Month: July 2014

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

Darin is a graphic designer, he is married and father of four boys ages 5-14, and has coached a mix of basketball and flag football for the past 19 years. He also is the founder of the Father and Son Bowl community event in Franklin, Tennessee – which has grown from a few families in 2006 to over 1,100 players in 2013 – which raised over $38,000 for fatherless children.

Facebook: Father and Son Bowl

Twitter: DarinClark@FatherSonBowl

Websites: fatherandsonbowl.com, dclarkcreative.com

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

• ‘Encourage fathers to be the loving and strong leaders that they are created to be’

click to tweet!

What do I do when they need a parent to coach but I don’t know much about that sport?

HUGE IDEA #1 : Be willing to step up and coach – even if you’re on an expert in a sport – you can get the help you need to learn!

• Seek advice from others and don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know that much about coaching this sport!
• Evaluate what level the kids are at and adjust accordingly

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

• Being too competitive and losing my cool during games

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

• Involve the Dads! – Darin has seen good success when he brings in some of the Dads to play some games and do drills with the boys.
• Be engaged as a coach! – Darin also personally jumps into the games and drills so the players can see his passion and connect with the boys

Best Stolen Idea

• Having a very simple playbook – and letting the kids name the plays so they can remember them

Playbook for 7-8 year olds & Calling Plays

• Have 3 or 4 base formations – then 3 or 4 simple variations
• Don’t overworry about other coaches ‘stealing’ your signals – they usually are focused on their own team and aren’t paying attention to that

Discipline

• Throw a penalty flag – Darin actually brings penalty flags with him to practice and throws them as needed
• Consequences have to be tied to kids making a bad decision

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

• Words of affirmation is the primary method Darin uses – lots of praise, fist-bumps, chest-bumps

 The One that Got Away

• Listen to your assistant coaches! – Both Coach Darin and Craig share stories of not listening to their assistant coaches – and how this hurt their teams

 Coaching/Leadership Motivation

• Book: The Bible – be a humble, servant-leader

HUGE IDEA #2 – The Father and Son Bowl

• Backyard style football – Kids from 5 years old to grandfathers who are 75 play flag football together
• Grown from a few families in 2006 to over 1,100 players in 2013 – which raised over $38,000 for fatherless children.

Interview Links

• HUDL
• Dave Cisar’s WinningYouthFootball

Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter @ WinningYouthCoaching.com

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

Rob played for Coach Nolan Richardson at Arkansas, and is currently an assistant coach at Battle Ground Academy in Nashville Tennessee. He is married and has three children- ages 9-19, and works in pharmaceutical sales.

Battleground Academy link: BGA

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

• ‘Good, better, best. Never let it rest, until your good is better, and your better is best.’

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

• Don’t over-coach your own kid or show any favoritism

HUGE IDEA #1: Take the time on the car ride home – Right when you get in the car – ‘Any thing else you want to tell coach?’ – and ‘Here is the last thing I am going to tell the player(if any)’ – After that just be Dad again

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

• ‘I was a poor winner – and all about winning.’

Coaching AH-HA Moment

• Changing the primary goal from winning to teaching the kids how to play the game and have fun

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

• You have to simplify everything and make it crystal clear
• Cool dribbling drill – Put change (quarters, nickels, dimes) at spots on the court – kids have to go pick it up, then go put the change back using the opposite hand

Best Stolen Idea

• Everything in his practices is broken into 4 quarters – and the energy level builds up throughout the practice

Coaching Resources

HUGE IDEA #2 – Great Resources!!

• Coachingtoolbox.net – Has playbooks, drills, quotes
• Pointguardcollege.com – Lots of drills
• The Men’s basketball Coaches’ Insider – See how the best college coaches do drills
• Book – ‘Think Like a Champion’ by Dick DeVenzio

Discipline

• Discipline is almost always done as a team not individually

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

• When coaching youth – Coach Rob came up with fun and unique rewards – not for the most points, but something like ‘the craziest socks’

Inspiring Story

• Rob shares a great story about a kid who was very talented but very hard on himself. Coach kept encouraging the young man to play for the enjoyment of the game- and finally his senior year the light bulb went off – and he thrived and led his team to win the state championship.

 The One that Got Away

• Coach shared a story about coaching his oldest daughter in a 5^th grade all-star game and losing his cool and getting a technical foul

 Coaching/Leadership Motivation

• Quote: ‘Good, better, best. Never let it rest, until your good is better, and your better is best.’
• Quote: ‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, become more – you’re a leader’ – John Quincy Adams

Parting Advice

• Focus on the little things and set goals around the little things – don’t worry about the scoreboard. Make your priorities around teaching the kids and improving throughout the season.

Interview Links

• HUDL

Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter @ WinningYouthCoaching.com

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

Jacob Gilbert played football through the collegiate level, has coached at Wabash college and now is the Head football coach at Westfield High School in Indiana. In 3 years he has taken Westfield from a 3 win team, to last year they were 12-2 and runners-up in the state championship game. He is married and has three boys ages 10, 9, and 6.

Twitter: @coachgilbert10

Westfield High School link: Westfield HS ; Twitter: @rocksathletics

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

▪   ‘It’s not what you get from playing, it’s who you become because you play’

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

▪   Try to find an assistant to take the lead on coaching your kid

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

▪   Losing patience when coaching my own kids

Coaching AH-HA Moment

▪   It’s all about relationships: John Maxwell: ‘They don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care’

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

▪   All kids learn differently – ‘No learning by the players means no coaching by the coaches’ – Everything you see on the field you either taught or allowed. You have to find a way to reach each different

▪   Make all learning a competition – will lead to better learning, more fun. Start backwards – what do you want to see in the game? – Figure out the skill then make a game out of it.

Best Stolen Idea

▪   His high school coach: ‘It’s not what you get from playing, it’s who you become because you play’ – Character development is the key in coaching.

Coaching Resources

▪   USA Football – great library of drills, practice plans

▪   Don’t be shy about asking middle school/high school coaches for advice/ go to one of their practices

Discipline

▪   Instead of teaching rules – teach character. Spend time discussing who you are representing and how to lead instead of teaching time on rules.

▪   Discipline needs to be swift, fair, and consistent. ‘I still love you, but you own your own decisions, this is the consequence of that decision.’

HUGE IDEA #1 – Story of a kid who was super healthy asked coach to discipline him every time he dropped ball – coach made him eat a Snickers! Drove kid crazy and it worked.

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

▪   Individualized – some kids respond to public praise, some kids respond to one-on-one affirmation, some kids might play harder if you offer a bag of twizzlers to kid who makes the most tackles

Inspiring Story

▪   Coach Gilbert did not have a father at home growing up – so he loves pouring back into kids in that situation and being a positive role-model for them

Winning

HUGE IDEA #2 – Top priorities for a youth sports coach:

1 – Do the kids return next year?

2 – Did the kids learn technique and skills?

3 – Did the kids grow and learn in character? – sportsmanship, responsibility, work ethic – and including learning to compete (and winning)

click to tweet!

 The One that Got Away

▪   They lost the state championship game last year – as a head coach he thinks he learned how to have more poise and be less nervous in big situations.

 Coaching/Leadership Motivation

▪   Book: The 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership – John Maxwell

▪   Book: The Dream Giver – Bruce Wilkinson

▪   Book: Lead for God’s Sake – Todd Gongwer

Parting Advice

▪   Don’t criticize execution – only criticize effort – And when you criticize – make sure you make it very specific, otherwise they take it personally

▪   Frame everything as a positive – Don’t say ‘Don’t drop this pass’, instead say: ‘Make a great catch on this pass’

Interview Links

▪   HUDL

Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter @ WinningYouthCoaching Newsletter

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Coach and Sports Psychology professor Dr. Lindsey Blom shares coaching stories and discusses her journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Dr. Blom is a lifelong soccer player, she is married and mother of a 6 year-old daughter and 2 year-old son. She is an associate professor of sport and exercise psychology at Ball State University in Indiana. She and her husband co-authored ‘Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Soccer’ and she has actively participated on boards across the country involving youth sports.  She has coached soccer from the youth level through high school.

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Coaching/Leadership Quote

▪   ‘Catch them Being Good’ – Tony DiCicco

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

▪   After practice or a game – Take the time to stop instructing them and just enjoy being with them

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

▪   Having kids stand around too much and waiting in lines

▪   Used imagery before a game – but it actually caused the kids to be too relaxed during the first half of the game

Teaching Children

HUGE IDEA #1: Imagery

▪   Use an analogy like spaghetti noodles – if the child is nervous they may be stiff like uncooked noodles, but if they are relaxed they are loose like cooked noodles

▪   Teaching a new skill – Have the child picture themself doing the new skill perfectly first, then have them go through the motion without a ball and picture success, then finally add the ball after the first two visualization steps

Coaching AH-HA Moments

▪   Embrace the Chaos

▪   Build relationships and individualize coaching

▪   Slow down and simplify things

Best Stolen Idea

▪   3 things to say to your child:

1 – I love you

2 – I love to watch you play

3 – What do you want to eat?

Coaching Resources

▪   Book : Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Soccer

▪   Positive Coaching Alliance

Discipline

▪   Logical consequences – Take away what the kid really wants. She doesn’t recommend physical punishment(running, push-ups) because we want kids to enjoy doing these activities.

Reward, Recognition

▪   Catch them being Good – Catch Them Being Good: Everything You Need to Know to Successfully Coach Girls by Tony DiCicco and The Champion Within by Lauren Gregg

Teambuilding

▪   Teams work together when they know each other and appreciate each other’s differences, strengths, interests – so spending time away from the field getting to know each other can be a great way to build teamwork

Inspiring Story

▪   Lindsey coached a 12 year-old girl who was a little lanky and not that coordinated yet – but Lindsey stuck with her and kept challenging her – eventually she went on to be one of her best players and played high school and collegiate soccer.

Winning

▪   Winning is a part of sports – you can’t get away from that. But the first goal should be to develop players and develop a love for the game.

▪   Playing time should not be dictated by talent level – but by effort in practices.

The One that Got Away

▪   In her early years of coaching – she had a season where many of the parents had a win-at-all-costs mentality – and she let them intimidate her into coaching with that mindset

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

▪   Anything by John Wooden

Parting Advice

HUGE IDEA #2 – Make each kid have a moment of success at each practice

Sport for Social Change

▪  Dr. Blom and Ball State are involved in a project using soccer and sports to improve social environments in Tajikistan and Jordan – http://www.bsusfsc.com.

Interview Links

▪   HUDL

Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter @ WinningYouthCoaching Newsletter