Monthly Archives: July 2010

Using the movie Inception to build confidence in your athletes

Mental game, Movies

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I went to see this movie a week or so ago because I’d heard so much about it and none of it was negative. Every single review and every single person I talked to loved it. So I was all prepared for it to be a letdown when I saw it, but the movie certainly lived up to the hype. The basic story line is that Leonardo DiCaprio leads a group of folks who can break into people’s minds while they’re dreaming and steal whatever secrets they’d usually keep protected. That’s cool enough right there, huh? Then they’re challenged to not steal an idea, but plant an idea…the key is that the person has to believe that the idea is their very own. Now don’t worry, I’m not giving anything away here…that sentence is the premise the entire movie kicks off from and then you’re on a wild ride from there.

And as is usually the case, I got to thinking about coaching and how “inception” is what we do! Have you ever had your team run a clinic or camp and hear them coaching? Don’t they usually parrot off things that you’ve said to them over and over again? Like the same phrases and everything? I’m sure they’d credit you (or previous coaches) with a lot of what they say, but there’s probably some things that they take as a given…things they think they believe about their sport that come directly from you. You know what I mean, things like the “right” way to shoot a basketball or hold a bat or set a volleyball.

Then I took that idea of inception a little bit further and thought about how to plant the idea of belief and confidence in an athlete. I’m sure all of us coaches talk about those intangibles and we may even have our athletes read books about the mental game or go see the sports psychologist…but that’s just getting us close, not all the way there. Remember for inception to truly take place, the athlete has to believe that the idea is their own. Their confidence can’t come from us coaches (though I’m sure they appreciate our confidence in them) and it can’t come from their performance (because that’s bound to let them down at some point), but an inner belief in themselves. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I’m sure willing to try!

As coaches, we spend so much time being intentional about the physical aspect of our sports. Whether it’s practice planning or skill development, we’ve figured out what to put in to our teams to get the desired outcome. What if we were just as focused on building the intangible side of things? What if we worked that stuff right into the core of our practices so that eventually our teams thought the idea was their own, but really we’d created a group of confident ballers with high self-esteem?

I’m going to keep thinking about this idea, but I’d love to hear your thoughts…how can us coaches be as intentional about the stuff we can’t see as the stuff that we can?

The 1 thing you need to be a more effective recruiter

Recruiting

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My brother is in sales and I went to his office one day and saw a sign and loved it! It said:

The hustle is heaven if you’re a hustler.
The hustle is hell if you’re not.

Before I go any further, let’s make sure we’re on the same page on the definition of “hustler”. I’m certainly not talking about some nasty adult magazine. And I’m also not talking about the movie with a young Paul Newman. And I’m most definitely not talking about being less than honest with anyone. What I am talking about is being relentless, singularly focused and zoned in…on top of your game. If you’d like, you can replace “hustle” with “hard work” and “hustler” with “hard worker”. Either way, the result is the same…you’ve got to get after it.

That day when I was at my brother’s office, we talked about what he does…cold calling to tell potential clients about his product, meeting with clients who liked the initial product presentation to try and seal the deal, always looking to drum up new business…to find more clients. I just laughed because it sounded like recruiting! Don’t believe me…just keep reading. We call up student athletes to talk to them about our product (the experience they’ll have with us at our institutions). Hopefully we can get them in town for a campus visit, because we all know that having them on campus increases the likelihood that they’ll come. Then we start the whole process again and find ourselves standing, with a whole bunch of our peers, in a big gym or on a field, looking for more student-athletes in order to take the ride again.

That’s the hustle…and you’ve got to love the hustle. If you’re a college coach and you don’t love the recruiting hustle, at least have sense enough to surround yourself with coaches who do. I’ve got to tell you, I love hitting the phones and chatting with student athletes about my team and my school. I believe that my team sells itself…they’re a pretty amazing bunch of young ladies. And there’s nothing more beautiful to my ears than walking into a convention center and hearing the lovely sounds of volleyball being played. I love the hustle…always have. And I’m sure you do too.

What’s your favorite part about recruiting?

How watching toy story 3 can teach the essentials of teamwork

Movies, Pyramid of success, Team chemistry

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So I went to see this movie the other day (what? I’ve got a seven year old stepdaughter) and really liked it. I’d heard so much good stuff about it, from kids and adults, that I figured it was a must see. While I was watching it, I just thought of how applicable the plotline was for sports teams. Now I certainly don’t want to spoil the movie for you, because as you can imagine, this movie was just full of unexpected plot twists and story lines (that’s sarcasm folks). But I’d like to talk about a few of the overarching themes of the movie that you can highlight and use with your team.

Loyalty The movie hit this subject from a couple of angles. The boy who owned the toys for years, Andy, is heading off to college and has to decide whether he’s gonna trash his toys or put them in storage. All of the toys, but especially Woody (the cowboy in the picture above), are adamant about wanting to stay with Andy…to remain loyal. Fast forward to later in the movie, Woody (who happens to be Andy’s favorite toy) chooses his toy friends over his own personal glory and happiness. Lots of clips that can be shown to your team!

Cooperation To overcome their major challenge of the movie, Woody and his friends had to work together and trust that each would perform their jobs well and to the best of their ability. They shared in adversity and put their heads together to figure out the solution. There’s an about fifteen minute scene of how each of the toys had different jobs to do and while it’s very funny, it also highlights that every job on a team is important. Mr. Potato Head didn’t think that his job was less important than Buzz’s, even though they were very different duties. That’s a great lesson for teams! Whether you’re a starter or reserve, or you’re the star hitter or an overlooked defensive player that never gets the glory…your role is vital and important to the team.

Friendship None of it would have worked without their friendship with each other. Over and over again in the movie, they talk about staying together. The movie is aimed at children, so subtlety isn’t on the menu. Obviously this is something that they thought was important…we’re friends, we’ve been together all of this time and we’re going to stay together. And isn’t that what we preach as coaches? No matter what, we stay together as a team. We support each other, we believe each other, and we make each other better. This movie was like a sports season with its ups and downs, belief and doubt, and smiles and tears.

So I really enjoyed this movie and thought it had so many life applications for our profession. As I was thinking through the themes of the movie, I started thinking that it sounded an awful lot like the Pyramid of Success. So of course I went back to my book and it’s true! Those three themes are part of the base of John Wooden’s idea of what made his teams successful…not bad for a movie about toys that come to life.

Hopefully you’ll check out this movie and when you do, come back and tell me about it.

Set the tone: helping your athletes switch from classroom to sports mode

Coaching strategy, Mental game

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I know there are coaches that feel that the locker room is the athlete’s domain and they don’ t want to mess with it…but I believe the locker room is an important place for our teams and that we should put some time and energy into making it our own.

Think about it. Your team, whether they’re in high school or college, have been in class all day and we need to switch them from academic mode to athletic mode. One way to do that is to focus on the first place they go before practice…the locker room. Some of you may coach at a high level and have buckets of money at your disposal, while others of you may be club coaches with no real locker room to speak of…regardless, that switch can be flipped.

When I coached at the club and high school levels, the locker room was a shared space so I couldn’t make it volleyball only. So I made the gym “ours” and you can too. Put up team pictures on the walls of all of your teams…from the 7th grade B team on up to varsity, or your 12 & unders on up to your 18’s team. Not only does it give your players ownership in the program and a sense of pride, it also gives the little one’s girls to look up to. Put up “did you know?” facts about your players and coaches so that players and parents get to know the other folks who are always around. Have a place where you keep everyone informed about your players who’ve gone on to play at the collegiate level so that your current players know who they are when they come back to visit.

Our locker room doesn’t really lend itself to too much decoration, but we do have a bulletin board that’s visible to them as soon as they open the door and we’ve made that volleyball central. Everyday I put up a new motivational quote in the middle of the board, we keep updated team and conference stats on there, as well as team goals, itineraries, and any newspaper write-ups we’ve received. They know that’s the place to go for any of our team info. I don’t think it matters exactly what’s up there, as long as it triggers the switch from personal to team time.

Do you have any tips for getting your athletes to make that mental switch? I’d love to hear about them!

Book review: high hopes

Books, Coaching community

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The rundown: this book is about how Barnett turned Northwestern football around from being not so good to winning a Rose Bowl. I really liked this book because it was about changing not only a team, but a program culture entrenched in mediocrity. Since I played my college ball at Wisconsin, I remember just how bad Northwestern was before Garnett and how shocking their Rose Bowl run was to everyone. He details choosing a coaching staff, how to have positive captains meetings, how to build belief in those who’ve never believed in their program, and how to define a successful program rebuild.

Recommended for: coaches who are taking over teams with historic losing records or those in the midst of trying to rebuild a flailing program.

Not recommended for: a team book. There’s a lot of good coaching tips and insight in the book, but not a lot of team building or bonding.

Alrighty folks, that’s that. And as always, let me know if you’ve got any book suggestions I should add to my reading list.

4 essential items every coach needs to get better

Books, Coaching nerds, Coaching strategy, Mentor

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Folks who are fixer uppers or tinklers know that the key to handling any situation is having a nice toolbox. Whether its needle nosed pliers or a power saw or cordless drill…these things will prove to be essential for any job that needs to be completed. And it’s the same with coaching! We need to have a toolbox that is stocked so that we’re able to deal with the disgruntled player, the starter whose spot is about to be taken, as well as the athletic director that wants you to fundraise a ridiculous amount of money each year.

Here’s four things that every coach should have in their toolbox:

Mentors When I took my first head coaching job at age 24, my toolbox only had a hammer and a couple of nails clanking around in it…not nearly enough for the repair project I’d taken on! I was certainly enthusiastic, but that needed to be combined with knowledge…and I was a bit short on that. Enter our men’s basketball coach who was a legend in his field and had a head full of coaching genius that he was willing to share. So I’d haul my butt up to his office about once a week and we’d chat. Sometimes about my team, sometimes about his, but each and every time I learned something from this man.

Peers Here’s one thing I know: coaches love talking about coaching. Once you find folks with a similar philosophy, make it a point to talk to them and pick their brains. I truly believe that coaching is coaching so it doesn’t matter if you talk to the football coach or the soccer coach…if you share the same philosophical foundation, you’ve set yourself up for fun and challenging conversations about coaching.

Seminars/Conventions Be a coaching nerd! Go to your sport’s convention…and attend the sessions (not just the social stuff) and hang out after it’s over and chat with the presenter. Go to local clinics even if you don’t think you’ll learn something new…you certainly won’t if you don’t go! Plus other coaches will be there and maybe you’ll be able to chat them up and get a different viewpoint on an old problem. This will help keep you current in your field.

Books I read a lot of books. I read books for myself in order to grow in my leadership and influence. I also read books that I think will be good for my team to read during the season. Sometimes they’re sports books, sometimes they’re business oriented, and other times they’re faith-based…but what they all share in common is that I think that they’ll make me a better coach.

What do you think? What would you add to the list?

Coaching nerds unite! Study up on your craft

Coaching community, Coaching nerds, Community

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“Those nerds are a threat to our way of life.” -Stan, Revenge of the Nerds

When I met the lady who would eventually be the maid of honor in my wedding, we bonded over our general nerdiness concerning volleyball. When we talked to each other, it was while peppering. When we decided to attend the AVCA convention together, we mapped out our session schedule so that each of us would see different presentations to better maximize our learning. At that same convention, we talked about our volleyball goals while setting the volleyball back and forth. We were a coaching match made in heaven.

That’s the mental image I had in my head when I started this blog. That it would be a community of coaches who just couldn’t get enough of learning how to be better at what we do and share their secrets that have been fruitful for them. I believe to my core that there are a lot of coaches out there doing a lot of really good things…we’re just not connected. What if all of us coaching nerds had one gathering spot (here!) where it would be okay to admit that you’re obsessed with being better and learning more? Where it was okay to admit that you’re excited about your job and about your team?

So let’s all of us coaching nerds unite here at Coach Dawn Writes and challenge those who aren’t quite as nerdy to raise their nerdiness quotient. Our teams and our craft will be all the better for it!

How to take care of yourself and give the best to your team

Burnout, Coaching philosophy, Work/Life balance

Every coach says the same things to their team: make sure you’re eating right, be sure to get enough sleep at night, don’t procrastinate on doing your work, etc. But us coaches are the worst in terms of following our own advice! We stay at work making calls or watching video a little bit later than we’d planned and end up going to the vending machine and having Doritos for dinner. We focus so much on our seasons that the project that our athletic director asked us to do a couple of weeks ago still hasn’t been touched. And on and on it goes…you know the drill.

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If we want to stay in this thing for the long haul, we’ve got to take care of ourselves. Here are 5 things that I think are essential to avoiding coach burnout.

  1. Workout: figure out a way to get some cardio and strength training in during your season. It’ll keep you focused and energized.
  2. Personal time: for me, that usually is my workout time. During the season, we’re so available to our athletes and fans and parents that it can be mentally draining. Take time to recharge your batteries…whether it’s meditation or prayer or a morning walk. Make time for yourself.
  3. Have work buddies: we spend the majority of our time at work, so you need someone in the office that you can talk with when you’ve hit the wall, are frustrated, or just have a funny story to tell. For as much time as we spend at the office (whether it’s your actual office or your gym or court or field), we need to be able to have quality down time at work.
  4. Involve your fam: my husband comes to all of our home games and we’ll have the team over for dinner sometimes. It’s good for the team to see that their coach has some sort of balance in their lives and it’s good for your fam to see you in your element.
  5. Enjoy it: I love everything about being in season. The hard work, being in the gym, the ups, the downs, being tired from the non-stop pace, sweating through my t-shirt in our hot and sticky gym…all of it. Because I get to do the thing that I love to do. I love coaching and I love volleyball and this school is willing to pay me to do it. I think that makes me pretty lucky.

Is there anything that you would add to the list? What things keep you sane during the season?

Effective use of films for goal setting

Goal setting, Movies, Video sessions

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I’ll be seriously shocked if I actually have to write this down, but that picture above is from the movie “Hoosiers”. Really, if you’re a coach and you didn’t know that, then you have my permission to stop reading this post, put the movie in your Netflix queue and watch it right now!

I’ve watched parts of this movie with my teams before and the results are always good. I haven’t used it as a “fire up to beat the big team”, because I worry that I’ll get them too riled up for one game. But it’s great for an “us against the world” kind of thing. And that mantra works whether your team isn’t very good and no one expects much from you or you’re expected to win it all. The beauty in the movie is that it truly is a team that makes it happen. Hickory’s new coach has a shady past, one of the player’s dad is a drunk, and their best player quits in the middle of the season. Not exactly how you’d write up a successful season…but they are. Together.

And that’s the lesson. From the best to the least of them (remember when little Ollie had to get in and shoot free throws? Movie magic, I tell ya!), they are vital to the team’s success. I’m always shocked at how many of my players haven’t seen or even heard of this movie. We don’t watch the whole thing, but usually just the last hour…that’s where all the good stuff happens. Without fail, after they win a couple of games along the way to State, one of the players will nervously ask out loud, “I wonder what happens! Are they gonna win?” And they look at me and I give them the I don’t know shrug and encourage them to keep watching. If you’re able to finish this movie and not feel like all is right with the world, then something is wrong with you.

It’s a good time to talk to your team about goals. The sky’s the limit, right? It’s all about blowing past preconceived notions of how good your team can be. And make no mistake about it, they have a happiness ceiling in their head. Like, they’d be happy if you were in the top half of conference…or if you won conference…or if you made it to your regionals. They may not say so, but it’s in there. What if that happiness ceiling were removed and they just played hard and worked hard in practice and rode the wave? What if winning it all were a possibility? It’s our jobs as coaches to challenge our teams and make sure that they end every season knowing that they did all they could do to be the best they could be.

Do you have any movies that you use to motivate your team? What situations do you use it in?

Females aren’t competitive? Grrrr!

Coaching philosophy, Female athletes, Team chemistry,

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So, my dentist has a daughter who’s a sixth grader. I understand that you may not find that to be a fun fact, but what is interesting to me is what he said to me a few visits ago. While he was working on my teeth and rendering me mute (a travesty for any coach, for sure!) he starts in about how his daughter plays volleyball and he just wished that girls were more competitive. Only the drill in his hand saves him from me…but only momentarily. When he finished with my teeth, I pulled out my soapbox (which I carry everywhere with me), jumped on, and proceeded to tell him that girls are indeed competitive and aggressive and interested in wins and losses.

I’m amazed at how often I hear the same story…and it ticks me off. Here I am a female, former Division I athlete and uber-competitive, a coach of female athletes, and most importantly, a believer in female athletes. And while my dentist didn’t ask for help in encouraging his young daughter and her teammates to express their competitiveness, he sure got it!

My niece is a baller. She’s good at volleyball, rocks at basketball, and can high jump with the best of them. A couple of years ago, she got involved in a pretty non-competitive volleyball league and I saw early on that she had the raw skills to be really good at the sport (seriously, she’s only ten and is almost as tall as me and has a sweet platform), but she wasn’t surrounded by like-minded girls. I don’t see anything wrong with playing a sport to learn and have fun and meet people…but that’s not what my niece wanted to do. She wanted to compete, to contribute, and to win. But as long as she was with those girls, she wouldn’t. At that age, girls don’t want to stick out from the crowd but rather be part of it. I told my brother and sis-in-law to get her into a better league where it would be okay for her to excel…where she wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb because she wanted to jump and spike rather than stand there and watch balls hit the ground.

Coaches of young girls need to create an environment where being competitive is good. Where you’re not “acting like a boy” if you happen to be a little girl and love sports. Most importantly, youth coaches should aim to create a community of young girls that affirm each other and their successes rather than bring each other down. So that’s what I encouraged my dentist to do, to bring his daughter’s team to one of our games so that they could see female athletes in action and how it’s okay to be intense and competitive…those things aren’t antonyms to being a lady. I also encouraged him to volunteer as a coach so that he could be there to encourage any sparks of competitive energy he saw in practice. And guess what? My last visit he informed me that he’s now the coach of the team.

I can’t be the only one who’s feathers get supremely ruffled when they hear something like this. How do you handle the “girls are passive and not aggressive” chatter when you hear it?