These are some of the notes presented by Tennessess Assistant Coach Dean Lockwood that apply to all sports.

How to Be a Great Assistant Coach

Know and Understand Yourself

Take some time to think about and write out answers to these questions:

1) Why did I get into coaching?
2) What do I love about coaching?
3) What do I dislike about coaching?
4) What are my present and future goals?
5) Why am I in coaching now?

Know This Profession

1) Job security
2) Stress
3) Scrutiny/criticism
4) Time-consumption
5) Things beyond your control that impact success
6) Limited flexibility/autonomy (as an assistant)

Features

1) Teach life lessons and impact people
2) Working at what you love
3) Competition
4) Each season and team is a new journey
5) Keeps you “young at heart”
6) Help people/teams mature, develop, and win

Non-Negotiables

1) Loyalty
2) Integrity
3) Passion for work/commitment to excellence
4) Love for people/your team
5) Love for your sport

Approach

1) Support Head Coach and team mission
2) Reinforce program values, principles, and standards
3) You are always representing your Head Coach and your program–realize the power of your own example
4) Take pride in and fulfill your role
5) Check your ego at the door–be careful of your pride, it’s not about you
6) Servanthood–pour into the lives of others
7) John Maxwell’s 3 things everyone asks of leaders/staff:
A. Do you care about me?
B. Can I trust you?
C. Can you help me?
8) An assistant’s overall tone should be positive
9) It’s all about TEAM
10) Make the “Big Time” where you are

Communicationan

1) Use we/us/ous instead of I/me/my
2) Must have honesty in all interactions
3) Treat ALL staff as colleagues/peers/equauls–Head Coach is your boss, others are co-workers
4) Never talk to anyone (other than the Head Coach) about another staff member unless it is positive
5) DO NOT talk whenever the Head Coach is talking
6) NEVER undermine the Head Coach (Disagree in private, support in public)
7) Find out what the Head Coach needs from you
8) Pick your times to discuss certain things with the Head Coach–be aware of “Mind Space”
9) Don’t just point out problems…present some solutions
10) Be a buffer without being a crutch
11) Do not allow players to play you against the Head Coach or other staff
12) Don’t “write checks you can’t cash” (don’t overextend your authority)
13) Look for legitimate ways to encourage and complement
14) Verbally and non-verbally convey to players: “We believe in you.”
15) Check for consistency
A. Are we doing what we are saying?
B. Are we reinforcing it?
16) Develop positive relationships with other staff, department members, administrators, and faculty

Execution

1) Be at ALL presentations by Head Coach to team
2) Pith in–help other coaches/staff members when you can. Share burdens, nothing is beneath you. Everyone has a role
3) Make the job of the Head Coach easier–take on tasks that help the Head Coach focus on the team and recruiting
4) Anticipate–what does the head coach and team need? (See the need and fill it)
5) Share material and resources
6) Share information: team issues should be out in the open
7) Bring these every day: Energy & Encouragement–be a battery charger–your passion and energy should inspire others.
8) Time management: invest time where it matters most. Recruit, teach, develop, graduate, help team win
9) Attention to detail: Little things matter
10) Continually develop, hone, and evolve teaching skills (Your position group, phases of the game, within systems)
11) Teach every day (be demanding without being demeaning) Pete Newell-“The game is over-coached and under taught” Coach Lombardi “Blocking and Tackling”
12) Laws of learning: instruction, demonstration, imitation, repetition, correction, repetition
13) 33 years has taught me: Simplicity of the game and execution of fundamentals
14) Learn and use your program’s terminology
15) Be available for extra work/shots/film with players
16) Watch video of your team (Self scout)
17) When watching scouting video look for ideas and concepts that you can steal for your team
18) Program organization: Play book, Drill book, Criticals (Special Situations), Team notebooks, game notes
19) Game Management
A) Bench demeanor 10% emotional–90% analytical
B) Bench comportment of team
C) Staff interaction (positive, analytical, team-oriented, never allow players to hear anything negative about team or player coming from you
D) How do you need to feed information to Head Coach (How does Head Coach process info?)
E) MUST know/be aware of fouls, timeouts, possession arrow
F) Leave officiating issues to the Head Coach
20) Post game breakdowns
A) Watch game tape
B) Take emotion out of it; analyze what happened and how and why it happened
C) Know what hurt your team; know what was effective for your team
D) Notes/charts/stats
E) Suggestions for next practice/game/moving forward (support with video clips often)

Growth

1) Pat Summitt: You never arrive in this game. You are always learning and improving
2) Don Meyer: Get all the good ideas, but you can’t use all the good ideas
3) Growth is intentional. Become a better teacher and communicator
4) Continue to increase your value: recruiting, teaching, scouting, etc…
5) Be a lifelong learner
A) You can’t give away what you don’t have
B) The same principle that applies to your players applies to you-KEEP GETTING BETTER
C) Read, observe, listen
6) Seek out mentors and people who can help you learn and grow
7) Success is “rented” and the rent comes due every day
8) Realize that the one certain thing is change and uncertainty… things will change often in this profession
9) Talk to Head Coach about you long-term goals and aspirations (But always do a great job where you are. When the team wins–everyone wins)
10) Appearance and presentation
11) Leave it in better shape because you were there: Make it better. James Naismith
12) Take time to “Sharpen Your Saw.”
13) Be thankful and appreciative. Enjoy the journey

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This post is the third part of an article that Washington women’s coach working on to detail his move from assistant coach to head coach. The article is entitled “418 Mistakes Later” and he is still adding to it.

I know that he is much harder on himself than he should be, but the points he makes are lessons to consider for all coaches, not just head coaches.

Here are links to the first parts of the article:

Coaching Mistakes We All Make Part 1

Coaching Mistakes We All Make Part 2

I GOT OUT OF ALIGNMENT BETWEEN PROCESS AND RESULTS

When you get your opportunity to be a head coach after years of being an assistant coach, you have a mountain of ideas on who you think you want to be. You have been watching your mentors for years making mental notes of ways you want to be like them and ways that you don’t want to be like them. You have been attending clinics hearing speakers filing away bullet points of this you are going to do some day. You have observed, studied, researched, and compiled. You have most likely put together some form of portfolio for a hiring committee that details everything you have been thinking about. Probably took it to Kinko’s and had it bound even. It’s yours, but is it YOU?

I am not saying any of the above is a bad idea. But, I am saying, be careful of who you say YOU ARE, before you know who you are.

My biggest mistake in this area was talking about Process, process, process but in many causes becoming reactionary to Results. When that happens it alienates the people you are trying to lead.

You can’t preach process then turn around and speak about results. The very second you do this, the process loses its punch.

It’s okay to be results driven. It’s okay to be process driven. It’s not okay to teeter back and forth between the two.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have been a little more patient in announcing to the world who we were and what our identity was going to be. My mental image that had been conjured up over the years simply wasn’t doable in the timeframe that I had all worked out in my mind.

I didn’t understand how time consuming things can be. I didn’t understand how long it takes to assemble a staff. I didn’t understand budgetary issues. I didn’t understand many aspects of the position of being a Head Coach. As a result my alignment between process and results was often a blurred line. Creating confusion and uncertainty among the people I was trying to lead.

Don’t give you team three goals that they need to achieve to win a game, then lose your mind in the locker room afterward only to realize later that night they had met all three. Don’t set standards that are met yet don’t produce results. Don’t celebrate good results that were not reflective of the process. All these things are easy to do because of human nature. And are very easy to do as a young head coach.

Be patient in deciding who you are and who you want your program to be. But when you decide, stick to it and don’t get out of alignment with your team, your staff, your administration, and your loved ones.

I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO MANAGE A STAFF OR HOW TO “MANGAGE UP”

Going from “being on a staff” to “having a staff” overnight is one of the greatest challenges I faced. It’s also an area that now, almost two years in, I continue to struggle with. It’s hard. My situation was particularly challenging because five of my staff members were co-workers, equals, and colleagues the day before my hiring was announced.

One day you are 100% focused on doing everything in your power to make your boss look good, do their job better, do their job easier, and being ready to do whatever is asked. Your world is focused on doing What You Do. The next day, you ARE the boss and your actions and decisions effect the lives and lives of families for other people.

As an assistant my actions reflected only on me.

As an assistant my decisions only had repercussions on me.

As an assistant my accountability was to one person.

As a head coach your actions reflect on numerous people… the people who hired you, the people who work for you, they people who you lead.

As a head coach your decisions impacts a pyramid of people that cascades down and down and down.

As a head coach you are accountable to more than one person. You have many people ‘UP’ the ladder now that you are accountable to.

The learning curve for making this adjustment is expected. Most people will give you some free passes as you learn to navigate the waters for the first time. But it’s NOT LONG ENOUGH… trust me.

You can read all the leadership books you want to. You can seek advice from mentors. You can have a plan. All that helps for sure, but nothing can actually prepare you for the daily dealings that you have signed up for until you live them.

So, with that said, I say, read everything. Have a plan. Talk to your mentors… AND then expect to get it wrong some. Don’t expect it to work perfectly. Be adaptable earlier than I was. Don’t be rigid. It’s NOT a my way or highway situation. It can’t be. There is a great book called YOU CAN’T FIRE EVERYBODY that I wish I had read before I made the move.

You have to surround yourself with people that you trust and trust you. This way there is an understanding that you are both working through the process of figuring it out. While there will be mistakes made on both sides, you can survive it all and in time will begin to thrive. It will become very obvious who believes in and who is faking it. You will learn valuable lessons along the way that will shape your identity and the culture that surrounds your program.

You need to know what inspires each member of your staff. From your “chief of staff” to your volunteer, you must have full understanding what inspires them to be a coach and drives them to excel in a profession that we all know can grind you down. Just like your players, each of them will be unique. You can’t treat them all the same. For some it’s good old money… incentives. Others it’s future jobs and responsibilities. Others it’s the being a part of the here and now. Other’s will be inspired by the intrinsic rewards being a part of team provides. Some day I am going to write up a FIVE LANGUAGES OF COACHING in reference to the great book by Gary Chapman THE FIVE LANGUAGES OF LOVE (which is a must read for anyone in any kind of relationship.) Until then, just be aware that what inspires you, doesn’t inspire everyone.

Sure you can get a staff of people that are inspired by the same things you are, but that is dangerous. Then you have YES people who may not tell you when you are wrong and when you are making these 418 mistakes!!!

Managing UP is a term I picked up from some reading. It’s how you communicate with the people who hired you and the people who hired them!!!

These are the people who believed in you most. They wouldn’t have hired you if they didn’t. It’s imperative you keep them in the loop. It’s imperative you tell them things FIRST before they hear it from someone or somewhere else. People UP the ladder hate surprises. Don’t YOU hate surprises from your players? Well, you are one of their players!!

It’s okay to show them vulnerability. My direct supervisor told me from Day 1 it’s okay to be a little scared…. It’s a big deal to be a head coach and if it doesn’t cause you a little anxiety, then you aren’t really the person for the job and don’t have a full understanding of what is at stake!! That message drove me. And while I didn’t make many mistakes in this area, I put it on here so that you don’t either.

I fully believe that this is what allowed us to survive my 418 Mistakes and actually find a way to win 20 games, keep our players off the front page and on the sports page, and raise our team GPA to unprecedented success.

While this wraps up the 12 categories I mentioned in the beginning, it segues nicely into the fact that WE DID ACTUALLY DO SOME THINGS RIGHT!!!

That may become an off season project.

Until then, I hope this piece will help a variety of people. I hope it will help long time head coaches as well as young assistant coaches who may simply file this piece way for “their day”.

And yes, I do have a list of Mistakes I am making in year 2. For those of you scoring at home that lists stands at 57. Yes, I have made a few twice but only a few.

Some of the new ones of have been BIGGER while others are smaller.

Needless to say, making mistakes is part of the profession we are in. We are the ones who choose a profession where we invite people to (in fact beg them at times) to come into our workplace and watch us work. Can you imagine 250 or 2,500 or 25,000 coming into an insurance man’s office and watching him settle a claim. Or a surgeon preforming open heart procedure in front of that many people AND being broadcast on the Pac 12 Network!!!

We choose this profession. We have to accept the scrutiny that comes with it. In fact, you must embrace it!
You’re not going to be perfect. You can try to be, but you’re not going to be.

While you certainly don’t have to keep a running list of your mistakes, I do think every coach can benefit from recognizing their faults. Moving on from their failures and rebounding from them improved.

Editor’s Note from Brian:  Not all of these ideas will apply to non-college level coaches, but there is a lot of good food for thought for coaches of all levels.

By Stephanie Zonars

“If she doesn’t get outside help, she won’t last.”

That was my friend’s closing thought about working with her head coach. She’s in a support role for a division I team and was lamenting the challenges of working with a coach who is unaware how her attitudes and behaviors impact the team and even athletic department.

The truth is, we all need help.

When I first started my business back in 2009 I hired a business coach to help me. It was one of my smartest moves.

I remember one time he called me while I was in the middle of something.

My tone was pretty flat when I answered.

He asked for permission to give me feedback. When I consented, he told me that potential clients want to work with people who are positive and enthusiastic, and added that I didn’t sound positive and enthusiastic when I answered the phone.

I’ve never forgotten that conversation. It helped me realize how much more I need to project enthusiasm in order for it to really show. I’m a work in progress, but getting better.

Projecting enthusiasm is a blind spot for me. Something other people see about me that I don’t see.

I know I have other blind spots (one reason why I just re-hired my business coach!).

You have them too.

The off-season is the best time to gain insight about blind spots. Here are three steps to get you started:

Acknowledge your need.

In the book Thanks for the Feedback, authors Stone and Heen denote the three types of feedback:

Appreciation: to see, acknowledge, connect, motivate, thank
Coaching: to help receiver expand knowledge, sharpen skill, improve capability
Evaluation: to rate or rank against a set of standards, to align expectations, to inform decision-making

One of the biggest mistakes coaches (particularly first-time head coaches) make is not realizing their need for coaching and evaluation soon enough.

Most coaches don’t get fired for a lack of strategic knowledge, but rather for leadership deficiencies. [Tweet That!]

Those gaps lead to culture issues, which result in fewer wins.

Washington women’s basketball coach, Mike Neighbors wrote a terrific article about the 418 mistakes he made in his first year as a head coach. In hindsight he realized, “I needed a better plan. I needed support. I needed help.”

Acknowledging your need and opening your heart and mind to feedback is the first hurdle.

Feedback is scary, humbling and sometimes it just plain hurts!

But when you remember that everyone on the planet has blind spots and that this one step alone can catapult your leadership, you realize it’s worth the discomfort.

Ask for feedback.

People avoid feedback conversations because they are uncomfortable.

Your boss may not bring issues up in an annual review, and your direct reports may hesitate to be honest with you for fear of damaging the relationship or even losing their job.

So even when you know you need and want it, it’s tough to get honest, helpful feedback in the form you desire.

That’s why you need to ask for the specific kind of feedback you want.

Penn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington uses a series of forms to gather that type of feedback for both her staff and herself. Staff evaluate themselves and one another, and assistant coaches also receive evaluations from position players.

Hands down, the most effective feedback tool I’ve used is a 360° review, which gives a leader input from all directions (superiors, peers, direct reports) as opposed to just her boss.

If you’re a head coach, you may not work closely on a daily basis with the AD to whom you report.

So while the annual review is helpful, feedback from people in the trenches with you every day is even more valuable. And, the anonymous process of the 360° lends itself to more honest input.

If you don’t already have a system in place to receive feedback, ask your HR representative or direct superior for tools available on your campus. Or find a consultant with those resources. Which brings me to my last point…

Find a consultant.

Willingly opening yourself for evaluation can leave you feeling vulnerable, with a natural inclination to become defensive about any less-than-favorable feedback.

Walking through the feedback process with an objective consultant will lead to even better outcomes.

A consultant will assist you in assimilating the feedback, looking for themes and implementing action steps.

After all, there’s no point in going through the process unless you are willing to hear what others observe and make some adjustments!

Acknowledging your need for feedback, asking for it and finding someone to walk with you through the process of interpreting it is paramount in your personal and professional development.

And the benefits you reap just might save you from the heartache of losing your job.

One Mistake That Could Cost You Your Job appeared first on Life Beyond Sport.

by Scott Rosberg

This post is the second of a few that come from some ideas I wrote in my first two booklets A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants and The Assistant Coach’s Guide to Coaching. While those booklets were born out of some specific head coach/assistant coach issues I was facing with some members of a coaching staff for whom I was an athletic director, many of the ideas in them form the basis for good coaching principles in general. Today, I want to talk about the three messages that occur anytime we communicate with people.

As an English teacher for 18 years, I tried to teach my students many facets of good communication. Interestingly, most of the lessons on communication that I taught played a huge role not only in the classroom, but also in the athletic arena and elsewhere in life. One important lesson is that whenever we communicate with others, we need to be aware of three types of messages – Intended, Actual, and Received/Perceived Messages.

Intended Message

Every time we speak to someone, we start with a certain premise in mind that we are trying to advance. This goes for everything that we state to someone. Each time we speak we have what I call an “Intended Message.” Our intended message is what we are trying to get across to the listener. While we speak in conversations, every single utterance of ours has some intention that we are hoping to get across.

However, what we intend to communicate and what we “actually” communicate are not always the same thing. I may have a certain idea I am trying to get across to someone, but I may struggle to put into words exactly how to get that message across. Or the receiver of the message may miss out on some key element that is really important to fully understanding the message. Something may have interrupted the smooth flow of my intention and what was actually communicated.

Actual Message

This leads to the second type of message, the “Actual Message.” The actual message is what was actually stated. It is the words, phrases, and sentences that come out of the speaker’s mouth to try to communicate a given message to an audience. While this is a fairly simple concept to explain and understand, the problems in communication usually end up happening somewhere from this point forward into the next type of message.

Received/Perceived Message

The final type of message in communication is the “Received/Perceived Message.” This is the message that the audience takes in and then interprets. The Received/Perceived message is in some ways the most important message, for it is what determines whether or not the audience understands the speaker. It is in the Received/Perceived Message where we find out if our intended message actually hit home. Unfortunately, the speaker doesn’t always receive the feedback as to whether or not it did. This is often where problems occur in relationships – when an intended message does not actually end up being the received message. But how does this happen, and how can we work to avoid it? Also, what does this have to do with athletics?

Let me start with the last question first. This has a lot to do with athletics, for athletics is a relationship and communication endeavor. There is constant communication that is happening in the athletic world. Teams rely on clear communication to succeed. If people on a team do not understand each other, no progress can be made. So it helps to have a basic understanding of how communication works in order to achieve success.

So where does communication break down between the intended and the received message? Well, it can occur in a variety of places. It can occur in the intended message if the speaker is not completely certain of the message s/he is trying to get across, or if s/he isn’t sure of the best way to get that message across to the audience. For example, if I am an assistant coach, and the head coach wants me to communicate something to a player or players, I may not fully understand all of his/her intentions  with regards to the message, so I may struggle getting the message the head coach wants to be received properly by the players.

The next place the message can break down is in the actual message stage. One would think this would not be an area where a breakdown could occur. If you just say what needs to be said, there should be no problem here. However, just “saying what needs to be said” and actually saying it that way can be two different things.

For example, if my intention is to confront a player’s behavior that is unacceptable in our program, but I struggle with confrontation, I may mess up my intention by not clearly stating what the problem is. What I “actually” say and what I “intended” to say may have been different. I may have needed to be very direct, strong, and to the point, but because I do not like confronting in this manner, I may have softened my message to a point where the player did not realize the exact message and that what s/he was being told was a very big thing. What was actually said did not convey the severity and seriousness that the intention of my message demanded. This can lead to confusion and misunderstanding on the part of the player.

Finally, the message can break down in the “receive/perceive” stage. I may have had the right intention and said exactly what needed to be said, but the receiver may have been distracted or may have had a preconceived notion about me or about my message, and so s/he did not clearly understand the message. S/He is not a blank piece of paper onto which a message is written. S/He is a human being with her/his own thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ideas, and those all impact the messages s/he receives. S/he is reading my body language, tone of voice, inflection, past history with me, and any other number of things that affect how s/he processes the message. S/He may even “receive” the actual message, but s/he may “perceive” it differently due to some of those types of factors.

What Can We Do?

So what can we do to maximize the chances that our intended message ends up being our audience’s received/perceived message? The first thing is to recognize this dynamic of the difference between these three types of messages. Then as a speaker, make sure you consider exactly what you are trying to get across and then speak that message as clearly as possible.

Brevity and conciseness are important parts of communicating in athletics. We don’t always have time to go into much detail due to time and space constraints in an athletic arena, so this can often lead to breakdowns in communication. Coming up with a “common language and vocabulary” to use when coaching so all people understand the message better is an important step in keeping communications clear.

While brevity and conciseness are important in communicating in athletics, there are some times and situations where you may need to explain things in more detail to make sure that they “get it.” This just happened with this post that you are reading – my goal is to be in the 800-1,000 word range for these posts. However, this post demanded a bit more detail to explain it, so it is about 1,500 words.

Also, consider what type of message you are sending with your body language, tone of voice, and inflection as you speak. Are your actions backing up the exact words you are stating and how you want them to come across? Is the person to whom you are speaking picking up on these non-verbals? Are your non-verbals communicating what you want them to communicate?

When you are the receiver of a message, pay as close attention as you can to what you are being told. Consider body language, tone and inflection, but also make sure you focus on the words being spoken to you. Also, consider your own state of mind and biases as you are processing what you are hearing. Try to be as objective as possible as you process, so that you don’t perceive something that isn’t really there. Finally, ask clarifying questions to help you figure out if you are receiving the right message. Make sure to truly listen to the answers you get.

Coaching/teaching is communicating. The more you know about communication skills and how to use them, the better your chances of success as a coach/teacher occurring. If you have any stories of times when your intended message somehow got sidetracked by the time it got to be the received/perceived message of your audience, I would love hear them. Please leave your comment below this post on our website or on our Facebook page.

About the Author of this Article

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years. He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches. He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics. Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website – www.coachwithcharacter.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team. Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance. Proactive Coaching can be found on the web at www.proactivecoaching.info. Also, you can join the 200,000+ people who have “Liked” Proactive Coaching’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/proactivecoach. Scott can also be reached through Proactive Coaching at [email protected].

This is the second part of an article from University of Washington women’s Head Coach Mike Neighbors. Here is a link to the first part of the article: Are you as tough as you want your athletes to be?

TOUGH coaches are VISIBLE
TOUGH coaches are accessible. They don’t hide out in their office. They don’t barricade themselves in a locker room. They are seen.

We have all been witness to coaches who grab the microphone to celebrate with a jubilant crowd following a big win only to see the same coach escape the nearest exit to never be seen again that night following a tough loss.

TOUGH coaches are visible win or lose.
TOUGH coaches lead from the front.

This one works rather counter-intuitively. You should actually be MORE visible when your team is struggling. You should be the first at practice to show your players you are in it with them. You should be LESS visible following that big win, big play, or winning streak.

Remember Jim Valvano running around the court looking for someone to hug following their National Championship win? Your athletes don’t need you then. They need you when they are struggling.

TOUGH coaches are afraid of no news more than bad News

TOUGH coaches seek out information. They want to be aware. They want to be told first and don’t want to be surprised by someone outside their program on issues inside their program.

Athletes must trust their coach to handle bad news. If they trust you to handle bad news, they are more willing to share it. If you blast them the first time they do, you can bet they will be reluctant to do it again.

A tough coach can handle the truth (there is my Few Good Men mandatory reference).

If you handle bad news early in a season with a team or early in the career of an athlete, you will build trust that lasts forever. Betray that trust and you may never hear the whole truth and nothing but the truth again.

We have experienced situations growing up where we were told it was better to tell the truth than lie only to be harshly punished for actually telling the truth.

It is a fine line, but one you must walk masterfully to be TOUGH.

TOUGH coaches surround themselves with people smarter than them

TOUGH coaches are not threatened by people smarter than they are. In fact, they seek them out and surround themselves with them. This is one of the easiest TOUGHNESS qualities to spot. If the head coach is the only person that ever talks in a huddle, they probably have not done this. If the head coach is the only person that has a voice in practice, they probably have not done this.

Coaches with TOUGHNESS understand that having smart people surrounding them produces a multiplying effect rather than adding effect. These smarter people provide vital information that then allows the experience of the head coach to take over. These smart people supply the head coach with knowledge they have that the head coach can then turn into actionable tactics.

Smarts can also be substituted for talent or skilled.

TOUGH coaches that have this environment are free of time consuming details that can easily bog down a program. TOUGH coaches can focus on the most important 20% of things and allow the talented people they have surrounded themselves with to focus on the other 80%.

TOUGH coaches adapt to times without compromising core values

TOUGH coaches are facing their greatest challenges in this area. The iY Generation is the first to attend 12 years of schooling in a world that did not require a teacher/coach to provide them with information…they have always had access and the know how to use the Internet.

Technology has changed and continues to change at a rapid rate. The second I got proficient at Facebook, here comes Twitter, then Instagram, and SnapChat, and…

The iY Generation is also the most entitled generation of all-time. It’s not their fault we have made the choice to give everyone a ribbon just for showing up. It’s not their fault cuts from teams weren’t allowed until high school (if ever). It’s not their fault that so many rules are in place for them regarding equal playing time and fairness to all who sign up that they no ZERO ZERO ZERO experience with dealing in adverse conditions. Few of them have ever been given the authority to be a leader. Fewer of them were allowed to fail without a parent or loved one stepping in to fight for equality.

But the fact is, that is who we coach and are starting to hire in the work force.

TOUGH coaches have found a way to adapt without compromising their core values. The stubborn old “my way or the highway” coaches have been replaced by the leaders who can still hold their players accountable to the time proven values that equal success.

Some would argue that some of the TOUGHEST coaches of all-time would have a difficult time coaching in today’s world. While there is plenty of evidence and examples of tough minded coaches who have fallen from grace, I disagree. The TOUGHEST would have adapted. It’s the weak coaches that refused to adapt that ultimately found themselves doing something other than coaching.

TOUGH coaches routinely mentor “over achievers”

TOUGH coaches consistently have athletes that leave their program much better than they entered it. A TOUGH coach has mastered the skills it takes to push a player beyond the limits that the player has set for themselves.

The TOUGHEST coaches do it year in and year out. And it’s not an accident. And it’s not a coincidence when it happens at the same school repeatedly. (Keeping the coach there becomes the tough part for administration however).

TOUGH coaches can help their players through adverse situations that over achievers must overcome to be successful.

When a TOUGH coach meets a TOUGH player great things are possible.

TOUGH coaches get the most of practice time

Every coach on the face of the earth as 24 hours a day and 365 days per year to coach their team. It is the only commodity that we have equality in. The richest school district or athletic department may have nicer uniforms or a fancier gymnasium, but they can’t buy more time.

TOUGH coaches use this commodity especially well when it comes to their practice time. There is no wasted time. There are no wasted movements. There is a plan.

Those plans may vary widely. I have seen 1000s of practices and none of them have ever been exactly the same.

The actual time factor can also vary widely. Some coaches may use three hours while others may only use half that. Regardless of the actual time utilized, the results are consistent.