Bring It In: My Truth in Coaching

This is a simple truth for me- one that I’m very passionate about. I want to create leaders whose impact on others will be greater than mine on them. It’s a compounding effect.

What drives your leadership?

#youthsports #sportsleadership #ysleadership

Bring It In: Showing Up

The line has been blurred between showing up for your team versus showing out.

Many young athletes all too often think they are one and the same. The true leaders know the difference.

We must teach our athletes that difference.

Showing out is individually focused.

Showing up includes:

👉🏼be a model practice player (focus, intensity and attention to detail)

👉🏼 pregame preparation (sleep and nutrition)

👉🏼 in-game application (listen to feedback)

👉🏼consistent attitude including high-level sportsmanship (the hallmark of a leader and “captain”)

✳️Showing up for your team doesn’t always “show up” in the game stats. It’s our job as coaches/parents/leaders to teach and value our athletes contributions over stats alone.

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Bring It In: Normalizing Failure in Practice

I’ve noticed a trend in my players… fear of failure in practice sessions. Striving for perfection and consistent approval, even at practice, while seemingly admirable, is actually unhealthy IMO.

Young athletes should be granted the grace from coaches and themselves, to make mistakes, especially in practice. Fear of failure in favor of perfection, stunts growth and improvement, and squashes creativity.

As coaches and leaders, we MUST normalize, and even encourage, failure. We can do this by:
1) challenging players to push beyond their comfort zones (i.e. weak hand)
2) let them play through- don’t stop play for every single mistake
3) providing constructive feedback- point out mistakes that were made while also highlighting the elements of growth and improvement

Without failure, we will never grow.

#youthsports #sportsleadership #ysleadership

Bring it In: Opportunity For Winning Culture

38-3. Thirty eight to three. Thirty eight goals against. Three goals for.

In playoff pool play, my 10U lacrosse team lost all 3 games we played by a combined score of 38-3 over the weekend. Needless to say we were heavily overmatched, and probably even playing in the wrong division.

From a competitive standpoint, it was demoralizing. From an ego standpoint, it was humiliating. From a parental standpoint, it was heartbreaking.

Yet, somehow from a leadership standpoint, I am more inspired to carry forward. We are a relatively new club in a non-traditional lacrosse area, with no real identity or story.

So you might be wondering, where is the inspirational part?

As a leader, I seek opportunity. And for our organization, I see nothing but opportunity! Without an established identity, we lack a culture. Without a culture, we currently sit squarely at the bottom.

I promise the good part is coming.

Sans all of these intangibles, we have the OPPORTUNITY to write our story. In order to create this narrative, we must have a clear vision. With this vision we can shape our culture, which I believe is exponentially easier than trying to change an existing culture.

So, after shaking off the humiliation and heartbreak, I realized it was time to get to work. I pondered a simple question: How do I envision a winning culture?

I will spare you all the buzzwords and get straight to my action plan to create a winning culture in youth sports:

• Build excitement to PLAY the game

• Build athletes, not sport-specific players

• Define measurable expectations of players, coaches, parents and other leaders

• Coach-up the "Middle Third" players

• Prioritize practice, academics and community service

This is not an all-encompassing list for success. Through years of leadership experience and observation, these are representative of what I define to be critical elements of a winning culture.

Excitement to Play

Currently in youth sports, the experience of playing has been devalued in favor of winning at all costs. And thus, the attrition rates have spiked to over 70% by the age of thirteen, according to a recent study by the American Association of Pediatrics. The focus must be turned back to building excitement for the game for the sake of playing, exercise and fun.

Build Athletes

Young athletes have become hired mercenaries, often singularly focused on one particular sport. Building versatile athletes lessens injuries from overuse/over-training in single sports. It can also help kids adapt to different sports and movements, increasing overall physical skills; not to mention diminishing the pressure to succeed in a given sport.

I firmly believe developing an 'athlete' encompasses not only physical skills but also, incorporates proper nutrition and sleeping habits. The healthy body and good habits of an athlete can carry on for a lifetime, well beyond their playing days.

Measurable Expectations

Players, coaches, parents and other leaders in every youth sports organization need measurable and realistic expectations clearly laid out before them. Players should be given specific guidelines for participation (i.e. attendance, conduct). Coaches, board members, etc. must have defined roles and duties. And parents must be given not only financial obligations and time commitments, but also expectations for their own conduct; as well as penalties for non-compliance.

"Middle Third"

Young athletes are not all at the same level. Of course, coaches work to coach all players. However, the reality is players can broadly be categorized into 3 different levels. The best players (I refer to them as the "Top Third") will embrace the coaches' direction, reflect a positive attitude and can help to bring other players into the fold of the team.

Conversely, there will be players ("Bottom Third") who may not be interested in learning, playing, buying in, etc. The hope is they may eventually fall into one of the other two categories but if not, the efforts of coaches should not be focused on forcing these players to buy in for the long term.

Finally, the majority of players, sit somewhere in the middle. I believe coaches' return is maximized through coaching-up this "Middle Third." These players can develop roles as either top level/supporting role players and/or leaders within the team dynamic.

The "Middle Third" in essence, is the tipping point. Building up "Middle Third" players to reach closer to the "Top Third" over time is pivotal in creating a winning culture.

Priorities

Young athletes have numerous demands placed upon them from an early age. Prioritizing practice, academics and community service (again not a comprehensive list), creates a cultural focus far beyond a win-loss record and builds accountable future leaders.

Stressing the value of practice encourages preparation. Monitoring academic achievement of student athletes builds discipline and time management skills.

Prioritizing community service is an outlier for many organizations, in youth sports and otherwise. However, I hold a firm belief that young athletes (and even adults) must be reminded that the world revolves beyond their own personal spheres. Getting them involved in community service projects will not only force them to see the world beyond a narrow personal view, but also create a sense of humility and accountability to others.

Kids working together for the benefit of others with no personal gain to be earned, has a winning effect all the way around. Community service as a cornerstone priority, fortifies team development, which may pay the largest dividend to creating a winning culture.

In summary, the early stages of development of any organization can seem like a daunting task to make the climb from the bottom, especially in the current youth sports culture where win at all costs (which can truly be hefty financially for the parents and psychologically for kids) is the main focus. However as a leader, I view starting from the bottom as an opportunity to create a winning culture for the long term.

My action plan includes: building excitement to play, with play being the focal point; developing versatile athletes, instead of sport-specific machines; defining measurable and realistic expectations for all members of the organization; focusing energy on coaching-up the majority of players to bring out there very best; and finally prioritizing practice, academics and community service for the player in order to foster leadership development.

Through clear vision and defined action plans, we can build winning cultures to help our organizations write our own stories!

#youthsports #sportsleadership #ysleadership