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.
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.
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 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
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