Five Ways to Help a Student-Athlete Develop Self-Efficacy
As a student-athlete, learning self-efficacy and making decisions independently is essential. Here are five things I teach throughout the season to help my student-athletes to practice becoming autonomous people.
Creating a learning environment
When I get classroom time with athletes, I am very intentional about the atmosphere I create for them to walk into. There is music playing, the board is prepared with whatever we are going over, they know what I expect of them, and I do some fun activities to shift their mindset from the monotony of school to a playful attitude they can bring into practice.
Winning with a Mediocre Team
To find more success in youth sports, simplify your playbook, increase your ability to connect with children, and practice in-game situations. But whatever you do, don’t assume the child has learned how to listen and respond. We are the adults, and we are their models for how to be.
Be a great adult.
my senior athlete wants to quit
You pour into an athlete for years, and then in their last year, they want to quit…
If you coach long enough, this will happen to you. What do you do? I made a short video about it here. It was inspired by a conversation I had this morning with a collegiate college coach about a player on her team that is struggling to be "all in" for her senior year. Click here to check it out. In a nutshell, I told her to give the athlete two options: No, or hell yes. Let me explain…
"Off-Season" or "Prep-Season"?
There is no such thing as an “off-season” when you want to be the best. There is pre-season, in-season, post-season, then prep-season.
Motivation Versus Inspiration
Coach, your athletes are watching you. Your words are motivational, but your actions are what inspire them. Be intentional about what they see, and leave a legacy mark on their character that transcends performance and the scoreboard.
Winning and Losing, According to John Wooden
John Wooden, legendary former UCLA basketball coach, did a TED Talk before he passed away about how to find success. I have watched it many times, and even shown it to a few teams I have worked with.
Control Your Emotions, Coach
Young athletes are not adults and do not have the life experience to be held to the expectation of being able to control their emotions. Sports gives a student a controlled environment to learn how to manage feelings and emotions, and the coach is the teacher. That teaching is one of the biggest lessons a coach can teach an athlete under their supervision.
Success is in the Details
Coach, challenge your athletes to set the standard for the team. They will not adhere to seemingly arbitrary rules handed down on a piece of paper or written on a wall. You didn't when you were an athlete and neither will they. However, if you can get them to feel how the expectation will help them, you will see improved compliance.
The Double Defeat: Can you lose twice in one competition?
The beauty of athletics is the dance between opponents, each responding and reacting to the other as they pour out their mental and physical strength in an attempt to become the victor until the next battle.
Belief and Sharing a Vision
Coach, your team needs to know you believe in them. I’m not talking about blind faith, but real belief in their abilities to compete and be successful because you have created an environment of competition, growth mindset, and constant improvement. Set them up for success, then get out of the way!
Starve the Anxiety: A Technique on How to Reduce Performance Anxiety
This is a breathing technique you can use not just in sport, but in life, as in preparing for a test, walking into a big presentation, or calming yourself before engaging in an uncomfortable conversation.
Meeting Your New Team
Too many coaches think the most important thing in a meeting is to tell the players what they need to know. Yes, there is a time for that, but not enough coaches give space for their players to share. There is wisdom to be learned from a coach, and just as much from an athlete. Remember, as coaches we’re in the business of training the adults of tomorrow, adults who will be reminiscent of the things they learned from their coach (good and bad) above the stats and win/loss column.
The Art of the Handshake
With the start of a new season or class, regardless of the sport or subject, I start with the same lesson. This is an example of how I do it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed living it.
Abusive Coaching
Our voice as “Coach” stays with our athletes long after they hand in their jersey for the last time. Our words echo inside their brains, the good and the bad. For example, I remember when my high school volleyball coach spent over an hour with me after practice preparing me for a job interview and sharing tips on how to dress and what to say. I also remember when my eighth-grade baseball coach yelled at me from the dugout to “just throw fu$&%ing strikes” when I struggled to get the ball over the plate.
Winning and Losing
“Sometimes when you win, you actually lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.” -Gloria Clemente, White Men Can’t Jump
Setting Expectations with Parents
At the beginning of every season, I sit down with the parents and let them know what they can expect from me as the coach of their child. I go through a list of bullet points I have curated throughout the years, so there are no surprises
To start the new school year, I wrote down for you a sample of how my parent meetings go. It is directed at a youth football team. Enjoy!
The Importance of Knowing What Your Athletes Need
Sometimes to perform at our best, all we need is a pause.
Athlete Motivation
Be the kind of coach that is a student of students. Learn about each player and be intentional about growing each relationship appropriately. You are one of the most important models of how to be an adult, so model the behavior you want to see in the world.
How to Connect to Athletes
As an older coach, how do you stay relevant to the younger generations? I get this question often. Pop culture is constantly evolving and it can be hard to stay knowledgeable about what is going on. A few years ago I took about 30 minutes to figure out what Pokemon go was all about. When I dropped it in a lesson during class, it was instant street cred!