A Coach's Diary

Dr. Jim Loehr, a performance psychologist who worked with elite athletes, noticed something important: the best performers don’t just manage their time — they manage their energy. His “Corporate Athlete” concept applies the principles of athletic training to leadership and everyday life. Think about an athlete. They don’t sprint for three hours straight — they work hard, recover, and then go again. Loehr argues that high performers need the same rhythm: stress and recovery, effort and renewal. Constantly pushing without recovering eventually drains your physical, emotional, and mental energy. Loehr describes energy in four dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Physical energy comes from things like sleep, nutrition, exercise, and hydration. Emotional energy comes from resilience and how we respond to pressure. Mental energy comes from focus. Spiritual energy comes from purpose—knowing what matters and where you want to invest yourself. The lesson is simple: You can...

In the video below Brett Ledbetter shows a clip of the movie Whiplash to a group of coaches.  Whiplash is a movie about a young, talented musician and his hard-driving coach who feels like it's his job to do what it takes to get the most out of his students, even to the long-term detriment of the students. They discuss the parallels of this music teacher and many coaches that we see that act as it it's their job to push their athletes as hard as they can to get the most out of them, using fear and intimidation at times, ignoring or ignorant to the long-term damage that they could be doing to their athletes mental health. This leads to a couple of great speeches by Dr. Jim Loehr, a leading sports psychologist who teaches and encourages coaches to have the right mission as they lead young athletes  We Hold Their Dreams in Our Hands It's so important for coaches to understand the extraordinary power you have in the lives of athletes that you interact with....

Know what your purpose is, know what is most important to you, and know what you will emphasize and prioritize, and then focus your energy to aligning who you are and what you do with your purpose. It is not easy to prioritize character and winning, because the more success that you have, the harder it is to maintain your same moral compass.  But if you consistently emphasize the person over the athlete and character over winning, your athletes will do more of what it takes to win, they will find success, and their character will shine like a beacon in the center of the ring of performance. It's very important to know the reason behind what you are doing at any moment.  It's important to look at sports through the correct lens and get the purpose behind it right.  It's important to know your purpose for coaching, to know who you are as a person and as a coach, and to make sure that you rally your energy so that your energy is ...

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...