The #1 Way to Influence Your Athletes
Give your athletes a reason to want to listen to you. Show them (instead of trying to only tell them) how a grown man or woman lives. Set the standard high, then live it. Only then will your words have the influence and conviction you hope they have on your audience.
Even if you don't think they are watching, they are always watching. Always.
Fishing for Influence
When I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted. Instead, I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with brownies or gummy bears, rather, dangling at the end of the line was a fresh worm.
John Wooden on Chasing Your Destiny
John Wooden, legendary former UCLA basketball coach, did a TEDtalk before he passed away about how to find success. Here is a summary of what he said…
A Role for Every Player
This is one way to create team culture. It doesn't happen on accident, but when a coach is intentional about creating a positive environment, great things happen.
It starts with you.
Losing Twice in one Game
You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
Where is the sun?
We should always have high expectations for our athletes, but we should also create an environment that allows for those expectations to be met.
Simple Basketball
If my team without a playbook is confident enough to shoot and I spend time teaching how to aggressively rebound I will beat your team with a playbook.
How to Create the Ultimate Teammate
The subject of "creating culture" has been buzzing as of late so I thought I would share a couple notes on ways I have found to create a fun and successful culture.
Getting the Parents Involved in Practice
Toward the end of every season, I schedule a "kids vs parents" game. A great time to do this is when the team is not doing so well and needs to have some fun, or at the end of the year party. There are many different ways to do this. Here are some tips to make it go smoothly:
Learning about your new team
Those simple, quiet moments you have with an athlete are the moments they will remember for the rest of their lives.
5 Ways to Increase Coach-to-Athlete Communication
What are some other communication tips I should include next time I write about communicating to athletes?
![Invictus, aka "I am the captain of my soul" [poem]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/65292b6b06d20e4a3c9fdb80/1698678065416-S6U5CIXWLLXIANY7KN4D/image-asset.jpeg)
Invictus, aka "I am the captain of my soul" [poem]
Invictus, by William Ernest Henley (1894-1903)
The Victor
If you think you are beaten, you are.If you think you dare not, you don't. If you like to win but think you can't It is almost certain you won't.
The Art of Yelling in Youth Sports
Kids are not mini adults and for that reason we cannot assume they have the emotional experience or maturity to understand what is going on during intense moments. Sure, some kids are more emotionally mature than others, but there is a limit to how much they can possibly know for the sheer fact they have not been alive long enough to know what an adult knows. To add to that, it is unfair for a parent to expect a child to have control of their emotions if the parent cannot control their own emotions. So if you find yourself yelling at the ref during a game, don’t be shocked when your child gets thrown out for yelling at a ref. You taught them how to do that. Stings a little, doesn’t it? Deal with it.
Three Rules to Being a Great Athlete
On Sunday, March 9th of last year, I cried for a few hours. A man passed away unexpectedly doing what he loved most- proudly coaching his daughter to the finish line at what would be his final swim meet.
Changing the Game Project
This week I would like to defer to my friend John O’Sullivan, founder of ChangingTheGameProject.com . You may have seen him in a TedTalk from a few years ago speaking about the importance of youth sports and how to make it a fun experience for kids. There is a really funny commercial at minute 6:11 that reverses the typical conversation between an overbearing father and a youth athlete. Ever wonder what it would be like if kids showed up on the golf course and talked to their dad the way some dads talk to their kids? Hilarious.
Five Communication Tips for Coaches
Here are five tips for coaches (and parents) on communicating with your young athlete.
How to Develop Mental Toughness in an Athlete
How does one develop mental toughness? As a sport and performance consultant I get asked this often. To answer, let's start with defining what it means. The short definition is: One's ability to perform at a high level under adversity. However, it isn't that simple.