A Coach's Diary

Last week, I wrote a blog about coaching uncoachable players . This is the second part of that blog. I previously stated that I don't label athletes as 'uncoachable.' It is important to find ways to reach, connect with, and motivate athletes. Having a connection with our athletes lets them know what we care about them, and it also helps us better teach and respond to our athletes. When we have a connection with them, we know what they already know, we know what matters to them, and we know how they learn. That connection piece is the first part of coaching difficult athletes. The next part is establishing standards and boundaries, communicate expectations, and to have measurable goals. My theme for my daughter’s 5-year-old soccer team is ‘score goals and stop goals.’ It is easy and measurable. Did you score a goal there or did you stop a goal? If you did, you did your job. If you didn’t, you did not do your job. We teach so much more, including skills, teamwork...

This is part 1 of a three-part series on coaching tough kids and tough parents. It is just my thoughts and my experiences on the subject. Someone reached out to me via Facebook and asked me about viewpoints on tough kids and tough parents. Coaching the 'uncoachable' can be tough. But first, let me clarify - I don't consider any athlete (or student) uncoachable or a bad kid. It is a mindset that I adopted years ago. I live by the idea of having a Growth Mindset. I feel that every person has the ability to grow and improve, and it is my job as a coach to meet them where they are and to help them grow into what they can be. Coaching kids who most would consider as 'uncoachable' is just hard. Every coach's dream is to have a team full of bought-in, talented, hardworking kids who put the team first, and who are willing to run through a wall for the coach and their teammates. But the reality is that not every kid is built like this. We can blame kids, we ca...