coachKidsSports.com

My favorite post was one of my first, and also one of my favorite coaching stories.  In fact I had this story rattling around in my head so long I had to build a website to share it…  Originally posted August 3rd, 2006, it's:

The First Rule of Soccer

By : Coach Bigs

Kids even find joy in things that annoy adults. Allen Klein

"What's the number one rule of soccer?" I ask the six year olds assembled on the elementary school yard. It's the first day of practice and for many, the first organized practice ever. They fidget a bit, picking the grass around thier spot, each unsure of themselves. I could see a few thinking "Is this a test? No one said there would be a test!! I'm only a kindergartner, there aren't any tests in kindergarten!"

Sensing their anxiety, I try to coax them into an answer by prompting them, "I'm sure some of you have played before, and some of you have an older brother or sister who has played. So, what's the number one rule of soccer??"

Their courage is raising, I can see a few faces brighten. Then one meekly answers, "Don't use your hands". The others nod in agreement, they would have said it if she hadn't said it so quickly.

"Noooooooo!!!" I say in mock exasperation, "The number one rule of soccer is 'Don't pick your nose!!!' The number TWO rule of soccer is don't use your hands…'"

You know, I don't think I've ever had a kid forget either rule…

If I'm putting together a top 5 list, I don't know how I can leave this one off.  My first post represents my coaching philosophy in a couple hundred words.  I asked a simpe question to start this web site back on August 1st:

Can You Coach?

By : Coach Bigs

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. — John Wooden

I've been fortunate to coach both my son and daughter for several years in a few different sports. Working with them and their teammates has been a wonderful experience. I've learned how my kids react to wins and losses, how they handle success and I've helped them learn how to cope with adversity. Another benefit of my time with the whistle is learning the same things about thier friends. Not only do I know the children my kids will grow up with, but it's given me a better understanding of what to expect from my kids.

But when I volunteered (more accurately, was volunteered), the first time, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had played almost every sport growing up — if you kept score, I wanted to play — but I wasn't sure about structuring a practice and working with the kids.

I learned pretty quickly that those skills, while very important, can be learned. For the drills, I bought a book. At last count, Amazon returns 259 books when searching for Soccer Drills, (don't worry, I've narrowed it down a bit for you in the Stuff You Need section). As far as handling kids, I knew I would have an assistant, I figured we could divide and conquer…

So you can buy the drills, and you're a parent so handling the kids is no problem, so anyone can be a coach, right…. To quote Lee Corso, not so fast my friend. I found coaching to be fun and rewarding. What it has given me is far more than anything I put into it. But, coaching isn't for everyone. I've seen many coaches who are on the sidelines for the wrong reasons and that leads to problems with their kids and/or the other players on the roster.

The challenges for a rec league coach are different than for a coach in a highly competitive league. The expecations are different. But that doesn't mean that it's easier to coach a rec league team, I actually think it's more difficult. In a competitive league, everyone has the same goal, winning. Parents will disagree on the tactics — my Suzy would have scored on that play — but there is no disputing the ultimate goal of the team. Rec leagues present a different challenge. Not every kid has the same level of dedication, drive or talent. Some parents want to see victories, others want to get the kid out of the house for an hour. As a rec league coach you have a balancing act to manage those different expectations.

I believe there are five traits of a good rec league coach. They are present in varying degrees in different people, but I think they are all important regardless of the sport.

You will be a good coach if:

1. You like kids You aren't coaching in the World Series. These are kids and the best of them will make you pull your hair out. Enjoy the kids for their enthusiasm rather than trying to keep them from being kids.
2. You understand the basics of your sport This isn't the pros, but don't volunteer to coach if you aren't sure why hockey is played on skates. As I said above, you can buy some knowledge. So you'll either have to bring some into the party, or spend more time getting prepared before the season starts.
3. You are willing to teach John Wooden said that coaching is teaching and who am I to argue? No one is born with the innate sense of the perfect fundamentals of any sport. As a youth coach it's your job to teach the fundamental skills to your team.
4. You can commit sufficient time If you know everything there is to know about your sport, if you can make kids listen and learn through the force of your personality, but you have too many other obligations to devote time to the team you're better off taking a pass. I never found coaching to be overly time consuming, however you are making a promise to be there and be prepared. If the time committment concerns you, volunteer as an assistant. Whatever help you can provide is appreciated and maybe you'll learn you can manage one more thing in your schedule.
5. You are willing to coach the entire roster Your child has you at practice. The star players never have to worry about getting noticed. But it's easy to overlook the marginal kid. Maybe he doesn't want to be there, maybe she isn't very talented, but they are all on your roster. If you're in a rec league, you'll have these kids on your team and the better you can teach those kids, the better your team will be.
   I had a father tell me at the beginning of a season that his daughter was his third child and neither of the older two had ever scored a goal. Jokingly, he said if she scored a goal he could "die a happy man", but after the first practice I thought he would go through life unfulfilled. I continued to work with her and put her in situations where she could succeed. It took two seasons and a bunch of close calls, but the look on her face when she scored was only matched by her father's.

 

It occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting.  Why don’t you invest more time being interested. - John Gardner (said to Jim Collins, author "Good To Great")

This fall I ran a series on how the book "Good To Great" can be adapted to youth coaching.  I really enjoyed the book and writing the posts caused me to think the book through in greater detail.  Out of the series I picked three posts to share the #4 position.

Who Are Those Guys

By : Coach Bigs 

Wise are they who have learned these truths: Trouble is temporary. Time is tonic. Tribulation is a test tube. - William A. Ward

The last time we got together I wrote quite a bit about what a Level 5 leader isn't.  In fact, I'm pretty sure my membership in the Mike Ditka fan club has been revoked.  I guess I'll have to find someone else…  Today, rather than write about level 4 qualities and what they don't have, let's discuss what sets a Level 5 leader apart from the rest.

The Good to Great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes.  They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons.  They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.

- Jim Collins, Good To Great (pg. 28)

This makes it sound as if these Level 5 leaders are somewhat meek or introverted.  But that's not quite right.  Collins says these people don't look to bring attention to themselves, yet they are firm in their resolve to whatever is necessary for the long term benefit of the organization.

Demonstrates an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult.

- Jim Collins on The Two Sides of Level 5 Leadership

Introverted, possibly, but that doesn't sound like someone who is meek.  It sounds like someone who is thinking beyond this week's practice or this season's games.  It sounds like someone who realizes teaching a level swing may be hard, but an uppercut swing will only produce easy fly outs next year.

To move your coaching from Good to Great, keep a few things in mind.

• It's not about you
• It's not about today's game
• It is about the kids
• It is about their love of the game

These are hard to remember and harder to stick to when you have two dozen parents yelling and cheering on the sidelines.  But just as the CEO's profiled in the book had their doubters but persevered, so will you.  Next I'll write about a strategy to help you persevere and move your team forward — The Hedgehog Concept .

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Big Hairy and Focused

By : Coach Bigs 

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. - Archilochus (7th-century b.c.)

Foxes have to know many things to be successful, but the hedgehog only has to know one thing.  As a youth  coach with other priorities laying claim on your time, which would you rather be?   You don't have time to know everything, but you can know one thing really well.  Lucky for you, that is a part of the recipe for Good to Great

Concentrating on one thing, building your practices around that central idea provides for clarity of purpose.  I've said this before, figure out the one fundamental that is important to your team and build your practices around perfecting that fundamental.  But, there is a problem with that approach.  Doing the same thing gets boring! 

That's a problem, but it isn't insurmountable — after all, you're smart.  There are two things you need to do to make this approach work: 

1. Find several drills and games to teach the fundamental
2. Build your BHAG around the fundamental

What's a BHAG you ask? A BHAG is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  They are the things that get people excited to work hard, even at things that might be boring.  Give your team a something to work towards and — most importantly — stretch for, and you can keep them motivated through all sorts of drills.

In Good To Great, Jim Collins says companies have to determine what it is that they can be the best in the world doing.  He gives the example of Abbott Labs.  They knew they could not be the best pharmaceutical company in the world because they didn't have the research capabilities to achieve that goal.  What they could do was be the best in the world at creating products to lower the cost of health care.  They were very specific in their focus — they knew one thing very well — which allowed them to concentrate on only those things that contribute to their primary mission.

There isn't one right answer to the question of what to focus on.  As the coach, you have to answer that question.  However, Collins does guide you to your answer with three questions.  He calls them the Three Circles.

1. What can you be the best in the world at?
2. What drives your economic engine?
3. What are you deeply passionate about?

How about if tweak the questions to apply directly to coaching…

1. What can your team be the best in your league at?
2. What will contribute to your team's performance?
3. What are you willing to keep working at?

You may not have a lot of talent on your roster so being the best goal scoring team in the league may not be realistic.  But being the best team in the league at defending corner kicks is reasonable.  Maybe your football team can't catch a pass, but they can be the best at running the trap play.  Don't have anyone who can hit a jumper?  Don't try to make the team into the best perimeter shooting team, concentrate on setting picks and hitting the cutter with a pass.

Regardless of how focused you make your BHAG, your unlikely to be the best in the world.  But you're dealing with kids, so their world doesn't extend much beyond your league.  Focus on one specific thing and regardless of your talent level your team can be the best in their world. 

Get the kids excited about becoming the best at something, show them how one practice builds upon the next.  Allow your kids the chance to see what it takes to master a skill.  That's a lesson that will last a lot longer with your kids than anything else you teach them.

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You Have Your Who

By : Coach Bigs

Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits. - Casey Stengel

You're a rec league coach.  When you volunteered you knew one kid who would be on your team — yours.  Otherwise your roster is a combination of kids whose parents knew to ask for you, some geographical coincidences and random placements.  In short, you're not Tex Schramm looking to build through the draft, you built your team by picking up a packet at league headquarters.  You have very little choice or input on who is on your team, so how can you follow the second principle of Good To Great, First Who, then Where.

Well, I have some ideas — after all it's my website and if I didn't have some ideas on the subject I'd be writing about something else…

Collins uses a bus analogy to describe running a company.  He says the great companies first decide who should be on the bus before deciding where the bus should go. 

They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

Obviously, in a rec league environment you can't shape your roster, but you do have more control over your coaches and other helpers.  It's up to you to set the tone for the team. 

You may have an assistant assigned to you and he may have different ideas about how to run the team, but you are the coach and you set the culture.  Because if you don't, you're still setting the culture, and it won't be one you like.

You want people helping you who understand the course you are taking and will help you move forward.  You don't want people who are working at cross purposes with you.  Be sure your team, your coaches and - especially - the parents understand your core values.

Don't confuse this with a "my way or the highway" approach.  Core values are only the most basic needs for running a team.  My core values are:

1. Coaching is teaching
2. Players improve when they understand what they are doing

Take a few minutes to think about why you coach and what your core values are.  How can you apply those with your team and how can you convey them?

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. - George Eliot

I've really enjoyed writing for this site over the last four months.  Just looking at my post from December 20th reminds me that it's been an eventful year.  But as I wrote in that post, I'm not interested in the bad parents and coaches, I'm interested in the positive stuff that happens when kids get to play sports and parents work to teach them the right way.

With that in mind I looked back on all my posts and pulled out the top five.  I'll re-run those posts over the coming week.  I had trouble picking only five, so excuse me if you get some bonus material…