A Coach's Diary

Character is who you are, it is what you do, and it is why you do what you do. Character drives performance. When your character is high, your work ethic is high and your intensity and integrity are high. When your character is high, you do the right things, the right way, for the right reasons. When your character is high, your performance raises. The healthier you are, most importantly at the character level, the better you are going to perform. The better you are able to understand what life is all about and integrate failure - because failure is going to come at some point - the better you will perform and the better you will be able to handle and overcome adversity. If you want to improve your performance, focus on improving your character.

Every season as a high school coach, I had a very similar trajectory. I always started the season with the goal of building character first in my athletes, doing the right things, and coaching kids up on the court and off the court to be better athletes and better players. Then, we start to win and I feel the pressure to keep winning, and sometimes the character piece takes a back seat to the winning. Then I see a video like the one above and quotes like the one below and I get back on track and back to doing things the way that they should be done. We signup to coach. We want to teach our kids how to play, we want to compete, and we want to win through the process. But if we want to get the most out of the game, our players, and ourselves, we will use the sports that we coach to build character. There is a real, huge relationship between building character and performance. Building character is just like building muscles. When you work on it and put consistent demands on it, you build...

The Penn State women's soccer team has been named one of the top 5 soccer programs in the country. They have an environment that engages it's players and where hard work is contagious. A big reason for their success is their three pillars that serve as the glue to their program: the attitude of a champion, blue-collar, and united family. Those core values are at the front of everything that they do, and it leads to connectedness and success on and of the field. When you have a strong foundation, anything is possible. It takes time to truly get the culture that you want, but every day, every practice, and every conversation is an opportunity to strengthen that culture more and more.

What we call ‘elite’ at 8 years old or even at 14 years old and going into high school is a basic requirement at 18 when it really matters.   Being considered ‘the best’ carries an expiration date, and it expires when your peers’ game, skill, and ability out-grows your own.   The only way to push back that expiration date and to stay on top is to continue to work on your game, continue to listen to your coaches, parents, and anyone who can help you improve, and always find ways to get better.   The second you stop getting better is the second somebody will pass you up. This is what ‘the process’ is, and your character drives the process.   To become the best that you can be, you have to work as hard and as smart as you can work.   In A Champion’s Mind , author Jim Afremow says that we if we want to become the best that we can become, we should live by ‘Gold Medal Standards.’   Winning the gold medal in any sport means that you are the best at what...

Success is smart – it will test you at many turns.  Its biggest test is failure.  Success wants to know if you will quit.  Remember that failure is a part of all successful team and individual journeys.   Don’t fear failure because it happens to the best of the best.  If you fear the consequence of failure, put equal fear to the consequence of never trying.  What would happen if you tried and it actually worked out?  At some point, it will!  Imagine if you knew you would succeed but you didn’t try.  How would you feel then? Try, and don’t quit.  Act, and don’t quit. Don’t define success by wins and losses.  Define success by starting, trying, acting and giving your best effort.  If you do those and ‘win,’ then great.  If you do those and ‘lose,’ its still great as long as you learned from your mistakes, got better, and didn’t quit.  Eventually you will win, and with the right attitude, you will proba...

Character drives The Process which drives The Result Results > What you want to accomplish The Process > The work you put in, over time, for the results you want Character > Who you are as a person Focusing on building character will help your athletes embrace the process more which will lead to better results. Who you are as a person will tell how hard you are willing to work (the process) for the results that you want.  Build, grow, and developing character will help you work harder, better and smarter through the process of achieving the results that you want. Of course every team wants to go undefeated and win their championship, but above that, every team should want to strive to maximize their ability.  Everyone will experience loss, and while nobody wants to lose, losing isn’t the worst thing in the world.  Worse than losing is wasted talent. John Wooden once defined success as, “Success is peace of mind which is a direct re...

--> The following excerpt comes from the book What Drives Winning by Brett Ledbetter .  Its a GREAT resource for character development. The thing I talk about most is appreciation.   That is the number-one core value in our program.   I feel like appreciation is the foundation for anyone that is successful over a long period of time, on or off the court. I believe in an appreciation-to-entitlement ratio.   Appreciation should be high.   Entitlement should be low.   If someone feels like when they take the floor they deserve something because of who they are or because of what they’ve done, they automatically are not going to be in the right frame of mind to make their team win at the highest level. Entitlement = Think you deserve something based on who you are or what you’ve done. Appreciation: To recognize the good in someone or something. Teach and develop that character skill in your athletes.   Teach them to eve...

All credit of this article goes to Pat Williams and his book, Coach Wooden .  He breaks down Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed that was given to him by his father when he graduated from elementary school.  Many attribute a large part of his success to this creed and his ability to live it out daily. The first creed is ‘Be True To Yourself.’  Below is quotes and passages from that first chapter. Key Points - Be the person you were born to be. - Be true to your highest values and principles, and you will never be false to anyone. - The secret to the magnetism of John Wooden’s personality is that he is always at peace with himself. Once when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known at the time as Lew Alcindor, sat at a restaurant with Coach Wooden heard someone a few tables away whisper loudly, “Look at that black freak!” Coach Wooden saw that his star player was wounded to tears by the comment.  “Lewis,” he said, “people hate what they don’t know – and what they...

Below are my notes from a speech by Brett Ledbetter at ‘ What Drives Winning ’ on the importance of placing emphasis on the PERSON more than the PLAYER.  You can see the video in its entirety below. How You Are REMEMBERED As A PERSON Is So Much More  Important, And LASTING, Than Your Stats Key Takeaways: 1 - You can't remember who led the team in scoring 3 years ago, but you remember your favorite teacher from 10 years ago. 2 - How you are remembered as a PERSON is more important that how you are remembered as a PLAYER 3 - When helping with a problem, identifying the issue first and then finding common ground will help you find a solution. In the speech below, Brett Ledbetter talked about how he helped a star collegiate soccer player overcome her biggest fears in sports, dealing with the expectations of other.  It helped me become a better coach, person, and father of a young athlete (or 3) by focusing on the person and the things you can control r...

Key Takeaways 1 – Organize your life so you can have focused energy 2 – Focus your energy on the One Thing 3 – Train your mind to have more focus Find The One Thing There is a great book called The One Thing that pushes the idea that real, sustainable success comes when you are able to focus on one thing.   And not just any one thing … the one thing, that when its done, makes all other tasks much easier, creating a domino effect towards success.   The idea is great and gives a more concrete plan to priotizing your life and following the Pareto Principle. Make Life Simpler Once you have completed the most important task on your to-do list, you focus on the next important task, knocking them out one by one.   The idea is that with each task completed, life gets easier because you are doing them in order.   It makes life simpler by focusing on just one thing to do. Dr. Jim Loehr I have been watching videos on the ‘ What Drives Winning’ YouTube pa...

Key Takeaways 1 - We all have inner voices that represent our reality and shape our futures. 2 - It's important to influence our athlete's so that their inner voice matches their actions. 3 - Athletics should be about personal development first and foremost. Below are my notes from a speech by Dr. Jim Loehr on the the power of our inner voice, our stories, and our just how great, and why, our influence is on the athletes that we lead.  You can see the video in its entirety below. The stories from our inner voice shape the stories in our players inner voice which eventually shapes their destiny. As a coach, you are in the influence business, and you have to influence the minds, hearts and bodies to be successful. Great coaches are great story tellers, and through their stories, they mold, shape and modify the stories that the players tell themselves.   And the stories that the players tell themselves are the stories that they tell their parents, their...

Below are my notes from a speech by Dr. Jim Loehr on the X’s and O’s of Building Character.  You can see the video in its entirety below. Our first responsibility is to use sports to build character.    There is a huge link between building character and performance outcome. Character is a Muscle To Grow Building character is just like building your muscles.   - You place demands on the muscle by investing energy in it - Consistent energy investment spawns growth That is exactly how you build the muscles of character. Organize Your Life You have to organize your life and make the investments that allow those muscles of character to actually shine and you eliminate the blaming, excuses, and selfishness. Character in action is why we are all here, and when it happens, highlight it. Ways To Build Character - Have a theme for the day/week - Have each player identify a character muscle, such as accountability or patience or focus and focus o...