June 24, 2014
WYC 007 Youth Football – Damien Wong-Ken – Life as a Vapor
What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Coach Damien Wong-Ken shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.
Damien was born in Kingston, Jamaica – then moved to Calgary and grew up in Calgary, Canada. He is married and father of a 14 year-old girl and 10 year-old son. Damien is a chef –see him at bluemountainkitchen.com, and does wardrobe design for artists – check it out at aimwide.com. He has coached high school football and most recently been a head coach of flag football in Franklin, Tennessee.
Listen Now:
Listen in ITunes: Itunes link
Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link
Coaching/Leadership Quote
▪ ‘Life as a Vapor – Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long. Live Like It’ – John Piper
Coaching your own Kid
▪ Damien found that it worked much better to have an assistant take care of any disciplining of his son
My ‘Cringe’ Moment
▪ If you have a non-confrontational style – it can be tough to deal with some of the challenging parents. A key is to establish your team rules and expectations up front
Coaching AH-HA Moment
HUGE IDEA: The Random Points Game- Kids love to have fun and play games – and even though the points don’t mean anything – the kids will go nuts trying to earn points
Teaching Children
▪ It might take longer to teach a younger child through discipline – but as long as you are consistent and immediately welcome them back after disciplining them – they can still be taught to do things the right way
Best Stolen Idea
▪ Good sportsmanship – learned from the first coach he coached under – Darin Clark. They actually made banners for the opposing team as well as their own
Coaching Resources
▪ Best resource is: Other coaches! Don’t be shy about sharing ideas with other coaches
Discipline
▪ Damien uses typical parent techniques for discipline – timeouts – kids have to sit out their favorite drills/games
Reward, Recognition
▪ At the end of each game – he gives out 3 trophies – and the last one is the MVP – and this goes to whoever is the best teammate
▪ To Encourage improving year-to-year – Damien keeps track of stats for each kid for the year – then gives them cards (like Topps cards) at the end of the season – great motivator for them to improve themselves
Teambuilding
▪ Send an email with details around specific accomplishments for each kid – then ask the parents to read the email to their child
Inspiring Story
▪ With a tough child – Damien consistently showed him he would be a man in his life who would not beat him down emotionally, physically, or verbally – but still discipline him. He earned the MVP trophy for a game towards the end of the season- and the other players rejoiced with him.
The One that Got Away
▪ Damien coached against a guy that was teaching his kids to play dirty – and things got very heated – they spoke afterwards and did not come to any agreement, Damien out-executed him and beat him, but it was not fun playing against this style of coach
Coaching/Leadership Motivation
▪ Book: ‘Life as a Vapor’ by John Piper –whatever we do in each moment impacts eternity
Parting Advice
▪ Be patient – breathe deep and often – take 20 seconds to think through tough situations
Interview Links
▪ HUDL
Damien’s businesses:
- Chef – bluemountainkitchen.com
- Wardrobe design for artists – aimwide.com
What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Janis and Ted share coaching and parenting stories and discuss the journey to becoming a successful youth coach and sports parent.
