Month: July 2016

July 26, 2016

WYC 086 – Championship Culture – Live from the Way of Champions Transformational Coaching Conference

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Today’s episode is a bit different from the norm, instead of interviewing a great coach, this week’s episode is a compilation of the interviews I did while at the conference. There are a few sound bites with me sharing a lesson I learned, and definitely don’t miss the 18 minute interview with the leaders – I call them the 3 J’s – Dr. Jerry Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath. So hopefully this is a great way for you to be able to absorb a little of the great content even if you weren’t able to make it out to Colorado. Also – just FYI – they are planning to do 2 or 3 more of these conferences around the country next year, so stay tuned at changingthegameproject.com or wayofchampions.com.

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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Coaching Mastery – with John O’Sullivan

Many of you know that I work closely with John O’Sullivan and the Changing the Game Project. John’s is an internationally known writer and speaker, as well as a former professional soccer player and longtime coach. We share a lot of each others content as we work to transform youth sports and make it a better place for coaches to coach, and for players to play.

This week – for the first and only time in 2016 – John is releasing his amazing online video series called “Coaching Mastery.” He first ran this course in the Fall of 2014, and since then coaches from nearly every sport, from over a dozen different continents, have called it one of the most unique and inspirational coaching courses they had ever done. I was lucky enough to be one of the select few coaches John offered it to last year, and the things I learned really blew me away.

See, this course is not your traditional X’s and O’s course. It is all about things such as the psychology of performance and leadership, how to build a winning team culture, and even how to educate your team parents so they don’t drive you up the wall. He has some amazing interviews with some of the world’s leading experts in sport science and psychology, coaching, and leadership. The things you will learn in this course will take yoru coaching, and your teams, to a whole new level.

This course is truly one of a kind.

If you are interested in this type of coaching, John has asked me to invite all of you to his FREE video series, where over the next 2 weeks you will learn many of these things, and hear from some amazing experts. You also get a free eBook copy of his international bestseller Changing The Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids just for registering for the FREE series. All you have to do to get over an hour of this one of a kind coaching and leadership training, plus a free book, is go here and sign up:

Click here to get started

I know I am looking forward to the 2016 version of Coaching Mastery and I am confident that many of you will get a ton from this free video series. Its all new content, and I can’t wait to get started.

Again, if you want to join, just sign up here.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this course.

(I am an affiliate for this course, so if you decide to sign up – please sign up through one of the links above – Thanks!!)

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Interviews & Sound Bites from WOC Conference

Craig – Description of how to create self-affirmation 3×5 card
Craig – Description of fun Rock,Paper,Scissors,Cheerleader Energy Builder
18 minute interview of Dr. Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath: Self-affirmation; Building Energy levels at the beginning of practice; Building championship culture in our families; Taking ONE action; Simplifying your playbook; the importance of relationships: Video Link
Craig – 11 attributes of culture: Dr. Jerry Lynch uses the acronym STRONG FACTS to list the steps to build championship culture.
- Selflessness
- Trust
- Respect
- Oneness
- Never Quit
- Gratefulness
- Fearlessness
- Awareness
- Confidence
- Thoughtfulness
- Sacrifice
- I summarize the last ‘S’ in the acronym, Sacrifice, from atop the Flatirons at Chataugua
  - ‘The pathway to greatness is through suffering’
Interview with Maureen Monte: Author of Destination Unstoppable – Team success; Focus on the human system of success
Interview with Alicia Steinhilber – From Nashville FC Youth Soccer – Discusses the Iceland Thunder Clap and the New Zealand All Blacks ‘Haka’; Playing with the heart; Eye contact with your audience/team
Interview with Athletic Director and 2 basketball coaches from the host school Shining Mountain Waldorf School – Mike Hawkes, Tim Crouthers, Chris Bremner – The power of positivity; Learning to teach vs. spitting out information; Building confidence, especially in females; Eye Contact and being in a circle to start practices
Interview with Kevin Peters – Be a storyteller
Interview with Josh Severns – From Nashville FC Youth Soccer – Building culture is a process not an event. Trust takes time to build. It start with being a good example; Meditation and breathing.
Interview with Kevin Kirk – Golf Performance Center at the Woodlands – The power and influence a coach has
Interview with Tony Libert – Parents and coaches – Release the game to the kids; ‘Coaches are a flashlight not a search light’
Nate Sanderson, girls High School basketball at Springville High School and Breakthroughbasketball.com coach, shared a powerful 4 minute video from his team’s state championship game last year – the amazing thing to watch in the video is observe what the teammates do for each other after any mistake. Nate’s quote: ‘We needed to interrupt the negative thought process in the midst of games, so we implemented what you see in the video.’
- Video link

There are more than a dozen other great videos taken from the conference, check them all out here: WYC Facebook page

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July 22, 2016

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 4: Awards – You Improve what you Measure

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One of the easiest places to start when you are establishing a healthy, positive, championship culture is to look at what you are rewarding. In fact, if you and your coaching staff do nothing else but simply start focusing on recognizing and rewarding the right type of behaviors you see in practices and games, the culture of your team will improve dramatically:

If your team needs to quit being selfish – then reward the kid who gives the most high-fives during a practice
If your team needs to be tougher – then reward the kid who plays to the whistle and dives for the most loose balls
If your team needs to work harder – then reward the first kid back from water breaks and who doesn’t cut the corner or short the line when running

6 paradigm-shifting awards you can put in place to have a championship culture:

Year-end Award Banquet – Instead of MVP – reward the MVT – Most Valuable Teammate. Or even better – have 6 awards: Most Improved, one for each of your 4 core covenants, and one for who best exemplified all 4 core covenants. And the same kid can earn multiple awards. Great podcast episode on this: Scott Rosberg (link)
Celebrate a lot! Kids will work harder when they are having fun! And spend most of your energy ‘Catching them being good.’ If you are focused on teamwork, and one of your big offensive lineman helps a scout team tiny defensive back up after a play and pats him on the butt – stop everything and acknowledge that action and celebrate like crazy!
Levels – Establish levels that require mastering certain skills to move up – then celebrate like crazy when someone advances a level. 2 great podcasts on using this are Melody Shuman (link) and Robert Murphy (link).
Living by numbers
- Praise progress instead of purely praising results
- Lee Miller from Elite Hoops Basketball – They have created 15 core drills that can be measured numerically. The focus is on improvement.
- Quality at Bats – Instead of keeping on-base % or batting average – Keep the stat that rewards the behavior you want – a hard hit ball – Then set your lineup based on the highest Quality-At-Bat %
Daily/practice awards:
- Hidden victories in a game: taking a charge, diving for loose balls, assists more than goals
- Leadership award – Who is serving the team? – Trophy passes around each week.
- ‘Best communicator of the day – talk your actions, especially on defense’
- Do awards in groups as much as possible – offensive line, etc.
Postgame – spend the time having kids recognize teammates, not talking about all the things you have to fix

Remember, anything you see on the field – you either taught it, or you allowed it. So reward what you want to see!

July 15, 2016

Special Insight on Culture – Live from the Way of Champions Transformational Coaching Conference

We’re taking a break in our 10 part series on culture this week to allow you to be able to peak inside the brains of some of the leading experts on creating championship culture.

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I was blessed to be 1 of the 68 coaches who attended this conference, and since I know many of you would have loved to be there, I wanted to share a few powerful lessons I walked away with. Also – just FYI – they are planning to do 2 or 3 more of these conferences around the country next year, so stay tuned at changingthegameproject.comor wayofchampions.com.

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I could write many pages of notes on the lessons I learned, but I know many of you are like me, where you learn more through audio and video, so here are the most powerful videos that capture the essence of the conference:

18 minute interview of Dr. Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath. Broken into 2 parts:
- Part 1
- Part 2

Nate Sanderson, girls High School basketball at Springville High School and Breakthroughbasketball.com coach, shared a powerful 4 minute video from his team’s state championship game last year – the amazing thing to watch in the video is observe what the teammates do for each other after any mistake. Nate’s quote: ‘We needed to interrupt the negative thought process in the midst of games,so we implemented what you see in the video.’
- Video link
Dr. Jerry Lynch uses the acronym STRONG FACTS to list the steps to build championship culture.
- Selflessness
- Trust
- Respect
- Oneness
- Never Quit
- Gratefulness
- Fearlessness
- Awareness
- Confidence
- Thoughtfulness
- Suffering
- I summarize the last ‘S’ in the acronym, Suffering, from atop the Flatirons at Chataugua, in this 1 minute video:
  - Video Link
  - ‘The pathway to greatness is through suffering’
There are more than a dozen other great videos taken from the conference, check them all out here: WYC Facebook page

Also, for you audio learners, next week’s WYC podcast will be a compilation of the audio I recorded at the conference, so look forward to that. WYC Podcasts

Next week we’ll dive back into our 10 part series on culture and look at recognition and rewards.

Team first – Link to post
Team Cornerstones – Link to post
Positive Environment – Which dog are you feeding? – Link to post
Recognition & Rewards
Captains
Parents
Building Trust
Seek First to Understand
Coaching your own kid
Perspective & Giving Back

July 15, 2016

WYC 085 – Performance Training – Bryan Schwebke talks Building a Strong Base

Dr. Bryan Schwebke is the founder of Paramount Performance as well as a performance physical therapist, coach and consultant. Bryan has worked with some of the world’s best athletes as well as many college and youth athletes. He is dedicated to providing athletes and their parents with the guidance, education and tools to safely and efficiently reach their goals.

Website: paramountperformancept.com

Facebook: /ParamountPerformancePT

Twitter: @ParamountPfrmPT & @BryanSchwebke

Youtube: Paramount Performance

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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Quote

‘On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt’

Topics/Questions

What is the biggest problem you notice with the athletes you see on a daily basis?
- Their base isn’t strong enough to support what they are trying to do
What do you think is causing this problem?
- Throwing kids into strenuous environments too early – specifically travel teams
What happens if you don’t have a strong base ?
- Performance is decreased and recovery time from injury is increased
How can you fix or build a strong base? How do you know if you don’t have a strong base?
- You probably don’t. Have them evaluated by a physical therapist and create a gameplay. This could start around 5th grade.
What is the Athlete Centered Model and what is your Performance Team?
- Instead of having 4 or 5 different people coming up with a gameplan for an athlete (physical therapist, nutritionist, skills coach, personal trainer) – have all of them work together to come up with a joint gameplan
What are the biggest restrictions to coaches and parents not being able to give their kids a good base.
- Lack of education and understanding where to invest your time and money as a parent
Multi-sport athletes have advantages
- Story on multi-sport athletes: Steve Boyle podcast

Self-confidence & Peak mental performance

Visualization can be key to recovering from injury
It does NOT mean you are weak if you need to practice and work on the mental side of the game
Visualization – free throw shooters who had 60% average
- Practiced 500 shots per day – improved to 70%
- Visualized their shot for 20 minutes per day – improved to 83%
- Practiced 500 shots per day and visualized 20 minutes per day – improved to 85%
Website: paramountperformancept.com

Functional warm-ups

Make sure it’s applicable to the sport you are playing
Needs to activate the muscles
A couple good examples:
- Alan Stein’s basketball warm-up – Link
- Amanda Kephart’s warm-up description – Link

Outside of practice:

1 – Forget your ego – You probably aren’t an expert in performance training – learn from others

2 – Promote multiple sports

3 – Promote education for parents and athletes on why it’s important

4 – There’s more to being a coach than just practicing – bring in other experts – nutritionists, personal trainers, sports psychologist

Favorite quote

Quote: ‘On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt’

Paramount Performance

Check them out – they can help you find and vet local trainers in your area
Website: paramountperformancept.com

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July 7, 2016

WYC 084 – Youth Basketball – Ryan Hohman talks Starting your own Youth Sports Program from scratch

Ryan Hohman has lived in the Pennsbury School District for 29 years and has been working with children since he was ten years old when his mother ran an in home daycare out of his home in the Thornridge section of Levittown. He attended West Chester University and graduated with a degree in education, and after two years of teaching in the city of Philadelphia, Ryan returned to Pennsbury where he has served as a Language Arts teacher and head basketball coach at William Penn Middle School for the past 10 years. Coach Hohman has established a reputation as a dedicated and passionate teacher both in the classroom and on the court. He has established Lady Falcons Elite Hoops to offer the level of basketball instruction that the girls of his beloved community deserve. Coach Hohman lives in the North Park section of Levittown with his wife Brooke and their two daughters Joley and Nola.

Facebook: /LFEHoops

Website: ladyfalconselitehoops.org

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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Quote

‘It’s about we, not about me‘

If you can’t find the youth sports program you want…start your own!

Ryan was frustrated with the lack of attention the leaders of the youth basketball program were giving to the girls side of the program
They did a bunch of research on how to start a non-profit, did a Gofundme, and launched program with 250+ girls in the 1st year and going into year 3 they will have 450+ girls!

Coaching your own kids

‘You told me to pass more’ – Ryan was very stubborn when his dad coached him, and one time after scoring 27 points, his dad told him to pass more, so for the next couple games Ryan overreacted and took it to the opposite spectrum
Ryan goes with the ‘I love to watch you play’ after coaching his daughters
Ryan wants ‘Try-hards’ – kids that give it their all

My Cringe Moments

Most of all of Ryan’s cringe moments are sarcastic things he said to refs
The second thing was he used to take the results of all the games way too personally

Teaching Skills

You have to establish what the core fundamentals are that the level of kids you are coaching need
Make skill work fun and turn it into a game
With smaller kids it often starts with their feet!
Good game: Defensive slide duck-duck-goose: So you play the normal game but have to do defensive slide when running around the circle.
Another good game: Jump stop Mr. Fox

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

Biggest thing a coach can do to help his kids: SMILE. Remind them that this is fun
Jay Bilas’ book Toughness talks about ‘Next Play’ – you can’t worry about previous plays, bad calls, etc. – you need to focus on the Next Play
All you can control is yourself and preparation, so don’t worry about things outside of your control

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

Anytime they refer to people involved in the program they talk about the LFE Family. They constantly hashtag #LFEFamily
Establishing mentors within the program – Have the older girls connect with the younger girls
The standard is that everyone is going to work hard

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

Ryan coached a team that had a really tough situation with a girl who had a serious eating disorder – the team rallied around helping this girl out and it actually brought the team together

The One that got away

They have one team that spooks his girls – the best thing he has found is just to be prepared.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Rick Pitino – ‘As I go through practice, I try to make corrections in 7 seconds or less.’ There needs to be a rhythm and pace to your practice. For youth- maybe this needs to be 20 seconds.
Tharp Gallimore study of John Wooden’s practice: What a Coach can Teach a Teacher

Favorite coaching book/quote

Book: Leading with the Heart by Coach K
Book: Toughness by Jay Bilas
Quote: ‘It’s about we, not about me’

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July 6, 2016

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 3: Which dog are you feeding?

Feeding the Positive Dog

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I recently have started reading Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus. The entire book is about the power of positive energy, and one of the great analogies he uses is how we have the choice whether to feed the positive dog inside of us or the negative one. The choice is ours. The same is true for the teams we coach. Are we going to create a positive atmosphere where everyone can thrive, or are we going to let energy vampires suck the life out of the program. Here are some great ways to build a positive culture and feed the positive dog:

Alan Stein – ‘You get what you bring as a coach’ – If you bring enthusiasm, and model the behavior you are preaching, and expect excellence of yourself – most of the time the players will respond in kind.
You have to deep down truly believe in each kid and what they can accomplish – then constantly be pushing them to where you know they can go. ‘When you take the time to teach your boys, there’s an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that’s praise in itself” – Coach John Wooden
Positive Conditioning – The winners get to run?!
- You have to put all your attention/effort into recognizing the kids who are earning the right to run.
- For poor effort: ‘You guys just lost your chance to become better. You lost your chance to condition.’
- Learn more on how to do this from Scott Rosberg at Proactive Coaching on his podcast where he discusses this: Podcast link
Have kids play free:
- Don’t pull them immediately after a mistake, if you do they will start to play tight and in fear.
- ‘Make the right lacrosse play. Make the right decision and we’ll live with the results.’
- Growth Mindset – we are a team that will: Teach kids that failing is a highly valuable part of the improvement process. Eliminate pressure on the kids that makes them afraid to make mistakes. Kids are often getting pressure from family members, parents, grandparents, uncles – so as a coach you have to be intentional to not negatively.
- Will Cromack: Set goals to try a new move during a game that you have been working on in practice: ‘Who is going to be brave enough to try this new move during the game this week?’
Count high fives in a practice. Then try to beat that number in future practices.
Echo the coach’s commands – This echoing becomes fun for the kids and gets them all involved, and increases the energy level in the practice.
Say ‘Go make a great catch’ instead of ‘don’t drop this pass.’ When communicating instructions from the sideline – be careful not to go 0 for 2 – meaning your communication had: 1- a negative tone, and 2- no instructional value. Yelling ‘play harder’ or ‘catch the ball’ are examples of 0 for 2 communication.