Month: August 2014

August 28, 2014

WYC 015 Youth Baseball – Brian Beaman – Baseball Boys and Bad Words

Screen Shot 2014-08-28 at 11.32.38 AM What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Brian Beaman shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Brian is a sales consultant. He played high school football, basketball, track, and baseball and also played college basketball for 4 years. He has coached competitive youth sports for over 20 years. He is married and has 3 children – all boys: ages 16, 12, and 9.

Twitter: @Beaman07

Facebook: facebook.com//brian.beaman.509

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

▪ ‘I’m not trying to raise great kids, I’m trying to raise great adults’

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

▪ Having a great assistant coach is key- so you can coach each other’s kids and fairly evaluate talent levels

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

▪ Brian’s team had a large lead in a game so he decided to have his team work on their bunts – the other coach thought it was bad sportsmanship – GOOD DEBATE: Are coaches too sensitive to ‘showing the other team up’ – when is it crossing the line?

Coaching AH-HA Moment

No kid should be standing around and watching – keep them ALL involved

Best Stolen Idea

Great baseball drill used by Vanderbilt and Belmont –lots of defensive situational reps so kids know what to do in games and it is natural to them

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

Be consistent. Let the kids set goals on what they want to improve.
When doing drills – break the kids into small teams and turn it into a game with points

Coaching Resources

▪ WEBSITES: Paul Reddick Baseball and Ripken baseball

Discipline

HUGE IDEA #1:

▪ 3 Things the kid can control:

Hustle
Have a good attitude
Have Fun

▪ ‘No Matter Whats’ – We won’t throw our helmet, glove, or bat; we won’t argue with umpires

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

▪ Recognize accomplishments immediately

▪ Brian had the Dad who kept the scorebook put little notes in the book when a kid made a great play

HUGE IDEA #2: Basketball recognition: Have 2 mini-basketballs: one says ‘Hustle’ and the other says ‘Breakthrough’ – give to 2 kids after each week and they get to keep it for the week and write their name on it

Teambuilding with Parents

▪ Communication is key – ask the parents to deal with any concerns directly with me – don’t just complain to the other parents

Inspiring Story

Quote: ‘I’m not trying to raise great kids, I’m trying to raise great adults’
Brian coached who a kid who was not a very good dribbler – but loved to play point guard – so Brian tried to find situations to get him in at point guard – and it meant the world to the kid

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

▪ Book: Proverbs – there are 31 books, read one per day

▪ Book: Andy Andrews – The Travelers Gift, and Baseball Boys and Bad Words

▪ Quote: The Golden Rule – ‘Treat others as you want to be treated’– This included the umpires – learn their name and ask them if you can call them by their name

Parting Advice

▪ Don’t take it too seriously

▪ Have fun

▪ Be prepared and organized

▪ My goal: for the kids to love the sport

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

Upward Sports

HUDL

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August 19, 2014

WYC 014 Youth Basketball – Brent Kreid – ‘You’re the Leader, but it’s not about You’

Brent Kreid pic What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Brent Kreid shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Brent is a school teacher and adminstator. He played high school football, basketball, and baseball and also played college baseball for 3 years. He has coached competitive youth sports for over 20 years. He is married and has 4 children: ages 18, 15, 13, and 10.

Twitter: @BrentKreid

Facebook: facebook.com/brent.kreid

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

▪ ‘The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare’– Bobby Knight

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

▪ Know when to lean on another coach to communicate to your child

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

▪ ‘I thought there was success in incorporating a million things’ – Whether it’s a million rules, a million strategies, a million plans – early in his career Brent fell into the common trap of over-complicating things – he learned over time how much more effective it was to KEEP THINGS SIMPLE

Best Stolen Idea

Worked with High School coach Dick Corn – Brent learned simplicity from him – Be great at 1 or 2 things vs. being good at 6 to 8. click to tweet!

HUGE IDEA #1:Tony Barone (Texas A&M, Creighton) – ‘You need to do something everyday to prepare you for your greatest challenge’ click to tweet!

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

HUGE IDEA #2: Brent shares an excellent shooting drill to teach the fundamental basketball stroke – to any age group – 5 and 6 year-olds, and all the way up to high school players: ‘L-sitting on a shelf, elbow above the eye, hand in the basket’

Coaching Resources

▪ Book: Leading with the Heart – Mike Krzyzewski

Discipline

▪ A(E+E)=Success: Attitude x (Effort + Execution)

▪ Discipline – have to 1^st figure out if it is a heart issue or a head issue – then the discipline is very individualized depending on all of the circumstances

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

▪ Many kids’ love language is words of affirmation – they love public praise – in front of their teammates, their parents

Inspiring Story

Brent shares a story of a young man who was afraid on the football field – and how proud he was as the boy continued to face his fear and his teammates rallied around him.

The One that Got Away

▪ Brent remembers a game from twenty years ago – 1994 he was a JV coach and specifically remembers his coaching mistake that let the game slip away.

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

▪ Book: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership – John Maxwell

▪ Quote: ‘The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare’– Bobby Knight

Parting Advice

▪ ‘You’re the leader, but it’s not about you’

▪ Keep it simple!

▪ Enjoy yourself and have fun with it

click to tweet!

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

All Pro Dad

HUDL

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August 12, 2014

WYC 013 Youth Swimming – Kent Julian – Swim it Forward

Kent Julian pic What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Kent Julian shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Kent is a motivational speaker and founder of ‘Live it Forward’ and ‘Speak it Forward’ businesses. He has coached competitive youth swimming for 13 years. He is married and has three children, an 18 year-old son and twin 16 year-old daughters.

Twitter: @KentJulian

Facebook: facebook.com/kentjulian

Website: liveitforward.com

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

▪ ‘What you believe in is evidenced by how you live not by what you say’

click to tweet!

How do I Coach when I’m not the Expert?

▪ ‘I hired to my weakness’ – Kent was great at the organizational side of coaching – then he intentionally hired an assistant coach who was an expert at teaching the technical aspects of swimming

▪ Research – spend some time watching videos and learning

Coaching your own Kid

▪ ‘I have pushed them to be the best they can be, but kept everything in perspective so we can all love the experience and have a great time’

Teambuilding

▪ Having parents participate in a relay race at their last meet of the year – kids go nuts cheering for their parents

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

▪ Kent is an expressive person and a few times early in his career he showed his emotion the wrong way – so he has learned that about himself and has to be self-disciplined to not repeat those mistakes. He did not make excuses for his behavior and immediately apologized to the athlete and the parents: ‘When you make a mistake – RUN at the mistake and genuinely seek forgiveness.’

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

HUGE IDEA #1: 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…’ You could use this for jumping offsides in football, or in any sport just to make conditioning fun while increasing the child’s focus.

Coaching Resources

▪ DVD series: Total Immersion Swimming

Discipline

▪ Take control early on – If you start out trying to be everyone’s friend – the kids will take advantage of you. Be kind and nice, but be firm.

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

▪ ‘Swimmer of the week’ – awarded to kid with best attitude

▪ ‘Most improved swimmer of the week’

▪ Kent and his coaches’ goal for each meet: Talk to each swimmer before one of their five events and encourage them

▪ They also gave beads for the kid to wear if they won their heat in any event

▪ Speed-breaker award(weekly): anyone who achieved their best time in an event gets award

Inspiring Story

HUGE IDEA #2 – Kent shared story of baseball coach when he was growing up – the coach only valued the talented players and tore down Kent. He contrasted that with his 7^th grade basketball coach who poured into his life and was a hero to Kent. HE REMEMBERS BOTH 40 YEARS LATER.

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

▪ Book: Wooden on Leadership

▪ Quote: ‘What you believe in is evidenced by how you live not by what you say’

Parting Advice

▪ Big is little and little is big – the little technical corrections often make the biggest difference

▪ Coach individuals according to how they are wired

Live it Forward

▪ Goal: to empower people to ‘Show up and Shine’ in the most important areas of their lives. Includes career coaching, working with direct sales people, keynote speaking, working with career and technology student organizations.

▪ Also teaches others to teach these skills: Speak it Forward

Interview Links/ Promotional Partners

5 Minutes with Dad

HUDL

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August 4, 2014

WYC 012 Youth Baseball and Upward Stars Basketball – Lance Akridge – ‘The Enemy to Great is Good’

Lance Akridge picture What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Lance Akridge shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Lance works for Upward Stars – an affiliate of Upward Sports. He actively coaches baseball and is constantly recruiting basketball coaches for Upward Stars’ teams. He is married and has three children, a 15 year-old son, 13 year-old son, and 12 year-old daughter.

Twitter: @upwardstars and @upwardstarsTN

Facebook: facebook.com/UpwardStarsNashville

Website: upwardstarsnashville.org

Listen NOW:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

▪ ‘Be a transformational coach not a transactional coach’ – Inside-out Coaching

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

▪ Lance shares that early on he was harder on his own kids than the other players – ‘I’ve learned to be coach on the field rather than be a Dad.’

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

▪ Taking things too seriously and losing perspective. Lance shares a story of taking his son to the baseball field and putting too much pressure on him to the point he was starting to cry- he regrets he had lost perspective

Coaching AH-HA Moment

▪ Watching other coaches embarrass themselves – ‘That is not who I am and not the type of character I am going to exemplify’

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

▪ Have patience; Overcommunicate; Impart confidence

▪ Baseball hitting game – Each player gets 7 swings and earns points based on result(kind of like Home Run derby)

▪ Basketball – Break into 3 person teams and have shooting competitions

Best Stolen Idea

HUGE IDEA #1: ‘Short lines, lots of repetitions, learning fundamentals’ – 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

Coaching Resources

▪ Baseball: Cal Ripken’s Coaches Clipboard – Daily emails – He sometimes forwards these to his players

Discipline

▪ The best way to keep them focused is to TALK LESS

▪ Make sure your discipline involves taking away fun games – don’t discipline them during talking times

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

▪ Affirm positive behaviors continually

▪ HUGE IDEA #2: Let the players set 2 or 3 objective, realistic(but a slight stretch) goals for their season and continually use those as a target for all of their actions

▪ D-Groups – Twice a month they hang out – 1 hour of fun, 30 minutes eating, 45 minute character discussion ‘Player to Coach: ‘Because you care, I care’’

Inspiring Story

▪ A young man Lance coached in basketball had a really tough home life – was showing anger issues on the court – they loved him and disciplined him in love

The One that Got Away

▪ Umpires incorrectly ended his game for time limit – Lance yelled at umps – he doesn’t regret fighting for what was right for his team – but wishes he had not displayed his anger towards the umpires the way he did

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

▪ Book: Coach Wooden

▪ Quote: ‘The Enemy to Great is Good’ – Jim Collins

Parting Advice

▪ Be organized

▪ Overcommunicate to the players and parents

▪ Inside-Out Coaching: ‘Be a transformational coach rather than a transactional coach’ – Joe Ehrmann

Upward Stars

▪ Competitive travel teams that are teaching kids to be leaders based on Luke 2:52 – Teaching athletes to grow mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially

▪ Currently in 10 citites – In Tennessee: upwardstarsnashville.org

Interview Links/ Promotional Partners

The Inspired Treehouse

HUDL