Coaching is one of the most challenging yet rewarding careers one can pursue -  for a host of reasons. Each season is filled with ups and downs. coaches are faced with constant and often conflicting demands on their attention. Coaches must concern themselves with training their athletes’ bodies and minds, with setting up schemes for offense and defense, with creating rosters and making cuts, with teaching basic skills and progressing to advanced skills… and the list goes on. Along with the demands of each unique sport, coaches also need to find a way to serve athletes, assistant coaches, parents, and the community at large. The multitude of decisions coaches need to concern themselves with can be overwhelming at times. My goal in creating this program is to help coaches make decisions with a focused approach with the end in mind.

Coaching in today’s world has constant challenges. The daily stresses and demands of this calling can lead even the most committed of coaches to ask themselves why they continue with coaching, but the joys of coaching are abundant as well - more than enough to offset the balance, if we choose to see them. Watching athletes compete at their best, achieve their goals, care for teammates, sacrifice for the team, execute a game plan, and use skills for the benefit of the team is a source of great joy and satisfaction - as is equipping assistant coaches with the skills to lead athletes well. Many more reasons exist to make coaching a pursuit worthy of the time, energy, and investment inherent in this very demanding job, and bring us back to invest in athletes and community every year.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to sharpen my own coaching skills through  reading some great books, studying amazing coaches, listening to engaging speakers, and learning from my own coaches. Each of these resources has been a blessing in its own way, and I am grateful for these many opportunities to learn and develop. I was a high school athlete under three amazingly focused coaches for 11 seasons. I was able to see first hand the benefit of having a singular focus for a program. I have also coached for over 45 seasons alongside amazing coaches. I have seen, over and over again, that having a clear and specific direction for the program has been the main catalyst for success and foundation for effective communication and decision making. I was also blessed to be able to receive a minor in coaching while at Northwestern College in St. Paul and a masters degree in Coaching and Athletic Administration from Concordia University in Irvine, CA. During these experiences I was better able to learn what truly mattered to me as a coach and what I wanted my programs to be about. I was able to develop my mission for coaching and my philosophy of my programs. Since then, these focal points have changed over time, but I can better identify them and the importance of them on my teams and athletes. All coaches are different and will identify different focal points, but the important part is for the coaches to identify their focal points and thoughtfully implement them into their program. Once implemented, the coach must then revisit the focal points often to maximize them or to adjust them as needed. 

Along with all of these wonderful learning opportunities, I have had the benefit of being mentored consistently through my coaching career. First, I was able to co-head coach with an amazing man who was singularly focused on helping the people around him be their very best and enjoy life to the fullest. When I stepped out on my own to coach at a nearby school, he helped me create my vision and he mentored me for years as I walked out my vision with my teams. When he passed away, I had the benefit of working with my co-author Rob and my wife Rachel. Rob and Rachel have reflected with me constantly through my career, always pulling me back to my focus and my vision for my athletes and teams. It is because I have seen the benefit of these mentors and constant people in my career that I have decided to start this partnership program. I have seen the benefit of good partners to help carry out the vision that I had for my athletes, coaches, parents, and community. I am developing the following program in order to offer a continual partnership with coaches to help them align what they value with their practice as a coach.

The first step in the program is to help you narrow your focus on what matters to you as a coach and on what drives you to keep coaching. I hope to help coaches find their “Walk Away With” focus. I want to help coaches answer the question: What do you want athletes to walk away knowing and understanding after their experience in your program? Consider sport-specific skills and knowledge as well as the applications to other areas of their lives as young people.

Recognizing the changeability of this “walk away with” focus is important, too; the “walk away with” focus can change throughout the season/career of a coach and must be periodically revisited. However, this doesn’t mean you need to create from scratch every year. You can and should reuse or adjust ideas from the past. Your “walk away with” won’t typically change much from year to year, but it will look different with different groups of athletes. 

Reading and listening to others can be helpful as well. I found one of my “walk away with” focal points while reading Joe Erhmann’s books (InSideOut Coaching and Season of Life). He discusses being a “Man of Significance,” and I adopted that language. Ehrmann helped me put words to my value of “being others focused” before I knew how to communicate that point to my athletes on my own.

We are all shaped by different experiences and will have varying aims in our coaching. This program will help you focus your work in order to emphasize and prioritize the outcomes that are most important to you.

The last note I will make is that when developing your “walk away with” focal points, keep in mind that many people think sport will teach character, but that’s an incomplete idea. The truth is that sports present an opportunity for character growth, but this opportunity will go to waste unless the coach is intentional in teaching and emphasizing character. We must teach these character qualities. We must pull those things out so kids “buy in” and can actually take something from those experiences on our teams. When developing your focal points, keep in mind the character qualities that you want your athletes to be able to develop on your team and in your sport. 

 

My “walk away with” focuses are:

1. Maximizing potential - be intentional and make decisions that align with what you are trying to accomplish.
2. Being others focused - look to serve (not to be served)