Coaching Culture

Your practice plan is already shaping your culture, whether you designed it that way or not. The question is what it is teaching.

JP Nerbun finishes his two-part solo series on practice, starting with the Jimmy System at the University of Jamestown. You will hear how he runs a competitive cauldron, why practices should get shorter as the season goes on, how to let players speak first, and why celebrating the gain changes a team's energy.

If your practices run well but still feel separate from the culture you talk about, this one shows you how to close that gap.

Chapters(00:00) The Jimmy System story
(03:43) Building a competitive cauldron
(08:46) Efficiency and shorter practices
(11:22) Teaching through questions
(13:43) Let your captains speak first
(15:54) Connection rituals
(18:12) Thank you for letting me coach you
(20:06) Celebrate the gain, not the gap
(23:13) Three positives for every negative
(24:50) Practice is how you build culture
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"It's so easy to focus on the gap instead of the gain."
JP Nerbun

"Don't share what you're thinking. Let's hear what they're thinking first before you share your thinking, because you don't want your thinking to influence their thinking."
JP Nerbun

"I get to do this, I don't have to do this."
JP Nerbun

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: What did we do well in practice today, and what is the one thing we most need to get better at tomorrow?

Q2: Who on this team deserves a shout out from today, and what exactly did you see them do?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Coach's Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
JP calls it probably the best book on how to teach through your coaching. It is the deeper dive on the open, leading, and closed questions he uses to turn huddles into real learning.
Visit coachsguidetoteaching.com

Key Takeaways

• Make competition the reward, not the punishment.
• Shorter practices keep players sharper.
• Ask before you tell.
• Let players speak first.
• Build connection on purpose.
• Celebrate the gain, then pick one thing.

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Your team culture gets built in practice, every day, starting with how you show up. Everything else depends on it.

JP Nerbun goes solo to lay out part one of his practice philosophy, starting with Pete Carroll asking Steve Kerr what he wanted it to feel like to be in his program. You will hear why your example comes first, how to set standards as a floor and a ceiling, how the quick set reset drills work, and why success criteria keep practice focused.

If your values look great on paper but practice still feels the way it always has, this one gives you tools you can run this week.

Chapters(00:00) Pete Carroll's question for Steve Kerr
(02:38) Bringing your values into practice
(03:29) Your example comes first
(07:23) Standards: the floor and the ceiling
(09:26) Standard reviews
(12:48) The quick set reset drills
(15:43) Enforcing the standard
(16:31) Teach your practice philosophy
(19:04) Coaching your coaches
(21:38) Success criteria and reviews
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3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"If you value joy, you better be joyful. If you value curiosity, you better be curious."
JP Nerbun

"The standard isn't the standard until you've enforced the standard."
JP Nerbun

"Really, you're not coaching, you're just resetting. And so they start to coach each other."
JP Nerbun

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: When you walk into practice, what does exceptional look like, what is acceptable, and what is unacceptable?

Q2: What was our one focus today, and what is one specific way you got better at it?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Culture System by JP Nerbun
JP's book lays out the standard review process he references in this episode, and its bonus chapters cover the before and after action reviews he uses to set success criteria for practice.
Get the book on Amazon

Key Takeaways

• Your example comes before any drill.
• Your values should be visible inside practice.
• Set the floor, then raise the ceiling together.
• Reset instead of coach.
• Teach players, staff, and parents how you practice.
• Narrow the focus, then review what you said mattered.

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

If the coach writes the team standards on the board, John Mayer says they become wallpaper. When the players write them, they come alive.

In part two of JP Nerbun's conversation with John Mayer, head beach volleyball coach at Loyola Marymount and the 2025 AVCA National Coach of the Year, John walks through the systems behind his culture: battle buddies, a competitive cauldron, player-written standards, and culture committees that give every player real responsibility. He also explains why autonomy does not mean anything goes.

If your team nods along to the culture but does not own it, this conversation gives you a concrete blueprint for shared ownership.

Chapters(00:00) Catching players doing it right
(01:40) Curiosity instead of the hammer
(04:53) The competitive cauldron
(05:49) Intentions and battle buddies
(09:44) Standards the players write
(12:02) Culture committees
(14:51) Autonomy with structure
(16:37) Leading the leadership group
(21:17) The hardest part of coaching today
(23:27) Why coach education matters
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"You don't know till you go."
John Mayer

"Autonomy doesn't mean anything goes and you can do whatever. The coach is there to organize and cultivate choices."
John Mayer

"If I just put all that on the board, it becomes wallpaper. But when it's their ideas, when it's their discussion, when it's meaningful to them, it becomes living."
John Mayer

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: What is one decision about how our team runs that you think you should have a say in, and why?

Q2: Who on this team helps you stay locked in on your intention during practice, and how could you do that for someone else?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Competitive Cauldron by Anson Dorrance
John runs a version of the tracked, ranked practice system Dorrance built at North Carolina after watching Dean Smith's practices. It raises intensity through visible standings rather than punishment.
See how the Cauldron works

Key Takeaways

• Catch people doing it right, publicly.
• Curiosity beats the hammer.
• Battle buddies put accountability in players' hands.
• Culture committees turn ownership into structure.
• Autonomy is a skill the coach cultivates, not a job the coach abandons.
• Focus on what you can adapt to, not what feels unfair.

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

John Mayer had just won LMU's first conference championship when he started questioning everything about how he coached. He had a system that worked. He changed it anyway.

JP Nerbun sits down with John Mayer, head beach volleyball coach at Loyola Marymount and the 2025 AVCA National Coach of the Year, to unpack the research that pulled him away from being the coach with all the answers. You will hear why a strong learning environment starts with the individual, why his practices open with cartwheels and one-eyed sets, and how handing players problems instead of solutions made them more creative, more independent, and less dependent on him under pressure.

If your athletes execute beautifully in practice but look to the sideline the moment things get hard, this conversation will change how you think about your next practice plan.

Chapters(00:00) Intro: from elite player to coach
(06:09) What a learning environment needs
(10:14) Do feel-good drills belong?
(14:08) Differential learning and noise
(16:22) The 2019 coaching crisis
(19:49) Letting go of being the guru
(21:37) Earning buy-in with feedback
(26:31) Did it work? Results at LMU
(29:08) How practice shapes culture
(33:41) When new ideas become too many
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"I flipped from before I was the provider of solutions, and then I became the provider of problems."
John Mayer

"I'm not as worried about what they like. My daughter likes ice cream. That doesn't mean it's gonna help her perform at a high level. I'm concerned in what's effective."
John Mayer

"These are the sort of people I want to put into the world, not people who follow orders."
John Mayer

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: What part of practice feels good but does not actually make you better, and where do you feel the kind of struggle that does?

Q2: When something in practice confuses you or is not working, how comfortable are you telling us, and what would make it easier?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Nonlinear Nature of Learning: A Differential Learning Approach by Wolfgang Schöllhorn and colleagues
John credits Schöllhorn's differential learning research out of Germany with turning his coaching upside down. This open-access paper explains why adding variation, or noise, to practice can help athletes find their own movement solutions instead of copying one prescribed technique.
Read the paper here

Key Takeaways

• Great players don't automatically make great coaches.
• Design for the sweet spot between success and failure.
• Differential learning turns off the fear of judgment.
• A coaching crisis can be the doorway to real growth.
• Being the provider of problems beats being the provider of solutions.
• Feedback should flow in both directions.

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Your team meetings tune the car, but practice is the road.

JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson take on a question a coach brought to JP: what do you do when there is almost no time to build culture outside of practice? Their answer is that practice is where athletes experience culture most and where a coach can push hardest on it. You will hear how to move values from the wall into the practice plan, why going hard is a skill you teach, a four step cycle for giving athletes reps at the behaviors you want, and what changes when you start from where your players actually are.

If your values live on a wall and you are not sure they live in your gym, this conversation gives you a place to start tomorrow.

Chapters(00:00) Intro: practice is culture
(04:27) Values in the practice plan
(06:32) Where coaches go wrong
(09:07) Awareness, opportunity, reinforce
(13:10) Purpose, structure, and focus
(17:33) Efficient, game-like practice
(22:10) Your mindset toward mistakes
(26:46) Mental skills in 30 seconds
(32:35) Start where players are
(38:07) Your own experience of practice
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"A lot of times the way that we've used some of those classroom times or those team meeting times, or those connection times is really like pulling into the pit stop and tuning up the car, but then we're putting it back out on the road. And practice is really the road."
Nate Sanderson

"The standard isn't a standard until we start actually holding that standard with our players, and the majority of those standards are being held within practice."
J.P. Nerbun

"It doesn't help them to tell them what they're not doing. It does help them to make them aware of the opportunities they have, to signal an opportunity before they're in it."
Betsy Butterick

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: Where in our practice plan do our team values actually show up, and where do they only live on the wall?

Q2: What part of practice makes you feel like you are getting better, and what part leaves you wondering why we are doing it?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
JP brought this book into the conversation. It separates measuring yourself against an ideal from measuring against where you started, a useful lens for any coach who catches themselves saying their team should be much further along.
Find the book here

Key Takeaways

• Practice is where culture lives, not where it gets tuned.
• A standard is not a standard until you hold it in practice.
• Going hard is a skill, so teach it.
• Efficient, game-like practice tells athletes you value their time.
• Intensity is a rhythm. Frustration is a rep.
• Start where your players are, then check your own reaction.

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Billy Armstrong wants every player he coaches to chase one truly impossible goal.

In part two of this conversation, three years after his first appearance on the podcast, Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong digs into the goal-setting philosophy behind his program's vision: making Bergen the best place to play high school basketball in America. Billy explains why he pushes players toward impossible goals instead of realistic ones, why every player builds a quit list before setting any goal, and why becoming elite at anything requires doing fewer things, not more.

If you missed part one, start there for the personal transformation behind all of this. Either way, this is a coach thinking seriously about what he's building and why.

Chapters(00:00) Intro: The Vision Behind the Program
(01:31) The Impossible Goal
(07:21) What Every Athlete Should Experience
(10:32) Why Over Who
(11:59) The Quit List
(16:04) Consumption and the Elite Mindset
(18:57) Elite Means Doing Fewer Things
(21:48) You Can't Coach Mad
(26:25) Getting Brutally Honest
(31:10) The Backpack Exercise
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"Bigger goals create bigger people."
- Billy Armstrong

"In order to be elite at anything, you've got to do fewer things in life."
- Billy Armstrong

"You can't coach mad. Everybody you coach is somebody's pride and joy."
- Billy Armstrong

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: What is your one impossible goal, and who do you need to become to get closer to it?

Q2: What's one thing on your quit list that would buy you back the most time and energy this week?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

Soundtracks by Jon Acuff
JP references this book's filter for the thoughts that keep coaches from having hard conversations: is it true, is it kind, is it helpful.
Find it on Amazon here

Key Takeaways

• Everyone Needs One Impossible Goal
• Ask Who, Not Why
• The Quit List Comes Before the Goal List
• Elite Means Doing Fewer Things, Not More
• Brutal Self-Honesty Ended the Avoidance
• Put the Backpack Down

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If you missed part one, catch it at tocculture.com.
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Billy Armstrong hasn't just won four state championships in six years. He's become, in his own words, a completely different human being.

In part one of a two-part conversation, three years after his first appearance on the podcast, Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong opens up about the personal transformation behind his program's sustained success: trading a hidden self-improvement journey for total openness, moving from standing over his team to standing shoulder to shoulder with them, and learning that avoiding hard truths to protect a player's feelings was its own form of harm.

Whether you're three years into coaching or thirty, this conversation is a reminder that the culture you build only grows as far as you do. Part two drops next week.

Chapters(00:00) Intro: Three Years Later
(00:55) Becoming a Different Human Being
(03:28) From Hidden Journey to Open Book
(06:12) Coaching Shoulder to Shoulder
(07:55) Who Are You Trying to Become
(11:01) Keeping the Door Open
(12:42) The Locker Room That Changed Him
(19:12) Separating the Person from the Choice
(21:48) Lessons from Hurley and Wright
(24:22) Serious Fun and Letting Go of Control
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"We don't have control over outcomes and results in life. We have control in practice. When we get to the games, it's an illusion of control."
- Billy Armstrong

"There's a difference between important and special. The games are important, practice is important, your schoolwork is important. But the relationships we form within our program, if they're lifelong relationships, that's special."
- Billy Armstrong

"Because of this, something good will happen."
- Billy Armstrong

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: Where in your coaching have you been standing over your players instead of standing shoulder to shoulder with them?

Q2: Is there a hard truth you've been withholding from a player to protect their feelings, and what might it cost both of you if you keep waiting?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Culture System by JP Nerbun
Billy's TCC values, trust, care, and commitment, mirror the culture system framework JP outlines in this book: clear standards, built and reinforced on purpose.
Find it on Amazon here

Key Takeaways

• The Real Change Was Internal, Not Strategic
• From Hidden Journey to Open Book
• Coach Shoulder to Shoulder, Not Standing Over
• High Clarity Equals High Performance
• Protecting Culture Means Separating the Person from the Choice
• Serious Fun Replaced the Pressure to Perform

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Part 2, covering goal setting, the quit list, and building a program that outlasts you, drops next week.
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

A standard isn't a standard unless it's enforced. That's the line JP Nerbun keeps coming back to in this solo episode, his first since the podcast's earliest days back in 2017.

JP unpacks twelve mistakes transformational coaches make, opening with the story of Anson Dorrance, the UNC women's soccer coach who paired relationship-building with ruthless competition, and closing with the story of a former player, Akeel, whose season turned around once the team held the line.

This one is for coaches who've leaned hard into building relationships and empowering players, and who might be ready to hear where that approach needs more edge, not less.

Chapters(00:00) Intro: The Anson Dorrance Story
(03:30) Why JP Is Going Solo Today
(05:30) The 2016 Standards Story
(09:00) Mistakes 1-2: Winning and Intensity
(12:30) Mistakes 3-4: Self-Esteem, Belonging
(18:00) Mistakes 5-6: Happiness, Playing Hero
(21:30) Mistakes 7-8: Goals, Price to Belong
(25:00) Mistakes 9-10: Life Beyond Sports
(28:00) Mistakes 11-12: No Real Consequences
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"A standard isn't a standard unless it's enforced."
JP Nerbun

"Shut the door and make them open it."
JP Nerbun

"Empathy without accountability is a short-sighted attempt to relieve human suffering."
Anna Lembke, quoted by JP Nerbun

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: Where in our program do we say we have a standard, but haven't actually enforced it this season?

Q2: What's the price to belong on this team right now, and is it high enough that being here actually means something?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

Inside Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann
One of the foundational books on transformational coaching, and the source of the "Messiah complex" idea JP references in this episode.
Search "Inside Out Coaching Joe Ehrmann" wherever you buy books.

Key Takeaways

• Winning Still Matters for Transformational Coaches
• A Standard Isn't Real Until It's Enforced
• You Can't Give Players Self-Esteem, They Have to Earn It
• Real Consequences, Not Just Hard Conversations
• The Price to Belong Has to Be High Enough to Matter

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

LeBron James just left the Lakers for a shot at one more championship with the 76ers, and JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson use that move to dig into a question every coach eventually faces: what do you actually do with a player who has more talent, or more influence, than anyone else on your roster?

They unpack why coaches say nobody's bigger than the team but quietly lower standards the moment real talent shows up, what goes wrong when a superstar joins an established locker room without any groundwork, and why the best programs have the hard conversations about fit before signing day, not after.

Whether you're managing one dominant player or an entire roster of big personalities, this conversation will change how you think about talent, standards, and what it costs to hold both at once.

Chapters(00:00) Intro
(01:41) Would We Take a LeBron?
(03:46) When Personality Clashes With Culture
(07:52) Sport and Context Matter
(10:47) Every Problem Player Is Different
(13:49) Where Coaches Go Wrong Early
(18:09) Committing to Keep Talking
(22:52) Finding Shared Purpose
(26:14) Coaching the Team, Not Just the Star
(29:25) Individual Identity vs. Team Identity
(33:57) Doing the Work Before Signing Day
(36:32) When the Coach Takes the Fall
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"We say nobody's bigger than the team out loud, but when the rubber meets the road, we drop standards for the superstar."
- J.P. Nerbun

"It's not on the team to accept and integrate this new superstar. It's on the superstar to be intentional about developing the relationships that allow the superstar and the team to be successful."
- Betsy Butterick

"Let's just start with what's most important to them. Because oftentimes when we don't know what that thing is, we bang our head into the wall trying to fix these problems and issues that arise without really understanding what's most important to that player."
- Nate Sanderson

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: Where have we said "nobody's bigger than the team" out loud, but haven't backed it up with our actions?

Q2: If your most talented player joined the team tomorrow, who on the roster would need a conversation with you first, and have you had it yet?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Captain's Class by Sam Walker
Walker's research-backed case that unglamorous team captains, not the most talented rosters, are the real common thread behind sports' greatest dynasties.
Find it on Amazon here

Key Takeaways

• Standards Slip First for the Superstar
• The Superstar Should Adapt to the Team, Not the Other Way Around
• Vision and Values Let People Bring Themselves to the Team
• The Best Programs Do the Culture Work Before Signing Day
• Every Big Talent Comes With Someone Who Loses Something
• Start With What They Want Most

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

What happens after you finally admit the grind stopped working? That is where part two of this conversation with journalist Lindsay Crouse picks up.

Lindsay and JP dig into the physical cost of never backing off, talk through Simone Biles' 2021 Olympic decision, and unpack the "never enough" trap that keeps high achievers chasing a finish line that keeps moving. Lindsay also shares why she left a stable job for an uncertain one at The New York Times, and why she believes quitting is a muscle you build through practice, not a moment you arrive at with total certainty.

If part one left you rethinking what perseverance actually costs, this episode gives you a way to start putting it into practice.

Chapters(00:00) The Michael Phelps Burnout Pattern
(01:22) Jesse Diggins and Knowing the Limit
(02:48) Rest Was the Same as Decline
(03:40) Getting Athletes to Trust the Data
(04:51) The Batman Scar: Icing an Injury
(09:08) Simone Biles and the Real Spotlight
(13:29) The Never-Enough Trap
(17:00) Wants vs Needs
(19:30) Why She Left a Stable Job at the Times
(23:00) Building the Muscle to Quit
TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"Our culture teaches us that quitting is a failure, that we didn't try hard enough. But quitting can be the first step to something better."
Lindsay Crouse

"I think about some of the people I respect a lot. They've quit things, and I've really respected them for how they quit and the reasons why they quit."
JP Nerbun

"You just have to build this muscle around quitting. That's really the only way that we can grow."
Lindsay Crouse

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: What's one situation where you're pushing an athlete, or yourself, toward more, when the data or the body is already telling you it's time to pull back?

Q2: If quitting is a muscle, when's the last time you actually practiced it, on purpose, in something small?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Case for Quitting by Lindsay Crouse
A 15 year New York Times veteran makes the research-backed case that stepping back is often the braver, smarter choice than pushing through.
Find the book here

Key Takeaways

• Your Mind Lies About Your Limits, Your Body Doesn't
• Simone Biles Didn't Quit, She Read the Information
• Define "Enough" Before the Season Starts, Not During It
• Separate What You Want From What You Need
• Quitting Gets Easier With Practice, Not Certainty
• The Traits That Made You Good Don't Disappear When You Walk Away

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.