Category: Podcasts

WYC 170 – NBA exec – Pat Williams – Character Carved in Stone

Pat Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic, shares personal stories from his time as a parent with youth sports as well as what he teaches regarding developing leaders through sports.

Pat’s new book, CHARACTER CARVED IN STONE is about his discovery of the leadership virtues taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Duke University’s Coach K (a West Point grad) wrote the foreword.

Book: Character Carved in Stone

 

Listen Now:

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WYC 169 – 700+ Collegiate Soccer Wins – Dr. Jay Martin – The Art of Coaching

Dr. Jay Martin is the Ohio Wesleyan University Soccer coach and one of the nation’s winningest soccer coaches ever. He has written one of the books in the series for United Soccer Coaches titled, The Best of Soccer Journal: The Art of Coaching. It is seen as one of the best soccer books in their book store. Jay is an author of several books approved by the United Soccer Coaches national office and advises them on their Coaches education curriculum.

Book: The Art of Coaching

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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WYC 168 – Youth Wrestling – Chris Mance – Helping sports families

Chris Mance is a family coach who helps sports families pursue difficult goals while maximizing their happiness on their journey. Chris has a unique story from playing at football at West Point to becoming an entrepreneur, husband, and eventually a father of two young wrestlers. Through his experiences in leadership, Chris has been able to work with families to plan and execute their strategic plans.

Chris’s Website: chrismance.com

Chris’ Twitter: @chrismance

Chris’s Instagram: @chairmance2

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Coaching Your Own Kids

  • Chris was really hard on his first son from an early age. He has gone 180, with him now and with his younger son, he stays focused on being proud of them and just giving them a hug afterwards and de-emphasizing the winning/losing.

Cringe moment

  • At youth dual meets, early on in Chris’ coaching, he was too focused on the scoreboard with the newer athletes instead of just working on technique and focusing on improvement.

Teaching skills & Keeping it fun

  • Reward kids for working hard with a fun game – sumo wrestling is fun.
  • King of the hill – start with smallest kid, whoever takes down other wins, and keep going working way up

Culture

  • Parents are a big part of it – keep them tied in and on board
  • Doing something like fantasy sports with the kids is a really fun way to build some comraderie within the players of the team

Travel sports

  • The biggest problem is the season never ends. In a perfect world, kids would only play a sport during its primary season, and then be able to enjoy other sports in the offseasons.

The one that got away

  • Chris’ final wrestling match – he got beat someone who probably wasn’t as good as him – but he had taken it for granted and not trained well that week.

Best stolen idea

  • Sports is a chess match. You always need to be 2 steps ahead, especially mentally.

Favorite books/quote:

  • Quote: ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard’
  • Book: Wooden (by John Wooden)

Parting Advice

  • Have a system, plan and prepare

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 167 – Youth Soccer – Gad Espinosa – Coaching the Mental Game

Gad Espinosa is a Certified High-Performance Mental Game Coach, and speaker who has been interviewed in numerous newspapers and radio shows.

He has been privileged to train and mentor athletes at all levels, from those just starting their athletic careers to others who have gone on to represent their country and succeed at World Championships and Olympic games.

As a former professional athlete, who has represented his country internationally, he knows first hand the psychological and emotional challenges a young athlete faces.

As a parent of two former competitive athletes he knows the difficulty of raising athletes and as a varsity head coach, he sympathizes with coaches and their responsibilities.

Gad is passionate about helping young athletes discover mental strength breakthroughs that allow them to maximize their development so they can take their game to another level and fulfill their athletic potential.

Website: coachgad.com

Instagram: @coach_gad

Twitter: @coachgad

Facebook: /Coach-Gad

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Coaching Your Own Kids

  • It’s a balance between smothering them and still coaching them and enjoying being a parent with them

Coaching a sport you didn’t play

  • 2 requirements: Enthusiasm and a passion to learn more

A-ha moment

  • Gad, as a player, rarely had coaches discuss the mental side of the game – so he has emphasized this as a coach

Concussion recovery

  • Time is the biggest key. Take the time to let your mind recover and don’t rush it.

Mental toughness

  • It starts with letting your athletes know it’s ok to fail. It’s a very important part of the learning process.
  • Having a clear goal in mind helps build grit to keep working even if things don’t do the way you want.

Teaching skills

  • Tag – they put a pinnie on each hip, and they run around and try to grab as many pinnies as possible from their teammates
  • Keep away – in a circle, 2 kids in the middle, try to keep ball away from the kids in the middle

Culture and captains

  • Leaders emerge amongst teams

‘How do I Improve my Kid’s Athletic Potential?’

  • Book on website: coachgad.com
  • WYC guest enter promo code ‘WYC’ and get 50% off book!
  • A mental program for coaches and athletes

The one that got away

  • Gad had specifically reminded the team about a specific thing to look for in the game, and 1 minute into the game this situation happened, and a player didn’t do what they just had talked about. Gad regrets that he immediately took the player out of the game and didn’t play him much more that game.

Best stolen idea

  • Preparedness

Favorite books/quote:

  • Quote: ‘If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.’ – John Wooden

Parting Advice

  • Take a step back and remember how you wish you were coached when you were younger

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 166 – Invisible Differences – Susan Stout – Bring out the best in athletes with ADHD, learning differences, and/or anxiety

Susan Stout educates coaches specifically about working with kids who have ADHD, learning differences and/or anxiety.

As a former swim coach and now a mom to an avid young athlete with ADHD and dyslexia, Susan wishes she had known when she was coaching what she knows now about how to recognize the differently wired kids, manage the challenges and bring out the best in these athletes.

Website: ownbeatathlete.com

Twitter: @SusanStoutOBA

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Finding invisible differences

  • It all starts with just getting to know each kid
  • Some symptoms to look for:
    • Can’t sit still
    • Talk back
    • Interrupt
    • Can’t remember what you just said, especially with multi-step directions
    • Inconsistent in their performance
    • Poor sense of time (can be late)
    • Poor emotional control

Practical tips to coach kids with invisible differences

  • Don’t talk for long periods of time(no diatribes!)
  • Routines help
  • Give them a responsibility to keep them engaged
  • Let them fidget and move
  • Try to be patient – give them a minute to cool off

Own Beat Athlete

  • Website: ownbeatathlete.com
  • Blogs, profiles of successful players and coaches with ADHD, letters from players
  • Tools for coaches and facts to know about kids with invisible differences

Cringe moment

  • When Susan was first coaching, they lost a meet because the backstroke flags were the wrong distance. Susan was worried about over-coaching girls who had previously been her teammates. She learned she needed to be the coach first and not worry about trying to impress them or be their buddy.

Keeping training fun

  • Relay races are always a great way to compete and have fun while conditioning

Achieving peak performance under pressure

  • They start meets with cheering and getting energy up. Then she would have the athletes come and check in with her before their events to chat one-on-one. The coaching is finished at this point – instead reinforce them and tell them – ‘you’ve done it, the work is done, now go have fun and show what you can do’

The one that got away

  • As a swimmer, for 3 years Susan was trying to break 36 seconds. 3 times she got 36.00. She still had a great time, just wishes she could have got a 35.99. 🙂

Best stolen idea

  • Building a culture of being a family.

Favorite books/quote:

  • Quote: ‘A common mistake amongst those working in sports is to spend a disproportionate amount of time on X’s and O’s as compared to time spent learning about people.’ – Coach K
  • Quote: ‘When I was a young coach, I used to say treat everybody alike. Instead- treat everybody fairly.’ – Bear Bryant
  • Book: Getting to Us by Seth Davis

Parting Advice

  • Build relationships. Get to know the kids, what do they dream about, what excites them, what do they like doing outside of sports.

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 165 – Youth Soccer – Sean Conlon – Founder of We Make Footballers

Sean Conlon is the founder of We Make Footballers, a football(soccer in the U.S.) prep school to prepare athletes for playing at academies. With a background with the Chelsea club, Sean has the passion and vision to help young athletes improve their game on and off the field to reach their dreams.

Website: wemakefootballers.com

Twitter: @wmfootballers

Instagram: @wemakefootballers

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Learning on the playground

  • Sean didn’t play for a formal team until he was 13 years old. This has pros and cons – a lot of creativity can be developed, but mixing in a bit of coaching can help the guided discovery process.
  • Emphasizing fun at young ages and training parents to recognize development vs. just wins and losses is key.

We Make Footballers

  • 14 franchises across England, have prepared 170+ players who have gone on to join academy teams
  • Focus is preparing players for academies

Website: wemakefootballers.com

Great fun skill building games

  • Stuck in the mud – Get in a square, everyone has their own ball, dribbling. Make one player the sticker – he runs and tries to tag the other players. When tagged, they hold their ball over their head, and if other players kick their own ball between a frozen players’ head, that player is freed.
  • Snake – In a square. 2 players have to hold hands, they are the snakes. The rest are the mice. Players don’t have a ball, they just run around. As players are caught, they join the snake.

The one that got away

  • In the cup final, Sean looks back on a couple of changes he could have made earlier. Thinking clearly in high energy moments is critical. Be decisive and take action.

Best stolen idea

  • Make every practice fun, regardless of the age group.

Favorite books/quote:

  • Book: Alex Ferguson’s Leading
  • Quote: ‘In football, the worst things are excuses, excuses mean you cannot grow or move forward.’ – Pep Guardiola

Parting Advice

  • Utilize the internet and forums to continuously learn

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 164 – Youth Baseball – Freddy Hilliard – Selflessness, Excellence, Energy

Freddy Hilliard is the head coach at Malvern Prep in Pennsylvania. In 8 seasons as coach, he has surpassed the 260 win mark, collected 5 PA state titles as well as 5 national top 25 rankings and has sent 75 players on to play college ball. His former players view him as a coach, mentor, teacher and role model. Although he develops baseball skills, he is even more talented in developing better people first and foremost. Baseball as we know is a small part of life, how we conduct ourselves as humans, as husbands, as brothers, as fathers…that is what is important in life and that is how we will be remembered.

Twitter: @coachhilliard16

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Cringe Moment

  • After a loss, on the bus ride on the way home, the kids were laughing and having a good time. Freddy couldn’t understand why they were having fun and weren’t mad. It was a good eye-opener, that most of these kids enjoy being on the team, but they have a lot going on beyond this team. The biggest lesson he learned was investing more in them as people and getting to know what makes them tick.
  • Choosing to be excellent at everything means work, but don’t be satisfied with being OK or mediocre.

Teaching skills

  • It all starts with the why. Teaching is much more effective if they understand what they are trying to accomplish and why it’s important.
  • Players should be free to ask questions and suggest improvements
  • Competing is key to getting kids to focus and give their all. They have 4 yellow jerseys – they give them to the best 4 defensive players at their 4 stations. They also have a batting championship belt they award (similar to a WWE or boxing belt) each practice.

Achieving Peak Performance

  • Work with your team on breathing to calm their heart rate down
  • Visualize success. Think about success and don’t be afraid to fail.

Core Values

  • They have 3 of them: Selflessness, Excellence, Energy

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Freddy had a player who didn’t get much playing time, but had a great attitude, and stayed in touch for years to come. This speaks to Freddy and his staff valuing him as a person, not based on his talent level.

The one that haunts me

  • Freddy’s team was in the state championship game, they had beaten the other team twice that season rather easily. They lost in extra innings. Freddy thinks he could have done a better job getting his team focused and not being complacent.

Favorite books/quote:

Parting Advice

  • Don’t overthink or over-coach. Let the kids figure it out.
  • Make it fun, you want the kids to love the game.
  • Be authentic.

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WYC 163 – Mental Toughness Training – Dr Rob Bell talks Hinge Moments

Dr. Rob Bell is a mental toughness coach. He is a husband and father of two wonderful kids. An Ironman and endurance athlete, and loves to PLAY: golf, swimming, skiing, running, ping-pong and chess. He speaks & trains with teams, organizations, and coaches on mental toughness.

Website: drrobbell.com

Twitter: @drrobbell

Facebook: /TheImportanceofmentaltoughness

Instagram: /drrobbell

Listen Now:

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Hinge moments

  • A person, a decision, or a moment that changes the direction of your life
  • 1 of Dr. Bell’s hinge moments was when he was in college and living a party life- he walked off an 80 foot cliff. But it woke him up and changed him: “Our worst moments in life often end up becoming our best moments”

Mental toughness training

  • Mental toughness – ‘It’s caught more than it’s taught’
  • The most important time is when adversity hits – How, as coaches, do we respond? When they fail – teach them that ‘this is an event, not a person.’ “It’s a bruise not a tattoo.”

Visualization

  • ‘To visualize success you have to have had success’ – So you have to lots of competitions – then the debrief is key: What were you thinking about when taking that key shot? Were you thinking about letting down the team, or what was going through your mind?
  • And don’t just compete physically – they can compete on who gives the most high-fives or something mentally so different kids win and lose

Making the kids hungry

  • How can I find the motivations for everybody? Motivating is the hardest mental skill. It’s hard. You have to train your coaches and captains to help. Then it’s a unified effort to pick everyone up and keep them on board.

Timing for feedback

  • Parents – during the game is not the time to give feedback. You want them listening to the coach. The 2nd worst time to talk to your kids is on the car ride home. The best time is in non-pressure environments.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Jack Nicklaus: ‘People don’t understand how many times you have to finish 2nd before you finish 1st’

Favorite books/quote:

  • Quote: ‘Some battles aren’t worth fighting even if you win. Some battles are worth fighting even if you lose.’ – Gil Reyes, Andre Aggassi’s coach
  • Books by coaches who have won and lost – Dean Smith, Pat Summit, Bear Bryant, Bill Walsh

Parting Advice

  • Better people make better athletes. Focus on developing the person.

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 162 – Youth Soccer – Greg Winkler – Coaching a Season of Significance

With over 30 years of experience as an educator, coach and administrator, Greg Winkler is currently in his first year as head coach of the boys soccer team at Ida Baker High School in Cape Coral, Fla., and physical education teacher at the Charlotte Campus of Florida SouthWestern State College in Punta Gorda, Fla.

A decorated soccer coach in the state of Wisconsin, Winkler was named to the Wisconsin Soccer Association Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015, recognizing a coaching career that saw him amass over 400 wins at both the youth and high school levels and earn State Youth Coach of the Year honors in 2006 and Wisconsin Large School Coach of the Year in 2004.

In 2009, Winkler published “Coaching a Season of Significance,” a coaching resource that draws upon his vast experiences to map out a plan for fellow coaches to find success and overcome obstacles at every step along the way to a significant season. He has presented at coaching and athletic director conferences on topics ranging from building relationships through athletics to engaging in effective communication with parents and administrators.

Website: gregwinkler.net

Twitter: @gregwinkler10

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Coaching your own kids

  • Focus on treating every kid like they are your own kid
  • Unless the kid brings it up, don’t talk very much sports at home

My Cringe moment from early coaching years

  • Calling out a specific kid at halftime in front of the team

Teaching skills while keeping it fun

  • Sharks and minnows with a soccer ball or any tag/relay race game with a ball
  • Losers of games do something embarassing – Ima Stars or donkey kicks
  • Competition in practice is key

Practicing pressure situations

  • Knockout games are great

Mistake recovery

  • Work with players who beat themselves up, have conversations with them, guide them on how to deal with how to react to mistakes

Having a value-based program

  • They have 5 core values, they discuss 1 per week to start season, then they discuss other important topics in subsequent weeks

Parents

  • They are a huge resource! Be proactive to involve them so they are helping instead of complaining.

Dealing with crazy coaches

  • It’s hard to deal with other crazy coaches, it’s important to not let them get under your skin because your team can sense it.

Favorite books/quote:

Parting Advice

  • Focus on relationships and individuals vs. wins and losses

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 161 – Youth Coaching & Sport Parenting – Travis Daugherty – Raising a Champion Athlete & Man in Today’s Myopic World

Travis Daugherty has been a coach for over 20 years and worked with thousands of athletes of all backgrounds, ages, and ability levels – plus the parents that came with them. Throughout that time, he also served as a speaker and development leader for Higher Level Sports, a father-son basketball camp my dad founded and directed throughout the Midwest.

He recently authored a book- The LENS. Travis’ explanation of the book:

“Studying, writing, and developing this game plan have given me a chance to clarify for myself the sports parent I want to be. I hope it will help you clarify who you want to be, too. And even though nobody’s perfect in this area, I do hope each of us can see clearly that there’s no greater opportunity to prepare our kids for success than the one we have through sports. I want each of us to recognize that opportunity, and use it to build strong, committed, confident leaders in this world.”

Website: thelensbook.com

Twitter: @The_LENS_Book

Instagram: /the_lens_book

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 161 – Travis Daugherty

Coaching your own kids

  • The positive desire to see your own kids succeed can lead to negative reactions
  • Myopic – being short-sighted. The key is to focus on the big picture and not short-term wins
  • Developing a plan and clarifying your priorities to the kids and parents is a critical first step
  • Remember that challenge and adversity is a key component of a child’s development, learning to overcome those challenges is critical to healthy development
  • Constantly sharing your coaching purpose statement build accountability into your coaching.
  • Value the pursuit of excellence vs. the pursuit of success. Quit comparing yourself to others and rather spend time pursuing being the best you possibly can be.

Hidden Talents

  1. Loving the game
  2. Giving your best
  3. Overcoming adversity
  4. Seeking improvement
  5. Getting coached
  6. Being a teammate
  7. Taking risks
  8. Having a positive attitude

Best Stolen idea

  • James Clear – Automic Habits – Resetting the Room – Whenever you leave a room, take 2 minutes to put things back in order.

Favorite books/quote:

Parting Advice

  • See the big picture. Focus on the process of development and the pursuit of excellence.
  • Trust the process. Building skills takes time. Stop comparing. Focus on development.
  • Enjoy the journey.

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 160 – Youth Soccer – Sean Afkhaminia – Bringing European training techniques to US Youth Soccer at Footy Factory

Sean Afkhaminia is the CEO and technical director at Footy Factory. The mission of Footy Factory: To cultivate players’​ athletic performance by promoting physical, technical, and personal growth. Not only will we aim to sharpen their natural abilities, but we will also teach them the values of integrity, conviction, and self-belief. We aspire to form an institution that consistently takes in raw, unpolished talent and systematically develops and generates elite, well-rounded players.

Website: footyfactory.us

Twitter: @footyfactorydal

Instagram: /footyfactory

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 160 – Sean Afkhaminia

Long term development vs Immediate Results

  • Technical – It’s all about getting comfortable with the ball
  • Tactical – Small-sided games
  • Physical – As they get older and their bodies develop this becomes more important

How do you enjoy technical training?

  • Have them problem solve in competitive situations
  • Start with small-sided games. Futsol in soccer. Very fast-paced, very small areas, tons of quality touches on the ball.
  • Use standard P.E. drills and modify them to your sport. Example: ball tag – one player has a ball in his hand and the rest are dribbling balls at their feet, the player tries to tag the other players’ ball

Mental toughness

  • Training needs to be hard and they need to learn to overcome adversity
  • Encourage a culture where failure is part of the process to help remove fear of failure

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Sean has a passion for kids who don’t have the economic means to afford high-priced training. So he helps kids get the training even if they cannot pay for it.

Best Stolen/Borrowed Idea

  • Coaching is all about relationships and earning the kids’ trust

Favorite books/quote:

Parting Advice

  • Good is never good enough
  • Be organized – have a structured practice design for the entire season

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 159 – Youth Baseball – Adam Walker – A Championship Culture

Adam Walker is the coach of a U14 boys fastball(baseball) team in Ontario Canada. His note to WYC:

‘I have been coaching for years in hockey and fastball, I have had good results but not great. I also had decent relationships with my athletes but again not great. Last winter I found your podcast and after listening to a lot of episodes especially those around creating a winning culture I made some changes to the way I coach. In the past I was never overly negative but I didn’t focus on being positive. I spent time talking to my athletes but I didn’t make it a point to really know them.

After making these changes last season not only did I see a huge change in the passion these young athletes have for the game, we were also closer as a team, I developed great relationships with my athletes, and in the end we won our provincial championship and then went on to win a National Championship.

These young athletes had such a passion for the game and it resulted in them working harder every time we were at the diamonds. In the end their skills and self confidence grew and the result was a National Championship and memories these kids will never forget.’

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 159 – Adam Walker

Cringe Moments

  • Putting way too much emphasis on winning championships at the youth level. ‘It was more what I wanted not what the kids wanted.’

Long Term Athlete Development

  • How do you prepare athletes long-term to succeed? Failure is part of the process – have them fail early, but make sure it is in a safe environment.

Changing culture

  • Post-game talks – Coach doesn’t need to rehash all the things they did wrong. Have the players share with each other what they did well.
  • ‘Your athletes can either show up to every game afraid to make a mistake or excited to play the game. Both options are up to the coaches.” Put pressure on the other team by making them make a perfect play, then live with the results.
  • You have to be both: Positive & Demanding.
  • They had a plan:
    • Year 1 – Develop _____ skills
    • Year 2 – Enhance _____ skills
    • Year 3 – Put these together and compete to win championships

Game goals

  • Process based. Not ‘go 3 for 3’, but rather ‘hit 2 balls hard’

Best Stolen/Borrowed Idea

  • 3 team game – 1 in infield, 1 in outfield, 1 hitting. They do it every practice.

Favorite books/quote:

Parting Advice

  • Focus on the long-term. Not the individual game wins.

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 158 – College Recruiting – Shannon Evans – A Female Coach in a Boys Sport

Shannon Evans is the Founder of The Scholar Coach Academy. Shannon was an active lacrosse coach and is now incredibly passionate about spreading the word about the Truth of getting athletic scholarships, importance of teaching Leadership prior to college and HS and celebrating failure!

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

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Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 158 – Shannon Evans

Each One Teach One

  • The experienced players get to teach the less experienced. So the coach shows the experienced player what they want to teach, then the experienced player teaches that skill to the less experienced. Great way to teach your leaders how to lead.

Great small area game

  • Chumash – 3 on 3 – can score on either side of the goal. Similar to 3 on 3 basketball, you have to take it ‘back’ when possession switches.

Pop goes the weasel/Fox in the box

  • 5 defenders in front of goal, 5 offensive players. Defenders have to stay in the box, offensive players cannot go in box. Then a defender ‘pops’ out of box and covers the ball, then when that players passes it the defender goes back into box and the next defender pops out. Teaches offense to not run into traffic and move the ball.

Nonverbal communication

  • Creating some really simple hand signals is much more effective than trying to yell across a field

College recruiting – Showcases

  • Elite camps – the key is the student needs to have a relationship with the coaches before the camp.

College recruiting – Know what D1 demands are

  • D1 – Train and practice year-round – Full time job year-round and you go to school
  • D2 – Full time job in-season, mostly a full-time job out of season
  • D3 – Full time job in-season, off-season the expectations are much lower

Best way for a high school coach to prepare an athlete for college

  • Freshmen/sophomore year – Look for camps where coaches from a school you want to go to will be. Make sure the school you are interested in has the major you want to study.
  • The athlete should email coaches (make sure you understand the specific NCAA guidelines for your sport). Never should come from the parent. Coaches don’t want to hear from parents.
  • Remember MOST college athletic scholarships are not for full rides. Many only cover 1/4 to 1/3 of cost.
  • Grades/test score/rigor of your schedule – are the most important things a high school athlete should focus on.

The one that got away

  • Being a female coach in a boys’ sport – Shannon got called horrible names. She taught her players the best way to beat a bully is to outscore and outplay them.

Favorite books/quote:

  • ‘You can march to the beat of a different drum but you have to stay in the parade’

Parting Advice

  • For each practice – have a clear measurable obective. Tell the players what it is at the beginning of practice, then review it at the end and ask for input on how well you accomplished it.

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WYC 157 – Youth Baseball – Peter Caliendo – Developing the Habit of Hustle

Pete Caliendo has lead clinics for Major League Baseball International, USA Baseball and many other baseball organizations in various Latin American and European countries, and throughout the United States.

Pete has lectured on baseball all over the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America, has written articles for various publications and an international coaches book. Has a set of 5 baseball instructional DVD’s developed specifically for the volunteer coach to help them organize, teach and have fun throughout their practice and games.

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 157 – Peter Caliendo

Cringe Moments

  • Trying to repeat a process over and over again – each individual is unique and sometimes you’re best to just work with what works for each individual. Keep an open mind when working with athletes.

Teaching skills

  • Don’t just practice ‘normal’ situations – practice reacting after a mistake is made (a groundball is dropped, then react to how recover)

Achieving Peak performance mentally

  • Kids need to fail, earlier better than later. Ask them ‘what did you learn?’
  • Let the kids make decisions, let them learn, don’t use them as robots.

Team Culture

  • It starts with respect for the game. Respect your equipment, your opponents, the umpires. Clean your dugouts.
  • Character – are you happy when your teammates do well? How do you treat your teammates, the coaches, ets.

Captains/Leaders

  • They are servants and need to model behaviors

Discipline

  • It’s all about communication – if a player isn’t hustling, ask them ‘are you tired?’ If they say no, tell them it looks like they’re tired because they’re not running hard. Maybe tell them you’re going to sit them out of the next few plays because they look tired, and they need to come tell you when they are ready to run hard again.
  • Practice hustle. It’s a habit, not inborn. For warm-ups in practice, have them run to their position on the field. Then blow a whistle and have them run back to you. (hidden conditioning)

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • It’s cool when players you coach start implementing things you taught them

The one that got away

  • Tell kids what to do, not what not to do.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Don’t just copycat other coaches’ ideas. Learn, but make it your own.

Favorite books:

Parting Advice

  • Create the most fun you can in practice. Make it unique and not too repetitive/boring. Make it competitive.
  • Come with enthusiasm. Talk to each kid during each practice. Talk less, ask more questions.

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WYC 156 – Girls Lacrosse – Dave Briglio – Say Less & Ask More

Dave’s bio:

My direct sports coaching experience range from 2-10th grade for the past 10-yrs, but I also intersect with the varsity players while I’m working w JV (girls lacrosse). But my day job (consulting Engineer) is what led me to learning to coach adults on the job, and see how similar the process is between 8-18 yr olds and 22-62 yr olds…different nuances, but it all comes from the same place: connections, compassion and creating community. And it doesn’t have to be all rainbows and unicorns; but it certainly takes a lot more than “managing” and “instructing” with a firm attitude.

My big interest is seeing how critical youth/HS sports are in helping the next generation grow into the best people they can be. And I tell stories about my time as an athlete, mentors I’ve found after college, my family history (Dad created a company/vocation with a HS diploma and a work ethic futures through sports), and the young people I “serve” as their “Chief” Engineer.

And I now use these stories to help PARENTS see how to have less worry and find more joy in their kids’ sports/school.

Facebook: /complete3

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 156 – Dave Briglio

Coaching your own kids

  • In an ideal world you can have non-parent coaches, but often there aren’t enough coaches so you have to step up to help the program
  • The key is to be open and honest and communicate with your own kid and the other kids about being a parent coach

Teaching skills

  • Guided Discovery – It is more effective to let the kids figure it out on their own vs you just telling the kids how to do it
  • Start with a basic drill, and as they develop expertise in that skill, you add a twist to the drill to add complexity

Letting the players own the game

  • The players can’t hear you – so barking orders during the game is very inneffective and frustrating
  • Send in instructions with the next group/line. Coach them vs. yelling at the players on the field.

Achieving Peak performance mentally

  • Praise the effort over achievement
  • Fear is a very short-term motivation. A feeling of security and that someone believes in you is best way to increase kids’ confidence.
  • Figure out what you want to celebrate – and do it a bunch, in practice and in games. Real-time (otherwise it feels like false praise if you do it later.)
  • Some of the best praise is when you are doing it ‘behind their back’ – when you are praising someone who is not there at the time.

Self Esteem vs Self Confidence

  • Confidence is what you visibly display. But esteem is what you truly believe about yourself.

Favorite books:

Parting Advice

  • Play with them – Jump in and practice with them

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WYC 155 – The War for Four – Brad Butterworth talks Intentionality in Everything You Do

Brad Butterworth is the Director of Education and programs for Shoot360.

Brad has been in basketball development for 18 years as a head high school and collegiate coach. As a high school coach, he was able to help guide Dana Hills to its best records in school history. He’s worked with Florida State University, Western Washington University, Air Force Academy and Colorado College. Coach Butterworth’s success at the high school level was due to the work he put into the youth of his program in order to create a more competitive community and repeat success. He took that philosophy and helped create scale-able basketball development programs using sports technology.

Website: shoot360.com
Facebook: /Shoot360
Instagram: @shoot360
Twitter: @shoot3sixty

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 155 – The War for Four – Brad Butterworth talks Intentionality in Everything You Do

Cringe Moments (Brad calls ‘Turnovers’)

  • Brad went into his early coaching experiences without understanding how he needs to sell his program to the players and parents and community. Selling their vision.

Communication

  • Always taken place, whether you say it or not
  • Find shared values with parents

Four Keys

  • 1 – Spacing
  • 2 – Timing
  • 3 – Communication
  • 4 – Dramatics (or engagement) – Am I sold out to this?

Mastery

  • 4 stages:
    • 1 – Don’t know what they don’t know
    • 2 – Know what they don’t know
    • 3 – Know what they know
    • 4 – Doesn’t even know that he knows (unconsciously competent.) Only way to get here is practice.
  • The War for Four (rule of the doubles)
    • Out-offensive rebound your opponent by factor of 2
    • Shot attempts in the paint 2x amount of opponent
    • Deflections 2x amount of opponent
    • Free-throw attempts 2x amount of opponent

Shoot 360

  • Advanced basketball facility
  • Teach individuals, teams with advanced skill development
  • Get 350+ shots in 1/2 hour. Exact statistics are kept for every shot, allowing for instant corrections
  • Facilities on west coast, Indianapolis, and growing all the time
  • Website: shoot360.com

Parting Advice

  • Don’t worry about winning. Kids need to enjoy the game.

Legends on the Lake Coaching Academy

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WYC 154 – The Struggle of Self-Confidence – Riley Tincher – ‘You are more than an athlete’

Riley’s bio: I am a former All-American pitcher at UW-Whitewater. I am now a Mental Conditioning Coach (Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology), Author, and Speaker. I own a mentorship program called Coachability, where I have had the great fortune of coaching and mentoring athletes at every level. My book, “Pitching Against Myself,” is about my baseball career and all of the life lessons I learned throughout it, and how they apply to life after sports. It also shares an important message that I wish I would have been able to hear back when I was playing before the identity crisis, depression, and suicide; a message that says “you are more than an athlete.”

Pitching Against Myself book: Use discount code ‘WYC20’ at rileytincher.com to save 20% off book
Facebook: /RileyBTincher
Instagram: @RileyTincher
Twitter: @RileyTincher

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails?  Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!
Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 154 – The Struggle of Self-Confidence – Riley Tincher

Lessons from being told “You Should Quit”

  • Riley’s first baseball coach at age 14, after the season told Riley ‘You Should Quit’. This created a huge chip on his shoulder to prove him wrong. But it created an unhealthy need in Riley to prove himself to others.
  • ‘There is purpose in your pain’ – Riley’s struggle with depression and suicide was turned around when a mentor taught him that the purpose in his pain was to help others.
  • I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE – The drop caps that start each chapter of Riley’s book spell this phrase, without him planning this.

Performing in pressure situations

  • A big key is understanding we are not alone
  • Practicing pressure situations is also key
  • Confidence comes from:
    • Affirmation – Your words (as a coach) are critical. Remind athletes that they are great where they are. And they can get better. And most importantly, they are worthy enough to get better. A great activity is for athletes to write down affirmation statements about themselves, and then have them share them with their teammates – challenge them if they don’t see to believe them: ‘Speak up, say it like you mean it’
      • You’re the kind of person who _________ (is willing to take the big shot; will learn from any failures or mistakes you’ve had/made)
    • Achievement. Struggle is part of it. The greater the struggle, the greater the reward.

Culture

  • The worst: the coach said ‘I am your master and you have to listen to me’. They had ‘rules’ – but the best athletes didn’t have to keep them.
  • The best – Didn’t have rules, had standards. The players created them.

Best advice from a mentor

  • If you don’t change what you believe about yourself, nothing will change

Parting Advice

  • Stop focusing on the scoreboard and start focusing on your legacy

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WYC 153 – The Playmaker’s Advantage – Dr. Leonard Zaichkowsky talks How to Raise Your Mental Game to the Next Level

Leonard Zaichkowsky, PhD, a professor, researcher and consultant for almost four decades at Boston University, pioneered sport psychology by bringing cognitive neuroscience and sport performance together as an interdisciplinary science. His academic textbooks and research publications demonstrated the importance of an athlete’s remarkable brain in anticipating and acting on opportunities during competition.

He has consulted with teams in the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, Australian Rules Football, the Spanish men’s national soccer team, and Olympic sport organizations around the world. Len is a former president and a fellow of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, and currently section editor on psychology for the International Journal of Health & Sport Science. Recently, the American Psychological Association honored Len with the “Distinguished Service to the Profession” award.

Today, Len is a co-founder and senior consultant at 80 Percent Mental Consulting, advising coaches, teams and sports organizations on developing athlete cognition. After too many Boston winters, he and his wife now live in Fort Myers, Florida.

Buy The Playmakers Advantage on Amazon: Link

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Teaching Skills

Performing in pressure situations

  • Simulate pressure situations often in practice
  • Small area games where all the kids get more touches in tight areas under pressure
  • Encourage the better players to be your leaders and encourage the lesser talented players

Developing athletes

  • Kids need to be active physically (around the neighborhood, in the backyard) before diving into high-level competitive athletics
  • The best athletes are typically self-developed, not grown by private lessons at an early age

What makes a Playmaker?

  • Deliberate practice – It takes a motivated athlete who constantly is thinking about, playing the sport
  • Overspeed training – Go so fast that you fall down physically. For mental overspeed training – there is a neurotracker. Good website: gamesensesports.com

The one that got away

  • Len kicked a bag of oranges after a bad call and they went all over the court

Best stolen/borrowed idea

  • Tight area games
  • Overspeed training

The Playmakers Advantage

  • The brain and understanding the thinking process is so important to all areas of life
  • Buy The Playmakers Advantage on Amazon: Link

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WYC 152 – Your Coaching Purpose vs Your Coaching Goals – Scott Hearon

Scott Hearon is a native Nashvillian and a 2006  graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy where he played football and basketball for the Big Red. A remarkably average athlete, Scott did not make a big impact in the high school stat columns, but he found his niche as a gifted leader and communicator among his teammates and coaches. Scott continued on to Baylor University and earned a degree in Communications and a minor in Business. While at Baylor, he met new football coach, Art Briles, during football tryouts when Coach Briles informed him that his 5.0 second 40 yard dash time was not quite good enough to be a slot receiver for the Bears.

After returning from Texas, Scott took a ministry job working with high school students and their families and coaching in his spare time. He found a lot of success in his day job, but found his coaching to be a disaster. Reminded of the incredible potential athletics has to prepare players for life, Scott set out on a mission to be be a more full hearted leader himself and to develop opportunities to help other coaches do the same. This journey led Scott to co-found the Nashville Coaching Coalition in 2015 and begin as the Executive Director full-time in 2016 with the goal of fully leveraging the human growth potential of sport in Nashville.

Previous episode with Scott:

WYC Episode 106

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

The good and bad of sports coaches

  • Many kids validate themselves based on what coaches say to them and how they treat them

The lost dream of being an all-state player

  • When Scott realized he wasn’t going to be an all-state player, he could feel the disappointment from his father. He and his father realized this wasn’t healthy, so they ended up reaching out to Joe Erhmann to learn what being a man is really all about.

The 8 Feelings

  • Dr. Chip Dodd has researched emotional intelligence – and come up with 8 core emotions that every human has. We have the ability to choose a positive or a negative response to each emotion. The 8 core emotions are:
  • 1 – Hurt
  • 2 – Lonely
  • 3 – Sad
  • 4 – Anger
  • 5 – Fear
  • 6 – Shame
  • 7 – Guilt
  • 8 – Glad

Why do you coach?

  • To win a championship?

or

  • To build strong children?
  • Difference in goal vs purpose:
    • Purpose is about the big picture (to love kids)
    • Goal is the short-term focus of the team (to win a championship)

Meetings with parents

  • Always have the players present
  • Always start every conversation with your purpose statement
  • Over-communicate your vision

The Coach Forum

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WYC 151 – The Circle of Intentional Influence – James Leath

James is the Founder of Unleash the Athlete and former Head of Leadership and Character Development at IMG Academy. He helps college, professional athletes, and business professionals develop the mental and relational side of their craft through interactive lectures and teambuilding activities. James is also the director of performance for Complexity, the esports organization owned by the Dallas Cowboys.
Instagram: jamesleath
twitter: @jamesleath

Previous episodes with James:

WYC Episode 31

WYC Episode 50

WYC Episode 61

WYC Episode 100

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Don’t sell yourself short

  • James was going to apply for an internship at IMG, his mentor told him to go for the full-time job
  • Do you ever sell yourself short, thinking you’re unqualified?

I’ve arrived – the destination of a championship

  • ‘I wished I would’ve enjoyed the journey more’
  • ‘Who am I now? I’ve always been the person going after this’

The Circle of Intentional Influence

  • Influence -> Relationship
  • Relationship -> Trust
  • Trust -> Authenticity
  • Authenticity -> Ownership
  • Ownership -> Credibility
  • Credibility -> Influence

How to Communicate Effectively

  • Take your sunglasses off
  • Take a knee
  • Take note of what’s behind you (the sun, the cheerleaders)
  • Take 2 minutes or less

Unleash the Athlete

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WYC 150 – Youth Baseball – Donny Murray talks Overspeed Training

Donny Murray is currently a professional pitcher in the independent Frontier League. Donny is from Boston, was a 4 year starter at D1 Holy Cross, and also pitched 2 summers in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Falmouth Commodores. In 2016, Donny pitched the first no-hitter in USPBL (professional independent league) history. He also works with SuperSpeed Slugger, which is a bat speed training product being used by MLB teams and youth players of all ages. The WYC listeners can get 10% off SuperSpeed Slugger by using promo code “WYC”.

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Making Cuts

  • Always try to look at potential, and a huge factor is attitude and if they are coachable

Adjusting when losing talent

  • Be pre-emptive with your culture to get your players/coaches focused on the right things if the winning is going to drop off
  • It’s even more important to develop your leaders when winning is going to be tough. A leadership council of 2 kids per grade can help prepare your younger leaders for when they are future captains.
  • 2 types of captain:
  • 1 – Vocal leader
  • 2 – The hard-worker who just gets it done

Using video

  • Using video analysis is a great tool for a player and/or a coach

Teaching Skills

  • Take the time to evaluate a player before you start giving advice. Don’t watch them for 1 rep and start changing things.
  • Then start with the fundamentals and get their foundation right.
  • Individualize your feedback!

The One that Got Away

  • Donny’s last collegiate game – he just wasn’t ‘on.’ It made him work that much harder to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Best Stolen/Borrowed Idea

  • Make every practice drill a competition

SuperSpeed Slugger

  • Overspeed training – a set of 3 bats. 1 is 20% lighter, 1 is 10% lighter, and 1 is 5% heavier
  • Swing with both sides of the body (not just dominant hand). Great for injury prevention
  • Teaches the body to swing faster.
  • Within 6 weeks it’s engrained in the body.
  • Only takes 7-8 minutes per day, 3 days per week
  • SuperSpeedSlugger.com
  • The WYC listeners can get 10% off SuperSpeed Slugger by using promo code “WYC”.

Parting Advice

  • Players and parents notice how much effort you put it to your coaching, and they will play harder for you if they think you are putting in the effort

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WYC 149 – Athletes with special needs – Amanda Selogie & Vickie Brett talk leveling the playing field

Amanda and Vickie practice Special Education law in Southern California. They also run a non-profit called Inclusive Education Project where they aim to level the playing field in academic settings for students living with disabilities. They co-host their own weekly podcast by the same name – the Inclusive Education Project Podcast and they feature conversations on how parents and teachers can best ensure an inclusive school environment.

Website: http:www.iepcalifornia.org
Podcast: Inclusive Education Project Podcast:  www.iepcalifornia.org/blog

Facebook: /IEPcalifornia

Twitter: @IEPcalifornia

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

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A different approach

  • Kids learn differently – kids with special needs might need things slowed down, show visually, or some other approach
  • Utilize the parents – they have lots of techniques that work well with their child
  • Peer role models and buddy systems work great, and benefit not only the kid with special needs but equally (if not more) it benefits the peer role model
  • Positive reinforcement is much more effective than negative reinforcement. Catch them doing something right

Breaking down skills into small pieces

  • The steps: Hearing what you’re being asked to do, then seeing what you need to do, then physically doing it. Sometimes actually taking their arm or leg and doing the motion for them.

Handling emotions with kids with special needs

  • Address it, don’t hide from it. Handle it the same as you would with any kid who gets upset – address it, teach them what is acceptable. Then re-focus them.
  • The parents are a great resource to get ideas

Reach out to the school to get more inclusive

  • P.E. teachers, school administrators could recommend a few kids that could be good candidates to join your team

Favorite Quotes

  • Quote: ‘Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose’ – Friday Night Lights
  • Quote: ‘All of us do not have equal talents. But all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.’ – JFK

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WYC 148 – Youth Soccer – John Adair talks Constraints-based Coaching

2018 will mark John Adair’s fourth year at Coerver Coaching. Adair is the Regional Director for all of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, overseeing player development and coaching education. Prior to joining the Coerver Coaching staff, he has enjoyed success at both the club and high school levels in the South Jersey area.

Instagram: coachjohnadair
Twitter: @coachjohnadair

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Cringe moment

  • Early on John did a lot of cone drills and isolated movements without decision-making and learning the game through their own mistakes

Creativity and problem-solving

  • Instead of cones, set up small area games in confined spaces. 2 v 1’s. 3 v 2’s.

Training better individuals vs just winning as a team

  • Instead of 11 v 11, break the game into corridors and small area games
  • Use this mentality to create mini-goals so each unit has accountability and measurements to look at after games, not just wins/losses as a team

Constraints based coaching

  • Create games where players have a variety of choices, they learn skills while making decisions

Self-confidence for players

  • Focus on the process – so it’s different for each player. Don’t compare them with other kids. Use guided discovery through side conversations with players for them to uncover solutions to what they need to improve.

Team Culture

  • Involve the kids to get buy-in. Have the kids write down what they thing a good player on this team will do.

Great teambuilder

  • Have play days. The kids run the day, play mini-tournaments. Kids make all the decisions.

5 for 5

  • Spend at least 5 minutes talking to 5 different kids about something other than sports

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • John coached a kid who had the physical tools but not the technical and mental tools needed. The kid approached John and worked his butt off over the summer and went on to play college soccer.

The one that got away

  • Coaching a state playoff game, they played the underdog role too much, changed their tactics too much, and went away from what got them there. This led to a lack of confidence.

Best learned/stolen idea

  • Constraints based coaching. Make everything in practice relate back to the game and involve decision-making. Don’t be reactive in practice-planning – set objectives and have a plan that you stick to.
  • Great resource: Youtube channel: Opposite Direction Coaching – Task constraints; Environmental constraints

Favorite Quote/Book

  • Quote: ‘If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room’
  • Book: Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson

Parting Advice

  • Value the experience over winning, and the results will follow

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WYC 147 – Thriving On & Off the Field – Tywanna Smith talks Preparing for Transitions

Tywanna Smith, President & Founder of The Athlete’s NeXus, has several years of experience working with professional athletes in a financial and business capacity. Smith earned her Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Marketing and her Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). She was also a four-year starter for the SEC program’s women’s basketball team, eventually taking her talents to Europe for a 2-year professional career.

As a Registered Financial Representative, Entrepreneur, and Best-Selling Author of Surviving the Lights: A Professional Athlete’s Playbook to Avoiding the Curse, Tywanna takes pride in her business professionalism and integrity. She is committed to helping each professional athlete become a better citizen, a better role model, and a better businessman.

Website: theathletesnexus.com

Book: Surviving the Lights

Facebook: /TheAthletesNeXus

 

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Transition

  • Athletes are always preparing for the next transition, on and off the field
  • Tywanna tore her ACL her junior year of high school – she used this as fuel when people starting to write her off.

The importance of education

  • Even if a student athlete’s priority is to play college athletics, their grades will be extremely important in determining what opportunities they will be afforded

Off the field keys

  • Grades
  • Social media – future coaches, employers – will look over your entire history of social media posts

Mental toughness

  • It comes from the top down. The coach’s energy and confidence in the players is very contagious.
  • Tough practices teach athletes how to deal with adversity, and they want competition
  • Visualization – Have the athletes close their eyes and visualize favorable results

Surviving the Lights

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • An athlete trying to play professionally was struggling to make in into the pros.
  • Tywanna worked with him to re-center – and reaffirm him what his gifts were and that he had great talents off the sports field

The one that got away

  • The day Tywanna tore her ACL her junior year, and her team was poised to win the state championship
  • But she says it was the best day in her life because it gave her the perspective on life that there’s more to life than sports

Best learned/stolen idea

  • The balance between sports and life. Tywanna’s college coach, when she walked out of practice was done with sports and focused on life off the court

Favorite quote

  • ‘If you stay ready, you never have to get ready’

Parting Advice

  • Take the edge off a little bit, it’s just a game.

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WYC 146 – Youth Sports – Ben Kissam talks having a Four Quarter Mentality

Ben Kissam is a youth sports coach and writer in Denver, CO. Ben’s areas of expertise are in relationship-based coaching and teaching, effective communication, and fusing lessons in sport and entrepreneurship.

Website & podcast: thecoachkshow.com

Facebook: /thecoachkshow/

Twitter: @thecoachkshow

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Coaching role models

  • Ben had 2 examples from his athletic career – 1 very positive and 1 very negative. He learned from both

Cringe moment

  • His attitude towards the kids – he thought they should just always do what he says. The lesson learned was to focus on getting buy-in instead of just mandating what should be done.

Practice format

  • Routines help. Teach them to run their own warm-ups.
  • Lots of reps, but get creative in making it competitive. It’s also very important to start with the basics when explaining a skill and continue to reinforce what good looks like.

Good practice games

  • The gauntlet – Set up a 10 yard tunnel, and kids go 1 on 1 in it
  • Odd man situations – 3 on 2

Self-confidence

  • Teaching a growth mindset is key. Every failure is a step on the journey to success and it is a necessary part of learning.
  • Be a relationships-based coach. Focus on having as many 1 on 1 conversations with your kids as possible.

Captains

  • It’s important to have a right-hand man. They can also help with communication – group texts, etc.

Four Quarter mentality culture

  • Setting up a practice plan that builds up the intensity throughout and emphasize finishing strong

Best team builder

  • Eating together. Pasta nights.

Connecting with kids

  • A goalie who Ben coached lacked confidence, and after working with him for 3 years he sees a totally different kid who now is confident

Favorite quote

  • ‘Athletes don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’

The one that got away

  • Ben coached a team of super talented, super knowledgeable kids.
  • They rolled through the regular season, and played a way lower ranked team in the first round of the playoffs, and lost.

Best Stolen Idea

  • Have a sense of urgency in practice. Create a long-term vision but create a sense of immediate urgency of the importance of every drill and everything you do in practice.

Favorite book

Parting Advice

  • Know one thing about each of your kids that has nothing to do with the sport, and check in with them about it.

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WYC 145 – College Recruitment – Carter Armendarez talks college recruitment do’s and don’ts

Carter Armendarez is a senior at Wesleyan University, where he’s also captain of the wrestling team. Getting recruited to play sports in college is confusing to lots of athletes, but it really shouldn’t be. Carter has seen too many athletes fail to get recruited. So he made Acute Recruit’s College Recruitment Guide for Athletes so that doesn’t happen anymore.

Website: acuterecruit.com

Facebook: /Acute-Recruit-369368080173002/

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The best coaches…

  • Believed in me
  • Had me focus on becoming an expert in one skill vs trying to be OK at everything

Getting Recruited to college

  • The most overlooked area is grades
  • Start early
  • Coaches want to hear from the athlete, not their parents
  • Start a website to have as a landing page to share with coaches. Include:
    • A page with highlight films
    • An ‘about me’ with your accomplishments and bio
    • A contact page with your contact details and your coach’s contact details

A big opportunity

  • A lot of D3 schools have trouble recruiting quality athletes because their academic standards are too high. This is a great opportunity for athletes who may not have been the highest level elite athlete in high school.

Contacting Coaches

  • Meet them in person at tournaments
  • Research schools you want to pursue and look up the coaches online

The one that got away

  • Carter lost by one point his senior year on the match to qualify for state
  • What he learned: He learned to play to his strengths

Best Stolen Idea

  • Quote from Tim Ferris when he asked an professional skier what the most important turns are on the run: ‘The most important turns are the 3 years I spent preparing before the run.’

Parting Advice

  • Focus on the basics
  • Keep it fun!

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WYC 144 – The “Owner’s Manual” for parents – Michael Richards talks Your Student Athlete: Must Do, Should Do, and Don’t

Michael Richards is the Owner and Operator of Elite Athletic Performance in Benton, Arkansas. After missing out on an opportunity to play collegiate baseball due to what he describes as  “Youthful ignorance and a slightly bad attitude”, Michael began playing semi-pro baseball and attending his sophomore year of college. Shortly thereafter he began training fitness clients and young athletes as a sole proprietor. What started as a fun way to “Not get a real job” and make extra money in college, has turned into 16 years and approximately 30,000 hours of “in the trenches” training experience.

Today he strives every day to help kids be the best athlete and person they can be. A particular love for Velocity and Accuracy training for baseball and softball pitchers has led to a number of 90+ MPH clients, professional and collegiate coaching contacts, and a burning desire to learn new information whenever possible.

Website: eaperformancellc.com

Book : Your Student Athlete: Should Do, Must Do, and Don’t: The “Owner’s Manual” for parents to maximize their kid’s time, help them perform better, and avoid injury

Facebook: /eliteathleticperformancellc/

Twitter: @EAPerform

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Grades and attitude as a high schooler

  • Michael had the athletic ability to play baseball beyond high school, but his attitude and his grades prevented him from that opportunity

Myths around youth sports

  • 1 – Pitchers running day after pitching to flush the lactic acid buildup. J-bands (Jaeger bands) or massaging the muscles makes way more sense.
  • 2 – Everyone needs to be hyper-flexible. Some people just aren’t very flexible, and while some stretching can add a bit of flexibility, there are other things such as massage rollers and dynamic stretches that are much more beneficial.

Multi-sport athletes

  •  If kids love multiple sports, they should play them. But the belief that you must be a multi-sport athlete to be recruited to college is not always true. Especially in your junior and senior years –  Don’t play a 2nd sport just to do it if you don’t love it.

Travel ball and showcases

  • Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the most efficient use of time is travel teams and showcases. Private lessons are often a much more time and cost efficient. And the lessons don’t need to be year-round.

Favorite books/quotes

  • Book – Start with why by Simon Sinek
  • Quote – ‘If I had asked my customers what they needed they would have told me a faster horse.’ – Henry Ford

Parting Advice

  • Keep it simple and make sure they’re having fun

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WYC 143 – Performance Anxiety – Kathy Feinstein talks Developing a Growth Mindset

Kathy Feinstein is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Sport Performance Consultant (CMPC). Since 1998 her unique practice has empowered adolescents, adults, couples, families and teams to achieve greater satisfaction in sport, health and life. Kathy’s practice focuses on the 3 key areas: counseling, sport performance psychology and education through seminars and workshops. Kathy works with youth, high school, collegiate, adult amateur and professional athletes in such sports as golf, tennis, hockey, volleyball, basketball, figure skating, cheerleading, track and field, swimming and cycling. In addition to sport and exercise psychology consulting, she also offers team and coach consulting.

Website: kafcounselingandsportperformance.com

Podcast: Parenting Peak Performers Podcast

Facebook: /kafcounselingandconsulting/

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Being a crazy sports parent

  • Kathy got really excited about her daughter riding horses, but she lost sight of doing what’s best for her daughter

Performance Anxiety

  • The first step is to normalize the need – kids need to know that performance anxiety is very normal

The importance of breathing

  • Anxiety is all about the future. What if…
  • Breathing is all about the present.
  • If you can do this 20 minutes per day, it changes your mindset
  • When you inhale, there will be a cool sensation at the tip of your nostrils. When you exhale, there is a warm sensation at the tip of your nostrils.
  • When you do this, you will start having some thoughts. Without any judgement, bring your focus back to the breath. Do this over and over again.
  • Do this for 5 minutes with your team, your coaches, your players, etc.

Recovery routines

  • Having a discharge routine – if you are upset about something, have a quick discharge routine to flush away the past. Then have a different re-focus routine that gets you back in the moment and focused on the future.

Growth Mindset

  • Encourage kids to take risks, risk making mistakes. Mistakes are an opportunity to get better.

Confidence inventory

  • Have kids make a list of all of their accomplishments. Then have them read it before a performance.

Post-competition routine

  • After routines, write down what you did well, then add 1 or 2 things you want to do better next time

Visualization

  • You have to train how to visualize: Have the athlete do a simple activity (touch your toes and and jump in the air.) Then have them close their eyes and visualize doing that same activity.
  • The more vivid the visualization is, the more effective it is. Try to involve as many senses as possible
  • Visualization exercise:  Imagery Exercise – KAF

The one that got away

  • Kathy had a presentation that went bad and she got stuck. She learned a new way to prepare for presentations, where she focuses on the audience and their needs.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • The post-performance routine
  • Well-better-next

Favorite Quotes/books

  • Quote: ‘What is before us and what is behind us are small matters compared to what’s within us’ – Emerson
  • Book: The Champions Mind by Jim Afremow
  • Book: Getting Grit by Caroline Adams Miller

Parting Advice

  • Ask kids about what mistakes they made today – and be excited about them and celebrate them

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WYC 142 – Physical Literacy – Steve Boyle talks living life as a Walk-on

Steve and his wife Kerry started their first camp in 2008, and only 4 summers later, the camp was declared “Best Summer Camp” in Hartford Magazine’s Readers Poll and their programs have received tremendous positive coverage from area media outlets. Now over 1000 kids have come to recognize that “Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport” and kids from throughout the U.S. and beyond are attending their programs.

Website: 241Sports.com

Facebook: /241SportsLLC

Twitter: @241Sports

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Walking-on to his college basketball team

  • Steve was probably the 4th best player on his high school basketball team. He approached his coach and said he thought he could play D1 basketball. His coach did everything but laugh at him.
  • That fueled him to go on and start for his D1 team in college
  • He now takes pride in living life as a ‘walk-on.’ Trying things he has no experience with and taking risks.
  • Lesson for coaches: Be careful about ever telling a kid ‘this just isn’t your sport’- you never know when someone will be a late-bloomer or just outwork the others.

Physical Literacy and Project Play

2-4-1 Sports

  • Camps that promote sport sampling
  • Now in Connecticut, Denver, and 2 more locations coming soon

Recent great books read

Parting Advice

  • Be as genuine and honest as you can with your athletes. Value being trusted over being liked.

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WYC 141 – Youth Sports – Jenn Casey talks Fun in Movement & Crossfit Kids

Jenn Casey is the Program Director for CrossFit Kids and Swing Fit (a Kettlebell Sport class) at CrossFit Kennesaw in Marietta, Georgia. She is the President and Co-Founder of Georgia Kettlebell Sport, which has the mission to develop and promote Kettlebell Sport in the state of Georgia and the greater Southeast Region of the US. She is developing a youth-focused Kettlebell Sport program and is taking her youth team on their first road trip in December 2017. Jenn is an active Kettlebell Sport athlete and in 2017 was chosen to participate in the IUKL World Championship in Seoul, South Korea as part of Team USA where she placed 4th in 16kg One Arm Long Cycle.

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Quitting at age 13, because it wasn’t fun anymore

  • Jenn was on the team track in gymnastics, but by age 12 or 13 she quit because it wasn’t fun anymore. Then she didn’t do much of any athletic activity for 2 decades.
  • At age 39 she jumped into Crossfit

Kettlebell

  • Look like a cannonball with a handle
  • You can use them for hip-hinge movements, but they also can be great for cardio
  • The competitive side of the sport involves Kettlebell overhead lifts
  • The competitive side involves how many overhead lifts you can do in 10 minutes

Keeping the fun in movement

  • Give kids lots of opportunities for success and catch them doing things right
  • Ask lots of question – ‘where do I put my feet in a squat?’, etc.
  • Definitely praise when they self-correct
  • Rep / No-rep – Coach does a rep, some correctly and some incorrectly, then the kids call out whether that was a good rep or a no-rep.

Good analogies

  • ‘Glue your feet to the ground. Pretend you have concrete blocks on your feet’
  • ‘Your knees don’t like each other’
  • ‘Pretend you are lifting an elephant over your head’

Mental toughness

  • Jenn was a kid who was good in practice, then would freeze up in competition/tryouts
  • Breathing is key to keep your heart rate steady
  • Do practice reps using the same routine you will use in games
  • The Talent Code – by Daniel Coyle
  • Mindset – by Carol Dweck
  • Mastery – by Robert Greene
  • Coaching Better every season – by Wade Gilbert
  • Start with Why – Simon Sinek

Best borrowed/stolen ideas

  • Gamifying deliberate practice

Parting Advice

  • Find the fun in whatever you’re doing.
  • Get the kids involved. Have them help design a practice.

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WYC 140 – Player feedback – Ian Goldberg talks goal setting and the feedback loop

Ian Goldberg is the Founder and CEO of iSport360, Inc. a SportsTech venture that helps youth sport coaches and parents share objective player feedback. As a sport parent and coach, Ian has witnessed the chaos on the sidelines and in the bleachers when coaches’ and parents’ expectations are not aligned….and the kids suffer.  His company has developed a solution to the pain in the form of an app and an informative (and frequently humorous) newsletter “The Chaotic World of Youth Sports”.

Website: isport360.com
Facebook: /isport360/
Twitter: @isport360

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The feedback loop

  • Ongoing feedback is way more effective than end-of-the-year feedback
  • Regular feedback is important, but can be time-consuming. Ideally coaches should be able to spend a few minutes and quickly evaluate and provide feedback to all players

Objective goals

  • It’s easy to just look at how many points/goals players score, but most coaches are trying to evaluate many things beyond just scoring. The key is to define measurable objectives of what you are trying to improve in players.

Empowering kids

  • Ideally kids should be able to:
    • Talk to the coaches themselves
    • Set their own goals

What happens in a parents’ brain when watching their kids play sports

  • Fight or flight mode – Parents’ stress levels and cortisol levels are skyrocketing when being on the sideline watching their kids

Parents are either part of your process or part of your problem

  • Involve them – they want to know what’s going on, regardless of age
  • A good way to base how much parents are involved – how much money they are spending. So for cheap low-level rec sports, not as much. For high-level travel teams costing thousands of dollars – the parents should be communicated with more.

iSport360 – The feedback loop

  • Mobile app – Coaches can work with players to set goals at beginning of season and allows the coach to provide feedback
  • Parents can also send other players on the team positive emojis
  • Weekly newsletter with funny stories

Best Stolen Idea

  • Barbara Corcoran from the Shark Tank: ‘To be successful, you have to have a certain level of stupidity, so that when you keep getting knocked down, you continuously get back up, expecting better results.’

Parting Advice

  • Don’t let sports take over your life. Enjoy it and keep it in perspective.

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WYC 139 – Practice design – Coach Kav talks competition and how kids learn

Coach Kav owns a sports performance facility called The Sport and Speed Institute. On top of that he runs NFL Combine Programs and All-American Football Camps every year, and just published a #1 bestselling book on Amazon.

Website: coachkav.com
Instagram: @CoachKav

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How kids learn

  • Remember what you want them to work on is what they are most insecure about, so be strategic about how you approach it

Trust

  • The key is building trust, the kids will know when you don’t truly have their best interest in mind

Practice design

  • Teach and deconstruct a skill
  • Compete. There needs to be a winner and a loser. Positive conditioning- the winners get to do additional workouts. But at the youth level, this takes the right situation
  • Make sure you’re not just teaching a skill and doing a drill for 10 minutes – you have to keep reinforcing what you teach continuously throughout that practice and throughout the season
  • Try not to use the term ‘suicides’ for running. Powerful word that should not be used in this context.

Auditory reactionary drill

  • Two lines in a relay race – have multiple cones – you stand behind them and call which cone they have to go around (#1,2,or 3). This also helps you balance the teams so you don’t have to worry about evening up the teams.
  • Also can reward the team that has better team spirit

Good practice games

  • Tic tac toe – 2 teams – throw cones/pinnies in a square
  • Tag – great competition/conditioning game with lots of cutting. You can add a cognitive element – give everyone a number – then use math to call out the numbers of who is ‘it’

4 things every parent can do with their kid to prepare them for life:

  1. Read
  2. Learn a 2nd language
  3. Play an instrument
  4. Play a team sport

Favorite books/quotes

Man up – The book

  • The 5 areas of focus to guarantee your athletic success
  • BALLS – Balance, Accountability, Lust (your drive), Sacrifice
  • Link: Man up

Parting Advice

  • Remember all kids you coach are telling others about you – so treat them all with respect

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WYC 138 – Leadership – John Moyer talks Overfunctioning Leadership

John Moyer is a current teacher at Stow-Munroe Falls High School, where he has taught since 1990.  John is certified coach in Resilient Leadership, based in the Washington DC area.  John currently is employed by the Stow City School District as their District Leadership Coach, where he helps teachers, coaches and administrators become more effective leaders.

Podcast: iTunes link
Facebook: /theofpodcast/
Youtube: youtube link

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Every system(or team) desires 5 things: SCARF

  • Status
  • Certainty – This takes time for a newer coach.
  • Autonomy
  • Relatedness
  • Fairness

Good places to start

  • Read books
  • Attend conferences, talk to other coaches

Critical thinking in the stress of a game

  • If you have established your guiding principles, it greatly increases your ability to calmly think through and stay focused on what’s important

Overfunctioning=Underfunctioning

  • When one overfunctions, there is a reciprocal reaction of underfunctioning
  • The best balance for a coach is to be there to be a calm presence in a storm, but not overreact to negative situations that will occur in every game

A child-focused society

  • If a parent over-focuses on their children, the child is worse off
  • As a coach- do your coaching well, but think less about it.
  • Game theory – There is a fear our kid/team will get behind if someone else practices more or plays on more travel teams.
  • A 2 person relationship is inherently unstable. For parents – it is far easier for them to talk about their kids than it it is to talk about their own relationship.

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • John works with kids to help them start establishing who they are and identifying their self

The One that Got Away

  • In John’s senior year, he played against a tackle that went on to be an all-pro center. John got worked over pretty bad by this guy, but he learned resilience and knew to focus on process over outcome.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Relentlessly eradicate hurry from your life

Favorite books/quotes

Parting Advice

  • Smile a lot.
  • Be organized.

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WYC 137 – Youth Baseball – Jack Perconte talks Creating a Season to Remember

Jack Perconte has dedicated his post-major league baseball career to helping youth and their parents through the complicated world of youth sports. Combining his playing, coaching and parenting experiences he continues to help create better sporting experiences for both athletes and their parents. He has authored multiple books, including his most recent, Creating a Season to Remember.

Website/Book: baseballcoaching.tips
Twitter: @Jackperconte

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Cringe Moments

  • Early on Jack was bothered by the ‘know-it-all’ kids, but over the years he has learned to stick with them and they can become some of your best supporters

Teaching skills

  • Start with talking with the kids about their individual strengths and weaknesses
  • Set up short-term and long-term plans with them
  • Utilize multiple stations with small groups to keep everyone

Achieving peak performance mentally

  • Confidence comes and goes, it’s the coaches job to keep stay optimistic. Good things happen in the players’ heads when you have confidence in them and let them know you believe in them.
  • Confidence comes from perfecting the fundamentals

Attitude

  • When Jack was playing in the Dodgers organization, the Dodgers came down to watch a couple players  in the minor leagues. One player was on fire, and the other was struggling. A few weeks later they called up the player who was struggling. They said it was because they were so impressed with the attitude of the player while he was struggling.

Parents

  • It’s critical to have a meeting with the parents before the season and explain your philosophies on playing time, strategies, etc.
  • Continue that communication with updates to the parents throughout the season

Coaching your own kids

  • Each kid is different. Some embrace learning from their parent, some resist it.

The One that Got Away

  • Jack made the last out of the season in a one game playoff when with the Dodgers
  • Failure is a great motivator to work harder

Favorite books/quotes

  • All books by John Wooden

Baseball coaching 

  • Website/Book: baseballcoaching.tips
  • Creating a Season to Remember – A great A to Z resource for coaching a team
  • Podcast: Something Worth Catching

Parting Advice

  • Stay ahead of the curve. There are so many resources, keep learning.

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WYC 136 – How to Win at Sports – Lynden Gwartney talks the Science of Winning

Lynden Gwartney is the founder of Mind Of A Champion Sports, and trains athletes and coaches in the principles of winning in sports. He is the author of How to Win at Sports, where through examples from Marine Corps history and analysis of the world’s top athletes and coaches – as well as thirty years of exprience as an athlete and coach – Lynden reveals the concepts that all champions use to gain an advantage over their opponents.

Facebook/podcast: /scienceofwinningpodcast

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Coaching 6 year olds

  • Break every motion into 3 simple steps. Step bend pass, step bend pass.
  • Maximize touches!

Winning – The big 3

  1. Find your opponents weakness and attack it
  2. Stick with what’s working
  3. Find your opponents strength and neutralize it

Find your opponents weakness and attack it

  • Physical
  • Mental
  • What are their tendencies

Stick with what’s working

  • This changes game to game. What’s working TODAY.
  • You have to use statistics to make these decisions. Don’t just go on ‘feel.’

Find your opponents strength and neutralize it

The Science of Winning Podcast & How to Win at Sports book

Parting Advice

  • Focus on the big 3.

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WYC 135 – Coaching Education – Dr. Clayton Kuklick talks Random practice design & the power of analogies

Dr. Clayton Kuklick is a University of Denver Clinical Assistant Professor of Master of Arts in Sports Coaching and a PhD in Athletic Coaching Education. Clayton played college and pro baseball and has coached at all levels from youth through college.

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Coaching your own kids

  • Make sure to communicate the different roles you will be having with your child – coach vs. parent

Cringe moments

  • Initially Clayton was very structured and controlling. He learned to incorporate different ways to facilitate and teach vs. structure and commands.

Teaching Skills 

  • The difference between learning and performance – Create variation in activities vs. blocked practice design.
  • Dynamic systems theory – Provide a few guidelines, then allow athletes to try different strategies and learn. Small-sided tactical games are a great way to do this.

Mental toughness

  • Routines can reduce stress – Having a pre-bat routine in baseball reduces stress. Practice it. In practices, before they perform a task, have them: Take a deep breath, one positive thought, then we go. A positive thought is best when process related: fast and loose vs. get a hit.

Culture

  • It starts with core values. Keep it tight – have only a couple core values. Then you have to define what behaviors demonstrate those core values.
  • Great analogies to reward behviors –
    • The Sugar Shaker – who made practice sweeter today?
    • The Live Sponge – who learned and applied something new today?

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Clayton coached a kid who was struggling in school, he had a big presentation coming up – so they used some of the same mental skill approaches they use in athletics to apply to his presentation

The one that got away

  • Clayton played on a team in college that went to the playoffs, and they got pampered and ate a bunch of unhealthy food. They had not educated their players throughout the season about the importance of their diet.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Clayton played with Justin Gordon – and Justin did a great job using analogies

Favorite Quote/Book

Parting Advice

  • Challenge: How can you embed life skills into your practice drills? Decision making, resiliency, social skills.

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WYC 134 – Youth Football – Anthony Stone talks Every Kid Learning 2 things

Anthony Stone is a Physical Education teacher at Gregory Elementary School and Quarterbacks Coach at Boylan High School in Rockford, Ill. He is also the Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach for the 2017 Women’s Australian National Outback Team & writes blogs for “Hudl” & “Firstdown Playbook.”

In July 2016, he was named to the Hudl 100 list. He has presented at IAPHERD, the top physical education convention in Illinois, on how to get students moving with his Games Galore presentations. He has also presented at the Chicago Glazier Clinics on quarterbacks & special teams. He was the Defensive Coordinator for the 2010 U.S. Women’s National Tackle Football Team, winners of the IFAF Women’s World Championship in which Team USA did not allow a point in three games with an overall score of 201-0.

The rest of his coaching experience involves coaching in the CIFL and the IWFL Leagues as well as Beloit College (Linebackers/Special Teams Coordinator) and Rockford University (Quarterbacks/Wide Receivers).  As well as coaching football at the youth, middle school and high school level.

He will be putting on fundamental youth football camps around the world in 2017, with his “Back to the Basics Football Camp” coming to a city near you.

Website/books: coachstonefootball.com

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Quote

‘If you’re still teaching your quarterback the day before the game, you’re in trouble’

Coaching your own kids

  • Why not? You can learn what you don’t know, go do it if it interests you

Cringe moments

  • ‘I was a yeller’. Anthony has learned the value in being positive

Teaching Skills – Great games

Practice Planning 

  • Use notecards/notebook – keep it with you in practices and games and note things you need to work on
  • When teaching skills – visual analogies comparing the motions to real-world activities work great.

Mental toughness

  • Practice reading situations – so your players know what to look for and don’t panic when they see something new
  • ‘If you’re still teaching your quarterback the day before the game, you’re in trouble’
  • Mondays through Wednesdays are work/teaching days
  • Monday – introduction
  • Tuesday/Wednesday – work day
  • Thursday – the players should be teaching it back to the coach
  • Friday (gameday)- just be there to chit-chat with the players, not teach them anything new. Ask them if they have any questions – if they do, have them try to answer their own question.

Coaching up the parents

  • Moms of football – go from a fan, to a team mom, to a coach on the field
  • Have a teaching day – start with your coaching philosophy. Then make a one-page cheat sheet that explains the basic rules. Then take them on the field and have them try it out a bit.

US Lacrosse soft stick program

Culture

  • Start with a team motto i.e. #CloseTheGap
  • Have the kids create the team standards and the motto

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Anthony mentioned several stories of guys he has connected with who have become lifelong friends

Favorite Quote/Book

  • Quote: ‘Work smarter not harder’
  • Quote: ‘Don’t make a bad play into a worse play’
  • Quote from Lou Holtz: ‘You need 4 things in life: Something to do. Someone to love. Someone to believe in. Something to hope for.’

Coach Stone Football resources

Parting Advice

  • Have fun. Make sure every kid learns 2 things, and has fun and wants to come back next year

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WYC 133 – Youth baseball – Dave Holt talks drills and practice design

Dave Holt is a high school administrator/ teacher, operates a private baseball teaching school, helps with an American Legion baseball team and constantly is researching, writing articles and guidebooks, and adding to his coach and play baseball website.

Website/books: coachandplaybaseball.com
Facebook: /Holtbaseball

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Quote

‘A good coach can give correction without causing resentment’ – John Wooden

Coaching your own kids

  • Dave’s dad did a great job of just going out and playing with and throwing with his boys, and not instructing them. Just let them learn to enjoy the sport and don’t antagonize them by nitpicking their mechanics.

Cringe moments

  • Dave wishes he had spent more time on the one-on-one relationship side of coaching

Teaching Skills

  • Maximize # of touches!
  • Get lots of touches in some type of competition
  • Fast catch – Line up with a partner and when you’ve caught 10 in a row, take a knee (competition)

Mental toughness

  • You want kids to be ultra-aggressive and play without fear
  • Be thinking long-term development, not short term wins.
  • Don’t focus on winning. Focus on playing well.

Travel sports options

  • Travel sports lite – you can do travel teams and compete within your own area, not all over the country

Culture – Rewarding success

  • Dirtiest uniform, biggest sweat ring on their hat, best encouraging teammate

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Dave coached a kid who was going to quit, Dave got together with the principal and they encouraged him not to quit. He stuck with it and went on to start on the baseball team his senior year.

The one that got away

  • Dave had a player who was the best player on the team and skipped a team event. Dave played him instead of disciplining him, and regrets that decision.

Best Stolen Idea

  • 3-team it: Break the team into 3 teams and rotate them together. Great way to practice with lots of touches and you can scrimmage with these 3 teams.

Favorite Quote/Book

Coach and play baseball resources

Parting Advice

  • Baseball has a very high level of failure. Embrace and expect mistakes. Help kids manage the failures.

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WYC 132 – Mental Toughness – Christian Buck talks Goalies having a ‘Bring it’ Mentality

Chris Buck, President of Get It Done Consulting (www.getitdoneconsulting.net), has his Masters in Exercise and Sport Psychology and is a Certified Consultant and member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). He has consulted with professional and amateur athletes alike, implementing mental conditioning programs in a wide variety of sports, including lacrosse, golf, tennis, soccer, basketball, track/field, crew, fencing, hockey, and baseball.

Coach Buck works with multiple NCAA lacrosse programs as a Sport Psychology Consultant to the team as well as a Goalie Psychology Specialist. He is also the Goalie Psychology Specialist for G3 Lacrosse.

Chris is the author of “Thinking Inside the Crease,” a book describing how to become a mentally tough dominant goalie. He also wrote the Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 goalie coaching certification materials for US Lacrosse.

Chris grew up and played lacrosse in Wilton, CT, winning two state championships during his time there and finished his four-year high school career with a 46-1 record as the starting goalie. After high school, he played lacrosse at Ithaca College.

Professional Website: getitdoneconsulting.net
Twitter: @GetItDoneCT

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Quote

‘What you believe is more important that what is objectively the case’ – Albert Bendora

Cringe moment

  • Chris coached a girls team, and didn’t know the difference in the rules between boys and girls rules, so he was telling the girls the wrong things

A-ha moments

  • Grades are just as important as on-the-field skills to earn a scholarship!
  • Remove self-limitations, believe you can accomplish huge things. ‘What you believe is more important that what is objectively the case’ – Albert Bendora

Mental toughness

  • The physiological affects of fear cause you get into Fight or Flight mode. Chris teaches his goalies to develop a fight mode, ‘bring it!’ “Let’s see how many bruises you can get”
  • Focus on doing your job, not on impressing others or getting the win
  • Don’t provide physical solutions to mental problems
  • When making goalie changes – communicate! Even if you are just wanting to get someone else some playing time, they may view a switch as them getting benched. Talk to them about exactly what is going on. Something as simple as ‘Wasn’t your best game, but you’re still my guy.’

Practicing in a game-like environment

  • Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent
  • Ask who wants to take a pressure shot in practice – good way to see who might be clutch player at the end of a game

Flushing routines

  • Take your hat off, brush some water in your hair, when you put your hat back on you are starting anew
  • Release, replan, refocus – Turn your back to the field of play, replan, then when you turn back around you are refocused
  • Serena Williams – has notecards at her bench with 2 or 3 points of emphasis, she looks at them every time she changes sides
  • Evaluative environment vs Expressive environment: Players don’t perform well when they feel they are being evaluated every single play, they perform much better in a expressive environment
  • Dump card – write down everything that is stressing you out – then leave it in their locker – you’re not bringing that to the field with you – you can stress out about it again when you get back to your locker

The Sport of School – the book

5 different types of student athletes:

  1. The workhorse
  2. The rookie
  3. The natural talent
  4. The spectator
  5. The intellectual

3 ways to be successful:

  1. Work hard
  2. Solve problems
  3. Have intellectual curiosity

Book: Coming soon!

Best Stolen Idea

  • Brendon Burchard – Influence
  • CUP: Connect, Uplift, Praise

Favorite Quote

  • Quote: ‘The man at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there’ – Vince Lombardi

Parting Advice

  • Have the players control the controllables. Focus on effort.

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WYC 131 – 14 Great Coaches – Chris Trieste talks John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, and more

Chris Trieste has over 20 years experience in K-12 education as a teacher, school administrator, athletic director, and coordinator of physical education.  For more than 10 years he has coached numerous youth sports, primarily baseball and basketball, from the elementary through high school grade levels.

He has extensive experience in tennis, serving as the head men’s tennis coach at Mount Saint Mary College where he was twice named Coach of the Year and playing for four years at Marist College where he was a team captain.

Chris also recently authored 14 Great Coaches. Based on a study of the best practices of 14 of the most respected and successful coaches in the history of sports, and combined with the author’s experiences and observations as a coach and instructional leader, this book provides a road map for all coaches who want to have an enduring positive influence and provide a transformative experience for their athletes.

Book: /book link
Twitter: @CTrieste2

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Coaching your own kid

  • Coaching should end on the field. The ride home should be you as their parent, not their coach.

Cringe moment

  • Chris had some coaches he coached with that humiliated some of the kids, he quickly disassociated from those coaches

Teaching Skills

  • Teach in a games approach: Deliver some instruction – then create some type of game setting (competitive) activity to start the learning.
  • Innovative scoring – Reward activities that you are trying to encourage. If playing tennis and trying to get players to the net – if you win a point at the net you get double points.

Mental toughness

  • Encourage athletes to picture times they have been successful – Play a movie in their head
  • Other athletes don’t want to think about much – encourage them to think of something simple like ‘just see it and hit it’

Culture

  • Coaching staff should answer the question – in twenty years how do you want your players to remember their experience
  • Have kids help own the experience by incorporating them in the standards you set for your team
  • Captains – one good method might be to have rotating gameday captains based on merit (demonstrating leadership skills)

14 Great Coaches – the book

  • 60 timeless concepts that coaches
  • Vince Lombardi – Had zero tolerance for any type of racial discrimination. Also believed in simplicity over complexity.
  • Nick Bolleteri – You don’t have to be a great player to be a great coach.
  • Pat Summit – Her players changed a play she called. She self-reflected – and realized she had not analyzed who the best player for that moment was.
  • Tom Couglin – Tom changed his coaching style – he went from trying to force his compliance to a new style of trying to listen and incorporate their feedback. He established a player council who met regularly and communicated with Tom.
  • Joe Torre – Had a great skill for working with huge egos, and making sure they all felt their role was important no matter what it was on the team
  • Book: /book link

Parting Advice

  • Enjoy the experience. Don’t take wins/losses too seriously.

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WYC 130 – Youth Coaching – Mike Kasales talks how the military builds teams & achieves peak performance

Colonel (Retired) Michael Kasales recently retired from the U.S. Army after 28 years of active-duty service, and now volunteers as an assistant women’s lacrosse coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach.

Coach Kasales is an adjunct professor for the University of Denver’s Master of Arts in Sport Coaching program (online), and is pursuing his Ph.D. with a focus on student-athlete leadership development. He recently completed his second graduate degree, a Master of Arts in Sport Coaching from the University of Denver. He received a Master’s degree from Webster University in 2001, and received his undergraduate degree from DePauw University in 1987.

LinkedIn: /michaelkasales

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Quote

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

What can coaches learn from the military?

  • The military isn’t about yelling and screaming. It’s about building teams and achieving peak performance.

Team warm-ups

  • A little bit of static stretching is OK, but focus is warming up the muscles through dynamic stretches.
  • Foam rollers are inexpensive and a great tool

Teaching Skills

  • Constant blocked practices vs. random variable drills
    • The memory and skill sticks better when allowing the athlete freedom to think during a drill vs. predetermining for them exactly what they should do

Fun Games to teach skills

  • HORSE – They play horse-like game, but use letters LAX. First player makes shot, then everyone follows.

Mental toughness

  • Mental toughness cannot be turned on/off. Weave it into your practice plan. Every task/drill need to incorporate it. How do you relax? How do use imagery? Have deliberate discussions throughout practice.
  • If 50 to 80% of the game is mental – are you practicing it?

Culture

  • Have a written coaching philosophy
  • Core values will keep you from bouncing from hot topic to hot topic and a flavor of the day
  • Establish team standards and team goals
  • From me you can expect… From you here is what I expect…
  • Be careful to not give false praise – if they don’t deserve it, don’t falsely praise them, it will make your words mean less
  • Copy of Mike’s philosophies

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Mike worked with an athlete who gained a great deal of self-confidence, mostly through Mike just taking an interest in him

The one that got away

  • Mike saw a young athlete not giving her all and he didn’t say anything about it – she ended up getting hurt, he regrets not mentioning it

Favorite book/quote

Parting Advice

  • Don’t say ‘my team’ or ‘my athletes’ – it’s ‘our team’

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WYC 129 – Winning the Relationship – Casey Jacox talks Leadership & The 3 P’s of teaching skills

Casey Jacox is a former collegiate QB at Central Washington University and has been coaching his kids for many years. Casey is passionate about ensuring they continue down a positive path, and sports is a big part of that journey.

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Quote

‘There are three types of people in life: Those who watch things happen, those who make things happen, and those who wonder what happened.’ – Tommy Lasorda

Coaching your own kids

  • Works best if you have an assistant coach, and you coach each other’s kids

Cringe moment

  • Early on, Casey was too focused on winning

Teaching Skills

  • Drills need a clear:
    • Purpose
    • Process
    • Payoff
  • Be ridiculously organized.
  • Make everything competitive. Time everything.
  • Small groups and lots of stations

Games

  • Girls get to take 2 free throws at end of practice – If they make 1, they get to run 1 lap. If they make 2 they get to pick someone to run with them (including parents on the sideline.) If they miss both, they have to dribble around with their off hand until drill is over. Then take the girls who make both free throws and put the pressure on them, say ‘there is 2 seconds left, you need to make 2 free throws to win the game.’
  • They only get to do this if the girls gave great effort during practice

Mental toughness

  • It comes down to believing in the kids you coach, and making sure they understand you believe in them

Culture

  • Everyone needs to do their role. Coaches coach. Players play. Parents cheer. Umpires make the calls. When everyone stays in their role, everything works well. Step out of your role, and trouble starts.

Captains and leadership

  • Captains lead stretching and conversation
  • Teach them to be organized and communicate well

Rewards and recognition

  • Words of the week – keep the focus on the importance of everyone’s role – Then give an award at the end of the week on who best embodied that characteristic

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Kevin worked with a young man who was struggling to throw, and 2 years later watching his progress is really exciting.

The one that got away

  • Casey played on a team, and they came out flat, and lost. You must be prepared for every game.

Favorite book/quote

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • EDD’s – Everyday drills
  • The power of goal setting. You write it down. Then you tell someone. Now it is goal not a wish.
  • Positive environments and never taking a play off.

Parting Advice

  • Know the purpose in everything you do. Be organized, make it fun.

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WYC 128 – The Captain Class – Sam Walker talks the 16 sports dynasties and what they all had in common

In The Captain Class, Walker profiles the greatest teams in history and identifies the counterintuitive leadership qualities of the unconventional men and women who drove them to succeed.

He began by setting out to answer one of the most hotly debated questions in sports: What are the greatest teams of all time? He devised a formula, then applied it to thousands of teams from leagues all over the world, from the NBA to the English Premier League to Olympic field hockey. When he was done, he had a list of the sixteen most dominant teams in history.

With the list in hand, Walker became obsessed with another, more complicated question: What did these freak teams have in common? As Walker dug into their stories, a distinct pattern emerged: Each team had the same type of captain—a singular leader with an unconventional skill set who drove it to achieve sustained, historic greatness.

Website/book: bysamwalker.com

Twitter: @SamWalkers

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Quote

The secret to winning is not what you think it is.
It’s not the coach. It’s not the star.
It’s not money. It’s not a strategy.
It’s something else entirely. – Sam Walker – The Captain Class

Inspiration for the book

  • Sam’s little league team went undefeated, and he didn’t realize it but that was the last team he would be the last time he would experience a sports championship, and it led him to being curious about sports championships.
  • The 2004 Boston Red Sox was a group of crazy players, they were struggling mid-season, then they turned it on and went on to break the 100+ year curse and win a championship. This got Sam to wondering what the make-up of great teams really is.

Coaches – Develop your leaders

  • The commonality found in the world’s most dominant dynasties was the characteristics of their captains
  • The captain needs autonomy, to act as a middle-manager between the players and the coach
  • On gameday – stop over-functioning, back off and let the captains run the show

Youth coaches – Key characteristics to Develop

  • Carrying the water – They shouldn’t want to be the superstar, they should want to serve the team first.
  • Relentlessness – Players who have one gear, no matter what the score is
  • Communication amongst teammates – A rah-rah speech is not what works, you want a leader that has one-on-one interactions with their teammates, is intense, uses body-language, uses humor. Charismatic connectors. Introverts are often the best leaders!

Choosing captains

  • It often makes sense to not make the star player the captain. Being the star is burden enough. The person needs to be the coach’s right-hand and, therefore it usually makes the most sense for a coach to pick the captain vs. the team voting.
  • Remember when nominating them – you want someone who will stand up to you and not be afraid to express a dissenting opinion.

Do you need captains on a team?

  • Sam says absolutely yes. Just remember – it doesn’t need to be the star. It needs to be the water carrier.

Sportsmanship – The Cuban National Volleyball team

  • Two types of Aggression:
  • Hostile Aggression – Driven by hatred or a desire to hurt somebody – This is negative.
  • Instrumental Aggression – Looks similar, but the motive is to win. It turns off as soon as the game is over. This can be positive.

Parting Advice

  • Find a partner – a captain – on your team

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WYC 127 – Injury Prevention – Dr. David Geier talks Practice Design & TedX

Dr. David Geier is an orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist who provides education and commentary on sports and exercise injuries for athletes and active people to help you stay healthy and perform your best.
He started writing articles on his website – DrDavidGeier.com – in August 2010 as a hobby. His goal at the time was simple – to share sports medicine and wellness information in easy-to-understand language for athletes, parents, coaches and other healthcare providers.
What he never expected to find back in 2010 was a passion for communicating this information. Despite long hours in clinic and surgery, he is still excited to open his laptop and write. He now writes a regular column for the daily Charleston newspaper, The Post and Courier. He records videos every week answering questions from his audience, and he produces a weekly sports medicine podcast. He also created a networking and educational site for healthcare professionals who work with athletes and active people – Sports Medicine University. As of this writing, over 200,000 unique visitors come to his website every month.

Website/Podcast: drdavidgeier.com

Book: tghbook.com

Twitter: @drdavidgeier
Facebook: /DrDavidGeier/

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Quote

‘Everything is impossible until someone does it’ – from Relentless by Tim Grover

Practice Design

  • 3 to 5 minutes – Slow warm-up – jogging, get the heart going
  • 3 to 5 minutes – Gentle stretching
  • End of practice – 3 to 5 minutes – Stretch again, can be static stretching

‘That’s gotta hurt’ book

  • 13 of the most impactful injuries that have occurred in sports – How it impacted the sports and new methods to prevent these injuries

Youth injury prevention

  • Sport specialization – 1/2 of sports injuries are overuse injuries – they need time off
  • The US women’s national soccer team that won the world cup – not a single player only specialized in soccer, they all played multiple sports
  • ACL injury prevention – Teach proper landing mechanics while doing warm-ups. The PEP program – best if you bring in a physical therapist to teach the correct form. smsmf.org/smsf-programs/pep-program

Concussions

  • Repetitive blows to the head are a big concern, not just single concussive events.
  • Young kids with brains still developing – tackle football could be a concern if the coach has them doing repetitive hits that involve the head. – Good youth football link: winningyouthfootball.com

Favorite Book/Quote

  • Book – Relentless by Tim Grover – About Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade’s trainer, and how to become the best ever. Quote from book: ‘Everything is impossible until someone does it’

TedX Talk

  • HEALTHY Game plan – Youth sports – Tips you can do as a parent and coach on how to keep youth sports fun and keep kids involved – TEDx talk link

Parting Advice

  • Sports are important to kids – make it fun and keep them healthy

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WYC 126 – Choosing to Grow – Meagan Frank talks #CloseTheGap

Meagan Frank is the author of the Choosing to Grow series, a national speaker, writer, teacher, coach, and mother of three. She is a regular contributor to the online magazine Books Make a Difference and she is working on four separate books, including Choosing to Grow for the Sport of It: Because All Kids Matter –Five years of research to justify the choices her family has made with regard to youth sports.

Website: meaganfrank.com

Twitter: @choosingtogrow

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Quote

‘Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.’ – Vince Lombardi

Coaching your own kids

  • Each kid and age level has different needs, you have to adapt to the situation
  • Meagan wore a hat when coaching, so it was clear when she had her hat on, she was coach; when she took the hat off, she was mom

Cringe moments

  • Don’t necessarily emulate who coached you – ‘Yelling never works’

Coaching girls

  • Different drills are needed for each type of girl. Some will respond to game-like competition, others will respond to more cooperative drills.

Teaching skills

  • Start and end each practice with something fun/positive

Good energy-builders

  • Blob tag – If you touch them they become part of the blob. You can bring in the parents too

Player Choice practices

  • Occasionally let the players choose their favorite games, then pick them out of the hat, and that’s all you do for practice

Peak performance

  • Teach kids to flush mistakes
  • ‘Tell me one good thing you achieved today’
  • Have players share shout-outs for each other at the end of practice
  • The coaches’ body language, especially after a mistake, is critical – kids will watch you and emulate your body language

Building Culture

  • They create a hashtag to reinforce their core value. i.e. #CloseTheGap

Best team building activity

  • Scavenger hunts – can include conditioning (2 mile run with stops with clues)

Travel sports choices

  • You have to prioritize your time – don’t just blindly sign up for sport after sport.

The one that got away

  • Meagan’s team was struggling, and they were on the verge of winning a game, and she subbed all her players in, and they lost the game.

Best stolen/borrowed idea

  • Communication – everyone is in the loop. Players, Coaches, parents. They all know philosophy and goals of the program

Favorite Book/Quote

Parting Advice

  • Smile. Have fun. It is contagious.

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WYC 125 – The Leadership Playbook – Jamy Bechler talks Basketball & Leadership

Jamy Bechler is a professional speaker, leadership trainer and executive business coach who is based out of Atlanta, Georgia.  Before going into full-time leadership work, Jamy served for 20 years as a college basketball coach, professor and administrator. When he hung up the whistle, he didn’t stop coaching. Jamy just moved from the locker-room into the boardroom. He now travels the country motivating people and “coaching” organizations on how they can build championship teams and cultures.

Website: jamybechler.com

Book: theleadershipplaybook.com

Twitter: @CoachBechler

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Quote

‘Fish like worms. I don’t like worms, but if I want to catch fish, I need to use worms’ – Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People (paraphrased)

Cringe Moment

  • ‘You’ll be dead right’ – Wisdom is choosing your battles, don’t always need to be right

Teaching skills

  • Everything in practice needs to have a point. Scrimmages are often not effective.
  • Practice special situations for 5 to 10 minutes in every practice.
  • Fun activity: On your birthday – coach would put 2 $5 bills at midcourt – everyone would shoot half-court shots, if you made it – you got $5 and bday person got $5. If bday person made it, got all $10

Peak performance

  • ‘Every missed shot is a pass’ – Teammates encouraging each other to shoot takes away the pressure of worrying about whether to shoot or note
  • Practice being a terrible referee – Players need to practice tough situations. Bad calls are going to happen – practice them.

Building Culture

  • Core value – developing the mind – on and off the court; Integrity; Responsibility
  • 2 core values for his basketball teams: Toughness and rebounding
  • Kids pick up on the coach’s consistency – you can talk all you want about what kind of culture you want, but the kids are watching and if you aren’t consistent then your words will not hold up

Captains

  • Positional leadership – If you have 2 or 3 captains on your team, the rest of the players can use it as a crutch. Jamy did not have captains towards the end of his coaching career. They rotated game captains, but they taught that everyone was a leader. Then they engaged the upperclassmen to demonstrate leadership skills – carrying the water, etc.
  • More is expected out of your experienced and older players – but they don’t have to technically have the title of captain. They are the role models and set the tone for your culture.

Training your leaders

  • theleadershipplaybook.com – Stories about different ways leaders lead
  • Leaders – don’t need to get the whole team to do something, they need to get their closest friends to do it – The First follower theory.

The one that got away

  • Jamy’s last game he coached – they blew a 14 point lead and it cost them getting into the national tournament. They had easily beat that team earlier in the year, and they came in a little cocky and weren’t prepared.

Best stolen/borrowed idea

  • John Wooden’s unflinching standards while connecting with his players

Favorite Book/Quote

Parting Advice

  • Understand your why. And get to know your players.

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WYC 124 – College track athletes – Dr. Charles Infurna talks the Mundanity of Excellence

Dr. Charles Infurna has 10 years of coaching experience at the Division III level, he has had the great pleasure and privilege to have coached and mentored two Division III National Champion Weight Throwers, 10 All-Americans, multiple ECAC champions, and numerous SUNYAC and Empire 8 Conference Champions in the Hammer, Weight Throw, Discus, and Shot-Put. He writes a blog at forzathletics.com  Before completing his dissertation he wrote a lot about programming, workouts, overviews of meets, and even included some vlogs.  Since finishing his doctorate, he has focused more on how environment and support systems play roles in athlete successes.

Website and blog: forzathletics.com

Podcast: soundcloud.com/charles-infurna

Facebook: /forzathletics/

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Quote

‘You never know who is going to walk through the door’

First role model

  • Charles’ first coaching opportunity was when he was 22 years old. He didn’t really know what to do – so he reached out to a head coach at a local university (who happened to be a 4x Olympian) and asked if he could come watch a practice and hang out with his coaching staff for a day, which the coach willingly did

Cringe Moment

  • The players Charles was coaching talked to him and addressed concerns that he didn’t seem like he was as engaged – a very healthy sign that the players were comfortable enough to be honest with him

Teaching skills

  • Start with the basics like body awareness.
  • Don’t try to fix everything at once. Focus on one thing at a time. It’s like a puzzle – put together one piece at a time.

Long Term Athlete Development

  • Some of Charles’ best college athletes did not play that sport in high school

Peak performance

  • Kids often respond best to a coach that is calm and confident.
  • It’s usually best to not give coaching advice right before a competition – just pick up on the kid’s body language whether they need you to just be quiet, or tell a joke to lighten the mood.

Building Culture

  • You are always representing the program
  • Team building and trust activities are always great
  • Magnet awards – they recognize each other’s accomplishments on the bus ride home

Connecting with kids

  • Luis Rivera – Was given some bad information and was ineligible for the upcoming season. He could have easily quit and given up, but instead he worked hard and came back and went on to be one of the best track and field athletes in their college’s history. He had grit.

The one that got away

  • It wasn’t a tough loss – it was a team where Kate had let the culture get away from her

Best stolen/borrowed idea

  • ‘You never know who is going to walk through the door’ – One of Charles’ mentors would take in any athlete that was willing, and if they would put in the work, you never know which one could turn out to be a national champion.

Favorite Resources

Parting Advice

  • Be in the moment. Put your cell phone away. Enjoy it.

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WYC 123 – The Positivity Experiment – Kate Leavell talks culture, Jon Gordon, & Lacrosse

Kate Leavell: I have been an NCAA lacrosse coach, a high school varsity lacrosse and strength coach, a youth and travel coach of many different sports, swimming instructor, NASM certified personal trainer and senior fitness specialist, board member, a national coaches education trainer for US Lacrosse, an eternal college student, a parent of youth and high school athletes, speaker, teacher, and apparently now after four years of blogging and nationally featured articles and a book…a writer. I’m drawn to all things motivational and figuring out what makes people reach and discover what seems impossible. After a recent shoulder surgery led to staring a pulmonary embolism in the face (or staring at it in the lungs?!) i had time to reevaluate what is important. I came to the realization that it’s not an interest after all that I spread motivation around, it’s in fact, a necessity. So my mission begins, one kid, one coach at a time if need be.

Website (and book coming soon): kateleavell.com

Twitter: @kateleavell

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Quote

‘Invite your team to get on the bus. Get the energy vampires off the bus. You are better off without them.’ – Jon Gordon

Coaching your own kids

  • Have assistant coaches coach teach your kid and vice versa
  • Stop coaching on the car ride home, leave it at the field

Cringe Moment

  • Putting your own self-worth based on a team’s performance
  • ‘I know a lot about lacrosse, I don’t know anything about building a culture’
  • Big moment: meeting Jon Gordon in the airport, reading The Energy Bus – changed Kate’s perspective on building culture

Accelerate Deep Training

  • Make everything fun, make everything competitive, then quit talking and just let them do it. ‘Kids hear the first sentence and last sentence you say’, the middle usually just goes in one ear and out the other.

Good Icebreakers/games

  • The Hug game – Call out a number, then the kids have to form a group with that number of people and put arms around each other to form a circle. Whoever doesn’t end up in a circle is out.
  • Zombie Tag – First time tagged, you lose an arm. Then you have to go out of circle, run a lap, then you’re back in. Then you lose 2nd arm, then legs. So last time you have to roll out of circle b/c you have no legs.
  • Stop playing chess with your players, put away the ‘joystick’, and

Peak performance

  • ‘I’m a believer in belief’ – The more the kids believe that you believe in them, the better their performance will be

Building Culture

  • It starts with expectations up front
  • 3 different groups that feed into your culture:

1 – Coaches – Support one another. Do a mid-season survey to ask kids how they are doing

2 – Players – Positive self-talk

3 – Parents – Kate has an open door policy, the only restriction is that they will only talk about their kid, not other kids on the team

Communication – “Drama is heavier than bricks, it always breaks through”

Lessons from Jon Gordon

  • ‘Invite your team to get on the bus. Get the energy vampires off the bus. You are better off without them.’
  • Urban Meyer 10-80-10 Principle – Quit spending energy on the energy vampires, put your energy towards your high energy people

The one that got away

  • It wasn’t a tough loss – it was a team where Kate had let the culture get away from her

The Positivity Experiment

  • Kate did an experiment where she committed to only talking about what it going well, never pointing out negatives. The things they needed to work on, she would just add them to the practice plan instead of pointing them out.
  • ‘I let go of being focused on winning, which freed me up to enjoy coaching and took the pressure off the outcome of the game’

Parting Advice

  • Think about the end game. Picture the kid you are coaching at graduation, and ask him/her to describe their sports experience.

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WYC 122 – The Science of Sports Mastery – DeShawn Fontleroy talks Youth Football & Performance Training

DeShawn Fontleroy is a sports performance coach working with athletes in the Portland, OR metro area. Currently, he works with the football team at Jefferson HS. Deshawn also hosts a podcast Sports Mastery- ‘A place where we observe, examine, experiment, and explain the physical, mental, and social dynamics of the world’s best athletes and coaches. My goal is to provide athletes, coaches, and parents with high level systems & strategies to achieve success.’

Website/Podcast: sportsmastery.com

Free Gifts for WYC listeners: Sportsmastery.com/winningyouth
Twitter: @sports_mastery

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Quote

“Fears are a kind of prison that confines you within a limited range of action. The less you fear, the more power you will have and the more fully you will live.” – 50 Cent in The 50th Law

Cringe Moment

  • Kids are different than adults – have progressions
  • Keep it simple, don’t have too many plays

Progressions

  • Using your own body weight is a better starting place than jumping straight into weightlifting
  • Focus on the process vs. the outcome

Overcoming Fear

  • Start by having the athlete list their fear on paper. Often when they put them down on paper, they realize many of them are not real.
  • Then list your hopes and dreams. Create a desire map where they list their challenges and limitations. Have the parents do the same thing.

Growth Mindset

  • Bouncing back from hardship is a key to teach athletes. It’s the only way to grow.
  • After a setback, go back and watch your performance, then use positive visualization to picture what doing it right looks like

Accelerate Deep Training

  • It’s a process – the key is the quality of your reps
  • Know where your athlete is at – if they are working on a strength – put them against higher level competition. If they are working on a weakness – put them against some weaker competition.

Building Culture

  • Communication between coaches and athletes is key. Assistant coaches need to be listened to and empowered
  • Immediate feedback, both good and bad – often works best

Rewards and Recognition

  • When athletes do something off the field – in the classroom, in the community – you can use social media to highlight their accomplishments

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • DeShawn is coaching a kid with ADHD, it has challenged him and made him a better coach by working with a kid who has different needs and challenges

The one that got away

  • DeShawn’s team lost to their rival last year because of some poor coaching, they have evaluated what went wrong and analyzed how to make sure that it won’t happen again

Best books

Free gifts:

– PDF of The Desire Map

– PDF of How to Succeed

– Free 1/2 hour consulting

Parting Advice

  • Train and practice more – don’t overdo it with travel sports
  • Play multiple sports

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WYC 121 – Developmental Stages – Jennifer Duval talks Youth Golf; Performance Routines

Jennifer Duval has been a Class A member with the LPGA T&CP Division for over 10 years. During that time, she has continued to evolve as an instructor. She was among the first to acquire her Master certification as a Level 3 Golf Fitness Professional; and most recently, became a Level 2 Junior Certified Coach with Titleist Performance Institute. She has a passion for learning and is a regular attendee at the World Golf Fitness Summit. She believes firmly in coaching not only the technical skills of the game; but, also the physical requirements demanded by the sport, the mental skillsets needed and the emotional resilience necessary to play ‘consistent’ golf.

Website: mytpi.com

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Quote

‘The first thing I learned was to hit it hard nevermind where it went’ – Jack Nicklaus

Coaching your own kid

  • Instead of advising them, do an ‘experiment’ to coach them without being too direct
  • Remember modeling is a key point at the younger age

 Cringe Moment

  • Spewing too much technical info early on
  • Different is OK – there isn’t a cookie-cutter swing
  • Be patient – learning is frustrating, don’t rush it

Long Term Athlete Development

  • Develop the athlete as a whole vs. just specific to your sport
  • MYTPI.com – Titleist program
  • Kids under 18 have significant changes and development going on – Teach them correct body movements
  • One-sided sports (golf, baseball) – bodies need a break and to develop different muscles

Mental toughness 

  • Develop a performance routine: (taken from Vision 54 at vision54.com/html/mygame-thinkbox.html)
    • A think box – when you are thinking through what you are going to do
    • A play box – Stop thinking and start acting. If visual – stare at a dimple on the ball. If you’re auditory – listen to a plane overhead. If you’re kinesthetic – focus on your grip pressure, make it a 3 on a scale of 1 to 5.
    • 2 outcomes to every shot: 1 – Where did the ball go (often can’t control); 2 – Did I stay focused on what I was focused on (I can control)
  • Body language and self-talk: Do a funny skit with some of the other coaches, exemplifying different mental approaches. Have the kids then practice: Hit 10 shots where think negative thoughts after each. Then hit 10 where you are neutral. Then hit 10 where you think of a positive thought after each.
  • Each kid keep a notebook/recipe book. Write something after each practice and round about what they learn.

Windows of Opportunity

  • Sensitive periods (learn more at canadaiansportsforlife.ca):
    • Boys 6-9 then 13-16; Girls 4-7 then 11-13: When you are growing fast, train fast
      • When in growth spurt, there body is awkward. Speed training and mobility is key.
    • Boys 9-12 then 14-18; Girls 7-10 then 12-16: Growth rest periods: better time to develop skills.
  • ‘The first thing I learned was to hit it hard never mind where it went’ – Jack Nicklaus

Great drills for re-developing movement patterns

  • Milo Bryan – No Bull Fit – Awesome drills

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Jennifer taught a class of kindergartners and started out asking: ‘Who here is an athlete?’ – a lot of the kids didn’t raise their hand. She told them ‘Today you are going to be an athlete’ and when she asked the same question in the next class, a bunch of the kids who hadn’t raised their hands initially were now raising their hands.

The one that got away

  • Her freshmen year of college, Jennifer had the opportunity to qualify to travel with the team and play with her sister, and she was so serious and uptight in her qualifying match that she played bad. She forgot to be herself, have fun, and enjoy the moment.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Jennifer’s college coach went above and beyond when Jennifer’s dad had a heart attack. Jennifer learned for a coach it should always be about person first, player second.

Best books

Parting Advice

  • Know your why
  • Just do it, even if you don’t think you’re qualified

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WYC 120 – Youth Sports – Kevin Jans talks TEDx-level mental toughness & Knowing your why

Kevin Jans is a youth sports coach who has seen both sides of rec and travel ball and shares his stories and great experiences with youth sports on this episode of the WYC podcast. He also hosts his own podcast and is a TEDx speaker, in which he featured the WYC podcast as an example of finding your micro-niche.

Website/podcast: contractingofficerpodcast.com

Contact info: kevinmjans.com

TEDx: Youtube link

Twitter: @ContractPodcast

Facebook: /contractpodcast/

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Quote

‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened’ – Dr. Seuss

Coaching your own kid

  • Try to find a different coach to talk to your kid

Celebrate learning

  • Double high-five – High Five up high for the team, down low for yourself

Travel vs rec

  • A balance of winning and fun is the key. Keep perspective on the end goal, competition is part of life, but you’re not trying to have your child peak in middle or high school.

Mental toughness – learning from giving a TEDx talk

  • Understand your why – As a coach, I will never give you static for trying and swinging.
  • Preparation is everything – practice game-like situations as much as possible. Prepare for uncertainty  – use Commanders Intent – so kids can play free and embrace uncertainty.

3 main elements of coaching

  1. Know your why – Why are you coaching? Tell the kids why.
  2. Be clear not clever. Example: Be on the front half (of your feet) instead of be on your toes
  3. Embrace conditioning – Don’t use it as a punishment. Also  – the harder you practice, the more fun the game is.

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Kevin worked with a young man who was struggling to throw, and 2 years later watching his progress is really exciting.

The one that got away

  • Kevin is a firm believer in ‘It’s not one thing, it’s a bunch of things.’ – Don’t get hung up on one play deciding an outcome.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Celebrate progress and completion. Keep stats that can be measured and improved.

Parting Advice

  • Pace yourself. Teach 1 thing at a time. It will take time.

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WYC 119 – Youth Sports – Wil Fleming talks Mental Toughness & Strength and Conditioning

Wil Fleming is a sports performance coach and expert on being a more explosive athlete. His expertise comes from years of training and coaching athletes in multiple sports. His athletes are routinely the most explosive, fastest, and strongest on the field. He is also one of the strongest medium sized guys you will ever run into boasting some pretty decent numbers on the platform and in the weight room.

Wil is the co-owner of Force Fitness and Performance and Athletic Revolution Bloomington, in Bloomington, IN.  Force Fitness just turned 4 years old and is already one of the most successful training facilities in the Midwest with nearly 300  clients, 60 athletes earning Division I scholarships and nearly 125 athletes moving on to compete at the NCAA level in Division I, II, III.

Websites: wilfleming.comforcebloomington.com

Twitter: @wilfleming; @forcefitness

Facebook: /coachwilfleming//BloomingtonFitness/

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Quote

‘Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing’ – Peyton Manning

Being coached by your dad

  • Wil’s dad coached his brother and it led to some tension in their relationship, so he decided to not coach Wil and did a great job of just listening and not trying to coach Wil.

Cringe moments

  • Early in his career – Wil made a workout for a tough kid that made him throw up, but he realized that was not his role, true coaching is to make a tough workout that allows them to come back the next day and get stronger long-term.

Strength and conditioning in practice

  • Level 1 – Movement
  • Level 2 – Strength & Conditioning
  • Level 3 – High-level skills
  • Biggest mistake for untrained coaches: Weighted conditioning(weighted baseballs, resistant bands, weighted sleds.) Do high reps of body weight exercises.
  • Sensitive periods: 8-12 years old for girls, 9-13 for boys- Speed sensitivity period. Games with lots of running (tag, etc.). Strength periods happen after that – 13 to 15 years old.

Teaching Skills – Fun games

  • Let the kids help make up the rules – they will get much buy in
  • Trash ball – Trash can at each end, ultimate frisbee type rules
  • Zombie dodge ball – If you get hit, you join the zombies

Mental toughness

  • Take visualization very seriously
  • Have your practice sessions be as similar to game situations as possible
  • Have a mantra – ‘I am strong.’ ‘I am a weightlifting superhero’
  • Before competition – tap into parasympathetic nervous system – which is rest and digest. Sympathetic nervous system is fight or flight – nerves, etc. Great way to do this is teach them how to diaphragmatically breathe. Breathe through your belly, not your shoulders and neck.
  • ‘Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing’ – Peyton Manning

Accelerate deep practice

  • Eating, sleeping, resting are how to take things to the next level
  • Become a student of the game – watch film, watch the best, create a mental image of themselves doing what the best are doing
  • Visualization – great example of olympic weightlifter breaking into a sweat just through visualizing his routine

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • FORD – Get to know about kid’s:
  • Family
  • Occupation(school)
  • Recreation(outside of sports)
  • Dreams

The one that got away

  • Big Ten championships his senior year of college, was seeded #1 in the hammer, and was ahead for the first 5 rounds, in the 6th round the guy in 2nd place threw past him, and Wil couldn’t get himself back focused and came in 2nd. He had let his guard down and wasn’t ready mentally for his competitor to step up his game.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Nick Winkelman and Brett Bartholomew:
  • People remember things much better when there is a story or external queue that reminds them what to do. (i.e. ‘no ducks’ for a stance, or ‘squash the bug’ for a baseball swing

Favorite coaching book/quote

Wil Fleming

  • Instagram: @WilFleming
  • CertifiedWeightLifthingCoach.com – Course to learn

Parting Advice

  • Begin with the end in mind – Long Term Athletic Development – learn more at canadian sport for life: sportforlife.ca

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WYC 118 – Goalie Mental Toughness – Damon Wilson talks being a Lax Goalie Rat

Damon Wilson is a lacrosse goalie coach. He learned to play goalie from scratch and now he shares everything he’s learned along the way at Lax Goalie Rat. His coaching benefits from the fact that he didn’t grow up being a lacrosse goalie. In Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, they talk about something called The Curse of Knowledge. This is the “curse” people have that makes it hard for them to teach something they know to a person who knows nothing about it. It can be tough to gauge and hard to assume how much your student already knows. Since there were some areas of goalie that were new to him, as he did the research, it was easier to translate into something young goalies can understand.

Website/Books: laxgoalierat.com

Twitter: @laxgoalierat

Facebook: /LaxGoalieRat

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Extreme ownership – never blame anyone else.’

Cringe moments

  • Trying to do at all myself. Should have sought out more assistant coaches to help
  • Focusing too much on game skills, and not teaching leadership and mental toughness skills

Being coached by your dad

  • The key was he had passion for the sport. He wasn’t an expert in soccer, but his passion made the experience great.

Teaching Skills

  • Make everything competitive – Keep track of stats and quantify the results in practice, then use those numbers to motivate improvement

Mental toughness

  • Train on controlling your emotions. You have to practice choosing a positive reaction to negative things happening.
  • Post-goal routine for a goalie: Lift up his mask to show a stoic expression. Review the play in your head for a couple of seconds. Then have an anchor word: quickness; strong; etc. to repeat in your head and move on to a positive mindset.

Leadership

  • A lacrosse goalie is going to be a leader on the team.
  • Part of that leadership is being confident.
  • Extreme ownership – book by navy seal – Never blame anyone else.

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Damon’s goalie on the youth team he coached – was thrown in there b/c no one else volunteered. He developed from a nervous scared kid into a confident leader

The one that got away

  • On a trip from California to Michigan (in college) – the field house they played in had white walls and a white roof. Damon could not pick up the white ball against that background and they lost 18-4, and Damon got pulled.  Damon learned how important it is to be able to recover when something doesn’t go your way.

Favorite coaching book/quote

Lax Goalie Rat

  • Website/Books: laxgoalierat.com
  • Weekly blogposts, ebooks, physical and mental training
  • Free tools, defensive terms

Parting Advice

  • Have fun, keep perspective, enjoy the beautiful game to be played with friends

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WYC 117 – Sport Psychology – Meighan Julbert talks The Mindside

Meighan Julbert is a Mental Skills Consultant who has a passion for working with coaches and athletes on gaining a competitive advantage through mental skills training. Meighan is passionate about coaching development and implementing programs to help competitors and coaches expand their potential. From her own experiences in softball and competitive cheer to serving as a coach, Meighan can help athletes who are looking to gain a mental edge.

Website/Books: themindside.com

Twitter: @MeighanJulbert; @TheMindSide

Facebook: /TheMindSide/

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Don’t overwhelm your athletes with info, keep it simple, less is more’

Coaching your own kids

  • Have an intentional moment where you take off the coaching hat and return to just being their parent
  • Remember – the kids often aren’t near as into the outcome of the game as the coaches and parents are

Take risks & embrace failure

  • Teach kids how to take risks and not be afraid of failure

Parents

  • Communicate with the parents and let them know you want the kids to be a little uncomfortable and struggle a little bit, that is part of the process and how they will learn
  • Role-play situations – have a scrimmage with your own team and invite parents – make a few horrible calls, then afterwards discuss with the team and the parents that there will be bad calls in games, and that we are not a team whose coaches, players, or parents yell at the referees

Relationships

  • The first step is for the coaches to have great relationships with the parents, and to get to know them and understand where they are
  • You have to pick up on subtle nuances to see where different players are at. Eye contact, leadership, excitement, hustle. Look for changes in behavior.
  • Noticing behavior differences and asking questions let’s the players know you care

Slump-busting

  • Riptide concept – When caught in a riptide, initial reaction is to panic and try to swim against it. The panic is normal – so first step is to calm down. Take a few breaths. Then instead of trying harder and fighting the current – have a recovery ritual (flick your wrist, wipe your shoe,etc.) – that reminds you to get back into the present moment and re-focus

Championship Culture 

  • Starts with respect. Relationships and respect are the cornerstones.

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Every kid is different – it’s important to individualize how you are connecting with  each kid and to ask questions and listen to their needs

The one that got away

  • Meighan worked with one athlete who afterwards told her that it was too much info and too much to think about. Less is better – don’t overwhelm your athletes and keep it simple.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • A coach brought in Meighan to help the communication on his team. The activity went horrible. Meighan called to apologize the next day and the coach told her ‘we are terrible at communicating – your activity made that clear to our team. Sometimes exercises we do don’t work – but they still serve a purpose.’ Meighan took that advise to realize that not everything will go as we plan, but that’s ok, keep trying and keep learning and keep tweaking.

Favorite coaching book/quote

The Mindside

  • Team workshops
  • Individual athletes one-on-one sessions
  • Coaching development
  • Videos, podcasts
  • Website/Books: themindside.com

Parting Advice

  • Be patient, with your players – let them think and struggle and learn, and with expectations of yourself

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WYC 116 – Youth Baseball & T-ball – Marty Schupak talks Skills & Drills

Marty Schupak has been coaching sports for 25 years. He has coached over 1,400 kids in youth athletics in a variety of sports in addition to baseball. He is the author of eight sports books including T-Ball Skills & Drills and is the creator of eleven baseball instructional videos.

Website/Books: tballamerica.com

Twitter: @tballMarty

Youtube: link

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘2 of the best things I’ve done in my 25 years of coaching have nothing to do with sports’

Coaching your own kids

  • A common mistake is to be overly concerned with ‘fairness’

Cringe Moment

  • After a few seasons of success, Marty thought he would run his practices like the MLB, and focus one day on offense, one day on defense. What he realized was that kids live for batting practice – so don’t take away the thing they love!

Teaching Skills

  • Have 5 to 7 drills in practice
  • Integrate skills with fun drills
  • For ages under 10 – Marty limited his practices to 60 to 75 minutes
  • A great test – how many kids are missing your practices? Are they on time? – For an incentive – Marty would choose batting order by who arrived to practice at first.
  • Positive reinforcement – Use running as a celebration, not a punishment.

The 59 Minute Practice plan

  • Have a 4 to 6 minute warm-up – it’s important
  • Do several high energy drills
  • Spend 5 to 7 minutes talking about what went right in the last game, and any areas you are working on
  • Practice the little things – base running
  • In batting practice – he puts down 2 cones – and 1st 2 pitches they have to bunt, if they bunt between the cones, they get an extra swing in batting practice

T-ball skills and drills 

  • Website/Books: tballamerica.com
  • Separate skills – even throwing and catching
  • Great drill to teach throwing – to get their arms far enough back – have kids lay on a bench and use a tennis ball – gravity will help get their arm back far enough to show them what it feels like
  • The progression theory – Start with a kickball on the batting tee. Then work your way down smaller or smaller to a baseball. Same for fielding – start out telling them you just want them to get their glove on the ball, they don’t need to field it

Championship Culture 

  • Enjoy success and greatness – even if it’s the other team that did something great!
  • Show more than tell – don’t just verbally describe game situations – practice it!
  • Keep the focus on developing the kids, not on wins/losses
  • One goal – to get the kids to come back next year
  • Rewards & Energy – Tennis racket home run derby – they bat from 2nd base and get a chance to hit home runs
  • Good practices = Victory lap at end of practice

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • Writing a reference letter for a kid with a single mom to get into prep school, he was accepted and went on to go to Harvard
  • Another boy lost his dad in 9-11 and Marty was able to step in a father-figure role to him

The one that got away – in a good way

  • In a good way a memorable game – Marty’s basketball team was missing most of it’s players and they ended only having 4 players. They were getting beat 44-6, so Marty called timeout with a few minutes remaining, and challenged them – if they out-rebound the other team for the rest of the game, he would buy them ice cream – energized his team and took a bad situation and turned it into a positive

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Go observe other practices!
  • Keep kids moving
  • Many drills can be used in a variety of sports with a few tweaks

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘Don’t be afraid to fail’

Parting Advice

  • Bring enthusiasm and passion
  • Try to learn everyday

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WYC 115 – Athlete Development – Trevor Ragan talks Training Ugly

Trevor Ragan is the founder of Train Ugly

From Trevor:

I AM ON AN ADVENTURE…

To challenge and question EVERYTHING that we think we know about sports, education, and development.

Through this journey I’ve worked with best-selling authors, olympic coaches, professional athletes, renowned professors, and thousands of coaches, teachers, students, and players from all over the world.

These experiences helped me to discover some incredibly important research in the fields of motor learning, performance science, and psychology that should have totally changed the way we train and develop students, athletes, and people in general – but they have not.

It’s my mission to change that.

Each morning I get out of bed inspired to read, research, learn, and share as much as possible with students, athletes, coaches, and teachers.

 

Website: trainugly.com

Facebook: /trainingugly/

Twitter: @train_ugly

Youtube: /SabiSushi1

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘You have to be bad first’

Cringe Moment

  • Being too focused on the win or loss – Enjoy the journey!

Teaching Skills

2 pillars:

  1. Motor learning –
    • The number of reps
    • Make reps: Random & Gamelike – Games are random, so reps should be too. Great video on this: youtu.be/m_5nWKyRzKM
  2. Growth mindset – The people who believe in their capacity to learn and grow, do much better at learning and growing. ‘Skills are built not born.’ Learning is not easy – you have to be bad first. You have to understand that being bad first is part of the process.

Dealing with failure

  • Trevor had a goal since 7th grade to make the Duke basketball team
  • He tried out as a walk-on, and was the last one cut.
  • How do you deal with this type of failure? Learning to appreciate the value of the struggle, while you are in the middle of the process
  • Have huge goals that you can picture yourself doing. But then focus on the systems and process that will get you to that goal. The result of achieving the goal does not define you.

Championship Culture 

  • Create a safe place to learn
  • You’re going to be bad first
  • Don’t create a culture that only values success and perfection
  • Teammates and coaches need to take the focus off the outcome when building up their teammates and players
  • Coach K from Duke – He invests a huge amount of time in creating 1 on 1 relationships with all his players

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Karch Kiraly – Now coach of the women’s U.S. Olympic team – Always learning. He asked Trevor after Trevor observed his practice: ‘What do you think we can do better?’

Train Ugly

  • Video essays – Great explanations of the science and research – check them out at trainugly.com

Favorite coaching book/quote

Parting Advice

  • Sports provide the opportunity to teach children life skills that are life-changing

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WYC 114 – Sports Nutrition – Dr. Phil Carson talks youth sports and nutrition

Phillip Carson, President of Carson Natural Health, LLC is a Pharmacist who thinks outside the box of  traditional medicine. He believes in helping people find natural alternatives and integrative nutritional solutions to their health problems. He also has coached mostly soccer, coaching all five of his children and hundreds of others, over a 20 year span. He coached youth recreational teams, competitive teams as well as his local High School team.

Website: carsonnatural.com

Facebook: /carsonnatural

Twitter: @DrPhilCarsonRx

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where the puck has been’ – Wayne Gretzky

Coaching your own kids

  • All kids are different – you have to coach each kid individually

Cringe Moment

  • Yelling and screaming shuts kids down, especially as they get older

Teaching Skills

  • Tell them, then demonstrate visually
  • Bring in high school and college kids to add energy and expertise to your practices
  • Kids love when you get involved with them in the games during practice

Self-Confidence

  • Put kids in positions for success, where they can gain confidence by seeing confidence

Championship Culture 

  • 3 words they wouldn’t use or allow anyone to use: Can’t, Won’t, or Don’t

Healthy eating for athletes – How to Live Until you Die

  • Dr. Phil helped one kid who was feeling lethargic on game days – he was drinking sports drinks. He replaced them with water, you can add a little Himalayan salt to get electrolytes and some fruit to get flavor. The dyes in the sports drink were reacting adversely with the boy and when he eliminated them he regained his energy.
  • Processed sugar is horrible (i.e. in Coke) – The best way to get sugar is from fruits – have fruits after practice.
  • Water is HUGE
  • Oatmeal, protein bars, juices, fruit are great
  • Older kids need more protein to build muscle. Clean protein. Be careful of protein supplements – artificial sweeteners, dyes, are not good.
  • A good balance of carbs, protein, and healthy fats is key
  • Check out his book, youtube channel, podcast : carsonnatural.com

The One that got away

  • Dr. Phil had a goalie having a rough day, he should have taken him out, but he left him in, Dr. Phil regrets not taking him out.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Play lots of fun games in practices

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Quote: ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where the puck has been’ – Wayne Gretzky

Parting Advice

  • Make it fun

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WYC 113 – Youth Sports – Morgan Sullivan talks 3 P’s: Prepare, progress, push

Morgan Sullivan is a youth sports coach. He has coached his daughter and sons in multiple sports, and is an avid student of coaching. He also shares coaching wisdom on his blog and in his Facebook group Coaches Corner.

Blog: coachmorganssportschannel.wordpress.com

Facebook: /coachmorganscorner/

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Push your players to the point of uncomfortable but attainable.’

Coaching your own kids

  • Make sure all the players know you are there to coach and treat all the players equally
  • Treat all the kids equally – your child shouldn’t have to be 50% better than the next kid to earn a spot – If they earn it, they earn it!

Cringe Moment

  • Morgan’s 5 year-old son was running the game-winning touchdown, and his shoe came off and he stopped. They lost the game and Morgan ran out and yelled at his son. Morgan realized he had lost perspective, apologized to his son and the team, and learned to keep perspective during games.

Teaching Skills

  • The less talking the coaches do and the more playing the players do, the better it will be for everyone. A quick demonstration goes a long way.
  • Use stations. Run from station to station.

Self-Confidence

  • Mistakes are learning points. We want mistakes. You only get better by making mistakes.

Championship Culture 

  • It starts with great assistant coaches
  • Approach communication from the positive side of things: use words like ‘I would like to see…’ instead of ‘I don’t want you to do …’
  • Focus on process and making the right decision
  • Reward hustle, sportsmanship
  • Great team builders – Start practices by playing fun games, have a potluck cookout

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Morgan has coached a boy who is his neighbor and followed his growth, and got to see him catch his first TD recently, Morgan doesn’t know who was more excited, the boy, his parents, or Morgan

The One that got away

  • Morgan had some scouts come to watch him in a high school game and he gave up 7 runs and only recorded 1 out. Morgan’s mom did a great job afterwards of keeping things in perspective and reminding him that this doesn’t define him.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Hardwork and dedication will reap benefits
  • Morgan’s best coach had great passion and loved hardwork and fun.

Favorite coaching book/quote

Parting Advice

  • 3 P’s – Prepare, progress, push. During practice – Push your players to the point of uncomfortable but attainable.

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WYC 112 – Championship Culture Part 8 – What are the 4 cornerstones of building Championship Culture?

 

Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, whose mission is to empower and train youth sports coaches at all levels to build championship programs by creating a culture that values the contribution of each individual and accelerates deep training to achieve peak performance.

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

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Quote

‘Be a coach that builds up children and teaches them to overcome adversity, instead of being the adversity the child has to overcome.’

The 4 Cornerstones

1 – Establishing Core values

2 – Accelerate deep training

3 – Defining an important role for everyone & Developing your leaders

4 – Achieving Peak Performance

Taking action – How to implement the 4 cornerstones

  • Your equivalent to attending a live conference, but at the convenience of listening on your own schedule.
  • 6 sessions that are about 40 minutes each
  • Do-it-yourself worksheets and attachments to put pen to paper and make a plan of action for your program.
  • Networking – 2 month membership to our culture bus masterminding network group to help encourage you and to learn from each other along the way.
  • Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign – this will allow me to understand the size and scope of the audience, and take feedback through comments on the kickstarter campaign page itself – to tweak this course to make it exactly what you, as a coach, need and want.
  • IF NOTHING CHANGES, NOTHING CHANGES.

Get started here

Caz McCaslin’s 2 minute Coaching tips

  • Spirituality – It’s one of our most important influences to help kids see they why behind what we do, and help them find their own 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

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WYC 111 – Championship Culture Part 7 – Jim Harshaw Jr talks Wrestling & Developing Leaders Who Aren’t Afraid to Fail

Jim Harshaw Jr is a speaker, consultant and former Division I All American wrestler. Here is a quick story by him:

I grew up in a blue-collar home so learned the value of hard work early on.

I have spent my life surrounded by Olympians, CEO’s and millionaires. They’ve all struggled and failed on their way to success. Just like you.

 

On March 20, 1998, my sixteenth year of wrestling ended in a locker room with blood on my face and tears in my eyes. I’d just lost the match to become an NCAA Division I All American.

But I had one more season at the University of Virginia. One more chance. And exactly one year later, in front of over 14,000 fans at the NCAA Championships, I did it. I earned a place on the podium as one of just eight wrestlers in the country with the status of Division I All American.

I followed a blueprint for success to get there. The same blueprint got me invited to the Olympic Training Center and took me overseas to compete on a US National Team.

Website, TEDx talk, & Podcast: jimharshawjr.com

Twitter: @jimharshaw

Facebook: /jimharshawjr

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘There are 2 pains in life: the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret’

‘We all need an unreasonable person in our life that holds us to a standard higher than we believe we can attain.’

Outwork everyone

  • Jim’s goal from day one was to outwork all of his competition

Coaching your own kids

  • Each kid is unique and has different needs and ways to communicate

Success through Failure podcast

  • Most of what we do starts with a failure.
  • The failure along the way is only because we set our goals high. The more successful the person, the more failures they have in their past. You don’t see the grind and struggles and times they wanted to quit after they succeed, but it’s there. ‘Failure is an option. In fact, it’s quite likely.’

Goal setting

  • Set audaciously high goals. Then reverse engineer the process it will take to get there. And then forget about the goal. All you can control is your actions. Set action goals.
  • ‘We all need an unreasonable person in our life that holds us to a standard higher than we believe we can attain.’

Caz McCaslin’s 2 minute Coaching tips

  • Kids today are digitally connected, but struggle to connect socially face-to-face – Sports is a great place to make this happen.
  • Best-practice – At end of practice once per week – have one player on team share a story about themself for 3 minutes while all the other players squat against the wall – then ask the players questions about the story afterwards – if they can’t answer they have to keep squatting – great combination of teaching listening skills while under physical exertion

Championship Culture

  • ‘The coach cares more about me as a person than he cares about me as an athlete’

Connecting with kids

  • A young man Jim coached who was hearing impaired wanted to quit, but Jim had a great conversation with the young man and he has stuck with it and his confidence has gone up and he’s doing great with it. Someone believed in him.

Best Stolen Idea

  • Variety

Quote

  • ‘There are 2 pains in life: the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret’

Leadership and life coaching

  • Website, TEDx talk, & Podcast: jimharshawjr.com
  • Coaches people and former athletes on goal setting, success, and leadership

Parting Advice

  • Focus on the life lessons. Translate the actions they are doing into life lessons.

– 

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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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

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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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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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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

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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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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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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:

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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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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 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

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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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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 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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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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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?

– 

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

– 

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 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

– 

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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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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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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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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WYC 076 – Youth Baseball – Colby Patnode talks rewarding Quality at Bats

Colby Patnode started coaching baseball 2 days after he finished playing for his high school team. He is now 24 and has coached multiple baseball teams, both travel and school teams through the high school varsity level. He lives in Yakima, Washington.

Twitter: @CPat11

Facebook: /colby.patnode

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

Quote

‘Adversity turns weak teams into victims and strong teams into competitors’

My Cringe Moments

  • Colby was frustrated with a call – and instead of going out to talk to the umpire- he threw a baseball into the empty field next to him. Then to make matters worse- when a parent asked him to set a better example – he told the parent to sit down.

Communication with parents

  • The key is to establish communication early  and let the parents know you plans right from the start. Then over-communicate with everything going on with the team.
  • Colby asks the parents to not talk to him during games or practices – and to wait at least 3-4 hours after a game.

Teaching Skills

  • Never assume that kids know something until you see them do it – always start with the basics. ‘Learn your learner’ – Pete Carroll phrase – it starts with understanding each kid and where they are at
  • No live batting practice – Coach Patnode finds it is a waste of time for most of the players.
  • 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.

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • Kids will perform much better when they play for each other vs. playing out of fear
  • Set specific and achievable goals, and then expect for them to be met by the players

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • The more rules you have – the more rules kids are going to break
  • 3 rules:
    • 1- Protect the team
    • 2 – Protect the brand/game
    • 3- Do your best

HUGE IDEA

  • 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 %

Impacting Kids

  • Coach Patnode witnessed one kid who lacked confidence turn things around and start playing aggressively after the coaches continued to encourage him to play without fear of mistakes
  • Coach had another kid who when the pitching coach went to the mound to take him out said ‘Get off my mound, I’m finishing this’ – great example of a kid not giving up and not wanting the easy way out but wanting to grind

The One that got away

  • Colby shares a story of almost making it to the state championship his senior year- but getting upset by a team they probably shouldn’t have.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Cobly realized that some of the high school kids were intimidated by having a coach who was so close to the same age as them – so he told them to call him Colby or Patnode – they didn’t have to call him coach
  • 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

Favorite coaching book/quote

Parting Advice

  • Treat everyone fair, but don’t treat them all the same. Understand why each kid is out there.

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WYC 075 – Proactive Coaching – Scott Rosberg talks Coaching with Character

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years.  He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for seniors and graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches.  He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics.  Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website.

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team.  Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance.

Websites:  coachwithcharacter.com; proactivecoaching.info

Twitter: @scottrosberg@ProactiveCoach

Facebook: /coachwithcharacter ;  /proactivecoach

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Quote

‘Look what you’ve become!’

‘You get what you reward, and it perpetuates itself’

My Cringe Moments

  • Using bad language when coaching
  • Once, when mad in practice, Scott yelled ‘There is nothing fun about this!’ – in retrospect he realizes the irony of that statement, considering the #1 reason kids play sports is to have fun.
  • Another practice Scott once had them do conditioning during a lightning storm

My ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Learning from Proactive Coaching about creating a culture. 75+% of teams let their culture happen ‘by accident.’  Instead – create Core Covenants – that are the standards for what your team is going to be. Involve the captains when creating these. Check out Proactive Coaching’s guide to creating Core Covanants: First Steps to Building Successful Teams
  • From a parenting point of view – Kids least favorite part of sports is the post-game analysis from their parents on the ride home from games
  • From a coaching point of view – Are your post-game talks too long? Are you over-analzing the game in your post-game talk?

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • ‘This is a relationship business.’ How do I react when one of my players makes a mistake? The 3 C’s of Trust:
    • Competence
    • Caring
    • Character
  • ‘Focus on the process not the outcome.’ When Lebron James was struggling with free throws a few years ago- he went to a shooting coach, and the coach asked him what he was thinking about when he went to the line. Lebron said he thought about making it. The coach said- ‘Don’t think about making it, think about your process.’
  • The key to confidence is preparation
  • Create a mistake-recovery ritual

HUGE IDEA:

  • Use these words: ‘Look what you’ve become!’ or ‘Look what you were able to figure out’ – instead of taking any credit yourself

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • Have standards not rules. Kids can rise to standards.
  • Discipline is focused attention and focused effort
  • ‘You get what you reward, and it perpetuates itself’

HUGE IDEA

  • 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.’
  • 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.

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • ‘Success is a peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.’ – John Wooden

Coach With Character

  • Senior Salute booklet – great $5 gift for you players in the post-season award banquet – includes a place inside the front cover to write a personal note
  • Website has blog, booklets: coachwithcharacter.com

Parting Advice

  • ‘We’re here to try to provide kids the opportunity to have a positive athletic experience’

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WYC 074 – Championship basketball – Andres Montana talks about the power of trust and believing in kids

Coach Montana has been at St. Cecilia Academy since 2012 as the varsity girls head coach at St. Cecilia Academy. Coach Montana played high school basketball at Marist (GA), where he helped lead the team to a 32-0 season his senior year, winning the state championship, and being ranked 6th nationally by USA Today. He has been coaching vasity basketball since 1997, since 2003 as head coach. In 2007 and 2008, Montana’s teams were state runner-up. Those same years he was named GISA Coach of the Year. Coach Montana has been serving St. Cecilia as the Vice Principal of Students since 2012. Coach Montana also coaches for Upward Stars Nashville. He and his wife, Shannon, have 8 beautiful children.

Websites: stcecilia.edu; upwardstarsnashville.org

Twitter: @StCeciliaAca@UpwardStarsTN

Facebook: /St-Cecilia-Academy/103813402991323; /upwardstarsnashville

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Quote

Nothing has worked better to build kids’ confidence than to truthfully tell a child ‘I believe in you’

Coaching your own kids

  • Coach Montana has 8 kids- he was recently coaching one of them, the team was down 2 and the team got a steal and his son had a chance to tie the game. Instead he pulled up for a 3 to win the game, it didn’t go in. His son was very upset, but coach was so proud of him for ‘Trusting his instincts’ and having the courage to take the shot – these are the types of life lessons he wants to teach his kids/players. He put his arm around his son and told him how proud he was for taking that courageous shot.

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Being a passionate coach, early on it was easy to yell at players. Coach has learned there are more effective ways and times to communicate.
  • Coach one time was frustrated with another team ‘acting like thugs’ and was upset and threw his dry-erase marker – and it went all the way down the court and hit the opposing coach in the foot. He went on to get to know the other coach and they have since become good friends. One thing he learned from the other coach was that he always believed so much in his own kids that it helped them play better than they actually were. For example he called one of his player who had weird form ‘the shooter’ and it led to that player playing extremely confidently and making a lot of shots.

Teaching Skills

  • Coach Montana learned (from previous WYC guest Kevin Furtado)- to use the term ‘Tough Ball’ instead of ‘triple threat’ – Young kids instinctually catch the ball and turn their back to the basket and dribble with their strong hand away from the basket with their head down. So one of the first things to teach is for the kids to face the basket, with two hands on the ball, and their head up – willing to face their opponent.
  • They also echo the coach’s commands – ‘Tough ball’, ‘Rip’, ‘Sweep’ – This echoing becomes fun for the kids and gets them all involved, and increases the energy level in the practice.
  • Lay-up drills – they will do without the ball first – for right-handed they say ‘right-hand, right-knee’ as they are jumping and simulating doing a right-handed layup without the ball.

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

  • One key is to have one-on-one conversations to understand where the kid’s confidence is at. Not by asking them directly – but by asking questions and seeing how confidently they answer them.
  • Nothing has worked better to build kids’ confidence than to truthfully tell a child ‘I believe in you’

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • Culture will create itself if you don’t create it
  • 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.
  • Work with the captains for discipline – it starts with them!
  • Post-game shout-outs by the players – complimenting other players is huge.

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Coach Montana had a kid Franko who struggled to grow into his body. He stuck with it and the coaches kept believing in him – his senior year he ended up making a left-handed layup as time expired to win a game – it wasn’t the designed play but the play broke down and he had the confidence to create on his own.

The One that Got Away

  • In a state championship game – they got the ball with 2 seconds left and down 3 – they called timeout and set up a play – but unfortunately they thought the ball was on the sideline, and when they got out on the court the ref told them it was on the baseline. Lessons learned: Confirm with the official where the ball is; Have a generic play you can run from anywhere by just using the name of the play

Best stolen idea

  • Two end-of-game lead-protection strategies: a four-corner offense with a back-door cut built in; and a sidelines inbound play that is very effective

Favorite coaching book/quote

  • Anything by John Wooden
  • ‘Failure to prepare is preparing to fail’- John Wooden
  • ‘All things work for good for those that love God’ – from the Bible

Parting Advice

  • Give them the book ‘Coaching Basketball Successfully‘ by Morgan Wootten
  • You have the freedom to be whatever kind of coach you want to – take that seriously, establish your own core covenants, and think outside the box on how you can positively impact the kids you coach.

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WYC 073 – Fastest growing sport in USA: Futsal – Jon Caldwell talks getting kids 12x the number of touches

Jon Caldwell is a co-founder of Ginga Futsal and serves as Director of the Greater Cincinnati North and East locations.

Ginga mission statement: ‘We strive to teach confidence and total control over the ball. GINGA focuses on the individual skills of the player. GINGA will create attacking players, by teaching moves and feints to unbalance your defender. Our goal is to develop total soccer players not positional players, who have an artistic relationship with the ball and the game.’

Website: thegingatouch.com

Twitter: @jcaldwell13; @thegingatouch

Facebook: /The-Ginga-Touch-192724914078318

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Quote

‘No lines, no lectures’

‘At the younger ages – that is the time to take the risks. That is the time to fail. I would be doing something wrong if all the teams I coach at the younger ages win every single game.’

Futsal

  • #1 developmental tool for soccer players in South America and Europe
  • 5 vs. 5 game with heavier low-bounce ball. There are out-of-bounds (unlike indoor soccer.)
  • HUGE IDEA: Kids that play futsal touch the ball 12x vs. traditional soccer
  • Constant problem-solving and quick decisions because of the small spaces

Building confidence

  • Freeplay is huge. No parents or coaches.
  • Friday night bridge futsal nights – They have open play – kids wear their favorite jerseys – and play pick-up games.

Teaching Skills

  • ‘No lines, no lectures’
  • Start the practice playing tag, first without the ball, then add the ball in

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • ‘At the younger ages – that is the time to take the risks. That is the time to fail. I would be doing something wrong if all the teams I coach at the younger ages win every single game.’  Teach the kids to take on their opponent, to keep trying one-on-one moves, without fear of failure. The kids that succeed long-term are the ones that can beat their man one-on-one.

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Jon coached a kid who started with his Ginga club at age 9. He started out with mediocre skills, but by age 12 he completely got the bug to be great and turned out to be a great athlete.

The One that Got Away

  • Jon  recently coached a futsal team that lost on penalty kicks in the championship game. While he would have loved to win the game, he know the coaches and players will learn from the defeat and be even better in the future because of it.

Best stolen idea

  • Talk softly around kids – Instead of yelling so the kids can hear you – train them to listen by talking softly

Favorite coaching book

Ginga Futsal

Parting Advice

  • Be positive, encourage the kids. You goal is to get the kids to be passionate about the sport.
  • Be organized and have a plan.

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WYC 072 – Coaching up sports parents – Janis Meredith talks 11 Habits of Happy Sports Parents

 

Janis Meredith is the founder of JBMThinks Positive Sports Parenting, her goal is to help busy and often overwhelmed sports parents by providing guidance and resources to guide parents as they strive to give their children a growing and positive youth sports experience.

Janis blogs, podcasts, speaks, and hosts online communities to get her positive message out. She has written for MLB.com Digital Academy, USAFootball.com, Coachup.com, LessThanPerfectParents.com, Southwest Florida Parent & Child, and Redding Record Searchlight.

Most recently she has written the book 11 Habits of Happy and Positive Sports Parents, a great resource for coaches to give out during their pre-season parent meetings.

Website: jbmthinks.com; Link to 11 Habits book: Book

Twitter: @jbmthinks

Facebook: /sportsparenting

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Habit 1

  • Be the parent, and let the coach do his/her job

Habit 2

  • Think realistically

Habit 3

  • Avoid comparisons

Habit 4

  • Show gratitude

Habit 5

  • Learn from your mistakes

Check out all 11 Habits in her book – great resource for coaches to hand out in their pre-season parent meeting:

http://jbmthinks.com/11-habits-happy-positive-sports-parents/

 

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WYC 071 – Elite Hoops Basketball – Lee Miller talks Living by Numbers

 

Lee Miller is the National Director and Skill Development Trainer for Elite Hoops Basketball. 2015 marks Lee Miller’s 12th year as Director of Elite Hoops. Previously, Miller has Co-directed the University of Georgia’s basketball camps, worked at Duke University basketball camps and assisted with Jack Haley’s NBA Complete Player Camp in California. In 2004, he was amongst the best upcoming NBA talent while working at the 27th annual Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp in Las Vegas. Since 2009, Miller has trained over 1100 players, 83 of which have gone on to play at the Division I level. One of which was the 2011 AJC High School Player of the Year and current UVA Cavalier Malcolm Brogdon. Miller also worked extensively for 4 years with 2014 Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, Isaiah Wilkins.

Website: elitehoopsbasketball.com

Facebook: /EliteHoops

Twitter: @LeeMillerElite; @EliteHoops

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Quote

  • ‘Success is the direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your very best’ – John Wooden

Coaching your own kids

  • Lee believes in letting the kids express interest before ‘forcing’ them into sports
  • With regards to travel sports: ‘What is too much?’ – Lee’s answer – if he or she has an off day, and they don’t want to go out and shoot in the driveway, then they are probably playing too many organized sports.

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Early on -‘I started teaching players what I was taught’ and did not take the time to study whether it was really the best way to teach

Teaching Skills

  • Set up the expectation that the players need to bring the excitement and passion for the game, and as a coach you will be teaching them the skills they need to achieve success
  • Spend 75-80% of your practice time on fundamentals – not X’s and O’s. Great question to ask yourself at the younger ages: ‘How many times per game do we score from one of our offensive sets?’ – If it’s rare -then quit spending so much time on it and focus instead on teaching the kids fundamentals.

Building confidence

  • Living by numbers – They have created 15 core drills that can be measured numerically. The focus is on improvement.

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • Lee is a big believer in energy in the gym. This starts on Day 1.
  • The three T’s:
    • Talk
    • Touch
    • Tap
  • Every player is either a proton or an electron – they are either bringing positive energy or negative energy

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Lee coached a kid who was on the bubble as to making his middle school – but he committed and stuck with it and worked hard – and went on his make his freshmen team

Memorable Game

  • When Lee was coaching in high school – he had a loaded team that lost in the Elite 8 of the state championships – one lesson learned was that they should have gotten some of their younger players more experience earlier in the season

Best Stolen Idea

  • Go to other teams/coaches’ practices! At every level.
  • Watch the way different coaches motivate different players in different ways.

Best Book

Elite Hoops Basketball

  • Website: elitehoopsbasketball.com
  • Focus on fundamentals:
    • Skill development 90 minute sessions
    • Shooting club – Players get off 300-500 shots in 90 minutes
    • 3-on-3 leagues

Parting Advice

  • ‘Success is the direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your very best’ – John Wooden

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