Monthly Archives: March 2012

How To Coach Millennials

source

Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Generation Next, are folks who are about twenty to thirty years old. So when I saw this article called, Introverted Leaders: The Right Mentors for Millennials, I figured there would be a lot of people who’d be interested in how we can apply it to our lives. After all, this is the age group that college coaches are working with. Check out the article, it’s got great info about introverts as leaders…I’m going to focus on motivating millennials.

4 tips that will help us coach millennials

One-on-one interactions. According to the article, “when leaders take the time to converse with the millennials in their midst, they score points in building loyalty and trust.” That sounds like something we should invest time in! If we’re going to build teams that function well year after year, we should make sure we’re taking the time to chat with our players every day. I worked with a coach years ago who said it was his goal talk to each player while they were warming up for practice. However we do it, we should make sure we’re connecting with our players, it means a lot to them.
Listening and asking great questions. Apparently, millennials have a “craving for continuous coaching and feedback.” This one piggy backs on point number one. They don’t want generic praise or interaction meant for the entire group, but rather specific coaching and correction meant just for them. Whether it’s email, texts, or face-to-face contact, I’m sure we can all commit to communicating with our players in the way they’d like to receive it.
Preparation. This is the generation most likely to switch jobs many times in the course of their lives, some estimates say the typical millennial will have more than twenty five jobs! They are “hungry to take on new roles and responsibilities”, so it’s our job to make sure they’re engaged on our teams. I’m sure most of our athletes can spout off positive benefits of playing sports (time management, team oriented, etc.), but do they know they’re learning how to lead, how to manage different personalities, how to function within a particular role, and how win and lose with a measure of grace? We’ve got to tell them so they know they’re prepared for the “real world” once they leave college.
Calm, reasoned reflection. Why is this important? This approach “offers a needed counterbalance to all the busyness and multitasking of Millennials.” Have you noticed how difficult it is for millennials to separate themselves from their phones? They can be “talking” to their friends while texting and think nothing of it…meanwhile I’m super offended when people don’t make eye contact with me when we’re talking! According to the article, we’ve got to show them the value in being present and focused. Our sports require those two things in order for our teams to succeed. Our players can’t be peeking in the stands while also trying to play at a high level.

To me, this is like having a millennials scouting report. Sure, we can play a game without one, but it will take us a lot longer to be successful. Now that we know how to make great connections with our players, let’s make sure we do it!

What Makes An Exceptional Team Leader?

Captains, LeadershipTeam chemistry

source

Lately, I’ve been assessing the usefulness of team captains. Logistically, it’s nice to have them so that there’s someone to lead off-season workouts and things like that…but I’m not sure if they need to have a “captain” title in order to rally the troops to go to the weight room.

What happens when the leadership is in the lower classes? What if we’ve got a sophomore who’s an amazing leader…but she’s on a team with four seniors? That could be a team dynamic nightmare.

I believe in leadership training and its benefits to our athletes while they’re on the team and afterward…I just don’t know if they need that title to receive those benefits. At the end of this post, I’ll ask for your help with a couple of questions, so be prepared!

3 qualities our captains should have in order to lead effectively

Clear strategic focus. I know that seems obvious, but I’ve coached teams where the captains didn’t know what was important to them. If it’s more important to the captains that the team jumps when they say to jump than it is for the team to accomplish its goals, then the focus is off.

Open to new ideas. By the time players get to the collegiate level, they’ve been on many teams, been coached by many coaches, and have been led by lots of captains. This means that, even though a player may not be a team leader, they may have great ideas about how captains should behave. Great captains will listen to their teammates and maybe even take them up on a suggestion they make.

Forge strong bonds. The best captains I’ve had mobilize the team and are laser focused on their goals. They squash petty issues and internal fighting before I even know it’s happening. They create time for the team to bond and hang out outside of practice time so they really get to know one another. Great captains make the team into a family.

Questions for you, dear reader

Do you pick your captains or does the team pick? How much input to you have in the process? What about not having team captains at all? Have you done it and did it work? What do you look for in team leaders? Do you think the “captain” title is necessary? Hit me up in my email or on twitter with your answers!

The thing is, great team captains are amazing…they can transform a team from okay and full of cliques, to united and focused. On the flip side of the coin, bad captains can wreck team chemistry and any chance your team has at success. Let me know what you think.

Did you know that you could click this link right here and receive Coach Dawn Writes posts directly in your email inbox? You can and it’s free & easy!

The Power Of Positivity

Mental gameTeam chemistry

source

What you export into the world will eventually be imported back into you.-
Things You Must Never Say Aloud

I believe in being positive…mostly because the alternative seems like a drag. Who wants to mope around all the time complaining about life? According to positive psychology expert, Martin Seligman*, there is validity to self-fulfilling prophesies. Which means we’ve got to teach our athletes how to speak positive, rather than negative, words about themselves.

4 things our players should never say out loud

I can’t do this. Why should they limit themselves with their words? I’ve heard “I can’t” many times in my career from athletes, but it never comes after spending hours and hours, grinding away at a skill. “I can’t” usually comes after a couple of attempts. We’ve got to show our athletes the value and sticking with something until the end. “I can’t” gives up when things get tough…and we certainly don’t want a team of players that give up!
Why is she playing instead of me? These players are tough because they’re not real big on personal responsibility. I think that most players have sense enough not to say this to their coach’s face, but I’m not naïve enough to think they’re not saying it in the locker room. Here’s the truth, this player doesn’t ask their coach this question because they know they’ll get an honest answer! So they ask their teammates, which puts them in an awkward position. What if their teammates agree with the coach’s decision? My advice to these players is to stop talking about why they’re not playing and be so good that their coach can’t help but to play them.
I’m terrible/I suck/I’m no good, etc. Like the player above, this player puts her teammates in a bad spot. Now they’ve got to give the obligatory, “No, you’re really good!” remarks. If the player truly believes they’re awful, there’s good news: practice will make it better. If they’re just saying it to get attention: stop being selfish. The truth is, the coach has this player on the team for a reason…and I’d bet it’s not because they aren’t any good.
She’s better than me. I’m going to speak directly to the player here: I think this is an excuse. Sure, some players are more talented than others, but to throw up your hands and shrug your shoulders and say, “she’s better than me” is a cop out. Maybe she is better than you…because she works harder than you. Maybe she’s better than you because she’s got more experience than you. Maybe she’s better than you because she cares more than you. There are many reasons one player can be better than another. The fact is, you can’t control how good she is…but you can control how good you are.

All of these phrases take away any semblance of control that a player can feel they have over their own playing lives. Let’s make sure our players speak positively about themselves and their circumstances, because words have power.

*Want to read more about Seligman’s work? Check out The Evolution Of Happy Teams.

5 Questions We Should Ask While Problem Solving

Coaching strategy, MeetingsTeam chemistry

source

Problem: A player isn’t performing at an acceptable level.

What to do?: SCAMPER. According to this Psychology Today article, it is a great creative thinking tool. Let’s look at how we’d apply SCAMPER to our teams.

First things first, what the heck is SCAMPER? The letters stand for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify/Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Rearrange, though I won’t talk about combine or magnify/modify here.

I’m sure we could use this technique with all sorts of problems, but let’s stick with our problem player.

Can we substitute?: This is the easiest solution to an underperforming player…put someone else in. Though, if the player is a starter and impact player for our team, keeping her off of the court isn’t a smart long term solution.

Can we adapt to her?: I worked with a team at a summer camp with a pretty dynamic hitter, though she struggled with slower tempo sets. The only problem? Her head coach put her in a position to work only in her weakness and hit those slow tempo sets. After watching her crush fast tempo after fast tempo ball, we changed the offensive system to work in her strength and she excelled.

Can we put her to another use?: Our players come to us with a certain amount of training in their particular position, but can they do other things? Would it be better if they played another position? Until we answer, “yeah, I can put her to another use…right here on the bench next to me”, we’ve got to figure out a way for each player to have a legitimate contribution to the team’s effort.

What can we eliminate?: Maybe the coaching staff has come up with a sweet offensive plan for the team…they just can’t execute it! Perhaps it’s time to scrap that plan and simplify. Is there something going on in her personal life that’s keeping her from performing up to snuff? We’ve got to help her eliminate the causes of stress if possible. If nothing works…maybe we’ve got to eliminate more and more of her playing time.

Can our team be rearranged into something else?: Sometimes we’ll play a team that funnels eighty percent of their offense through a couple of players and I always wonder what they do when those players have bad days…besides lose, I mean. For that player who has lost their mojo, the coaching staff can restructure the offensive season so that player doesn’t carry so much of the burden.

I recommend the PT article, I can see how it could initiate the creative thinking process. Sometimes the obvious answer isn’t the best option and we’ve got to dig deeper.

6 Hidden Gems Who Go Unnoticed On Teams

Team chemistry, Team rolesTeam chemistry

source

Maybe you’re a high school coach who knows that the freshman and junior varsity teams are lacking talent to send up to your team. Or maybe you’re the college coach whose recruiting class didn’t quite turn out the way you’d planned. Or you could be the club coach who received five players who play the same position. It could be that your team (God forbid) experienced a major loss when a key player got injured.

Whoever is reading this, we’ve all found ourselves in situations where we had to train players to do something that was seemingly outside of their skill set. I got the idea for this post from, Diamonds in the rough: How to recognize your star employees, on Smart Blogs’ website. When we’re forced to think outside of the box, sometimes good things happen!

These diamonds in the rough could be hiding in plain sight

Haven’t put it all together yet. Whether they started with the sport late, adolescence hit with fury, or they’re just slow learners…some players take a while to “get it”. These are usually the players with great physical gifts (height, strength, etc.) who need tons of reps.
Haven’t maxed out at skill level. I’m sure we’ve all coached the player who’s maxed out their potential, they’re just not going to get better. It’s not that they’re bad players, they could be really good, we just know they’re at the peak of their curve rather than on their way up. The key when in crisis mode is to find the player who’s on the way up.
Appreciative of coach’s effort and interest. Those players who look us in the eye when we’re giving correction and immediately try to change their behavior are fired up about getting better. They’re the ones we see practicing by themselves when we walk past the gym. They’ll practice hard for whatever situation we put them in.
Value team. These players put team first. When we ask them to switch positions or to step in somewhere they’ve never played before, they do it without question. This type of player has an open attitude about change and will make our jobs a lot easier.
Willing to work (hard) to improve. Not only willing, but these players are excited about the challenge of learning something new. They’ll watch film, come to practice early and stay late. These players understand that working hard leads to really good things.
Enjoy the sport. Look for players who have fun when they’re with the team. Enthusiasm will make the transition easier for the player and their teammates…and their coach!

As we think about our teams, we should always have a plan A, B, and C for each of them.

Is Your Team Sucking The Life Out Of You?

Coaching strategyCoaching career

source

Coaching is a tough gig. And it’s made even tougher when we’ve got players who are driving us nuts a handful. After I read What To Do If Your Employees Are Sucking The Life Out Of You at Fast Company’s website, I thought I’d talk a bit about the unspoken truth of athletics: sometimes our players (and their families) require a boatload of energy. Check out these four points to see varying levels of energy required to manage each of these players.

4 ways to keep your players from sucking the life out of you

Recruit superstars. As coaches, it’s our job to be available for our players. So when I ask if your team is sucking the life out of you, I’m not talking about asking for extra reps in the gym…that’s good! I’m talking about if we’re at an academically challenging institution, but we’ve recruited an athlete that struggles in the classroom, that’s going to require our time to keep them on track. Perhaps we recruited prima donna players and they expect the world to bow down at their feet. Energy required: high.
Address the issue. If it’s too late and we’ve recruited whatever the opposite of a superstar is, then we’ve got to sit down and have a chat with them. Our players are on a team for a reason and I doubt that their goal is to be a total energy suck on us. Perhaps if we sit down and let them know that we’re spending half of our day worrying about them, they’d be shocked. Perhaps if they were shocked, they’d stop sucking the life out of us. Perhaps if they stopped sucking the life out of us, we’d remember the joys of our job again. Energy required: low.
Stop being so nice. We love our teams and we love our players, it’s a big reason why we do what we do. That’s why we’re sometimes the last ones to see the truth…sometimes they’re high maintenance! I’m all for having an open door policy as a coach, but if that open door keeps us from getting work done because of the steady stream of athletes, then maybe we’ve got to adopt the faculty way and post office hours. Energy required: medium.
Remove the problem. With the previous three points, I didn’t address this person, but I suppose now’s the time. This person isn’t just academically challenged or clingy…this player is a problem. Their teammates don’t really enjoy them, the coaches play rock-paper-scissors to see who’s got to talk to her this time, and even the player doesn’t seem to enjoy coming to practice every day. After we’ve talked to her and been stern with her and nothing seems to work…maybe it’s time to cut her loose. One person never has the right to undermine the entire team’s experience. Energy required: high.

Doing nothing isn’t an option. Our sanity and our team’s chemistry are worth the uncomfortable effort of addressing these issues.

5 Ways We Can Help Our Teams Think Smarter

Coaching strategyCoaching philosophy

source

What if we could create a culture of smart thinking with our teams? We all want athletes who love our sport and who are students of the game. I think we can encourage smart thinking and increase the passion our athletes have for our sport all at the same time.

Create a culture of smart thinking in 5 steps

Say “bye bye” to multitasking. Does your team perform warmup drills while chatting about their day and the killer test they had to take? Which one are they doing really well? Because it’s been proven time and again that we think we can multitask…but we can’t. Practice time is practice time, our players can chit chat at water breaks, after practice, or in the locker room.
Encourage openness. Sometimes players see correction as a bad thing and aren’t willing to step out of their comfort zone to try new things. They’re like a baby who just crawls everywhere because it has no idea how amazing walking is. As coaches, we’ve got to create practices where our players feel comfortable making mistakes and putting themselves in position to fail so that they can get better. Being closed off to trying new things will doom our players to a life of stagnant skills.
We before me. Sport is an interesting arena. On one hand, we celebrate the individual…just check the box scores after your game. On the other hand, we know that it takes the team to succeed. Encouraging teamwork in an area where individual stats are important is a tricky maneuver. The savvy coach will pick some of the more influential players and make sure they’ve bought into team achievement, that way you’ve got someone supporting your mission when you’re not around.
Create learning environments. As a coach, it’s easy to fall into telling our players what to do and how to do it in every situation. It’s easier because we know the answers already…but our players don’t. But they need to learn how to think, reason, deduce, take what the game is giving them on their own. If we never challenge our players to reason through game situations, they won’t learn those lessons. Instead they’ll be that player who is always staring at the bench instead of staying engaged in the game.
Support smart habits. Certain things we do in our sport should be habit. Much like we don’t have to think about which pedal is the gas and which is the brake in our cars, there should be some no-brainers with our players. Since I’m a volleyball coach, I make sure that we drill enough that our players shouldn’t have to think through each step of an effective serve…it’s a no-brainer. Beyond that, certain habits (like warmup rituals) put our teams into a practice or game state of mind.

I’m sure you’re like me and want a team of smart players who understand your game and have a high sports IQ. I think we can create an environment that’s conducive to those kinds of players if we follow those steps. Check out the original post from Smart Blogs, 5 ways to promote a culture of smart thinking.

Which Leadership Style Is Best For Our Teams?

Captains, LeadershipTeam chemistry

source

Whenever my team has struggled, it is usually because of weak leadership. Of course, when my team has weak leadership, I have to hold myself at least partially responsible because it’s my job to teach my team captains how to lead.

Let’s look at psychologist Kurt Lewin’s different styles of leadership and how we can apply them to our teams.

Authoritarian Leadership: These captains leave no doubt about who is in charge and what they want from their teammates. Most likely, this type of leader won’t ask for input from the rest of the team, but will make decisions on their own and expect the team to follow…no questions asked. This leadership style works best with those who have already earned the respect of their teammates.

Positives: When it’s crunch time and the game is tied with only a few moments left, this type of leader will instill confidence in the rest of the group because they will have a plan of action. This leadership style is also strong off the court and these leaders are very aware of any off the field “issues” and will keep things in order.

Negatives: Authoritarian leaders are bossy, which will lead the followers to feel marginalized and not “heard”.

Democratic Leadership: This type of leader is generally seen as the most effective. They have a plan for how things should go (when they’ll have team dinners, study tables, recruiting visits), but ask for input from the rest of the team. These captains get their teammates to work hard for them.

Positives: Every situation isn’t “crunch time” and democratic leaders understand that there are many team situations when everyone’s input is necessary and appreciated.

Negatives: This leadership style takes a little more time than authoritative, so it isn’t great when decisions need to be made…like now.

Laissez-faire Leadership: These captains are afraid to make a decision, so they leave it up to the group. The problem with that is everyone in the group may not be prepared (or even want) to make decisions for the team.

Positives: Everyone would have the opportunity to lead and if your leadership is in your younger classes, perhaps they’d be able to step up to the plate (though I’ve never seen that happen).

Negatives: I suppose you’ve already figured out that I’m not a big fan of this type of leadership…if it can be called leadership. The problem with this style is we have “leaders” who are averse to leading. Without defined roles, and players willing to perform within those roles, the team will flounder.

In my opinion, the best style is a combination of Authoritative and Democratic. Whether the mix is within one person or a combination of players, the ability to embrace the opinions of their teammates while making the tough decisions when necessary is essential in team leadership.

Click here and you can get Coach Dawn Writes articles emailed directly to your inbox! It’s free and easy…and I won’t give your email to anyone else.

How To Stay Motivated

Coaching career, Goal settingCoaching career

source

When I first started coaching, I would go and chat with one of the veteran coaches in the office…just to soak up whatever knowledge he was willing to share with me. He’d been coaching for over thirty years and I was in year two. Quite honestly, I wondered how he stayed so fired up about the profession. But he was…there was a glint in his eye that I’m sure hadn’t lost its luster in the entire thirty years he’d been on the sideline.

Of course, whenever I asked that very question, he would brush me off with a (not altogether untrue) joke. “If you’re not scared to death of losing”, he’d say with a smirk, “then you’re in the wrong profession.”

While I’m sure some measure of his motivation came from fear of failure, I’d guess the bulk of it came from tried and true ways to stay motivated. Inc.com had a great article about this, 14 Easy Ways to Get Insanely Motivated, it’s a quick read…check it out.

14 ways to stay motivated

Condition your mind. Staying positive is huge. We’ve got plenty of opponents who are trying to defeat us…let’s not defeat ourselves too!

Condition your body. Staying healthy, eating right, working out…those are hard to do when we’re in season. But we’ve got to try our best to take care of ourselves so that we can be available and energetic for our teams.

Avoid negative people. If our heart sinks a little when we see someone coming, perhaps they’re negative. Or if during lunch, we spend the entire time trying to pick someone else up (and they’re still grumpy), we might have to cut our losses and limit our time with those Negative Nellies.

Seek out the similarly motivated. These are the people we can bounce ideas off of and they keep us fired up about what we do.

Have plans, but remain flexible. We may think we know how we’re going to accomplish our goals, but staying flexible will keep us from getting down when things don’t work out how we thought they would.

Act with a higher purpose. What’s your coaching philosophy? If we do things that go against our philosophy, it will be pretty hard to be motivated.

Take responsibility for your own results. How can we stay motivated if our success (or failure) is outside of our control? When things are within our control, we feel that we have power over the situation. And when we feel we have power, we can stay motivated.

Stretch past your limits on a daily basis. For me, it’s been committing to reading and writing about my profession every day. What will it be for you?

Don’t wait for perfection, do it now! Perfection is unattainable, so if that’s what we’re waiting for…we’re going to be waiting for a long time.

Celebrate your failures. When we see failure as a necessary step to success, we’re more willing to own our failures…and hopefully learn from them.

Don’t take success too seriously. Sport is fickle. We can beat the best team in conference one night and be feeling on top of the world…only to lose to a bottom dweller the next time out.

Avoid weak goals. Weak goals start with “I’ll try to” or “I hope to”. Strong goals begin with “I will”. They are specific and have a deadline to them.

Treat inaction as the only real failure. My motto: less talk, more do.

Think before you speak. Don’t become the Negative Nelson that everyone else is avoiding in the office. Stay positive, stay upbeat, stay motivated.

Not many professions have to live out their successes and failures in the public eye like athletics, which can make it hard to stay motivated sometimes. Use these tips to get and stay motivated to guide your team to success.

Best Practices: 4 Principles Of Perfecting Performance

PracticePractice

source

First, the cliché phrase was “Practice makes perfect”.

Then the cliché evolved to “Perfect practice makes perfect”.

I don’t aim for perfection in my gym, but rather a perfecting attitude. In my mind, perfection is finite whereas perfecting means that we’re constantly working toward getting better. As a coach, I understandably put a lot of thought into the merits of practice: are they working, is the team getting better, what can the coaches do better? According to this article from Psychology Today, Some Ways to Practice Are More Perfect Than Others. Here are four ways we can make sure are practices are perfecting our players.

4 requirements of purposeful practice

More practice yields more learning. It sounds simple, but for those players who want to be really good at what they do…practice is the key. Getting to the upper limits of a player’s ability will require time and patience…but mostly time to get those reps in.
Mindful repetitions. These days, age group sports are an economic force…with parents paying big bucks to make sure their child gets better and gets seen and (hopefully) gets a scholarship. While I’ll stand by the idea that more practice is better than no practice, I believe that mindful practice is much better than unfocused practice. It’s not just getting touches on the ball/reps in the pool/intervals on the track, it’s understanding where corrections need to be made and making each rep better than the last.
Top notch coaching. That’s us! Again, I believe that age group sports are great…in theory. If the coach is just letting the players drill without correction, that’s not the best situation. And if they haven’t figured out how to effectively give coaching cues, that’s also not the best situation for player development. Without proper coaching, the players are left to repetitively perform the skill incorrectly. But with top notch coaches, a player can get immediate corrective feedback, which will hopefully result in their becoming a better player.
Learn to self-coach. All of this leads to the player being able to self-correct. My ultimate goal with each class is that I become less and less important. When they come in as freshman, my players are pretty reliant on me…but as they progress through their careers, they become more autonomous. More able to recognize what to do in each situation and more able to process through the appropriate response to what an opponent is presenting. It’s not that I stop coaching my older players, it’s that the coaching can become more and more complex.

Saying all of that, I guess the new cliché phrase can be “Practice makes perfecting players.”

If you found this post interesting, you should check out The Secrets To Greatness Are Within Your Control.