Brownsburg Lacrosse – Winning Youth Coaching

September 6, 2016

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 10 – Building a Program without Self-Entitlement

When NFL Pro-Bowler Joe Ehrmann lost his little brother Billy to a tragic fight with cancer, his introspection led to the realization that life is all about 2 things:

Relationships
Working for a cause bigger than yourself

Self-entitlement is a direct result of a focus that is opposite of those 2 values. It is no accident that the first and last components of this 10 part series on building championship culture involve creating a team-first and others-first environment. It is where everything starts and ends.

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Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch Part 10 – Case Study – Building a Program Without Self-Entitlement

John Doss is the head coach of Brownsburg Lacrosse, which is a program located in a suburb of Indianapolis. John understands the importance of selflessness in building a championship culture. So he set out to look for a way to build this into his culture, both on and off the field. What his team came up with is brilliant. The best way to describe their Mission 2 Assist program is to share their value statement:

What do we value at Brownsburg Lacrosse?

On the field, we all want to score goals, but what we REALLY VALUE are the plays that lead up to those goals. The unselfish pass to an open teammate. The “hockey assist” pass that leads to that pass. A hard fought ground ball possession. Tenacious defense that leads to a big takeaway. A critical save and quick clear that starts a fast break. That’s what we value on the field.

Off the field we value gratitude and servanthood. We appreciate the fact that we get to play a game we love and know that there are those that are not so fortunate. Because of this, we want to help others that cannot play lacrosse or cannot play lacrosse in the same manner that we do.

Why are we telling you this? Well, we found out that there is a national wheelchair lacrosse league and a local group is raising money to start a team here in Indianapolis. We want to merge our values to help them. This is a group of athletes and competitors just like us and all they want to do is compete, just like we do.

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How did they accomplish this? They tracked the plays they value, these “assists” that led to goals, over the course of their season. Then they got sponsors to reward those “assists”. John describes how they set this up in WYC Podcast Episode 81, check out all of the details here: Link to show notes and episode

They used the walk-a-thon type forms to fundraise – but used assists instead of goals as the pledge criteria. By the end of the season they raised almost $10k for the Wheelchair Lacrosse Organization.

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Check out the homepage for The Mission 2 Assist program to see short videos on their program and for a link to a video that describes WLUSA- the Wheelchair Lacrosse Organization: www.bblaxassist.com

August 5, 2015

WYC 052 – Youth Lacrosse – John Doss talks Committing to your Dream and Using the bench to teach not to punish

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

John is entering his first year as the the Brownsburg Lacrosse High School Head Coach after 2 years as the 7th/8th grade coach. John played collegiate lacrosse as a goalie at San Jose State University. He was named a West Coast Lacrosse League (WCLL) All-Star 3 times. Coach Doss also played 3 years of post-collegiate lacrosse with San Francisco Lacrosse Club and still remains active as a player with DOGS Lacrosse in Indianapolis. John is married, lives in Indianapolis and is a supply chain sales manager.

Twitter: @laxcoachdoss

Websites: brownsburglacrosse.com; indyelitelacrosse.com

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Quote

‘Play hard, have fun’

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

‘The Dreaded Playbook’ – installing too many plays and confusing the kids. Learned that simple is better, fundamentals are more important than game theory.
Teach kids: ‘That’s a cone, not a magnet’

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

Lots of games to keep kids engaged and competitive
Teach a concept, drill a concept. Then allow time for free play for them to try it on their own

Free Play

John grew up playing with kids in his neighborhood – and had to figure it out on his own without parents/coaches hounding him

Self-Confidence and teaching kids to achieve peak performance

The Knute Rockne-type speeches by a coach often take the fun out of the game and cause the kids to tighten up – just let them go play and have fun
Coach says these 4 words before every game: ‘Play hard, have fun’
Coach has a goalie that beats himself up after any goal allowed – he tells the kid he can take 3 seconds to be upset, then move on. He will even count 1,2,3 out loud so the kid remembers.
‘Make the right lacrosse play, we’re not worried about the results’

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

Have a well-thought out team meeting with parents to set the expectations and guidelines
1 rule: Respect. Respect coaches, teammates, opponents, referees, yourself, and the game.
Coach Doss uses the lacrosse game format to discipline during practices – he has the player take a knee for 1 minute – he is taking away what they really want, which is to play.

HUGE IDEA #1

John will pick out a kid before practice and tell that kid to keep his eye out for a player putting out extraordinary effort during practice, then let that kid recognize the player they choose at the end of practice
John asks his players what they are seeing during a game – but they have to phrase it as a ‘we’

Connecting with Kids

One of John’s goalie’s parent was debating about having their son try out for a travel team – John encouraged the parent to have the kid tryout – regardless of the outcome – try it! Don’t be afraid of failure, just go for it.

The One that Got Away

John’s team was overmatched, got down early, then scored several goals and had a bunch of momentum – and John called timeout to set something up – and he totally killed the team’s momentum.

Best Stolen idea

HUGE IDEA #2

When coaching a kid in a game – if you want to pull them out to teach them something – don’t pull the kid out and put them at the end of the bench. Pull them out, teach them, then put them immediately back into the game. That way kids don’t see coming to the bench as a punishment, they see it as an opportunity to learn.

Recommended resources

TeamSnap – increases communication to the parents
Positive Coaching Alliance
US Lacrosse
Championship Productions – Instructional Sports Videos (paid)

Coaching/Leadership Quote or Book

Roger Federer when asked his definition of mental toughness: ‘Committing to your dream’

Parting Advice

As a coach – you have to set the example of every behavior you want to see

Tag: Brownsburg Lacrosse