Month: November 2016

November 30, 2016

WYC 099 – International Tennis Coach – Adam Blicher talks Goal-setting & Mental Toughness

Adam Blicher is an International Award Winning Tennis Coach specialized in Applied Sport Psychology with a Ma. in Sport Psychology from the University of Southern Denmark. During the last 5 years he has travelled to 20+ countries for tennis tournaments ranging from Tennis Europe & ITF Tournaments to Nordic- & European individual & team championships.

Adam uses the demands & stress of Competitive Tennis to help players become strong, resilient people that are able to problem solve in high pressure situations while showing great character. He cares about the results of the players that he works with, but he by any means cares more about who the players are becoming as a persons, as a result of their Tennis journey. Everyday, every competition represents another opportunity for players to grow as a person. Growth in self-control, respect for others, persistence & trustworthiness. No matter how far a player ends up going in the rankings, tennis can be used to strengthen ones character & it is his quest to show the players he works with how & support them in the process.

Website: adamblicher.com

Podcast: The Adam Blicher Show – The Traveling Tennis Coach Podcast

Twitter: @Adamblicher

Facebook: /Adamblichercoaching

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

‘Begin with the end in mind’ – Stephen Covey

My Cringe & A-Ha Moments

  • I talked too much and made players who were dependent instead of teaching them problem-solving and letting them start figuring things out themselves.

Why what I’m doing is different, maybe even controversial

The old well meaning advice from Coaches & Parents saying to players: think positive, play freely, don’t be nervous & just go out there & have fun are all the direct opposite of how I approach the mental aspect of tennis. The natural state of man is not to be worry-less. The key is not to suppress the stress or worry, but rather to acknowledge it and work on enjoying the process of problem-solving and overcoming obstacles.

The 4 Pillars

  1. Technical
  2. Tactical
  3. Physical
  4. Mental

Adam: ‘You should spend equal time developing each area. You usually are more naturally gifted in 1 or 2 of the areas, but you have to practice all four. Coaches, Parents & Players often say that the mental part of tennis is the most important Performance Parameter of the four main pillars. Some even stretch it & say that the Mental Aspect of tennis accounts for 80 percent of performance within Tennis. I think that is absolutely baloney. You can be the mentally toughest player but if you keep shanking your forehand it really doesn’t matter. The reason why I do believe that we tend to think that the Mental Aspect is the most important is because we usually use a lot less time practicing it than the other three performance parameters. It is my quest to demystify the most common myths that are limiting Tennis Players & to provide Coaches, Parents & Players with an easy to follow & understand way of starting to practice their mental strength.’

Goal setting

  • Adam starts with having players answer where they want to be in 5 to 10 years in the sport. He then has them picture the party celebrating reaching this goal. He walks through having them picture what will be said by their parents at a toast at the party. Then picture what others will say – their friends, their officials, their teammates. Did they treat others well? Did they grind through tough times? If they had to travel a lot, did they call back home? Then he has them write the speech down, and they have the ability to change anything they don’t like about what is said about them. Adam then uses this written speech as their coach to hold them accountable to reach their goals. This way it’s not Adam instilling his values, but rather holding them to their own standards.

The mental aspect of tennis:

– Tennis is NOT 80 % mental

How Wawrinka had a panic attack & won the US Open

  • Wawrinka threw up before his match and did not want to play. But what is important is not how you feel but rather what you do.

Rafael Nadal struggles with self-confidence – so will you!

  • The act of self-confidence comes before the feeling. You have to act the part. Adam often creates alter-egos – i.e. Christopher Confident. Then Adam will ask his players – OK, what will Christopher Confident do when in this situation?

The One that got away

  • Adam stated that his pre-match talks used to be too long and give too many instructions. Now he will give 1 or maybe 2 cues at most before a match. And now he asks them after the match to evaluate themselves from 1 to 10 on how they thought they did, and then what would it take to be 1 higher in the next match.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Adam worked with a coach who had an incredible eye for detail on what players need to do to improve.

Favorite coaching book/quote

The Traveling Tennis Coach Podcast

Podcast: The Adam Blicher Show – The Traveling Tennis Coach Podcast

  • Talks to experts within the world of tennis with a track record of producing high-performing players

Christmas Calendar

  • Adam is releasing a calendar in December that has a plan to help work on mental toughness – check it out at adamblicher.com coming December 1st

Parting Advice

  • Start writing down your thoughts and experiences on paper

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Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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Reviews are the lifeblood of the podcast!- If you like the podcast- please take 2 minutes to write a review! Click here

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November 19, 2016

The Culture Journey Week #10 – Telling your story

Week 10 
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Team Update
Good conversation with the coaching staff this week. The head coach had met with a few parents who had some questions about the team’s direction. He shared with them our commitment as a staff to drive more ownership and accountability amongst the team members. We discussed as a staff the changes we need to start making to make this happen. We began with discussions around our ‘Hell Week’ which is late January and kicks off our spring season. One really positive part of the discussion was around providing immediate feedback to the effort each athlete is putting forward each day that week. We discussed some evaluation criteria and how we could post results on a daily basis on how each individual is doing. This would include effort, attendance, attitude, teamwork, and other items TBD. A lot more work to do here but definitely starting to head in the right direction.
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Meeting #2 with Coaching coach – Telling your story
Had our second meeting with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. We went through the first chapter of Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Hermann. If you haven’t read this book or heard Joe’s story in this first chapter Joe talks about some unimaginably painful things he endured growing up. The reason he shares this is that he has learned that as a coach that if you are still dealing with your own baggage then inevitably you will dump that on the kids you coach. Scott led us through a great discussion on a time we felt we really impacted a kid we coached in a positive transformational way, and a time we felt we selfishly dealt with a kid in a transactional way. It’s very cool to hear each other’s stories and better understand where we are each coming from.
Scott ended the time by sharing with us his story – displayed visually in 6 section hand-drawn pictures on a shield. I had heard Drew Maddux at Christ Presbyterian Academy discussing having his players share in this format, so it was very cool to see it firsthand. We closed with Scott giving us each a blank cardboard shield and gave us the assignment to draw our own stories which we will share with each other over the next few sessions. We are so blessed to be having this experience as a coaching staff. 

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I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

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If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. It is exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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November 19, 2016

4 Gamechangers I’m thankful for in 2016

As we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday in the U.S., I decided to make a list of some coaches who have had a significant impact on me in 2016 whom I am thankful for. This list could include almost everyone I’ve talked to and interviewed this year, so to be scientific I decided to take the top 4 downloaded podcasts I recorded in the first 9 months of 2016.
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4 Gamechanging Coaches I am thankful for:
Scott Rosberg – WYC Episode 075
Huge Takeaways:
  • Scott’s discussion around positive conditioning, where the winners get to run instead of using running to punish, has been the hottest topic I’ve covered this year.
  • Creating core covenants and then basing season-end awards around those convenants is another fascinating topic with practical applications from this episode.
  • Learn more at: coachwithcharacter.com; proactivecoaching.info
Adam Bradley – WYC Episode 067
Huge Takeaways:
  • Adam is co-founder of one of the biggest gamechanging tools for coaches – Lead ’em Up. The reason this is such a cool product is that it factors in that kids don’t want boring lectures about character development, so this product gamifies the lessons. Adam has taught me a great deal about the importance of team captains and their importance in creating a winning culture on your teams
  • Learn more at: leademup.com
Stuart Armstrong – WYC Episode 068
Huge Takeaways:
  • Stuart’s work around task design and player development in Great Britain is changing the landscape of youth coaching. A huge takeaway from our conversation was his discussion around task design: ‘Task Design is critical – because many people get uncomfortable when they see someone struggling and not being able to get there quite yet- so they either jump in and solve it for them, or they move on. But this never allows the learning to happen. The moment when they are close to figuring it out is actually the sweet spot.’
  • Learn more at: thetalentequation.co.uk
John Doss – WYC Episode 081
Huge Takeaways:
  • John has become a close friend over the last few years, I believe in surrounding yourself with awesome people who are action-takers and risk-takers. John doesn’t just listen to, read, and study anything he can get his hands on to become a better coach – he takes action. John was inspired by one on the WYC guests in 2015, Willie Cromack from Episode 063, to do a service program with his team. They set up their Mission 2 Assist program to benefit a wheelchair lacrosse program and have raised nearly $10,000 to date. It is a genius idea because it kills 2 huge birds with one stone: focusing on assists instead of goals, and building gratitude with the team by focusing on a cause bigger than themselves.
  • Learn more: bblaxassist.com
2016 has been an amazing year, and I am so thankful for all the awesome people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and be inspired by. A special thank you to these four for all they are doing for youth sports
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November 19, 2016

3 Not-so-secret Secrets about Parents – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 7

One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
As we wrap up this series, here are 3 really good nuggets about relating with parents and being a parent-coach:
  1. Always remember that everything a parent does – is because they love their child.  In return – as a coach you ask the parents to remember that as a coach – you have to worry about all the children in the program (not just their one kid they love.) – Rich Czeslawski
  2. David Klein learned from his Dad: ‘You can please all of  the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.’ Almost without exception every team has 1 or 2 negative parents that you cannot please, don’t try to appease them and do the right things and stick to your guns.
  3. 3 things to say to your child after every game: – Dr. Lindsey Blom
    1. I love you
    2. I love to watch you play
    3. What do you want to eat?
A great resource to use as a coach to enhance your relationships with parents is from my good friend Janis Meredith – a very affordable book called 11 Habits for Happy & Positive Sports Parents. An effective use of these is to buy them for all the parents on your team and go through some key points in your pre-season parent meeting. If you buy 10 or more they are only $4 each.
Teams are not just made of coaches and players, they are a community of people supporting the same cause, so include the parents in your planning! It will enhance the experience for everyone.
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November 17, 2016

WYC 098 – Multi-Sport Athletes – Daniel ‘The Honeybadger’ Hayes talks Goal-Setting & Positive Visualization

Daniel Hayes is a top ranked middleweight boxing prospect and Trinidad & Tobago’s boxing ambassador.
Growing up Daniel played a wide variety of sports ranging from Soccer, Basketball, Football, Track and Field, Baseball and Swimming. At just 8 years old he started playing basketball and continued playing throughout college. At 16 he was already a certified lifeguard and a highly recruited athlete in multiple sports. In his senior year of high school he was recruited to play basketball for several NCAA Division 1 and 2 schools.
Hayes however decided to attend Thompson Rivers University where he and his childhood best friend were offered athletic scholarships.
Currently on his World Championship journey, Hayes fights out of the world famous Wild Card Boxing Club, home to superstar world champions Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.
Instagram: @ThisIsDHayes
Twitter: @ThisIsDHayes
Facebook: @ThisIsDHayes

 

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

–

Quote

‘It’s usually what we’re hesitant or fearful of doing that leads to our biggest strides and growth’

‘The Honey Badger’ – the important difference between hard work and talent

  • Honey badgers are fierce, scrappy animals- that is the type of athlete you should aspire to be

Motivation, self discipline and nutrition

  • Water is huge!

Impactful coach

  • Daniel had a high school basketball coach who benched him because of his attitude – it really changed Daniel’s approach to team sports

Training and skill development – Keeping it fun

  • Setting goals is fun. There is a positive dopamine effect when you cross something off a list. Track progression and check off milestones along the way.
  • Coach K on the 2008 Redeem Team – Reminded his team that in 20 years they are going to look back and deeply miss those competitive situations, so thrive on it in the present.

Developing Self-confidence

  • Visualization is huge
  • Self-mantra and inner monologue – ‘I am going to make this shot’

Developing culture

  • Constant accountability to one another
  • Setting team goals – and rewarding positive team-first behavior
  • High-fives, huddling as a team before a free-throw, anything that pulls the team together during the game should be a priority

Connecting with and impacting kids

  • The Selway Family Foundation – Underprivileged youth scholarships
  • Mentoring – Daniel loves helping younger athletes avoid some of the mistakes he made when growing up

The One that got away

  • Daniel got fouled at the end of a basketball game, and his head was full of negative images and thoughts: ‘If I miss this…’ – and he went on to miss both free throws. He learned the power of positive visualization and staying present and in the moment.

Best borrowed or stolen idea

  • ‘I don’t know if you’re going to win this fight, but I know you’re going to come out of it a better fighter just because of the experience you have gained’ – This was huge for Daniel because it took the pressure off winning and allowed him to just enjoy the competition and do his best.

Favorite coaching or leadership quote/book

  • Ray Lewis Ted talk – Persevering through pain
  • Book: Rafa by Rafael Nadal – talks about how he had faulty mental processing before he beat Roger Federer and how he overcame it

Daniel Hayes

Parting Advice

  • ‘It’s usually what we’re hesitant or fearful of doing that leads to our biggest strides and growth’

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Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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Reviews are the lifeblood of the podcast!- If you like the podcast- please take 2 minutes to write a review! Click here

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Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter:

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November 11, 2016

Culture Journey Week #9

Week 9 – Tourney wrap-up & Meeting #1 with Coaching coach
Tourney wrap-up
Well, not exactly a glowing report from our tourney last weekend, but a lot to be learned as coaches. Our team went 0-3 and ended the last game with a fight. We had moments of playing together as a team and doing things the right way, but many more moments of doing the opposite. As I reflected afterwards the words that kept running through my head were:
‘Anything you see on the field you either taught it or allowed it.’
This team does not have natural leaders and we have to coach accordingly. We cannot just sit back and assume things are going to happen the right way. We need to set standards of how we will play and behave and then hold everyone accountable to those standards. Setting those standards is step 1, then effectively getting buy-in from the team will be step 2. I think we skipped step 1 a bit as a coaching staff this fall and tried to get the kids to come up with the standards, but with the lack of maturity and leaders on this team we need to do a better job of creating the vision for what being on this team means. Excited for the opportunity to do this better in the spring.
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Meeting #1 with Coaching coach
On a much more positive note, had a fantastic meeting last night with Scott Hearon, the co-founder of the Nashville Coaching Coalition. It was the first of an 8 week study on the book Inside-Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann. I cannot say enough good things about what Scott and this coalition are doing. He guided us through the introduction of the book where Joe compares what it means to be a transactional coach vs. a transformational coach, and what each of those types of coaches did to impact Joe through his athletic career. The coaching staff was very open and honest and I am so excited to walk through this journey with this group. 
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I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

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If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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November 10, 2016

WYC 097 – High School Football – Randy Jackson talks Culture Defeats Strategy

Coach Randy Jackson calls on his 26 years of coaching experience and research to share his ideas on how important culture and leadership are to a successful program, and what he has done to develop that successful culture in his own program.

Twitter: @CoachJacksonTPW

Facebook: Randy Jackson

Book/website: coachrandyjackson.com

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

–

Quote

‘All kids need 5 adults in their lives that care about their success- As a coach – be one of those!’

My Cringe & A-Ha Moments

  • Being too intense and impatient with some of the kids
  • ‘Early on I was coaching because I love the game. I still love the game but now focus more on loving the kids.’
  • ‘If you want to be more you have to become more’ – Coach has lost 30 pounds in the last year, as he focused more on taking better care of himself, and improving his mind. Turn off the radio and TV and read books and listen to podcasts.

Teaching Skills

  • ‘All kids need 5 adults in their lives that care about their success- As a coach – be one of those!’
  • Needs need affirmation and positive feedback
  • Teach fundamentals every day, but you have to find ways to fascinate your kids while doing it – make everything competitive
  • Pete Caroll video – Hawk tackling – How rugby tackling is safer and more effective. Company called Atavus – they certify coaches to be rugby tackling specialists.

Culture

  • Core Values – Coach worked with Brian Cain who challenged them to make their core values more prominent – Check out Brian Cain’s podcast: Link
    • 7 core values the kids came up with: Energy & Tempo, Compete, Tough, Family, Appreciation, Discipline, Finish & Payday
    • Each day of the week has a theme that is one of the core values
    • Players had to earn the stickers on their helmets by memorizing the core values
  • Yearly 4-Quarter process
    • Each quarter each player has one  word that is their focus
    • Quarter 1 – Offseason
    • Quarter 2 – Bootcamp
    • Quarter 3 – Spring football – ‘You versus yesterday’
    • Quarter 4 – Summer – Kaizen – ‘Continual improvement’
  • His book on culture: Culture Defeats Strategy – Full of stories and ideas on their core covenants and how they build culture

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Tom Hermann – ‘Finish’ – When they watch practice film – They have a coach hold up a flag so they know when the whistle blew – then they evaluate offensive linemen whether they had 2 hands on a defender or were chasing a defender. If not – it is graded as a loaf.

Favorite coaching book/quote

Parting Advice

  • Stay in a growth mindset – You have to keep learning
  • It’s about the relationships not the plays
  • If you don’t get the culture right nothing else matters
  • Fascinate the kids and build them up
  • Make everything competitive

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Today’s Sponsors

I Youth Football helps coaches, organizations, or parents teach football skills to kids ages 3-11.  Not only does I Youth Football guarantee your players increase their skills, they will give you individualized pricing based on your situation. So if you are a coach or want your local organization to run I Youth Football in your area, visit them at www.iyouthfootball.com and reach out. It’s simple to set up, and a nice way to earn a little side money while helping kids learn the game of football. To get $100 off the program be sure to use this coupon code: winning

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Reviews are the lifeblood of the podcast!- If you like the podcast- please take 2 minutes to write a review! Click here

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Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter:

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November 4, 2016

5 Brilliant Ideas to Create Championship Cultures – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 6

“If you want to gauge the culture of a team ask the last guy on the bench how he likes being on this team” – Jim Tressel

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One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
If you know me at all, you know my passion is around developing great winning cultures on teams. Here are 5 Brilliant ideas to improve the culture of your team:
  1. Ingle Martin, state championship coach at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville – 3 truths about players:
        1 – They want to contribute
        2 – They want to belong
        3 – They want to know they have what it takes
  1. Tim Corbin – National championship coach at Vanderbilt –  Empty your bench in inning changes – Anyone on the bench, between innings, go out and throw/stretch to stay involved.
  2. Asking for commitment: When running team sprints, Jason asks each player to raise his hand when he’s ready to give his absolute best on the next sprint.  Raise your hand when they are committing to their teammates that this will be their best effort.  They don’t run the next sprint until they are all raising their hands. – Jason Hahnstadt
  3. Nate Sanderson – Nate’s team created a culture where they immediately gave high-fives to any player who made a mistake. The power of touch and positive encouragement was emphasized. They created an environment where they weren’t allowed to say ‘my bad.’ They make it a race to see who can be first to give a high five to someone who has made a mistake. Link to 3 minute video showing his team doing this in the state championship game: Youtube Link
  4. Strength Coach Will – Try to not overcoach during games – have your leaders figure it out. It’s not a video game – don’t try to control every action.

Culture eats strategy for lunch. Next week we wrap this series up as we discuss being a parent-coach.

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November 4, 2016

Culture Journey Week #8

Week 8 – Leading by example – Gameday

It’s been a fun, challenging 8 weeks in our fall practices leading up to our tournament this weekend. But absolutely no regrets and we’re slowly turning the culture around for this team.

Last week I shared what the leadership team came up with for our in-game goals. So this year we practiced applying these goals within everything we do in practice. The biggest highlights were in communication and building a positive environment. A few of the leadership team members really took to heart the importance of calling their teammates by name throughout every drill in practice and this week it really became contagious. I saw juniors and seniors asking freshmen to remind them of their name and then calling them by name throughout practice. We coaches could probably have done some type of game of some reward to have made this happen earlier in the fall, we’ll think through that before the spring. I also saw more fist-bumps and smiling during practice this week than I had at any point previously.

The leadership meeting this week was pretty brief, and the emphasis was us as coaches letting the players know we were handing over the reigns to them. We let them know we were going to rely on them to be our leaders and primary communicators.

There are several things it seems we are repeatedly reminding the kids of during the game, and we asked the leadership team to take over that role and help keep themselves and teammates accountable for:

  • Run the slow break
  • Call out what offense we are running and the players on the bench and field ‘echo’ those calls
  • Communicate on who is onside when running clears
  • Keep the communication on defense high throughout the game

The last and most important thing we discussed was positive energy. We discussed catching each other, and especially the new kids, doing things right. We discussed how yelling ‘You gotta catch that pass’ in any circumstance doesn’t help the other kid. Rather give them a fist bump after setting a great pick or winning a groundball. If you see a new kid doing something wrong, quietly show him the right way to do it on the sideline.

Should be a fun weekend. We are done practicing until the end of January, but next week our coaching staff starts our 8-week training on the book Inside Out Coaching, so I’ll keep these posts coming with updates from that.

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I am excited to walk this journey with you. I welcome any feedback, ideas, and suggestions you might have as you read through this. You are also welcome to share this with any other coaches you think could benefit from it, and please have them email me at [email protected] if they would like to be added to this email list.

–

If you are interested in diving deeper on building culture we have started a mastermind group that meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:30 pm EST, see the details at: winningyouthcoaching.com/the-culture-bus-mastermind/. We recently had our first meetings this past Wednesday, and it was energizing and exciting to be with likeminded world-changers.

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November 1, 2016

WYC 096 – Free Online Coaching Courses – Kirk Anderson talks Coaching Education at the USTA

Kirk Anderson has been the director of coaching eduction for the USTA for 20 years. He has worked with the USTA and some of the top thought-leaders in the country to create free online courses that can apply to any sports, check them out at CoachYouthTennis.com. In 2003, Anderson received the International Tennis Hall of Fame Educational Merit Award, and he was named Person of the Year by Racquet Sports Industry magazine in 2006 and the Professional Tennis Registry Professional of the Year in 2012.

Website: CoachYouthTennis.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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Quote

‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’ – Gandhi

1st Set – Intro/Coaching

Coaching your own kids

  • Kirk really wanted his kids to love sports and didn’t push for them to just play the sports he liked
  • Kirk’s son loved racing and when he was 10 years old tanked a match so he could get home to watch the Indy 500. Interesting how different the perspective/priorities of a 10 year-old are.

Cringe moment

  • 4 things kids don’t like about tennis lessons (or any sport):

1 – Standing in line

2 – Shadowing

3 – Being yelled at from across the net

4 – Picking up balls

  • Error detection and correction should not be our focus. Catch them doing things right vs. always pointing out mistakes.

2nd Set – Teaching skills & Mental Peak Performance

CoachYouthTennis.com – 5 years ago the USTA was struggling with getting young kids to want to come out and play. One observation was that tennis was being taught on a full-size court, racket, and balls that are the same ones adults use.

Created 6 free interactive online courses:

1 – Organizing and Supervising youth play

2 – The characteristics of children age 10 and under

3 – Communicating with children age 10 and under

4 – The rules and guidelines

5 – Tennis skill development

6 – Team and group management

Self-confidence

  • The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
    • Performance=Potential minus Interference – Think about how many voices are yelling at the kids during games – coaches, teammates, parents- Even if it is well-intentioned, it is interference.
  • 4 types of athletes:

1 – Highly motivated, high skill

2 – Highly motivated, low skill

3 – Low motivated, high skill

4 – Low motivated, low skill

3rd Set – Developing a winning culture & connecting with kids

Culture

  • Cross-Country coach: No excuses, everyone is accountable, everyone looking for ways to make everyone else better. And the coach jumped in and worked harder than everyone on the team. A lot of tough love but a lot of laughter as well.

Connecting with kids

  • Kirk has had many kids come back and thank him after success in life, kids that he didn’t even realize he had impacted

4th Set – 2-minute drill

Should winning be one of the goals for a youth sports coach, and if so at what age?

  • More important than making winning a goal, create goals around things you can control

The one that got away

  • Kirk coached a girl who came to him and said that the other player was cheating, Kirk said ‘I don’t care, focus on…’. Kirk realizes now that saying he didn’t care was the wrong message to the girl – he did care.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

  • Dave Gleason – He has 4 rules:

1 – Listen to the coach

2 – Give your best effort

3 – Support your teammates

4 – Have fun

Favorite coaching or leadership quote/book

  • Quote: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’ – Gandhi
  • Book: It’s your ship – by D. Michael Abrashoff

Parting advice

Get away from error detection and move towards improvement and acknowledgement

Next

Books, coaching toolbox, presentations

 

Today’s Sponsors

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