachdoss

Websites: brownsburglacrosse.comindyelitelacrosse.com

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Starting a High School program

  • Communication
    • High school kids don’t check email much – so you might have to text or use a social media group
    • Own it – if the kids aren’t understanding something, that’s on me, not them
  • Everything starts with trust – ‘Build a relationship so strong that it bears the weight of honesty’

Mission 2 Assist

  • How do you have kids value assists as much as goals?
  • John used system described by Willie Cromack in WYC Episode 63:
    • John worked with 3 of the team captains to let them take ownership of it
    • They partnered with an adaptive sports wheelchair lacrosse program
    • They used the walk-a-thon type forms to fundraise – but used assists as the pledge criteria
    • By the end of the season they have raised almost $10k for that organization
    • Link to Go Play Better: GoPlayBetter.com

Culture and pre-game routine

  • They have helmet stickers with 3 chain links. In their pre game they link arms and talk about how strong a chain is and how they are there to play for the person on their right and left
  • The second part of their pre-game routine they share with each other what they are grateful for
  • The final thing they do is visualize, as specifically as possible, the success they are going to have in the game

Post-game talks & the 24 Hour Rule

  • John has converted the 24 hour rule that he uses with parents (parents don’t talk to me about issues for at least 24 hours after a game)- he now uses that same rule to not point out issues to his players immediately after the game. They usually aren’t in the mindset to listen or learn, so he saves it for the next practice.

Communicating with players – the ‘0 for 2’ Rule

  • When communicating instructions from the sideline – be careful not to go 0 for 2 – meaning your communication had a negative tone, and had no instructional value. Yelling ‘play harder’ or ‘catch the ball’ are examples of 0 for 2 communication.

Free Play Saturdays

  • This summer John is telling parents they can drop off their kids from 4 to 6 every Saturday and there will be pick-up games. Their will be 2 or 3 coaches there to make sure everyone is staying safe, but other than they the coaches are staying out of the way and letting the kids figure out teams, resolve arguments, pretty much do everything themselves. This is great not only for developing their skills, but it also teaches them conflict resolution and many other great life skills.

Parting Advice

  • John asked one of his kids: ‘If I told you that if you practiced wall-ball for 25 minutes 3 times per week that I would guarantee you start and play 100% of the time next season, would you do it?’ – The kid answered ‘Yes’, then John asked him ‘Then why aren’t you doing that now?’ John uses this challenge to let kids know that things in life aren’t guaranteed, but if you prepare with the mindset that you are going to outwork your competition, most of the time you are going to have great success

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Achieving Peak Mental Performance – Factor #7: Let ’em struggle

The Growth Mindset – 7 Key Factors to Achieve Peak Mental Performance​​​​​​​
Factor #7 – Creating the mindset of an expert – by letting ’em struggle
One of my favorite movies is My Cousin Vinny (OK I know I’m dating myself a bit.) Vinny struggles in the courtroom because he has no experience. That is until the topic switches to something that he and his foot-stomping ‘my biological clock is ticking’ fiancé are experts in – cars. Then the entire mood shifts. Vinny’s demeanor changes from someone who is overmatched and overwhelmed to a confident and brash attorney.
Athletes can have the same type of overmatched and overwhelmed feeling in a game since they probably aren’t experts at their sport yet. So how can you help switch their mindset so they feel like they are an expert? This is where I rely on experts such as Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code and Carol Dweck in Mindset. Coyle debunks the 10,000 hour rule myth, citing:
‘The real goal: finding ways to constantly reach past the edge of your current ability.
The real lesson of 10K is not about quantity; it’s about quality. It’s about getting the maximum possible gain in the shortest amount of time — and to get that, you don’t focus on the time, but on the gain. You put your focus on improving the practice, which happens two ways: through better methods or increased intensity.
To be clear:
1. Certain kinds of learning — deep, or deliberate practice — are transformative.
2. That transformation is a construction process.
3. That construction process depends on your intensive reaching and repeating in the sweet spot on the edge of your ability.’
– 
Did you catch that: intensive reaching and repeating in the sweet spot on the edge of your ability.’
Building a mentally strong athlete means you have to let them struggle. Not a struggle of despair and stress of trying to accomplish the impossible, but rather a struggle of trying to accomplish a task that is just out of reach of their current ability. And here is where Dweck’s research ties in – the only way they are going to be able to reach that next level is by problem solving. Trial and error. Failures turned into successes.
So to be a master coach – you have to be constantly evaluating where your team and each athlete is at, and figure out how to stretch them into that ‘sweet spot on the edge of their ability.’ Here a few practical ways some of the coaches I have interviewed do this:
  • Construct developmental stages that kids graduate from.
    • Melody Shuman, founder of a martial arts school called Skillz Connect, identifies 7 or 8 skills appropriate for the age. She uses the Goldilocks concept to define these skills – Not too hot, not too cold, but just the right level that is a slight challenge, but attainable. Then she will focus on one of these in each practice. They have a test at the end of the practice, and if they pass they get their ‘stripe’ for that skill.
    • After they have passed the test for each of the skills, they graduate to the next level. Moving up a level is a big recognition and there is a group celebration.
    • Spend the time listening to 2 great podcasts on this subject:
  • Lee Miller from Elite Hoops Basketball calls it ‘Living by numbers’ – They have created 15 core drills that can be measured numerically. They keep track of the results, then they focus on improvement.
  • Fear of failure- Great analogy – Olaniyi Sobomehin, former Saints’ running back and founder of I’mNotYou.com, said his son hates to lose and might quit in the middle of a race. So he used the analogy of how obsessed his son is with Mario Kart to beat a level – when he fails to complete a level – he doesn’t quit, he keeps pushing reset until he eventually will beat the level.  So use this analogy to show your athlete the type of passion you need to accomplish something – quitting is the only way you will fail.
  • Scott Rosberg from Proactive Coaching reinforced that as a coach, be sure to use the words: ‘Look what you’ve become!’ or ‘Look what you were able to figure out’ – instead of taking any credit yourself.
There may be no bigger confidence builder than overcoming an obstacle and solving a problem. So let ’em struggle, then celebrate like crazy when they figure it out.
I hope you have learned as much from this series as I have in doing the research on it. If you missed any of the previous factors check them out here:
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Achieving Peak Mental Performance – Factor #6: Stop Telling Players ‘It’s just a game’

The Growth Mindset – 7 Key Factors to Achieve Peak Mental Performance​​​​​​​
Factor #6 – Why tell your mind ‘This is not important’ – When it really is?!
We’ve established the importance that playing present is a key factor, if not THE key factor in achieving peak mental performance. So of course the million dollar question is- HOW DO YOU PLAY PRESENT? In Factor 4 we talked about effective ways to mentally recover from mistakes, so forgetting about the past is part of it. But what I’ve found is the tougher part to master is not the past, but the future. In any situation where you’re doing something that is important to you – it’s natural for the mind to wonder:
‘What happens if I mess this up and I lose future opportunities to do this thing I love?’ 
One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen coaches and parents do (and I’m sure I’ve done it) is to tell a kid ‘It’s just a game – don’t get stressed or worry about it, it’s just not that important in the big picture.’ That is a lie. If it’s something they’ve been working hard to achieve, then it is important. And realistically – have you ever seen this advice work? Have you ever heard a kid say ‘Oh, OK, thanks coach, you’re right, I don’t care if I win this match, thanks, now I’m relaxed!’ So if it really is important, how do we train our minds to remove the future consequences from our thought process? I’ve asked this question to a lot of really smart people in this field, and here are some actionable steps to help:
  • For pre-game nerves: Don’t deny it or try to squelch it!  Embrace it – be excited that you are having pre-game excitement.  It means that this is important to you.  Your body is responding to make you as sharp as possible by waking up all of these feelings and nerves, and you can tap into that strength. – Coach Kevin Kennedy
  • Lighten the mood:
    • One method is a trigger mechanism – something you have practiced and evaluated what works with each individual – something to get the player to smile.  Maybe it’s slapping your leg.  Maybe it’s a teammate saying ‘Spongebob is ugly’, etc.  – Coach Robert Taylor
    • The Knute Rockne-type speeches by a coach often take the fun out of the game and cause the kids to tighten up – just let them go play and have fun – Coach John Doss
    • Be relaxed as a coach – Avoid phrases like ‘Try harder’ or ‘Run faster’ – these commands often tighten up a player’s muscles and stiffens them instead of loosening them up – Coach Jason Larocque
    • Make sure they know your approval of them is not tied to results but rather effort.  ‘In youth sports you cannot play with a piano on your back’ – Kids can’t play with coaches hounding them about mistakes and taking away their confidence. – Coach/Author Michael Langlois
    • The game/performance is just your showcase to have fun and shows off the hard work you have been putting in – Band Director Cameron Gish
  • Try to get the athlete to see the small picture – don’t get overwhelmed by thinking of the big picture – ask the athlete to think of a small victory they can picture – Coach Stacie Mahoe
  • Change the focus off themselves – It’s not about you – Show up to play for your teammates – Coach Ken Stuursma and Coach Creed Larrucea
The goal is to keep ‘Zooming In.‘ The starting point is a huge picture of all past failures and future consequences. Then, using tools such as the ones listed above, we are helping the athlete narrow that window to a smaller and smaller timeframe, eventually getting into a present mindset. I really like Stacie’s advice above to get the athlete to picture a small victory. Picture this conversation with a softball player worried about a big game:
Player:  I don’t know if I can do this, what if I go 0 for 4?
Coach:  Let’s forget about those next 3 at-bats, just focus on this one. Can you picture yourself driving the ball up the middle?
PlayerI don’t know. I’m so nervous I don’t think I can even swing the bat. What if I strike out looking without even swinging?
CoachHow about this: can you picture yourself taking an ugly hack at just one pitch this at bat? I mean a way uglier swing than those funny videos you girls were watching yesterday on your phone. Even if you totally miss the ball, do you think you can just get the bat off your shoulders and take a hack?
Player (snickering a little because she’s picturing a really ugly swing): I guess I could do that. Why would I want to take an ugly swing?
CoachWell, good point. I’ve seen your swing and it’s so natural and fun to watch. So let’s get one really good swing in this at bat and go from there.
Even if they miss, they have overcome their initial nerves. Then that second swing is going to be easier. Then you can turn the process around and start adding small goals. After they have a good swing at a pitch, ask them if they could picture connecting with a pitch and hitting it hard. And it grows from there…
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WYC 080 – Youth Baseball – David Klein talks Living a Legends Life

David Klein is the founder and Camp Director of the Menlo Park Legends Youth Summer camps – a premier collegiate summer baseball team and youth baseball camps in California. The Legends youth summer camp has nearly doubled in size every summer and the camp boasts over a 90% camper return rate. David and his staff have thousands of kids through the Legends camp program in 6 years and have been featured in a number of local blogs and newspapers. They also feature a youth academy and an exciting new podcast!

Twitter: @MenloDave

Facebook: /MenloParkLegends

Website/Podcast:menloparklegends.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘If you work hard and focus on the little things – good things will happen’

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Early on he always taught kids to swing down on the baseball
  • Early on David did not spend very much time on the mental side of the game

Teaching Skills

  • Make a game and competition out of everything in practice
  • Be vocal, high-energy – and connect with the kids!

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • Visualize your successes before they happen
  • Breathing- Breathing in oxygen into your lungs reduces cortisol levels/stress hormones
  • Have the kids develop a personal power statement – and have them create few words that represent that and write them somewhere (inside of their hats) to anchor on
  • Track Quality-at-bats instead of batting average

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • Positive reinforcement works better than negative disciplines
  • For your rules – establish them at the beginning of the season, not in the middle
  • David emphasizes ‘looking the part’ – looking well dressed and being organized as a team
  • Praise progress instead of purely praising results
  • Post-game talk: Spend a few minutes debriefing – what worked well today, what can we work on in practice, acknowledge kids helping the team and progressing. Don’t get too high or too low!

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • ‘If you work hard and focus on the little things – good things will happen’ – David took over a team that was 0-4 and he told them he believed in them and if they work hard good things will happen – they went on to win the league championship

The One that Got Away

  • David coached a team that was in a championship game and the umpires made the worst call he had ever seen – and his team went nuts – to the point the umpires called the game in the 8th inning. David learned that as the coach – you have to be in control no matter what- and you cannot let your players or coaches get out of control

Best stolen idea

  • From his Dad – ‘You can please all of  the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.’
  • Qualityatbats.com – from Steve Springer

Podcast

  • Link: A Legends Life Podcast
  • Applying lessons from the diamond into a legendary life off the field – includes interviews with many former big-leaguers

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Achieving Peak Mental Performance – Factor #5: Keep It Simple Stupid

The Growth Mindset – 7 Key Factors to Achieve Peak Mental Performance​​​​​​​
Factor #5 – Simplify
Joe Daniel from The Football Coaching Podcast has one of my favorite quotes about simplifying:
‘Keep everything simple so that your kids build confidence, confident kids play fast, fast kids win games.’
That says it perfectly. The best way to quiet your mind is to not be thinking about a million things while playing. Here are a few other of my favorites that I’ve learned from great coaching minds:
  • Coach Shane Sams identifies 5 skills for each position – then those are the only skills they teach in practice for the entire year. For younger kids maybe only 3 or 4 skills. Repetitions are key – don’t keep changing things up.
  • ‘If your goal is to freeze an athlete – give them a whole bunch of stuff to think about’ – James Leath, head of leadership at IMG Academy
  • Renowned high school championship basketball coach at Christ Pres Academy in Nashville and former Vanderbilt star Drew Maddux uses the term ‘Boundaried Freedom’ – Create the culture and boundaries – and then give them the freedom to go make plays
I was watching the Golf Channel this week and they discussed how Jack Nicklaus credited much of his success to his ability to play present. The ability to stay in the moment allowed him to pay attention to details that many of his competitors missed – the wind speed and direction, the amount of power he was hitting with that day, and many other things that if he had complicated his mind with too many worries or concerns he would have missed. So Keep It Simple Stupid. You will have more fun and your athletes will go out there and play instead of going out there and thinking.
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WYC 079 – Mental Performance – Lindsey Wilson talks breaking out of slumps and coaching girls

As the Co-Founder and Product/Program guru for Positive Performance, Lindsey works with athletes and coaches to unlock player and team potential through mental performance training. As an athlete, Lindsey had the privilege to play on many successful teams and collect an impressive playing resume along the way. As a mental training coach, Lindsey has developed mental performance training tools and techniques for universities, teams, and organizations across the globe.

Twitter: @lindseywilson13

Facebook: /positiveperformance

Website/blog: positiveperformancetraining.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Change happens slowly and then all at once’

Visualization

  • Make it realistic (i.e.- I will never be able to dunk) – but make it a little out of reach
  • Your mind will naturally think of both positive and negative thoughts – be prepared for this & acknowledge the negative though non-judgementally
  •  BRAVR exercise – 5 minute pre-practice visualization routine – download it for free: positiveperform.clickfunnels.com/5min-a

Confidence in Girls vs. Boys

  • Girls develop the ability to read faces much earlier than boys – so because of that they are often looking for positive affirmation much more than boys. The danger of this is the girls might stop taking risks.
  • Typically girls have a much stronger need to create harmony within the team. Hunter-gatherer theory: As men were out hunting by themselves, the women were back raising children with the other women – so the need to get along was very important.
  • Socially – as men move up the corporate ladder, they are more liked. The opposite is true for women, as they move up and are more successful, they typically are less liked.

How to get out of a slump

  • Sometimes we actually like the extra attention
  • Momentum – It’s easier to keep going the direction we are going – so even if it’s a negative direction, we keep going. You have to break that negative path. Self-Talk is a great way to do it. We think 50,000 words per day- and the majority of it is negative (that’s a survival technique.)
  • ‘To be successful you have to lie to yourself a little bit. If you are not failing a lot – you are not pushing yourself hard enough, so realistically most of your time should be spent pushing yourself through those failures. But that’s mentally hard to get excited about, so you have to lie to yourself a little bit.’
  • Great post: positiveperformancetraining.com/slump/

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Lindsey shares a story of a 10 year-old girl who had lost confidence and hope, and was crying during games. Lindsey worked with the girl and her parents to re-establish a guiding light and hope to break out of that mindset. The girl is 14 now and is doing great.

The One that Got Away

  • Not playing at the end of the championship game her freshman year and they lost by 1

Favorite coaching book/quote

Positive Performance Training

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Achieving Peak Mental Performance – Factor #4: Our mind is a powerful beast to tame

The Growth Mindset – 7 Key Factors to Achieve Peak Mental Performance​​​​​​​
Factor #4 – Playing present & Mistake recovery
Our mind is a powerful beast to tame. Another powerful lesson I learned from Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis is the concept of the battle going on in your mind between your 2 selfs. In summary – Self 1 is the mind and the loud voice, Self 2 is the body, the quiet doer. Where things get out of whack is when Self 1 starts to overthink the importance of what you are doing. Thoughts about past failures or future consequences of your performance will tighten up an athlete and make it impossible to perform at a high level. We’ll dive into a bunch of great ways to de-emphasize the importance of competitions in Factor #6, but here are a few fundamental ways to keep your mind focused on the present:
  • Tim Corbin, national championship baseball coach at Vanderbilt uses the term ‘Play in the middle.’ He teaches his athletes to not think about the past, not think about the future, but rather to stay in the middle. The only thing you need to focus on is the next play.
  • Ray Lokar, PCA coach and speaker, uses the acronym WIN – Whats Important Now. In high pressure situations – have the kids focus on ONE thing that is important (i.e. hold your follow through) – don’t tell them more than one thing or their head will be swimming with too many concerns.
  • Mistake recovery routine – You will make mistakes. You need to have a predetermined response to what you are going to do about them. Coach John Doss has a goalie that beats himself up after any goal allowed – he tells the kid he can take 3 seconds to be upset, then move on.  He will even count 1,2,3 out loud so the kid remembers. Many athletes have developed physical actions to ‘flush’ mistakes:
    • ​​​​​​​Make a small motion with your hand of you ‘flushing’ that mistake away
    • A double-tap on your chest – 1st tap is me saying ‘my bad,’ 2nd tap is me saying ‘I’m over it and am focused on the next play.’
    • A brush of your shoulder to ‘brush’ away the mistake
Quiet your mind. Gallwey uses the analogy of a cat waiting to pounce on a bird. The cat isn’t thinking about it’s posture, what each leg needs to do when attacking, or what the other cats will think about it if it misses. It simply is thinking about what that bird is going to taste like in it’s mouth.
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WYC 078 – College Scholarships – Nicolae Popescu talks college recruiting

Nicolae Popescu has built WeGotPlayers for those athletes who dream, hustle and work hard to play at the next level. For those players, who always had the desire to train, learn, take risks and fail graciously. The kind of players who have character, values, work ethic and a sharp mindset that will push them to do whatever it takes to succeed.

WeGotPlayers is designed to inspire and empower players to reach their highest potential in sports and life. With so much information out there, it’s so hard to know where to start, what to do and who to trust. They are here to help you unleash your talent so it won’t get lost in the shadows of empty hopes. Navigating through the college recruiting process himself and thanks to all the wonderful and helpful coaches and teachers he worked with, Nicolae has been fortunate to earn a full athletic scholarship at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.

Today, he’s a proud husband, father, entrepreneur and coach who always tries to positively influence and help guide players on and off the field achieve their sports dreams. This is what fulfills him and gives him the power, energy and strength to keep on inspiring others achieve their dreams. Nicolae’s story is just one example of how playing sports changed his life.

Twitter: @1NicolaePopescu

Facebook: /wegotplayers

Website/blog: wegotplayers.com

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Learn from your mistakes. Have the power and the strength within yourself. Lift yourself back up. Try again. And again.’

3-step plan for athlete to prepare for recruiting process

  1. Evaluate –
    • Has your athlete completed all academic requirements? Start looking at this in 9th grade.
    • Be realistic athletically
  2. Identify
    • Identify some criteria you will be evaluating when looking at schools: geographic location, academic requirements, do they offer the major you want to study, coaching staff and playing philosophy
  3. Connect
    • The kids need to email the college coaches themselves

We Got Players

  • Website/blog: wegotplayers.com
  • A very low-cost tool to help educate parents and coaches on the recruiting process and help create a Linkedin-type resume to share with colleges

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Nicolae shared a story of a sophomore in high school who just verbally committed to a Division 2 school. You can’t wait until your senior year to start this process! And most importantly – choose a school based on its academics, not athletics!

Teaching Skills

  • Communication is key – you have to be crystal clear explaining to the kids what you want them to do. Using language they understand.

The One that got away

  • From his junior college days – Nicolae had a free kick that he wishes he had played differently in a game that could have moved them on to the finals. Lessons learned: ‘Learn from your mistakes. Have the power and the strength within yourself. Lift yourself back up. Try again. And try again.’

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • It doesn’t matter what level you are coaching at – always remember who you coach. It’s not about you being a great coach, it’s about you knowing and developing young men and women.

Other recruiting services

Parting Advice

  • Enjoy the journey. Educate yourself and learn. Use lots of positive feedback, especially at younger ages. Keep it fun.

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Achieving Peak Mental Performance – Factor #3: We become what we think about

The Growth Mindset – 7 Key Factors to Achieve Peak Mental Performance​​​​​​​
Factor #3 – Visualization
Did you see Jay Wright’s reaction after his player hit one of the most memorable shots in NCAA history to win the national championship? He simply nodded his head and proceeded to go shake hands with Roy Williams. How is that possible? One of the players on the high school lacrosse team I help coach made a game-winning goal a few weeks ago in a regular season game and we all jumped around like fools. How did Jay remain so calm? The only possible explanation is that Jay completely buys in to the concept presented in Earl Nightingale’s landmark speech The Strangest Secret: ‘We become what we think aboutPicture yourself in your mind’s eye as having already achieved this goal. See yourself doing the things you’ll be doing when you’ve reached your goal.’ Jay, deep down in his heart, truly believed his team was a national championship team, so why would he act surprised when his team achieved this goal?
The same is true for athletes at all levels. They will become what they think about. If they think they are the 5th best player on the team, that is exactly what they will become. Muhammad Ali said ‘I am the greatest. I said that before I even knew I was.’ So how do we get kids to imagine themselves being successful? The first step is we as coaches and parents have to truly believe they are going to be. Then here are some powerful next steps:
  • From The Inner Game of Tennis – Have them react as if they hit a perfect shot regardless of the result: Tell them you are going to use your phone to take video of their reaction after the next 5 shots. You are not going to video the shot result itself, you will be at an angle that will only record their reaction. And here is the key – regardless of how they hit the shot – you want them to react as if they are Lebron James (or whatever athlete they will identify with for your sport) and they had just hit the perfect shot to beat their opponent. The interesting observation is how successful their shots will be when they are not putting any importance on the actual result of the shot itself.
  • Think about how you frame things: it should be framed as a positive. Don’t say ‘Don’t drop this pass’, instead say: ‘Make a great catch on this pass’
  • Sports psychologist Dr. Lindsey Blom teaches on the power of using analogies: Have kids picture themselves as spaghetti noodles – if the child is nervous they may be stiff like uncooked noodles, but if they are relaxed they are loose like cooked noodles. For younger ages – have the kids physically wiggle around and say they are cooked noodles.
  • Master self-talk and quiet your mind: My good friend Jenn Starkey from MVP Leadership Academy shared a great video with me with 7 confidence hacks – and #’s 6 and 7 are about visualization and mastering self-talk – check it out.
  • Confidence is a choice. My friend Olaniyi Sobomehin, former NFL running back and founder of I’m Not You blog and podcasts – has his kids start each day by looking in the mirror and doing ‘Affirmations’, they call it ‘Prime-time.’ They flex their muscles and tell themselves they are strong, confident, and proud. They also record audio of their affirmations in GarageBand laid on top of their favorite track.
We become what we think about. It’s so powerful. If we can master the images in our head, we truly can accomplish whatever we set our minds to.
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Achieving Peak Mental Performance – Factor #2: We are what we repeatedly do

The Growth Mindset – 7 Key Factors to Achieve Peak Mental Performance​​​​​​​
Factor #2 – We are what we repeatedly do
 
‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’ – Pete Carroll in Win Forever
The best way to minimize performance anxiety is practice: For every minute of a presentation, you need 1 hour of preparation – the same is true in sports. One of the best things you can do to prepare your athletes for high-pressure situations is to create practices that build up the confidence of players so when these types of situations occur in games they are experienced and know exactly what they are going to do. So how do you create practices like this? Here are some great guidelines:
  • Lots of small-sided games. Kids need lots of touches, and you get more touches with the ball if you are 3 on 3 vs. 5 on 5 or 11 on 11.
  • Freeplay is huge. No parents or coaches. Try having a silent Saturday – coaches and parents aren’t allowed to say ANYTHING.
  • Task design – from Stuart Armstrong of The Talent Equation and Reed Maltbie from CoachReed.com.
    • Don’t jump in too early – many people get uncomfortable when they see someone struggling and not being able to get there quite yet- so they either jump in and solve it for them, or they move on. But this never allows the learning to happen. The moment when they are close to figuring it out is actually the sweet spot. So the players shouldn’t think everything is easy and fun – it should be a little frustrating and uncomfortable.
    • Implicit Learning – False praise and spoon-feeding kids actually creates a fixed mindset in them. Create the task, then say very little – and observe their attempt to solve the problem, and observe what choices they make, then allow them through a questioning approach subsequent to the activity to feed back to you what they are experiencing, then allow them to solve problems.
    • Give them a challenge, and see if one of the players can figure it out on their own. If one does – let him/her show the team. If not, give them a hint and let them keep trying.
    • Design your practices like a video game designer: Create ‘levels’ that are within their reach, but it’s a big stretch that might feel just out of their reach. So when they figure something out – ask them ‘are you ready for level 2 now?’
Knowing that you are outworking your competition is a huge confidence-builder – I love the quote in a recent article about Kobe Bryant’s work ethic:
 –
“It’s not so much to do with the competition of the players and all this other stuff,” he said, “because I figured out at an early age, even if I showed them what it is that I do, they wouldn’t do it, just because it’s so boring and so much repetition that it takes a long time to do.”
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WYC 077 – Way of Champions Transformational Coaching – John O’Sullivan talks leadership

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John is the founder of the Changing the Game Project – whose mission is to is to ensure that we return youth sports to our children, and put the ‘play’ back in ‘play ball.’  They want to provide the most influential adults in our children’s lives – their parents and coaches – with the information and resources they need to make sports a healthy, positive, and rewarding experience for their children, and their whole family.

John started the Changing the Game Project in 2012 after two decades as a soccer player and coach on the youth, high school, college and professional level.  He is the author of the #1 bestselling books Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids and Is it Wise to Specialize? John is also a regular contributor for SoccerWire.com, and his writing has been featured in many publications including The Huffington Post and Soccer America. John is an internationally known speaker for coaches, parents and youth sports organizations, and has spoken for TEDx, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, IMG Academy, and at numerous other events throughout the US, Canada and Europe.  He resides in beautiful Bend, OR, with his wife, Dr Lauren O’Sullivan, and two wonderful children and aspiring young athletes: Maggie Shea, age 10, and Tiernan, age 8.

Twitter: @CTGProjectHQ

Facebook: /SportsParentingResourceCenter

Website/blog: changingthegameproject.com

Way of Champions Conference link: changingthegameproject.com/wocconference

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Way of Champions – Transformational Coaching Conference

Dr. Jerry Lynch is the founder of Way of Champions, and has been part of 35 national and world championship teams, from the Golden State Warriors to UNC Women’s Soccer. He is the author of 12 books on leadership, championship culture, and coaching/parenting to win in sport and life.

At the Way of Champions Coaching Conference, you will spend a weekend being inspired by Jerry, John, and dozens of other transformational leaders.

Early-bird pricing if you sign up before May 1st – Click here to see more details about the conference

Leadership  – Great blog posts on Changing the Game Project

  • Bullying – Know the difference between being rude, being mean, and bullying – link to article
  • Captains – You have to train them! Also – just because a kid is a quiet introvert doesn’t mean they can’t be a captain – learn how to utilize their quieter leadership style to help lead the team.
  • How Adults take the joy out of sports – and how we can fix it – link to article

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