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This guy has the right idea….

That kind of composure doesn’t just happen. You learn it, you work on it every day. So after he’s done with his homework, Kirby and I will work on pressure situations and ignoring distractions. I’ll set up in my lawn chair and get the hose and airhorn out, and he’ll go to work. I’ll randomly shout, sound the airhorn and spray him to simulate distractions. We’ll turn on the steady stream so he knows what it’s like to kick in adverse weather, maybe get some sprinklers going. If he can’t make a kick with a hose in his face in front of some neighborhood kids or the girl he’s got a crush on, how will he ever make a Super-Bowl-winning kick?

Yes Virginia, it is tongue in cheek — I hope…  I guess we’ll find out in the next 20+ years…

The score is 2-1 late in the game.  Your team is down, but pressing hard.  The kids are making great passes — short and quick, just as you taught them — and advancing through the defenders easier than they walked through the cones at the first practice.  You know it’s only a matter of time before you tie the score, and you know in your bones that the go ahead goal will come even easier.

Then it happens, Jenny strips the ball from the other team’s best player.  She pivots and looks down the wing for Ashley.  Ashley sees the play develop and starts sprinting down the sideline, careful to stay onsides.  Five steps into her burst, she stops short.  She can’t breathe, she’s having an asthma attack.

According to an article in a recent edition of the Chicago Sun-Times, most coaches are unprepared to handle an athlete experiencing an asthma attack.  The article quotes a study from the Chicago Asthma Consortium that only 1 in 3 coaches has the training to handle an attack.  The article doesn’t state what constitutes the training, but it does offer some common sense tips to keep your kids healthy and safe…

• Preventing attacks. Remind asthmatic athletes to use rescue inhalers before starting aerobic activities, if so directed by their doctors. Ask a parent or athlete for a copy of the athlete’s asthma action plan.
• Recognizing an attack. Symptoms vary, and can include coughing, chest pain or tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, pale skin and speaking in short bursts.
• During an attack, never leave an athlete alone; have someone else get the parent. The athlete generally should take two puffs of the rescue inhaler and hold breath for 10 seconds after each puff. Wait one to two minutes between puffs. The athlete should sit up and breathe slowly through the nose, and out through pursed lips.

In Chicago, the lung association offers a free one-hour asthma classes for coaches and teachers at their offices at 1440 W. Washington. You can call (312) 628-0206 for scheduling. For online training go to www.WinningWithAsthma.org for a 30-minute training session.

This is a serious issue affecting nearly every team.  The number of children with asthma is staggering.  Few are at serious risk, but it’s impossible to know when a major attack can occur.  But understanding the warning signs can prevent a tragedy.

Attention all Cincinnati baseball coaches.  Someone needs your help!! If he keeps throwing across his body this way he’ll have shoulder and elbow problems very soon…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx6zsub-neU

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.  - Robert Green Ingersoll

We could all use a little more happiness in our lives, some days it seems like that is doubly true on the practice field…  That’s why, whenever I need an affirmation that happiness at work - and the rest of my life - is more than a pipe dream, I turn to the Chief Happiness Officer blog.  He usually has posts describing why happiness leads to better productivity and what common management mistakes are productivity killers.  Always an interesting read, especially when you see the familiar in the productivity killers…

Today he had a recap of his recent ski vacation.  He went snow boarding in the Alps (that will get anyone happy…).  He’s been snowboarding for a few years, but he’s still learning the tricks.  His approach to learning how to snowboard has a lot to say about how we, as coaches, can make practice more perfect.

There were two points I want to pull out and call your attention to.

8: Learn from people who like what they do
The instructor who taught me obviously enjoyed both snowboard and teaching. You learn much faster when things are taught with passion.

9: Enjoy your mistakes
I looooove falling on my board. The more spectacular the fall the better. You can’t really learn if you fear failure. Very little learning happens without mistakes - or when you fear making them.

Said from the other side of the whistle, be passionate and encourage failure.  Passion is contagious and failure is the best teacher.

People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball. - Sandy Koufax

"Pitchers and Catchers report"… those words always warm my heart, usually because the rest of me is stuck in the frozen midwest…  When I hear that phrase on TV and radio I think about the baseball season that is coming.  Spring Training means summer will make an appearance, even as the snow is falling and the temperature makes global warming seem like a cruel hoax.

As close as it may seem however, spring training extends from Valentine’s Day to April Fool’s day  (as a Cub’s fan, I understand the irony, it starts with love and ends with someone telling you the pretty girl really wants you to ask her out, just go ask her in front of her friends… ).  But, if it takes six weeks for professional baseball players to stretch out their arms and get ready for the season, why do we try to get our kids ready with 10 minutes of long toss at the first practice?

Kids are notoriously flexible and quick to recover.  Because they seem indestructible, it’s easy to assume they can handle an accelerated "Spring Training".  Unfortunately, that’s not what the research says…

Among pitchers under 12 years old, as many as 45 percent complain of chronic elbow pain, according to several published studies. At the high school level, nearly six in every 10 pitchers suffer chronic elbow pain. Yet another study — in the May/June 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) — showed that it may be even worse than that, with 50 percent to 75 percent of all adolescent baseball players — not just pitchers — reporting elbow pain.

The article goes on to list some possible causes of these injuries and leading the list is over use.  Throwing more builds strength, but not unless it’s done properly and with enough rest to allow the muscles to rebuild. 

It’s the start of the season, so build their arms smart — slowly, but consistently — and give them a chance to keep pitching into their teens.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. - Walter Bagehot

One of the reasons the internet has revolutionized the world is because it contains the collected wisdom of the western world.  If you want to know the roster of the 1934 St. Louis Browns, a little work on Google and you have your link to Ski Melillo.  What’s on the New York Times bestseller list?  Go to Amazon and you can find out, then buy what you like.  How about following your favorite team when you live 800 miles away?  No problem thanks to the internet…

But as great a resource as the internet is, it’s not the only place you can learn.  It’s still important to utilize whatever source is available; and one of the most important, and often overlooked, source is the people around us.  Monday’s Chicago Tribune had a good article from Barbara Rose profiling Thomas Kemeny, a 23 year old breaking into the advertising business.  What struck me about Kemeny was his approach to success in a competitive industry.

One thing about Kemeny, he puts himself out there. He’s willing to ask anybody anything.

It’s more than natural curiosity. It’s part of a drive to figure out his place in the world while learning what it takes to practice his craft at the highest levels.

I’m sure Kemeny devours copywriting books and has a feeder full of advertising related blogs, but he also realizes great advice is specific to the situation and great advice comes from the best people.  So if you can get specific advice from the best people in your industry, it’s probably going to be worth listening to.

"When you’re a student, you can ask anybody anything, and as long as you follow it up by saying you’re a student, it’s totally acceptable."

He called it "student immunity," and he invoked this right often.

The one place I’ll disagree is that it’s only acceptable to ask people questions when you are a student.  People love to talk about subjects that interest them.  If you approach people with a sense of curiosity and genuine interest they will usually share their expertise with you. 

Go get your student ID and start asking some questions.
 

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.  - Will Rogers
My mother used to say that it would take an Act of Congress to get me to practice some days.  I guess I was just pre-occupied with other things.  But thanks to the change to Daylight Savings Time in the United States, holding an outdoor practice won’t mean leaving work so early this spring.

Among many other energy initiatives, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated a change to Daylight Savings time.  Starting this year Daylight Savings Time begins three weeks earlier and extends one week later.  This year Daylight Savings time begins March 11th and extends until November 4th.

I always enjoy spring season because it marks more time outside and less time bundled in sweaters and coats.  Even though the weather is still iffy, I knew it was only a matter of time until it was shorts and T-Shirts weather.  But the problem was always getting practice in before dark in the first couple of weeks.  I would start the year with practice at 5:00 and get complaints about how difficult it was to get the kids to practice on time — as if I just magically appeared…  Then two weeks later I would change practice time to take advantage of the longer sunlight hours…. and you can fill in the rest of the story from your own experiences, I’m sure.

Whatever the flaws in this system, it’s a definite plus for any coach planning a spring practice schedule.   Take advantage of the longer sunlight hours — your boss will probably appreciate the extra productivity…

Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.  - Joe Paterno

I subscribe to a soccer coaching newsletter.  It comes out a couple times a week throughout the year and always contains good ideas and interesting drills.  If you’re a soccer coach, get yourself to FineSoccer.com and subscribe to at least one of their newsletters…  you’ll be glad you did when your struggling to figure out what drills to run at practice…

The  FineSoccer.com Kid’s Newsletter arrived in my inbox today and contained a  good article on the importance of keeping bench players mentally "in" the game.  That’s a hard thing to do.  If it’s a competitive league, the bench players may think they aren’t ever getting in the game, so why pay attention.  In a rec league, where playing time for all is required, many players still get distracted by friends, family, butterflies, clouds…

Too often, when a player isn’t one of the starting 11 in a game, they end up sitting on the bench (or in many cases, the ground) sulking, mad that they aren’t on the field.  Then, when it’s finally their turn to enter the game, they are mentally and physically unprepared.

Instead of sitting on the bench sulking, the players should be watching the game, looking for the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing team as well as for the players they are most likely to be matched up against.  This way, when it’s time to go on the field, the player is ready.

They are absolutely right, but the question is how??  It’s certainly true that with the right perspective a player can learn a lot about the game from the sidelines.  It’s easier to see what the other team is doing and how passing and movement works to create scoring opportunities.  But players are usually thinking about how long it is until they get back into the game and coaches are focused on the action on the field.  Besides, it’s almost impossible to coach the kids on the field and the ones on the bench without shortchanging either side.

Rather than trying to do two things at once, I’ve found it’s better to give the kids something they can do on their own, without intervention from a coach or parent.  Assigning the kids a job, or getting them to play a sideline game focused on the actual game provides a lot of benefits.  There are many things to do, but  my personal favorite is a team building tool I learned from the Positive Coaching Alliance called Positive Charting.  Positive Charting involves tracking the things kids do right during a game, then recounting them afterwards.  Some teams have specific actions they chart, others define   Sometimes it’s tough for a coach to see everything, so having a few extra eyes — and perspectives — is a big plus…

Getting the kids involved in positive charting not only keeps them in the game when they are on the sidelines, but it creates a better team atmosphere.  The kids are literally searching for the good things the other kids are doing — they want their teammates to succeed even when they are on the bench.  I like that better than "When am I getting back in coach?" every 13 seconds…

Give them something constructive to do on the sidelines and you’ll make bench time more productive.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’ve written about Harvey Mackay before, but he’s such an interesting person I’m going to write about him again… 

If you don’t know who he is, he owns an envelope company in Minnesota, the Mackay Envelope Company. 

Now, I couldn’t have made him sound more boring, safe and conservative if I had posted a picture of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.  But his story is actually very inspiring.  You could call him a successful Willy Loman, and considering he is very much alive and - by all appearances, rather wealthy, a VERY successful Loman… 

Harvey bought a failing envelope company in 1959 and today it’s a $100 million company.  I’m sure he worked very hard to build the company, but that begs the question, how do you grow an envelope company?  I mean, aren’t envelopes pretty much the same?? 

Not if you listen to Harvey Mackay.  Growing an envelope company is no different from growing a soccer team and that’s no different than building a bio-tech company.  It all has to do with motivation, and motivation comes from loving what you do.  He believes that so deeply, his company’s motto is "Do what you love, love what you do and deliver more than you promise."  Good advice for any endeavor.

Harvey has a weekly article which always has a few motivational nuggets.  This week’s article is entitled "Enthusiasm is the spark that ignites our lives".  The entire article is wonderful, but there is a paragraph I want to highlight, especially right before the spring seasons start.

If your switch is off more than on, it’s time to examine what’s making you less than motivated. Is it the job itself? Find something to love about it, or find a different line of work. Is it the fear of failure? Then you haven’t been paying attention: Failure is an opportunity to learn and improve—and boost your enthusiasm. Are you bored? Burned out? Ready for a different challenge? Jump at the chance to try something new. Life’s too short to hate what you are doing! Find something you can be passionate about, and work at it until you can’t imagine doing anything else.

Those of you who are regular readers will know I perked up on the line about "fear of failure".  "Failure is an opportunity to learn and improve — and boost your enthusiasm".

I love that line.  Especially how he added "– and boost your enthusiasm."  Failure naturally drains enthusiasm, not boost it.  That’s because nobody likes to fail, nobody sets out to screw up a business deal — or a relay throw from the outfield.  But it happens and, as coaches, we need to help kids understand how to deal with that failure.

The first place to start is with our response to the failure; accept the mistake for what it is — proof you are still needed!  From that perspective you can help the kids to take advantage of the "opportunity to learn and improve" so they — and you — can feel the boost of enthusiasm.

I've been out of town without frequent internet access…  I'm not scouting the next big thing, but there are other things in life…