Month: January 2015

January 26, 2015

WYC 032 Cheerleading – Sean Timmons talks BLT – Believe, Love, Trust; and access to Club Zero

 Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 12.53.36 PMWhat does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Sean Timmons shares stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful sports coach.

Sean is the Director of All Stars for all Premier Athletics facilities.  Sean cheered at Rutgers University, and was a member of the first open team at World Cup, The Wild Stars.  In 1996 Sean started his coaching career at the Pop Warner level with the Toms River Angels. During his time with the Angels they won three consecutive National Championships and his success landed him a job coaching at The World Cup All Stars in 1999. Within the 14 years at World Cup he has coached and choreographed for levels 1-5, and has won numerous State, Regional, and National Titles. While working at World Cup Sean also coached Lacey High School, Jackson Memorial High School, Howell High School, and was the Head Coach of Rutgers University from 2009 until 2014.  Sean has traveled all over the US and Canada teaching camps, choreography, judging, and speaking at conferences. He is a former member of the USASF National Advisory Board and is an inaugural member of the NACCC.  His certifications include USASF Level 1-5 (United States All Star Federation), AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators), NCA (National Cheerleading Association), and USAG (USA Gymnastics).

Website: premierathletics.com

Twitter: @PA_Premier

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘BLT – Believe, Love, and Trust’

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

  • Early on – ‘I coached with a lot of ego’ and coached to his own agenda instead of putting the agenda of the athlete first

Coaching AH-HA Moment

  • Coaching Rutgers – Sean realized the importance as a role model/ parent role he held as a coach

Coaching Girls

  • You have to work with them through the changes in their athletic ability as their bodies go through changes
  • Your communication style needs to take into account how they respond – sometimes boys respond to ‘yelling’ more than girls – with the girls you need to adjust for this

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

HUGE IDEA #1

  • Set up drills/stations strategically so you can be watching multiple stations at the same time.  And having 5 or 6 stations for the athletes to rotate through keeps standing-around time to a minimum and the athletes’ more interested and engaged
  • You have to get the fundamentals right first before trying to put the whole team routine together

Mental Peak Performance

  • Mastering skills in practice is best preparation
  • Visualize with your eyes closed your perfect routine
  • If you can walk-through your performance the day before the event at the actual location.  Take out surprises.

Skill Development at young ages

  • Learning skills young can help – but make sure you learn them right first!  It’s much easier to teach them correctly instead of trying to correct bad habits developed.

Discipline

  • Talking to the parents and getting on the same page is key

Reward, Recognition, and Teambuilding

  • Moving up a level is a big recognition – the girls get a bow and they celebrate.
  • ‘Club-Zero Bracelets’ – Anytime an athlete has a perfect routine they get a bracelet.  Then the gym/team with the most bracelets at the end of the season gets recognized with sweatshirts.

Teambuilding with Parents

  • 3 parts to every team: 1 – the athlete; 2 – the coach; 3 – the parents.  When all 3 are working well together, success is more likely to happen.
  • Parents night out – they open the gym up and parents can drop off girls and parents go out (hopefully with other couples from the gym).  Same is true when they have closed practices.

Inspiring Story

  • One of Sean’s students wrote an essay about him as one of the most influential people in her life – he kept this and when he is having a tough day he will read it

The One that Got Away

HUGE IDEA #2

  • In a big competition Sean failed to thoroughly read through his score sheets after the first day, so they made the same technicality on day 2 – and it cost his team first place. -‘My head might as well have popped off my shoulders’.  READ THE RULES/BE THOROUGH!  And don’t be shy about bringing in another coach as a 2nd set of eyes to make sure you are doing things the right way.

Best Stolen Idea

  • Sean learned from a coach who had an amazing gift for communicating everything in a positive way

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

  • Every team is different, so each team has a different quote that applies to them
  • ‘BLT’ – Believe, Love, and Trust

Premier Athletics

  • 9 facilities in 5 states – 4 in TN, 2 in KY, 1 in MI, 1 in NC, 1 in FL
  • Multifunctional facilities – gymnastics, dance, preschool programs, class/school cheer, tumbling classes
  • premierathletics.com

Parting Advice

  • Love the kids unconditionally – regardless of their athletic performance

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January 17, 2015

WYC 031 Mental Sports Psychology – James Leath talks achieving peak mental performance

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

James is currently getting his masters in mental sports psychology, has coached youth sports for many years, and is a student of all aspects of sports performance.  James started coaching when his 8th grade coach had to leave the team, so James took over and coached his own 8th grade team!  James played college football and played for the Los Angeles Extreme in the XFL.  James is married and works in sales.

Website: jamesleath.com

Twitter: @jamesleath

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘Spend less time in the strategy books, and more time in how to talk to kids’

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

  • Not being organized
  • When he was just out of college – Not being on time actually got him fired from a coaching job.

Coaching AH-HA Moment

HUGE IDEA #1

  • Keep it simple; Run less plays.  Learned from a coach that ran only 1 formation – that coach only lost 3 games in 4 years.  When you simplify formations and the kids don’t have to think about where to line up – the kid’s confidence and success skyrockets.
  • ‘If your goal is to freeze an athlete – give them a whole bunch of stuff to think about’  Give them only 2 decisions to make on a play, and you’re OK as long as you only choose 1 of these 2(even if it’s the wrong choice, because we can teach you how to choose better).  I’m only going to be upset if you choose something other than 1 of these 2 choices.

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

HUGE IDEA #2

  • 2 absolute foundational books:
  • Remember to keep the kids accountable – while you love the kids, you are ultimately their mentor and coach, not their peer friend
  • ‘Spend less time in the strategy books, and more time in how to talk to kids’
  • Everything in short bursts – John Wooden would talk in 20 second bursts
  • How to Improve my Youth Practices:
    • Don’t scrimmage very much.  Only the best athletes touch the ball in scrimmages, plus it’s hard to coach in this environment.
    • When teaching  a skill – try to find a way to make the focus the technique, not the result.  So for basketball – teach them against a wall to try to work on form and hit a crack on the wall.  Then add steps that eventually progress into actually shooting at the basket.  This process builds their confidence and makes the focus perfecting their technique.

Coaching Resources

  • Youtube
  • Reach out to your local high school basketball coach
  • ‘The Talent Code‘ by Daniel Coyle

Inspiring Story

  • James and his wife have fostered kids, so some of his athletes have actually stayed with him.  James had one kid who stayed with him for a while in 6th grade – that kid in 11th grade was about to play in state championships and called James up at 11 o’clock at night to talk – very cool.

The One that Got Away

  • Coaching girls basketball – He smacked his plastic clipboard and it shattered in 20 pieces.  He was upset about the girls not getting rebounds – then afterwards he thought about it and he had never spent any time teaching them how to rebound.

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

Parting Advice

  • Pay less attention to strategy and more attention to fundamentals

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January 8, 2015

WYC 030 Performance Training – Amanda Kephart from Akron General Sports Performance talks getting faster, stronger, and more powerful

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Amanda Kephart shares stories and discusses her journey to becoming a successful sports coach.

Amanda is the Sports Foreman Supervisor at the Akron General Sports Performance center.  Coach Amanda Kephart, MS, CSCS, USAW, has been training athletes for nearly a decade. She has worked at the Division One level with hundreds of athletes at both the University of Akron and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her energy brings out the best in her athletes and allows them to reach their athletic goals more quickly.  Amanda played basketball in high school, then picked up racquetball in college, where she went on to become a 2-time All-American at Balwin Wallace.

Website: strengthcoachamanda.com

Twitter: @_coachamanda_ ; @akrongeneralsp

Facebook: /akrongeneralsportsperformance

Youtube: /AGSportsPerformance

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

‘Coaching is a great opportunity to allow the child to practice being what they want to be, not what their classmates think they are’

My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’

  • Sports conditioning is a science – there is a lot to learn about the body

Have Awesome Warm-up Routines

HUGE IDEA #1

  • ‘Why do you do what you do’ – Is this helping your athlete?
  • Your goal isn’t to develop better runners – you want better (fill-in-your-sport) players
  • ‘It’s 2015 – telling the kids to take a lap isn’t going to cut it anymore’
  • 3 core areas – the shoulders, the core, the glutes
  • No static stretching during warm-ups; after practice/after game static stretches make total sense (because the point of static stretching is to move your body into a range it normally doesn’t want to go, so your body is not ready before practice but it is ready after practice)
  • 10 minutes is a good amount of time for warm-ups – use this time to share something inspirational and transition the mind of the athlete from being in their ‘day-job’ or ‘school’ mode into ‘athlete/team’ mode

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Know what the child really wants – some want to be a professional athlete, some just want to have fun on the team
  • When teaching any skill – demonstrate it visually AND explain why you’re doing it

What age should my child start working out?

HUGE IDEA #2

  • The biggest factor isn’t what age – the biggest factor is who is coaching your child
  • MetaStudy on strength training safety: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23015875/. Results:
    • Injuries occur because of:
    • Poor/no supervision
    • Improper technique
    • Improper use of equipment
    • Inappropriate amount of weight
  • There is NO research that shows strength training stunts growth plates.
  • When looking for a good strength coach, look for coaches that focus on the quality and form/ not the total amount of weight or speed of the reps.
  • Core stabilization exercises – Instead of sit-ups there a lot of better options – like planks

Sports Specialization

  • If your athlete absolutely loves playing just one specific sport – make sure they are taking breaks throughout the year to allow their body to recover
  • If you are playing year-round travel teams – when are you learning new skills?

Winning

  • ‘It’s not about winning at any level except varsity.  Your entire job before that level is developing the players’
  • ‘Your win/loss record as a parent coach does not matter.  The only thing that matters is that the kids had a blast, they learned, and they became better.’

Inspiring Story

  • Amanda loves to work with the athletes that come in shy, and she can build confidence in them and bring out their full personality
  • ‘Coaching is a great opportunity to allow the child to practice being what they want to be, not what their classmates think they are’ – Set up your practices and teams to be safe environments that are full of positive encouragement and build up each athlete.

Coaching Resources

Parting Advice

  • Get a system – write it down.  Have a exercise bucket- where you keep a list of drills/exercises to plug in.

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

strengthcoachamanda.com

 

 

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