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#10 Top 5 Coaching Tips for Sports Practice
There are so many variables when it comes to designing and implementing a practice plan. Every coach puts his or her own spin on how to develop a productive, engaging practice. While some of the nuances vary sport to sport, in particular team sports versus individual sports, the main foundation of a well designed practice…
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#9 Leadership in Youth Sports
The best coaches are the ones who see the big picture. Most, if not all, of the athletes on your youth sports team will not play the sport beyond high school. Most of the athletes at the college level will not play the sport professionally. This is not meant to minimize the wins and losses…
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# 8 Creating Competition in Youth Sports Practices
Most young athletes love competing. It is inherent. If you think of what kids like to do, it is mostly a competition. They play video games. They play tag. They play kickball, tic tac toe, and rock paper scissors. A lot of what kids do naturally is through competition. There is a winner and a…
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#7 Building a Positive Team Culture
The first thing teachers are supposed to do at the beginning of the class period is to greet students at the door and welcome them to the classroom. The next step is to establish objectives for the period and get the students actively engaged. This model is appropriate for coaching. Coaches should always engage with…
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#6 Structuring a Coaching Plan
One of the most overlooked topics in coaching sports is the ability to generate unit plans. Let me start off by saying, every successful coach that I have been around has been organized. But organization runs deeper than developing a practice and game schedule. Organization is paramount in every sense of coaching. A main focus…
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#5 Motivating Youth Athletes
A common question is how do coaches keep athletes motivated? This is a constant challenge in life – period. How do you keep students motivated in a class? How do you keep athletes motivated on a field? I think the first question is what motivates the athlete? The legendary football coach Bill Parcells is famous…
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# 4 Growth Mindset to Motivate Athletes
How do you motivate athletes? Two words: Growth Mindset. Growth mindset has been a popular phrase in education for a long time. Carol Dweck, a psychologist, made the phrase mainstream in helping people find success, especially young students. A growth mindset is the exact opposite of a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset means you are…
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#3 Balancing Winning and Fun
“I just want the kids to have fun.” How often have we heard that phrase? It seems so basic, so generic, so hollow. There is so much to unpack with this topic – but most of it is driven by the level we are talking about. There are different goals at the recreation, travel/club, high…
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# 2 What Is Your Why?
One of the first questions you have to ask yourself is, “What is Your Why?” Why do you coach? Are you a parent and the team needs someone? Are you a travel, club or high school coach? Are you a college coach and coaching is your livelihood? Are you a professional coach coaching at the…
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# 1 Coaching is Teaching
Coaching is Teaching In the most basic sense, coaching is teaching. The classroom is a field or court. The teacher is the coach. The practices are daily lessons and the competition is the assessment. The same principles that exist to get the most out of students in the classroom exist to get the most out…