Tag: athlete

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:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

The Problem Most Youth Coaches Don’t Know They Have – Guest Post

Coaches, ever found yourself in this situation? Practice gets cancelled. Or rescheduled. Maybe it’s raining. The venue changes. Whatever it is, everyone on your team needs to be told.

What most youth coaches do next is send out individual text messages and emails to players and parents. Sound familiar?

It’s fiddly. Takes time. You’re anxious about leaving someone out. Not everyone responds. How are you supposed to know if they’ve seen your message and received vital information?

The result? Players straggled at the wrong location, late, or missing practice altogether. Or kids uncollected because mom and dad didn’t get the new message. It’s you who loses out, the long-suffering youth coach with a screwed-up practice and only sad little Taylor for company!

It’s a problem. And it hinges on that essential element of youth coaching: successful communication with your team.

How to Communicate Better with Your Youth Team 

Now, imagine this instead. Practice gets cancelled. Your team needs to be told.

This time, you blast the same message to all players and parents at the exact same time. Team contacts are listed for you. Just hit send.

Best of all, you can see exactly who reads your message and who doesn’t. You know who needs reminding!

Information’s not lost, practice goes smoothly and everyone’s picked up safely.

Sound too good to be true, youth coaches? It’s not.

The solution is a fantastic app called Heja. Coaches love this app because it was made specifically for the challenges of running a youth team. It works brilliantly and – here’s the kicker – it’s absolutely FREE!

Heja allows you to:

  • communicate with your players, their parents and your coaching staff
  • see who has received your messages
  • organize your team in a clear Team Schedule
  • share images, videos and more useful features

Even if the only thing you got by downloading Heja was knowing exactly who has seen your messages, it would be worth the 2 minutes it takes to get set up on the app. But that’s far from the case.

Why Youth Teams Need a Live Team Schedule

Ever been cornered by parents asking what the practice schedule looks like over the next few weeks? You do your best to share dates and times by email, text or in person. But it’s unorganized.

Here’s why Heja’s Team Schedule is beloved by the 50,000+ coaches currently using the free app.

How does it work? Update practice, game and workout times on your Team Schedule in Heja. Coaches, managers, players and parents access the schedule in the app. Everyone knows where to be. Kids show up on time. And if something changes, everyone gets notified.

BONUS: Players even check “going” or “not going” to each practice, game and workout so you know precisely who’s attending.

Does Your Team Really Need a Communication App?

Open, honest and instant communication is crucial to running any great team. Nowadays, digital communication plays a huge part in that.

However, nearly 60% of youth coaches admit to still relying on SMS and emails to communicate with their team, according to Heja’s survey.

When superior options exist, choosing not to utilize them has consequences. Over the course of a season, parents miss messages and interrupt practice.

The folks at Heja told me that’s one reason their app remains free. They believe great team communication shouldn’t be a luxury only afforded to some youth coaches.

Of course, other great services exist too. But no communication app is so well suited to the needs of youth coaches while remaining 100% free for the whole team (with no ads), which is why I’m happy to recommend Heja.

Get Your Team Started on Heja Now

Ready to try the app? It’s easy.

Download Heja on your phone. Create your team. Invite coaches, managers, players and parents to join with a team code and you’re good to go.

The whole process takes 2 minutes to set up and Heja’s customer support staff are brilliant when you need them.

Don’t settle for outdated communication this season. Invest 2 minuts now and unite your team on Heja. Trust us, your team will thank you for it later!

You can download Heja free here: https://go.heja.app/free-download

Disclosure: I was paid a small fee to endorse this app, but having seen all of its features and ways it can make a coach’s life easier, I fully support this article and encourage coaches to check out Heja and see how it can help their team.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Building confidence as a young basketball player – Guest Post

Building confidence as a young basketball player

When I was a kid I used to play pick-up basketball every day of the summer with a few older players on a local court. One of the biggest lessons they would teach me was that basketball was a game of confidence. I would later come to understand that this is true for many other sports, not just basketball, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

First we need to distinguish between two types of confidence, healthy and unhealthy confidence. Healthy confidence is grounded in reality and it is honed through practice; it lets you recover after making a bad play and it lets you make a great play under pressure. This is the kind of confidence you want to build. Unhealthy confidence is not grounded in reality, it’s simply you overestimating your abilities for whatever reason. While unhealthy confidence may be beneficial in the short run, in the long run, it will end up hurting you and your team.

Many young players are holding back their own development because they’re preventing themselves from taking that next step forward and expanding their game. They might have a move they’ve been practicing on their own but they’re too afraid to try it in a 5 on 5 practice, or they might even be doing it in practice but they’re afraid to do it in a game. The cause of this fear is usually the same, they’re afraid of making a mistake. What if you miss, or what if you lose the ball?

If this sounds like you then you’re most likely, whether you see it or not, striving for perfection, which is ironically an excellent way to sabotage yourself. Perfection brings the burden of unrealistic expectations. A perfect player would never miss a shot, yet even Steph Curry missed around 56% of his threes this season. Missed shots and mistakes are a part of the game and the best way to get over your fear of mistakes is to go ahead and make a few, you’ll see that it’s not the end of the world.

Get Comfortable With Making Mistakes

Being a naturally shy and quiet person, my lack of confidence in games was a major obstacle during my early years. Playing with close friends and having nothing to prove, I would be in the zone and play completely free from any feelings of fear. Yet during tryouts or in the games with an audience, I was suddenly afraid to make bigger plays and always played things safe. With that attitude, I wasn’t ever going to impress anybody.

This lack of confidence didn’t just haunt me in basketball. Back then I was playing water polo alongside basketball. I was keyed up before my first official match and had some friends coming to watch me play. I was a goalkeeper, and in goal you only have a handful of opportunities to show what you’ve got. My mind was racing – ‘don’t screw up!’, I repeated to myself.

As you can probably guess, I did. Frustrated by my lack of contribution to the game and eager to make something happen, I launched a long ball directly to an unsuspecting teammate hoping to make a quick counterattacking play. That was out of character for me, a player who would otherwise stick to passing to the nearest players. A few seconds later the ball was in the back of my own net – my attempt at trying something bold had backfired. I felt horrible and I thought my coach would never let me hear the end of it.

To my surprise my coach seemed impressed, “I certainly haven’t you seen you try that before!”. I suddenly realized it wasn’t the end of the world. In fact, it was one of the best learning experiences I could ask for as a young player. After that, I was mentally tougher and more confident in sports and even throughout other aspects of life.

Building Confidence Is A Journey

The sport is different but the principles are the same. I’m not telling you to start taking wild shots from 30 feet in your next game just for the sake of shedding that fear of screwing up. Building confidence is a journey. Are you trying to expand your game in some way e.g. add a new move? Good, you should be. The first step towards successfully doing this is to master it on your own terms.

Go out to a local court and practice whatever it is you want to add to your game on your own until it becomes second nature. Bring a friend with you if you need to, they can help you out or they might notice things you don’t, have them record you if it will help. Every time you fail, make sure you understand why it happened (video will help with this) and try to fix it on your next attempt. Once you’re able to do it on your own consistently you’re ready to try it out in basketball practice.

You already know you can do the move, but during practice things are a bit different. There are now teammates and opposing players to consider. Mistakes still can and will happen. Let them happen and learn from them, that’s what development is all about. Talk to your coach, see if they have any advice for you. Ask them for drills you can do on your own. Doing it in practice builds the healthy confidence you want, and when you start consistently doing it in practice then you’re ready for prime time.

You have the move down in your muscle memory, you know you can do it even when pressured by the defense, you are no longer holding yourself back. All that’s left now is for you to go out and show them what you got. You’ll begin to realize that even the best players can’t make the right play or perfectly execute a move every time. But these great players all share something in common – they’re not scared of making a fool of themselves.

Max Kesler runs a website focused on providing helpful tips and advice for youth basketball. He shares on training, gear, and fitness. You can take a look here: https://www.hoopsbeast.com

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

9 Characteristics of a Successful Soccer Team – Guest Post

Year over year, some teams are able to rise above the pack and succeed. While this is generally a collection of many, many things, we share the 9 most important characteristics that make up a successful soccer team.

Physical Characteristics

1. Sound Fundamentals

Teams that have sound soccer fundamentals will perform at a higher level each and every minute of game time. Good skill sets surrounding trapping, dribbling, passing, shooting, and heading allow soccer players to perform higher with every touch of the ball.

This translates to higher possession, more ball control, and better shooting. These characteristics sharply increase the chances of your team winning.

2. Fully Fit and In Shape

Soccer is truly a game of endurance, and a fully fit team stands a much better chance of performing well. Keeping a team in shape and fully fit requires constant training that is specifically focused on fitness, with running and agility exercises daily or weekly.

Teams that emphasis fitness, though, tend to do better. More goals are scored at the end of a game than at the beginning, and this has a lot to do with one team getting tired and the other capitalizing.

3. Always Improving

Good soccer teams are always improving their fitness and fundamentals, even throughout the season. So often, teams focus on fundamentals and improvement in training sessions before the season starts, but slack off as the season gets going.

Good teams are always working hard to improve, even if the changes are incremental and small. You can see this play out as the successful teams pull away in the end.

 

Tactical Characteristics

4. Proper Positioning

For a lot of teams that don’t end up succeeding, they can be considered to be a collection of good individual players, but not a team. While there are a lot of factors that go into playing as a team, one of the most important is proper positioning.

A good soccer team utilizes all 11 players on the field in the best manner possible, with each player understanding their position on the field. Proper positioning allows the coach to fully implement their strategy, and each player to maximize their abilities.

5. Good Communication

Soccer is a fast paced game with a lot of movement, and players will constantly be defending and counter-attacking. This frequent movement across and around the pitch means that communication is paramount.

Good communication allows teams to capitalize on mismatches in the game, while simultaneously not exposing themselves to danger.

6. Cover for Each Other

Covering for each other is really a combination of the first two points, but brings the tactical essentials together. Through proper positioning and good communication, soccer teams can outpace, outplay, and beat other teams. All of this culminates in the simple concept of covering for each other, whether on offense or defense.

 

Mental Characteristics

7. Steadfast Belief

Soccer games can swing on a single goal, and it is easy to get down on yourself (and the team) when something doesn’t go your way. Belief in the strategies and tactics that have been set up, along with the belief in fellow teammates, is essential.

So often, the most successful of teams remain steadfast in their belief that they can win the game. These teams are able to “dig deep” to find what is necessary to win games.

8. Mental Fortitude

Mental fortitude in soccer plays itself out in the ability to execute the game plan and soccer tactics, even when it is very difficult. Whether the team needs to absorb a lot of opposing pressure, or rebound from missing several wide open shots, a team needs to have the mental fortitude to push forward.

Many have correctly identified this as having a short term memory. The best forwards forget their misses, continuously shooting. The best defenders forget their penalties, continuing to make timely tackles.

9. Constant Focus

Successful teams rarely have mental lapses, and this can be accounted to their constant focus. While a soccer game is more than 90 minutes long, it only takes a few seconds for the game the swing. Often, this is the result of a lapse in concentration and focus.

Staying focused for 90+ minutes is difficult, and the successful teams are able to do this down each and every player.

 

Bring these 9 characteristics to your soccer team, and continuously working on them to see improvement and success!

 –

Tim Frechette runs a website focused on providing helpful tips and advice when it comes to different athletics, such as soccer and volleyball. He shares different drills to run, a breakdown of different positions, shoe and clothing suggestions, etc. You can take a look here: https://athleticlift.com/  

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

The 8 Hidden Talents

I had the pleasure of interviewing Travis Daugherty in this week’s podcast, and he shared some great wisdom from his book, The Lens.

He shared one of the best lists I have seen defining what characteristics we should focus on developing (in ourselves and in those we coach.)
He calls it The 8 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

What a great list to work off as you develop your team’s core values. And the great thing is they are all controllable, for every player, whether the star athlete or the last guy off the bench.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Anatomy of a Teammate

Team – A number of people organized to function cooperatively as a group
Teammate – A partner
Selflessness – Putting other people’s needs, interests, or wishes before your own​​​​​​​
Image
I’m going to keep this post short and sweet because I want you to spend 7 minutes watching this video instead of reading a post. 
I met Patrick Murphy, the coach of Alabama softball, at a recent conference. He told a story about calling timeout in a key situation, walking up to the girl he was coaching, putting his arm around her, and saying ‘I am going to love you no matter what the result of this at-bat is.’

The core value you will see plastered all over their facility is: 
PERSON
———-
ATHLETE
​​​​​​​Person over athlete. That is the type of people Coach Murphy is developing, and it is contagious.
​​​​​​​Watch the video and see how this attitude has permeated into Brittany.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

The best playbook ever

The search for the perfect playbook for their team consumes many coaches’ focus and energy. The irony is, the great coaches I have observed consistently have playbooks than can be boiled down in 2 simple ways:
1 – They have 2 or 3 base plays and a few variations off of these
​2 – They don’t change much throughout the season
Do you know what the best playbook is for your team? It’s probably the one you have right now, but probably should have less plays. Keep it simple. One of the best football minds I know is Joe Daniel, he shared this with me:
During every season most likely there will be a game, or a stretch of games, where it feels like your playbook is not working. Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts to consider when evaluating how to fix it:

– Do this: Spend time perfecting your base plays in practice the next week.  Re-visit the fundamentals of what makes the base plays work and analyze any shortcomings.  Lots of reps vs. air with attention to the ‘little things’ that make your system work
– Do this: Seek input from an expert. Show video of a couple plays to your local high school coach and ask for his advice.
 Don’t do this: Panic/over-react. Think your system is flawed, scrap the whole thing, and implement a whole new system.
– Don’t do this: Think you need more plays to ‘trick’ the other team.  Often if things aren’t working you have too many plays.  And sometimes the other team is just really good.
Keeping things simple and sticking with a consistent plan allows you to focus on what the great coaches focus on: teaching kids to be great at fundamentals and to play games freely without overthinking complicated systems.
Continue Reading

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

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 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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Guest Post – Tips For Smaller Hockey Players

Tips For Smaller Hockey Players

Just 5-foot-6, Theo Fleury was an eighth-round draft pick who would go on to register 1,088 points in a 15-year career that wrapped up in 2003.

At 5-7, Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard — the younger and shorter brother of Maurice “Rocket” Richard — became the only player in NHL history to play on 11 Stanley Cup winners.

They called Marcel Dionne “Little Beaver” because he stood all of 5-8, but that didn’t stop the longtime Kings star from scoring 731 goals, fifth in NHL history.

Lest you think that sort of thing is ancient history, think again. For all the behemoths – 6-9 Zdeno Chara and 260-pound Dustin Byfuglien leap to mind — there is still plenty of room in the NHL for players who check in at less than the league average of 6-1, 201.

Players such as Brad Marchand (5-9, 181), Johnny Gaudreau (5-9, 157), Cam Atkinson (5-8, 179) and Alex DeBrincat (5-7, 165) have all found NHL success — and there are lessons any undersized player can take from those players and others to prove that size doesn’t always matter.

Roll With It

You’re short. Everybody knows it. Don’t go all Napoleonic about it. At least, that was Gaudreau’s take in a 2016 piece for the Players’ Tribune:

“You’re always going to have people on you about your size, so do what you can to be in on the joke,” Gaudreau said. “Last All-Star weekend, Ryan Johansen brought out a little kid during the penalty shootout and scored a goal with him. So as a gag, Jakub Voracek came up to me and asked if he could use me as a prop for his shot. I thought it was hilarious.”

A couple of other tips from Johnny Hockey:

• “Next piece of advice, keep your head up. Always. You’re not built to take heavy shots, so you have to be twice as careful out there.”
• “Try that move out, look silly, and get better. As long as you’re smaller, your best skill needs to be your effort.”

Go Big or Go Home

In everything you do on the ice, demonstrate size — of your heart, your effort, your willingness to learn. These keys will open doors typically closed to smaller players.

Maximize your gifts: You can’t make yourself taller, but you can work on getting faster, stronger and more explosive. That means time in the weight room as well as on the ice.

Emphasize those gifts: If you’re the fastest player on the ice, build your game around it. If you’re a great passer, focus on setting up your teammates. Get better at the things at which you’re already good.

Play with confidence: Believe in yourself, play to your strengths, know that your size can lend you an elusiveness that big players are not granted.

Accept contact: It’s going to happen anyway. Like Gaudreau said, keep your head up. Keep your feet moving and your center of gravity low — victories in NFL line play typically go to players with the best positioning and leverage, not the most strength.

See and sense the game: Decision-making skills can be honed, hockey IQ (or “ice sense”) can be developed. Pickup games help, tough practices help, small-area games where you stay on the ice longer and you’re more concerned about finding the open man than dragging your carcass up and down the ice helps. So does carefully watching the smartest players in the game.

If You Don’t Believe, No One Will

Mostly, the key to your success is just don’t quit.

Ultimately, it comes down to belief in your ability. One without the other isn’t enough. Or, as Gaudreau said, “It doesn’t matter where you’re playing or if you’re getting cut from teams. If you have the talent, the right person will find you.”

Author bio: AJ Lee is Marketing Coordinator for Pro Stock Hockey, an online resource for pro stock hockey equipment. He was born and raised in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, and has been a huge Blackhawks fan his entire life. AJ picked up his first hockey stick at age 3, and hasn’t put it down yet.

A thank you to our sponsor who makes WYC possible – check them out:

Continue Reading

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Quite often I talk too much

Last week I wrote about the first huge takeaway I had at a recent level 1 certification class put on by U.S. Lacrosse, Are you a palms-down coach or a palms-up coach? 

The second principle that really hit home was the concept of Guided Discovery.

Quite simply, it is the concept of letting those you coach learn through their mistakes. Contrast that with the old-school approach of telling them in excruciating detail exactly how to do something.

Picture yourself teaching a new skill, I’ll use picking up a groundball in lacrosse as an example:

Old way:

  • You spend 10 minutes explaining the proper way to pick up a groundball, you demonstrate it, and you tell them all the reasons it’s important to do it ‘your way’ and the bad things that can happen if they don’t do all the things you’ve shown them. Then you let them try it and you walk around correcting mistakes.

Guided Discovery:

  • You start by playing ‘hungry-hungry-hippo’ with lacrosse balls by splitting the group into 2 teams, throwing a bunch of balls on the ground, and tell them it’s a race to see who can pick up the most balls and put them back on their side.
  • After a couple of rounds of this, you ask the group what seemed to work well when picking up the balls, and what seemed to not work so well. Maybe they say ‘it works better to use 2 hands instead of 1, and it works better when I bend lower and put both hands really close to the ground.’
  • You acknowledge their ideas and suggest trying another round or two using some of those concepts.
  • And you keep adding constraints as their skill level gets higher

Which method do you think will get more buy-in and understanding from the athletes?

This concept reminded me of a great question coaches can ask, as written about by Michael Bungay Stanier in his book The Coaching Habit – Say Less, Ask More, and Change the Way you Coach Forever:

The AWE Question – ‘And What Else?’

When talking with the players on our teams, instead of continually offering solutions, instead ask them ‘And what else?’ or ‘Tell me more.’ Then listen and seek to deeply understand.

I often fall into the trap of thinking that if I explain something clearly, people will naturally understand. But that’s not how most people learn. People learn by doing. Failing. Figuring it out on their own. Discovering. Solving. 

My job as a coach is to teach these young men and women. And if people learn by discovering solutions vs. being told them, that’s what I need to do. Talk less and listen more.

 

A thank you to our sponsor who makes WYC possible – check them out:

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Are you a palms-down or palms-up coach?

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”  – Jim Valvano

I recently had the opportunity to attend a level 1 certification class put on by U.S. Lacrosse. Besides the myriad of great drills I learned, there were two overarching principles that were sprinkled throughout the training that really hit home for me. I’ll share the first today, and next week I’ll share the second.

The first principle that really caused me pause was the question:

Are you a palms-down coach or a palms-up coach?

 

 

I wasn’t sure what they meant by this at first, but it’s really easy to picture when you think of game and practice scenarios:

When a player makes a mistake, or a referee makes a call you don’t agree with – what is your reaction? Think about your body language.

  • Do you hold your hands up in the air with palms-up and visibly show your frustration?

or

  • Do you hold your hands down with palms-down and say ‘It’s OK’?

Think about how different these approaches makes the person (athlete or referee) feel on the other end. A palms-up response is really saying ‘I can’t believe you could make that mistake. You are not a good athlete/referee. I don’t believe in you.’

Compare that to the palms-down response. This approach tells the person ‘You might have made a mistake, that’s OK we all make mistakes all the time. It doesn’t mean you are a bad athlete/referee. We can discuss how to do it better next time. I believe in you.’

It really comes down to your purpose in coaching. If you are trying to prove your worth via wins and losses, you will be a palms-up coach because you think someone else’s mistake is making you look bad. But if you are trying to lead a group of young men and/or women to be the best they can be, and help teach them how to be better and pour into them, you will be a palms-down coach because it is all about them not you.

Let’s all commit to being a great palms-down coach!

A thank you to our sponsor who makes WYC possible – check them out:

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

It’s time for me to stop talking and start doing

‘We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope’ – Romans 5:3-4

You know someone’s message is effective – when it doesn’t just make you think, but it causes you to ACT.

This week’s podcast with Riley Tincher, did just that for me.

Riley opened his heart about the power coaches had in his life. In saving his life to be specific.

During the podcast, I shared with him about 2 conversations I had recently with parents of kids struggling to find their identities in high school. I had talked with their moms about some suggestions. But I had not taken the time to talk with these boys individually.

Typically when I finish a podcast interview, I am a bit spent and take some downtime to get a snack and relax for a bit and think through what was just discussed.

But after my conversation with Riley, literally from the second I hit the button to end our Skype call, I felt encouraged to take immediate action on my calling to be a coach. To quit talking about being a coach who cared, and instead to take action showing my love for these boys.

So before I did anything else, I immediately texted both boys and set up one-on-one meetings with them. To pour love and wisdom and encouragement into them, and as Riley so passionately shares in his message, to let them know they are uniquely created with gifts that have nothing to do with their athletic prowess.

It’s so easy to get caught up with practice plans, X’s and O’s – I hope this note encourages you to set up a meeting, make a call, write a note – reach out to 1 or 2 kids on your team. Do it now. And keep being a a coach that pours hope into these young men and women – what a glorious calling!

A thank you to our sponsor who makes WYC possible – check them out:

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Lacrosse Coaching Tactics by Age – Guest Post by Lacrosse Scoop

Ahhh the age-old question for every youth coach out there, do I coach to win or for my players to “have fun”? Should I play everyone equally or should the better, or at least harder working players get more playing time? What age is too early to stop coddling and start coaching players more aggressively? Unfortunately there are no right answers, but here is my best stab:

Ages 10 and Under

At these ages, it is the parents, not the kids, which drive everyone else nuts. No your kid is not a lock to get a scholarship, yes he or she does need to sit on the bench for a few minutes each game. No your kid’s coach isn’t biased against your kid. The worst I have ever seen is baseball parents of young kids, just because your kid had a homerun last game does not mean he will have a 15 year career in the major leagues.

Coaching kids and dealing with their parents in this age group is all about tact. You will want to play each kid close to the same amount of minutes each game and make sure that each kid has the opportunity to start throughout the course of the season. Foster a positive experience and atmosphere so that your kids look forward to practices and games and are able to learn both hard and soft skills.  You will want to teach your kids all of the basics, making use of lacrosse rebounders will allow them valuable reps to improve their coordination and anticipation.

Never lose your temper with kids this young or raise your voice, even if you “have an excuse to”.  You will be fighting a losing battle and doing your kids a disservice.

Ages 11-13

You can turn up the intensity a bit with middle school aged players.  There is nothing wrong with having depth charts and giving your stronger players more opportunities.  We cannot shield our kids from reality forever. Anyone reading who has had middle school aged kids would agree, they can be MEAN! Keep the culture positive and do not allow for any bullying.  Guys especially like to give each other a hard time so make sure that it never crosses the line, you want your players to look forward to practice and games.

Age 14+

High School Lacrosse is one of my fondest memories as a teenager. Almost all of my best friends in high school played lacrosse with me.  Teenagers love to push back to authority so make sure they know who is in charge, but that doesn’t mean you cannot have a sense of humor and a whole lot of fun coaching your kids.  It will shock you how much progress your kids make year to year when they work hard. Between how much they grow physically and mentally and how much time they put into becoming stronger players, they will shock you which is one of the true joys of coaching.  Even though they won’t admit it at this age, the kids still look up to you and appreciate you.

 

There is no magic bullet with coaching kids, when in doubt, air on the side of being patient, understanding and keeping your composure.   Outside of their parents, you are one of the kids biggest role models.  Teaching the fundamentals of the game is crucial, but playing team sports like lacrosse as a child means so much more, the opportunity to meet lifelong friends, learn soft and hard skills and overcome obstacles is invaluable to children.  If you haven’t considered it before, give youth coaching a try, it is essentially volunteering and youth counseling but I suspect you will get as much out of it as the kids to, especially if it means spending quality time with your kids.

This is a guest post by Evan Sutker, founder and owner of Lacrosse Scoop

Continue Reading

3 Ways to Improve Your Basketball Game – Guest Post from Basketball Phantom Blog

3 Ways to Improve Your Basketball Game

Many basketball players assume that to improve your game you should just shoot a lot. Sure, putting the ball in the hoop is the primary goal of every basketball player.

However, there are other parts of your game that require practice as well. Here are three ways to improve your basketball game, things you can work on to be a better player and teammate.

Court Awareness

As players improve their skills, they usually move up in level. As the talent improves, so does the speed of the game.

One of the most important, yet often overlooked basketball skills is court awareness. But, how can you improve this important skill? How can improve your natural instinct to know where you are on the court at all times, without even looking?

Developing better court awareness is the same idea as becoming a smarter basketball player. It starts with knowing the court dimensions precisely.

Measure the width of the free throw lane for instance, and then measure how many strides it takes you to cross from one side to the other. But, what do you do in the areas of the court that don’t have markings?

An old coaching trick is to move players around the court while they’re blindfolded. Start at one point and work your way in a direction you think moves you closer to the basket.

You may find this hard to begin with, but watch how you improve. After a few steps, try to guess where you are on the court at any given time.

Check to see how close your guess is, then start over. It’s essential to work with a partner on the blindfolded drill, but after a while, you’ll begin to have a natural sense where you on the court without even looking.

There are also motion drills you can do that not only practice basic skills like passing, but also enhance your on court awareness. If you know where you are on the court at all times, it makes sense that you can quickly know where you need to be in an instant.

Foot Speed and Agility

As boring as it might sound, there are times when you need to practice things on a basketball court without a ball. Two of those skills are foot speed and agility.

If you can’t keep up with your opponent, or the pace of the game, you’re going to soon find you’re always one step behind. But, how do you improve your foot speed and agility.

Aren’t these skills something you’re just born with? One reason some players like to think they are, is because working on foot speed and agility is both boring and hard.

To get faster, you have to run. Players often see wind sprints as a mode of horrific punishment leveled by an ogre coach. This is not true.

When you sprint from the baseline to foul line, bending over to touch each line, you are improving both your court speed and agility. Sure, these types of sprints, often called suicide sprints, are hard.

However, the sure way to improve your speed is to sprint, and then, sprint some more. To make your pursuit of better foot speed and agility more enjoyable, like court awareness practice, there are some fun drills you can do to improve these essential basketball performance skills.

Ball Handling Skills

Once you appreciate how important court awareness and agility are in the game of basketball, you can move to the skills that put points on the scoreboard. The team of players who can score the most goals, obviously, wins basketball games.

Getting the ball up the court and to open shooters involves ball handling skills. Everyone seems to love practicing their shooting, but to get an open look; you need to be able to handle the ball.

If you’ve watched professional players prepare for games, you may have noticed superstar players doing ball handling drills before they ever shoot a practice shot. You can do tip drills and dribbling exercises at home.

Every time you pick up a basketball and work it around your body, your ball handling skills will improve. Some ardent coaches even have their players carry a ball around with them everywhere possible.

Like the previous skills, there are on court drills you can do to make practicing ball handling skills more fun. You can work on your power dribble, or set up cones and do figure eights.

The objective is to make the ball feel like a part of your hands. When you are comfortable with the feel of the ball, you’ll have better control. Like everything else in basketball, to improve your ball handling skills, there is no substitute for practice.

Summary

We all want to improve our basketball skills. However, some players are reluctant to work on the little things. Try these three tips to improve your basketball game. Each one will help you toward the ultimate objective, scoring more points than your opponent.

This is a guest post by Sasa Cvetkovic, founder and owner of Basketball Phantom Blog

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Picking up the Trash

Heard a really cool story this week. One of my son’s best friends’ cousin is lacrosse player in another state. He is a rising senior, and while quite talented, wasn’t on a lot of D1 radars for lacrosse. Then, after a few fabulous outings at some national lacrosse tournaments, the interest level started quickly rising.

Not that unique of a story at this point, athlete does well and gets some opportunities.

But what happened next is where this story gets really interesting.

This young man got a call from the head coach of one of the top college powerhouse lacrosse programs, some would argue THE top program.

The coach requested the young man and his parents come that weekend for a visit and meeting. They did.

And this story is what still gives me goosebumps: The coach began the meeting with this:

“We saw you play last weekend and were impressed. So we came down to the field after your last game and looked for you. We found your teammates. They were hanging out, taking off their pads, having a good time. But we couldn’t find you. We looked and looked, but to no avail. Then finally we saw you. You were over in the team tent. Picking up trash, cups, and cleaning up. In that moment you went from an average recruiting target of ours, to THE top target. You see, lacrosse is a sport generally consumed with young men who are entitled, selfish, and uncoachable. But what we have found is that recruiting players who will pick up the trash helps us build a culture that wins championships.”

Gives you goosebumps, right?

And as a sidenote – can you guess what 2 books this coach recommended as summer reading for this young man?

Not surprising at all – Legacy by James Kerr, and The Hard Hat by Jon Gordon.

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

‘You should be angry’

As a follow-up to my previous note on our Season-Ending Awards Banquet

I left the players with a final challenge, specifically talking to everyone who didn’t win an award or hear their name called.

I asked them: “If you didn’t win an award or hear your name called tonight – are you upset? Hurt? Angry?”

And then I challenged them with this:

“You should be upset. Angry. Did you know anger is one of 8 core emotions that make you human?

But do you know you have 2 choices with what to do with each of those core emotions? 1 is a positive choice that will improve your life, and 1 is a negative choice that will make your life worse.

Specifically with anger, here are your 2 choices:

1 – Negative choice: Self-pity and depression. You can sit around and feel sorry for yourself and fall into depression.

2 – Positive choice: Passion. You can choose to let your anger today to fuel a passion. A fire to have better results next time you are in this position.

I hope you choose the positive choice. Picture yourself sitting here next year. What’s it going to take to hear your name read? If you need help with understanding that, I’d love to give you feedback on how you can make that happen. Then go make it happen, live the next year with passion to be great and win.”

I hope you are living your life with passion. To be great. To win. It’s easy to fall into self-pity, so take action every day to stay focused on the bigger prize. Make winning your habit starting today!

Continue Reading

Coolest Awards Banquet. Ever.

Just got done with our post-season banquet.

Best one.

Ever.

A huge shout-out to Scott Rosberg from Great Resources for Coaches. I interviewed him back on WYC Podcast Episode 75, and he shared this awesome idea:

Don’t have a bunch of awards based on talent-level. (Offensive MVP, Defensive MVP, Most Goals, etc.)

Instead, base your awards on things 100% controllable by the players.

I know, doesn’t seem like rocket-science, but why did I never do this before?

We did it, and it was awesome. Here are the categories we came up with:

  • Positive Energy
  • Hardest Worker
  • Best Teammate
  • Field general (best communicator on the field)
  • Do the dirty work
  • Hardest working rookie
  • Leave the jersey in a better place

These were all voted on by the players.

Then we had 1 Coach’s Award, chosen by the coaches, utilizing the criteria above.

And we had 2 MVP awards, which were voted on by the players.

So we ended up with 10 awards for 33 players.

The one other thing we did was read all of the names who received votes for each category. That way kids(and their parents) could hear their name, even if they weren’t walking away with an award.

I left the players with a final challenge, specifically talking to everyone who didn’t win an award or hear their name called… Insert cliffhanger here… I’ll share the details of that in next week’s post.

 

Continue Reading

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

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

5 Simple Questions (to ask your coaches)

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”​
– George Bernard Shaw
Coaching staffs all have disagreements. They should. You have smart people with different solutions to common problems.

But how often do we discuss these ‘elephants in the room’?

We are 3/4 of the way through our lacrosse season, and we had some unresolved elephants in the room.

So we had a a coaching meeting last week, and I asked these 5 questions to start the dialogue:

  1. List 2 things going well with our team
  2. List 2 things we could do better as a team
  3. List 2 things I am doing well to support you as an assistant coach
  4. List 2 things I could do better to support you as an assistant coach
  5. List 2 elephants in the room – some dynamic that is going on with our team or coaching staff, that everyone knows about, but no one is talking about

A powerful, honest conversation ensued. No one’s feelings were hurt, and as the head coach I got great feedback and we implemented a few tweaks that will powerfully change the direction of the remainder of our season.

Build trust, be open and honest, and value everyone and your team’s dynamics will be infinitely improved.

Make winning your habit starting today!
Continue Reading

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

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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/

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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!

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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/

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

The Ultimate Guide to Sharing Tryout Results – Guest post from TeamGenius

The Ultimate Guide to Sharing Tryout Results

For youth sports coaches and league directors, the hardest part of tryouts may not be the evaluation sessions themselves – instead, it can often be communicating the results to the athletes and their parents.

Having kids involved in youth athletics can bring many positives to their lives. It keeps children active, builds teamwork and social skills, teaches determination and perseverance, and allows kids to see the benefits of hard work.

These are positives coaches and directors want to be involved with and want to watch young athletes partake in.

Unfortunately, youth sports can also teach other lessons, like how to cope with the disappointment of not making a team, and dealing with the reality that they weren’t skilled enough to be on the squad they wanted to join. These are hard life lessons that can come at young age for youth athletes.

For these reasons, it’s important for coaches and league directors to communicate tryout results properly to kids and their parents and should be included on any tryout prep checklist.

What to do

It’s important for youth sports coaches and directors to start communication early with parents and players so there are no surprises at the end of tryouts. Entering evaluation sessions, parents and players should be informed as to the number of teams that will be formed, how many athletes will make the squads, and what the options will be for the players who are cut.

To accomplish this, leagues should send out communications to parents far in advance of tryouts (even as early as 1-3 months before the evaluation sessions). This email or letter can include information about registration, the tryouts format, and any potential cuts.

On the day of evaluations, coaches or the league director should address the parents in person to ensure everyone knows the format and expectations for the day. Information as to how many players will make the team can be shared at this time.

After the tryout sessions the directors will need to determine how and when to communicate results to all athletes. Those who did not make the team will need to be notified and given options as to what other teams or leagues they can join, or how they can improve for next year. For those who made the squad, they will need key information like schedules and equipment requirements, and any pre-season meetings they will be expected to attend.

How to do it

While it can be pre-planned for when coaches and directors should address parents and athletes about tryouts, it can be much more difficult to determine how to relay the results. While each league may choose to convey the evaluation outcomes differently, here are some suggestions to consider:

Keep it private: For some leagues, the most convenient way to reveal tryouts results is by posting a roster to their league website. This is a quick and easy option, so it can be appealing. However, leagues need to make sure to protect players’ privacy when using this method. Posting players’ tryouts numbers instead of their names is one way to avoid sharing who made which team.

Make it personal: The Springfield (Ill.) Area Soccer Association (SASA) used to post tryout results on their website, but they’ve recently opted for other methods.

“I feel the best way to communicate results is an individual email to parents,” Andrew Lenhardt, the Director of Coaching at SASA, said.

Lenhardt feels that sending individual emails to parents allows the league to send a personal note to the player and discuss their individual scores and placement.

Another way to communicate results is to have a one-on-one conversation with each player, or make a phone call to each competitor. According to Dr. Justin Anderson, a sports psychologist at Premier Sport Psychology, this is the best way to share the news with youth players.

According to Anderson, this allows coaches and directors to be honest with the athletes and give individual feedback.

“Be authentic. Share reasons why (they didn’t make the team). Allow it to be a growth opportunity. Give them things to work on,” Anderson said.

Be available: No matter how the results are communicated to players, it’s important for the coaches and directors to be available to answer questions from athletes and their parents after the teams are announced.

Players will likely have questions as to why they were placed on a specific team, or why they didn’t make a squad, and want to hear directly from those who determined the rosters.

Who to tell

While the method of revealing tryouts results is difficult to determine, leagues also need to decide who they will communicate the results to – the parents or the athletes, or both.

This can depend largely on the age of the players. For young athletes, the news will likely come better from a parent, initially. Then coaches and directors should be available to answer any questions from the player later.

For middle school and high school athletes, results should be conveyed to the players themselves. They are old enough to be able to hear what they need to work on and what it will take to make the team the following year.

There is no perfect way to tell a young athlete he or she did not make a team. However, by keeping the child’s feelings and development in mind, and planning out how to communicate the outcomes, tryouts results can be better received.

Author: Chris Knutson

Bio: Chris Knutson is co-founder of TeamGenius, a leading player evaluation software that helps youth sports organizations by streamlining tryouts and player evaluations. 

 

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Dang. I saved our lacrosse team $7600

I was just doing some math – and realized I saved our lacrosse team $7600 in uniform costs by doing a little homework.
Our county has a ‘deal’ with one of the big sports apparel companies. As a club sport, we have the benefit of getting the same 40% discount, but we don’t have to use that company.
So I priced out getting our uniforms with that discount. For 44 sets of uniforms, which included 2 pairs of shorts and 2 jerseys, the price was $10,400.
That was a tough hit for our parents, so I did some research. What I ended up with was awesome uniforms from a brand name – total cost: $2,800.
​​​​​​​That savings of nearly $175 per player was huge for our program, considering parents were already paying close to $700 to play a club sport.
I know most of us coaches don’t have time to do this kind of research and just end up ordering whatever is suggested. 
But what I did is pretty easily repeatable, and if you or a team manager have a few minutes, you could save your program a boatload of cash.
I’m would love to share these ideas – if you want more info – just click below, which will send me an email and I’ll share the goods.

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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.

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

The Big 3 (ways to win at sports)

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing.
You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time.
Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”​
– Vince Lombardi
I am not a ‘winning’ apologist. It’s in the name of my podcast.
I spend a lot of energy talking about building strong children and developing awesome team cultures.

​​​​​​​That is why winning is important. One of the fundamental cornerstones in building strong children is teaching them to not be satisfied with ‘good enough.’ 
That’s what’s so powerful about competition. It is a measuring stick that provides tangible results on how we are progressing.

The key is defining the end goal. John Wooden defines it like this:
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.
A win, in and of itself, should not define whether you were successful. If you let it, you will become complacent after a win. You shouldn’t. You should continue the striving ‘to become the best you are capable of becoming.’
We discussed this at length in this week’s podcast. Strategies on how to lead your team to perform it’s best.
Lynden Gwartney has studied winning coaches in sports and compared the results with military leaders who have been successful on the battlefield.
Looking at 45 components of successful teams, he narrowed it down to his ‘Big 3.’
  1. Find your opponents weakness and attack it
  2. Stick with what’s working
  3. Find your opponents strength and neutralize it
These are great in-game tactics for a coach to use to give their teams the best chance to perform at a high level and have success in the game. (And dare I say, give their teams the best chance to win?)
Check out the podcast with Lynden here.
Make winning your habit starting today!
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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.

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Overfunctioning = Underfunctioning

Newton’s third law of motion:
 For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 
Had a great conversation this week with a friend who was one of my mentors and church youth group leaders when I was a rambunctious teenager.
He is now a certified leadership coach through the Resilient Leadership program in Washington, D.C.
We discussed the empowerment experiment I am going through with my current team, and he provided a powerful A-Ha moment.
I was drawn to start the conversation with him when I saw he was part of a new podcast titled ‘The Overfunctioning Leadership Podcast.’
Overfunctioning. That word drew me in.
As we discussed the empowerment experiment, he shared the simple, yet profound concept:
When there is an overfunctioning leader in any group, whether it is a sports team, a work team, or any group environment – the team members will always underfunction.
There are no exceptions to this rule. It is a law of nature, specifically Newton’s third law of motion. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
He validated that our empowerment experiment is dead on. If the coaches and parents are doing all of the work, the children have no opportunity to ‘carry the water’ or ‘sweep the sheds.’ How can leaders be developed if we are taking away their opportunities to lead?
So we will continue to look under every rock for opportunities to allow our athletes to own this team and experience. To be empowered. To lead.
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Silent Saturday – An experiment

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists,
when his work is done,
his aim fulfilled,
they will say ‘we did it ourselves.’ “
– Lao Tzu
Our fall practices culminated this past weekend with a scrimmage against another local team. As a continuation of our empowerment experiment, here is a quick summary of the conversation I had with my main assistant coach (who is 24 years old) after our last practice:
 –
Me: ‘Hey man. We’re going to implement a silent Saturday approach to our coaching during our upcoming scrimmage. The only 2 things we are going to yell from the sidelines are substitutions and praises.’
 –
Assistant: ‘But 2/3 of these kids have never played in a lacrosse game before. I think we’ll be setting them up to be confused and frustrated if we aren’t giving them some guidance.’
 –
Me: ‘Your concerns are valid. What if we do this: 1- Utilize our experienced players to coach up the newer players and explain to them where to be/what to do on the field. 2 – Use timeouts and play stoppages to answer questions to minimize their frustration’
 –
Assistant: ‘I will try it out. I don’t agree this is the best way to do it, but I’ll give it a try.’
 –
Me: ‘OK I respect that. Let’s debrief after the game, and we’ll write down what we were most tempted to yell out as instructions, and that way we’ll know those are areas we need to focus on in future practices to better prepare them for gameday.’
 –
I read a post by my friend James Leath this week that was discussing the same thing, teaching in practice and letting players play in games. He said it like this:
‘make sure every athlete understands the expectations you have for them and the knowledge to live up those expectations.’
You can read his full post here: James’ blog
 –
I told James about my experiment and here is how he said he does it:
I keep a 5×8 card in my pocket and fill it up after the game with areas I need to teach better in practice. The game is not the time, it’s too late!
So full disclosure – it was very hard to bite my tongue during the game! 🙂 But we did it for the most part, and the whole experience was much more enjoyable – for the coaches, players, referees, and parents!

We are meeting as a coaching staff next week – and we are going to take the notes from after the game and use that as a starting point as we prepare for practices in the spring.
John O’Sullivan writes about this process and summarizes the issue very well:
“It’s the introduction of adult values into kids’ games,
When I grew up, it was children competing against children.
Now, more often than not, it’s adults competing against other adults through their children.” 
– John O’Sullivan Changing The Game Project
Teach in practice, let kids play in games!
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

3 Types of People in this world – #NationalAnthemProtest

“If you can’t fly, then run,
If you can’t run, then walk,
If you can’t walk, then crawl,
but whatever you do,
you have to keep moving forward.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
I have talked to many of you asking if/how you were talking to your teams about what is going on in the NFL with the National Anthem protests.
Here is what was discussed on the team I coach:
There are 3 types of people in this world.
These are hats we all wear at times. But getting the right balance is the key.
  1. The Watchers
  2. The Talkers
  3. The Doers
There is a time and place for each one. The healthiest balance I have found is:
Think about one of the best agents for social change our country has ever seen, Martin Luther King Jr. We remember his ‘I have a dream’ speech and the march on Washington. But I recently have been reading about his life, and the protests were a small percentage of what he was all about. He spent most of his time visiting struggling communities and finding ways to help them. And he struggled with dedicating 1/7 of his time to ‘watching,’ or resting, and this paid a toll on his relationship with his family.
So the challenge I gave to our team was to spend less time debating whether one side is disrespecting minorities or the other side is disrespecting our military and police.
Spend that time instead doing something about it.
We all agreed we want to respect our military, and we want to respect people of all races.
So we are going to do something about it:
  • We reached out to a school in our area that has mostly minority students in a struggling economic area. They have a lacrosse team, and we asked their coach if we could partner together to help their team and do a service project together in the community.
  • We are pursuing a way to support military veterans in our area. We would love to start a wheelchair lacrosse program in Nashville for veterans, although the start-up costs are very high so we are weighing all options.
I hope you have the same type of conversations with your team and your family.
Quit debating which side is right. Less talking. More doing.
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

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’ – 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’

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

A Novel Experiment to Empower Athletes

I’m a sports dad and coach who has spent the last 3 years researching the dynamics of youth sport families.  And I have been noticing a disturbing trend.  Does this routine sound familiar to you?:


Three days before gameday you leave work early to fulfill your volunteer commitment to your child’s sports club. You spend a couple of hours lining the fields, securing goalposts and emptying trash cans.

The night before the game, you run all over the house trying to piece together the uniform and equipment needed for the game. And you are the last to bed.

On gameday, you are the first to rise and you wake your child up to say “we leave in 30 minutes”.

Your child calls out: “Where are my game shorts?!” (everything else was set out for him, but you forgot to take his shorts out of the dryer.)

You prepare a healthy breakfast for your child.

You pack the oranges in the cooler for the team snack and load up the car.

You get in the car and confirm that your child has cleats, jersey, warm weather gear, cold weather gear, bottles of water, mouthguard and ball as you drive to the game.

You are running late so you offer to drop your child off, and he asks if you could carry some of his gear in after you park the car.

As game time approaches he realizes his water bottle is empty, so you offer to fill it while he warms up with the team.

At halftime, you shuttle the snacks out to the team.

After the game you and other team parents remind the kids not to leave behind water bottles, orange peels or any other trash.

Your son asks if he can go to another player’s house after the game so you offer to take his gear home (of course you put the uniform directly into the laundry machine to prepare it for tomorrow’s game).


Have any of you ever had days that felt like that? Isn’t it time we empower our kids to handle these responsibilities themselves?

Teachers make it a priority to empower students.  It’s a prevalent theme with child psychologists.  And we need to embrace it.  Empowerment:  The act of teaching our kids to fulfill personal, social and civic responsibility.  We need to teach our kids….but we also need to train ourselves.

Many have referred to our generation of parents as “Helicopter Parents” and “Controlling”.  And I’ll be the first Gen X parent to admit:  We handle way too many of our kids’ responsibilities in an effort to control and engineer situations.  But most of these responsibilities are things that any 10, 12 or 14 year old can handle so let’s have the kids own the experience.


I recently joined the board of a new local Lacrosse program and noticed this type of behavior starting to creep in.  As the responsibilities of the founding board members started piling up it occurred to me that starting a new club or sport program is a great opportunity to empower the kids.

So we took a step back as a parent board, and asked ourselves;

‘What activities needed to get this team off the ground could be done by the kids?’

The answer was – A bunch of it!

So we are setting off on an endeavor to truly let the boys own this team. We are having our player/parent kickoff meeting next week, and we have broken down all of the assignments into 6 categories. We have a parent liaison assigned for each, but they each have specific assignments that will be done by the boys. Things like:

  • Organize and create folders for player paperwork
  • Create website to share pictures
  • Research and plan community service project(s) for the team
  • Backstop net building/goal building
  • Organizing snacks and carpools
  • And more

I am preparing the same type of ownership of much of our practices. 3-man groups that each will have specific assignments during practice.

It always comes back to the saying:

‘Anything you see in your children: you either taught it or allowed it’ 

No one wants to be responsible for raising entitled kids, so let’s not allow it. Let’s raise hardworking, gritty kids, who take ownership in everything they do. They sweep the sheds, they carry the water.

So begins the Anti-Entitlement Experiment, or better said, the Empowerment Experiment.

This post was co-written with Ian Goldberg from iSport360, check them out: iSport360 link.

Continue Reading

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.

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Finish This Sentence: ‘I Am Unstoppable At ___’ ??

‘Crave the result so intensely that the work becomes irrelevant’ – Tim Grover in Relentless
My latest read has been Tim Grover’s book Relentless, From Good to Great to Unstoppable.
My biggest takeaways have been very similar as Jim Collins’ Good to Great.
From a coaching standpoint, many of you have shared with me the question:
‘What do I do with athletes who don’t seem to care near as much as I do?’
That question kept going through my mind as I read this book.
What if we asked our athletes which one applies:
  • I want to be a good lacrosse player
  • I want to be a great lacrosse player
  • I want to be an unstoppable lacrosse player
If they answer either of the first two, that’s OK, as long as you ask a follow-up question:
  • So what are 1 or 2 things in your life where you want to be unstoppable?
Maybe their family is struggling to pay bills, so they have to work a part-time job. They are choosing to be an unstoppable family supporter.
Maybe they want to get into a tough school, so academics are their first priority. They are choosing to be an unstoppable student.
The key as a coach is push the young people we coach to be better than they think they can. Being ‘good enough’ at everything is not OK. Push your athletes to find 1 or 2 things where they are choosing to be unstoppable.
So to answer the question from the title of this email, in my coaching profession, I am unstoppable at:
Teaching kids, through the avenue of sports, to be unstoppable
What are you unstoppable at?
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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/

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Why wait until their senior year to develop your captains? ?? Captains Part 4 of 4

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership‘ – Harvey S. Firestone
Image
Do you train your captains on how to lead?
Then when those captains move on, do you feel like you are starting all over again?

Here is a way to take your leadership development to the next level:
Don’t wait until they are a junior or senior, when they become captain, to start training them. Instead – develop an emerging leader group.
Identify some leaders at each age level, and establish a big bother/big sister mentoring relationship. Work closely with your captains and more elder players to challenge them to teach leadership skills to their younger mentees.
One tip in doing this – eliminate the words ‘freshmen,’ ‘sophomore,’ etc. from your team’s vocabulary. These are divisive words. These players are your teammates. Nothing more, nothing less.
The most important way your captains and elder leaders will teach them, just like you as a coach, is through their actions, not their words. Carry the water. Pick up the trash. Encourage someone struggling.
Not only will setting up these mentor relationships help the young leaders grow, the elder mentors will typically develop a sense of pride and take on more responsibility as they sense the importance of their role.
As we wrap up our series on captains, do this:
1 – Train your captains on how to lead
2 – Train your future captains on how to lead from Day 1 entering your program
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

Anatomy of a Teammate ?? Captains Part 3 of 4

Team – A number of people organized to function cooperatively as a group
Teammate – A partner
Selflessness – Putting other people’s needs, interests, or wishes before your own​​​​​​​
Image
I’m going to keep this post short and sweet because I want you to spend 7 minutes watching this video instead of reading a post. 
I met Patrick Murphy, the coach of Alabama softball, at a recent conference. He told a story about calling timeout in a key situation, walking up to the girl he was coaching, putting his arm around her, and saying ‘I am going to love you no matter what the result of this at-bat is.’

The core value you will see plastered all over their facility is: 
PERSON
———-
ATHLETE
​​​​​​​Person over athlete. That is the type of people Coach Murphy is developing, and it is contagious.
​​​​​​​Watch the video and see how this attitude has permeated into Brittany.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

Quit Worrying About You As A Coach & Start Focusing On Your Captains ?? Captains Part 2 of 4

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
I just finished reading Sam Walker’s The Captain Class. He studied the most successful professional sports dynasties over the past 150 years and looked for common traits those teams had.
​​​​​​​If you’re like me, you assumed it would be one of these:
  • A legendary coach
  • A superior organization structure
  • A G.O.A.T. player
Spoiler alert – the common trait he found on the 16 teams he deemed as the ‘tier 1’ dynasties was none of these. Instead, it was a captain that possessed the following 7 characteristics:
  • Doggedness and its ancillary benefits
  • Playing to the edge of the rules
  • The hidden art of leading from the back
  • Practical communication
  • The power of nonverbal displays
  • The courage to stand apart
  • Regulating emotion
What is fascinating about his list is the contrast in what we currently think of as the best leaders/captains. Michael Jordan’s and Derek Jeter’s teams did not make the cut.

The leaders of his 16 tier 1 teams were not interested in talking to the media or being great public communicators, in fact they were the opposite. They did not want the recognition of being the face of the franchise. 
As a Cavs fan I have constantly wondered about Lebron James’ self-declarations as being ‘the greatest player on the planet,’ and how that affects his relationships with his teammates. We’ve seen one answer to that recently with one of the other best players on the planet, his teammate Kyrie Irving, asking to be traded, citing not wanting to play with Lebron.
Lebron’s characteristics, similar to Michael Jordan’s, do not fall in line with this list the best dynasties possess. It doesn’t mean they won’t win, Jordan and James have multiple championships. Walker argues that it just means their non-team-first attitudes make it hard to have sustained success.
The biggest takeaway I had from this fascinating book was:
As a coach, I need to spend less time trying to become ‘the perfect coach,’ and much more time trying to develop my leaders and captains with the 7 characteristics on this list.
Continue Reading

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/

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

I found it. The best icebreaker & team builder ?? Captains Part 1 of 4

“Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t” – Jon Gordon 
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I am huge on starting practices with energy builders that build team comradery.
​​​​​​​And recently I’ve been fascinated by diving into studying the concept of leadership and captains on teams.
So what could be better than developing your leaders while playing games?
When I first met Adam Bradley a few years ago, he was in the process of developing a curriculum that did just that. The cool thing is that he partnered with an expert company on games, Game On to ‘gamify’ the experience, because we know lecturing kids on leadership isn’t a sticky way for them to learn, getting them involved and participating in activities/games is.
I don’t endorse many products, but the biggest no-brainer of a product I believe in is the curriculum Adam and his team have developed at Lead ‘Em Up. In talking with Adam, I wanted to help spread the word, so he offered a discount for Winning Youth Coaching followers – just enter discount code ‘wyccoaches’ and save 10% off at checkout at leademup.com.
This post starts a 4 part series on captains & leadership, inspired by my friend James Leath’s post about the book The Captain Class. (read that post here).

Here’s the plan for this series:
1 – Captain training – Lead Em UP
2 – The Captain Class
3 – Anatomy of a Teammate – leadership video by Coach Patrick Murphy
4 – Emerging leader groups
​​​​​​​I hope you don’t find this post ‘salesy’, I just wanted to share one of the best coaching tools I have found. I look forward to diving into the a-ha moments I have been having reading through The Captain Class.
Continue Reading

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

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code wyccoaches at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

The 10-80-10 Principle: Growing your Superpower ??

“THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE IS TO MOVE AS MANY OF THE 80 PERCENTERS INTO THE NUCLEUS (10% core) AS YOU CAN”
I recently (finally!) read Urban Meyer’s Above the Line. Loaded with great coaching lessons, the one that jumped out to me was the concept of the 108010 Principle.
In a nutshell, any organization or team will be made up of:
  • 10% – The nucleus – Your leaders who will do whatever it takes to make the team better
  • 80% – The average – Good team members who do what it takes but don’t typically go above and beyond
  • 10% – The naysayers and negative. Jon Gordon would call these the energy vampires.
The interesting concept here is that Meyer says he used to spend a lot of his energy trying to get the bottom 10%ers up to the middle. His realization is that this was not the best use of his time, as it rarely worked.
The best use of your time as the leader is to recruit your top 10%ers to target high-end 80%ers to bring them up to the top 10%.
He and Tim Tebow used to start their conversations with ‘What 80%er can we focus on today to move to the top 10%?’
I was having a conversation with a high-school track athlete this week, and he was relating how he and one other sprinter on his team had committed themselves this summer to outworking all of their competition and preparing to compete for the state championship in the 4×400.
His frustration was that the other members of the team were not committing themselves the same way.
I relayed this 108010 concept to him. We discussed a change in approach – instead of trying to get the whole team on board, instead could he and his other teammate that was equally committed target 1 athlete that was in the 80% to try to bring up to the top 10% with them?
It is an interesting shift in paradigm. It reminds me of the Clifton Strengthfinders concept – instead of spending countless amounts of energy trying to bring your weaknesses up to a mediocre level, spend your energy taking your strengths to an even higher level. Your superpower.
Do you know who your high 80%ers are? Who is the low-hanging fruit that you and your top 10%ers can target to join the nucleus? Spend your energy growing your nucleus – grow your Superpower.
Continue Reading

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

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

Continue Reading

Summer Showcases? Here Is The Best Way To Stand Out ??

I was having a conversation with another dad today and we were brainstorming on the best way to get an athletic scholarship.
​​​​​​​Naturally we discussed getting athletic exposure.

But then my mind triggered an image I had seen that showing the % of schools that can recruit a kid based on their GPA.
It is easy for us as coaches and parents to make sure we are doing right by our kids by getting them as much exposure as possible to demonstrate their athletic skills.
But how about the academic portion? If we tell a kid they are doing good to just keep a 3.0 GPA – they will miss out on 50% of the schools that can recruit them!
It is an easy aspect to forget as we schedule travel teams, showcases, and videos highlight reels – but let’s develop all-around athletes that have every chance beyond high-school to excel in life!
Continue Reading

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/

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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.

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

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Continue Reading

A Cavs fan tribute to the Warriors ?

As a Cleveland Cavs fan, I really, really want Lebron to bring another championship to The Land.
– 
But do I?
As I watched Cleveland collapse at the end of game 3, I could not help but notice the stark difference in the way each team played.
Cleveland: Iso’s and stagnant ball movement
 –
Golden State: Insane ball movement – 29 assists on 40 made baskets!
 –
It’s easy as a Cavs fan to sit back and complain about Kevin Durant ‘wimping out’ and instead of beating his competition, joining them.
 –
But that was not my primary feeling after game 3. The big thing was this: Golden State does all of the little things well, and Cleveland does not. GS will have a shorter players beat a taller player at jump balls in key situations. They utilize the game clock and get 2-for-1’s at the end of quarters and take the last shot. They just play smart and with discipline.
It is the epitome of a team buying into playing selflessly vs. a team that seems to be mostly playing individually.
 –
Just look at guys like Iguodola and Green – they thrive off being tough defensive players.
 
Even Curry and Thompson have to embrace giving the reigns over to Durant.
 –
There was a great article in SI a few weeks ago about Steve Kerr’s leadership and empowerment, and how amazing it is that he has built this team and culture to where they can still perform at this amazing level without him. I encourage you to check it out, it’s a fascinating read: si.com/nba/2017/05/16/steve-kerr-nba-playoffs-golden-state-warriors-injury-leadership
 –
So while I will always be faithful to my beloved Cleveland and would love to top last year’s epic 3-1 comeback with an even more epic 3-0 comeback – part of me loves to see discipline, selflessness, and culture prevail. 
Continue Reading

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/

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

Abundance Vs. Scarcity Mentality

‘Instead, I have an abundance mentality: When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger’ – Stephen Covey
As coaches we all would say growing our sport in our local area so more kids can enjoy it is the ultimate goal, right?
Yet how much time and energy do we spend scheming X’s and O’s so we can beat our cross-town rival?
Compare that to how much time we spend strategizing how to grow our sport.
I was very excited and encouraged recently when one of the local high school lacrosse coaches reached out to all of the other coaches in our county, to pull together a meeting with all of us, with the sole purpose of discussing how we can grow the sport in our county.
We met for the first time last night, brainstormed on a bunch of ideas, and agreed upon the goal of making our county the hotbed of lacrosse in the state of Tennessee.
‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ one of my mentors Dan Miller says.
Such a simple step by this coach, just sent an email to see who was interested.
A roomful of different personalities. A roomful of different styles. A roomful of different backgrounds. Yet no one could deny that growing the sport as a whole will benefit all of our individual programs.
I’m sure when we play each other in the spring we will want to beat each other to a pulp and that intensity will not go away. But maybe a little voice in our ear will remind us of this higher objective when something gets us heated during the game. And the kids and parents who witness us living out our pursuit of this higher objective will be more drawn to the sport than ever.

Another mentor of mine used to say: ‘Hit them hard then help them up.’ 
 
Let’s create men and women who fight ferociously yet have a sound understanding of perspective and respect. The origin of the word compete means ‘to strive together.’
Could you pull together a meeting of your local coaches and get this same kind of conversation going? Do it.
Continue Reading

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

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

But Arguing With The Refs Gets Me More Calls

I have long struggled with how much/how little to lobby for calls with referees.
In my mind I think ‘Stay focused on coaching my team, all the calls will even themselves out in the long run.’
Of course as it is written ‘The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.’ I often walk away from games feeling frustrated with my interactions with the officials (on both sides- frustrated with their responses, and frustrated with how I interacted with them.)
To help me work through this – I have engaged with some really smart coaches and worked through the best approach. So here is what I am committing to for next season. Might not be perfect, and might have to tweak it for the next year, but I feel really good about starting here:
  • In the offseason – study the rules inside and out. It is impossible to have an intelligent conversation with an official if I don’t understand the rules.
  • Before the game when talking to the officials – let them know I respect the difficulty of their job, so I will not be yelling out rules infractions from the sideline. I will then ask for their permission, in return, during play stoppages (timeouts, between periods) to approach them with any clarifications or concerns I have.
  • Some leagues/officials insist that only the head coach talk to the officials. Ask for permission that during these stoppages, if I will be busy coaching the players, if occasionally it would be OK with them for me to send an assistant coach for a rule clarification.
  • A really wise coach suggested that during these conversations, when possible, to try to stand next to the official instead of face-to-faceIt is not a confrontation, it is a conversation. Likewise, my body language during these conversations is critical. From a distance it should look like a conversation not a confrontation.
  • There will occasionally be circumstances where player safety dictates an immediate discussion with the official, and player safety trumps these rules and need to be handled immediately.
  • It is important that this approach be communicated clearly to your players and parents. The players must know that you will defend them and lobby for them. They need to understand this approach is the most effective and appropriate way to do that.
This approach will be a challenge for me, as I am a perfectionist so bad calls drive me crazy. But it will free me to stay focused on what our team is doing, and in turn will send the message to our team to stay focused on what they can control.
Continue Reading

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

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

The Culture Bus – Key Takeaways From A Rollercoaster Ride Season

The rollercoaster ride season
Our lacrosse season wrapped up this past week. I appreciate you following my ride, a wild one with many ups and downs it has been.
Here are my key takeaways as I look back over the journey:
1 – Crucial Conversations – I had a good heart to heart conversation with the head coach about two-thirds of the way through the season. I was really honest with my frustrations and he received the feedback very well. Things weren’t perfect after this, but they were significantly better. My biggest regret is that I did not have the courage to have this conversation much, much earlier in the season. As I embark on the new adventure to start a new team – the importance of communication strategies within the coaching staff and dealing with different opinions in a healthy wayhas become one of, if not the most important strategy as we assemble a coaching staff.
2 – Positive energy/ Icebreakers  – Starting every practice with some type of teambuilder/icebreaker/positive energy activity was very successful. I kept a list of what we did and some other ideas as well, reply back to this email if you want me to shoot you a copy of that (it’s in an Excel spreadsheet, and hopefully you can decipher my notes.)
3 – Leadership Development – Reading The Hard Hat by Jon Gordon with the seniors, and having them present the ideas back to the team was a huge success. I had several of the seniors come up to me at the banquet and tell me how much that book meant to them.
4 – The importance of a coach – As I observed many of the boys’ reactions and body language to how they were being coached, I was reminded of what a huge opportunity we have as coaches. We can tear them down and belittle them, or we can pour into them and love them and let them know how much we believe in them. In their successes, and more importantly in their failures, we can help them develop a growth mindset where they truly believe they have the ability to accomplish great things on and off the field.
I am excited to stay in touch with these players and hopefully be able to continue to push them and support them in any way I can.
Thank you again for following along this journey, I will probably do the same thing and share my experiences starting later this summer as we lay the foundations for our new team.  It’s definitely going to be an #Epic2017!!
Continue Reading

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

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

Coaching A-Ha Moment – Crucial Conversations ??

 

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Mastering quoted by Kerry Patterson in Crucial Conversations
Does this pattern sound true of many (of you?):
  • Pre-teen – Pretty much blurt out whatever is on your mind
  • Teen – Your mouth starts getting you in trouble, so you learn to say less of anything controversial
  • Adult – It is easier to hide your feelings so unless something is going to immediately impact you in a severely negative way, just keep your thoughts to yourself
Unfortunately I would say this accurately describes me. It has negatively affected my relationships with my wife, my kids, my friends, coaches I have coached with, and everyone else I interacted with.
The good news is I have been becoming aware of a better way to live life over the past few years. Recently reading the book Crucial Conversations has really inspired me on how much better life is when we engage in important conversations, instead of suppressing our feelings.
This is so true with our coaching staffs too. Think about it – can you think of a group of people who are more passionate, competitive, confident, or strong-willed?
While this is a recipe for passion, it is also a 100% guarantee that there will be differing opinions on the best way to do things – That’s OK, there should be!
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress — Mahatma Gandhi
I strongly encourage you to read Crucial Conversations in the offseason with your coaching staff, and then to set up a plan on how you are going to communicate as a staff to make sure everyone’s opinions are being heard and frustrations are in the open instead of being suppressed.
recent podcast guest Coach TJ Rosene shared that his teams establish that all communication must have 3 elements:
  1. Truth
  2. Love
  3. Transparency
Make this a goal with your teams this season!

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver – Proverbs 25:11
Continue Reading

Always learning – 2 Coaching A-Ha Moments ?? – Part 1

‘Let go of the outcome. When you let go of the outcome you dramatically increase your chance of achieving it.’ – Brian Cain
It’s fascinating how the more you know, the more you realize you need to know.
I’ve had 2 big coaching A-ha moments recently. I’ll share 1 this week and 1 next week.
Last week I listened to Brian Cain’s interview on the ABCA Call’s from the Clubhouse Podcast. One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to, I highly recommend it. http://www.abca.org/resources/calls_from_clubhouse – It’s episode 26.
In this episode he shared a story about core values. Here’s an activity you can do with your players today:
Hand every player a 3×5 notecard. Ask them to write down 2 or 3 things that your team is known for. When outsiders describe your program, what do they say about you? Or, said another way, what are your team’s core values.
This is a fascinating activity, because although your team’s core values may be crystal clear to you, and maybe even your coaching staff, are they crystal clear to your players? Remember what George Bernard Shaw said:
‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.’
Don’t beat yourself up about the results of this activity. You will probably get a list of 30 to 50 or more ideas. Use this as a launching point for a discussion about who you are.
Then start the process of incorporating these core values into everything you do:
  • Tie them into your coaching points
  • Incorporate them into your goals for each game
  • Make your most important season-ending awards based on these criteria
  • Communicate them, communicate them, then communicate them some more
If you want to hear more about Brian Cain’s methods of helping define the core values of a team, one of the recent WYC guests Randy Jackson shared some great stories: winningyouthcoaching.com/wyc-097/
Next week we’ll dive into one of my new favorite books, Crucial Conversations.
Continue Reading

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

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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.

– 

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

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

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

The 4 Cornerstones Of Championship Culture – Part 7 Of 8- Leadership Development

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


The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture – WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!
4th Cornerstone – Developing Leaders
This week we have the privilege of learning from Jim Harshaw Jr.
Jim is a TedX speaker, a consultant, and a former Division I All American wrestler. He also hosts a podcast called Success through Failure.
Success through Failure
Jim is passionate about developing leaders who embrace failure as a necessary part of success. 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.’ We should 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.
Be an action taker and don’t let your fear of not reaching a lofty goal prevent you from shooting for it: ‘There are 2 pains in life: the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret’
Our special thanks to our corporate partner for this series – Upward Sports- check them out at upward.org!
Continue Reading

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

– 

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

Screen Shot 2016-02-23 at 10.16.08 AM

Continue Reading

The Culture Journey Week #24 – Rough week

Week 24
Regular Season week #3
Positive Energy
Crazy weather this week so we only had 1 practice, and it was shortened because of a field conflict, so no goofy games or book reading this week.
Culture Update – Rough week
Felt like we took a few steps backwards this week. We only had 1 game, and to be honest I was embarrassed to be on our sideline. Our head coach berated several players very publicly, as well as berating me during a play he didn’t like how I coached the play. Felt like last year and some of the ground we had made took some serious steps backwards. He seemed a little more agitated than he had been recently, maybe something outside of lacrosse was bugging him. Either way it needs to be addressed, we are off the next week and a half for spring break, so I plan to talk with him about it when we get back in town. Hopefully we can nip it in the bud. It’s a little scary because when we get back we have back-to-back games against teams we lost to a combined 40-1 last year.

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

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

Continue Reading

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

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