The Winning Youth Coaching Podcast: Youth Sports | Coaching | Parenting | Family Resources

Donny Murray is currently a professional pitcher in the independent Frontier League. Donny is from Boston, was a 4 year starter at D1 Holy Cross, and also pitched 2 summers in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Falmouth Commodores. In 2016, Donny pitched the first no-hitter in USPBL (professional independent league) history. He also works with SuperSpeed Slugger, which is a bat speed training product being used by MLB teams and youth players of all ages. The WYC listeners can get 10% off SuperSpeed Slugger by using promo code “WYC”.

SuperSpeedSlugger.com

instagram.com/superspeedslugger/

twitter.com/speedslugger/

 

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Making Cuts

Always try to look at potential, and a huge factor is attitude and if they are coachable

Adjusting when losing talent

Be pre-emptive with your culture to get your players/coaches focused on the right things if the winning is going to drop off

It's even more important to develop your leaders when winning is going to be tough. A leadership council of 2 kids per grade can help prepare your younger leaders for when they are future captains.

2 types of captain:

1 - Vocal leader

2 - The hard-worker who just gets it done

Using video

Using video analysis is a great tool for a player and/or a coach

Teaching Skills

Take the time to evaluate a player before you start giving advice. Don't watch them for 1 rep and start changing things.

Then start with the fundamentals and get their foundation right.

Individualize your feedback!

The One that Got Away

Donny's last collegiate game - he just wasn't 'on.' It made him work that much harder to make sure it didn't happen again.

Best Stolen/Borrowed Idea

Make every practice drill a competition

SuperSpeed Slugger

Overspeed training - a set of 3 bats. 1 is 20% lighter, 1 is 10% lighter, and 1 is 5% heavier

Swing with both sides of the body (not just dominant hand). Great for injury prevention

Teaches the body to swing faster.

Within 6 weeks it's engrained in the body.

Only takes 7-8 minutes per day, 3 days per week

SuperSpeedSlugger.com

The WYC listeners can get 10% off SuperSpeed Slugger by using promo code “WYC”.

Parting Advice

Players and parents notice how much effort you put it to your coaching, and they will play harder for you if they think you are putting in the effort

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Amanda and Vickie practice Special Education law in Southern California. They also run a non-profit called Inclusive Education Project where they aim to level the playing field in academic settings for students living with disabilities. They co-host their own weekly podcast by the same name - the Inclusive Education Project Podcast and they feature conversations on how parents and teachers can best ensure an inclusive school environment.

Website: http:www.iepcalifornia.org

Podcast: Inclusive Education Project Podcast:  www.iepcalifornia.org/blog

Facebook: /IEPcalifornia

Twitter: @IEPcalifornia

 

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A different approach

Kids learn differently - kids with special needs might need things slowed down, show visually, or some other approach

Utilize the parents - they have lots of techniques that work well with their child

Peer role models and buddy systems work great, and benefit not only the kid with special needs but equally (if not more) it benefits the peer role model

Positive reinforcement is much more effective than negative reinforcement. Catch them doing something right

Breaking down skills into small pieces

The steps: Hearing what you're being asked to do, then seeing what you need to do, then physically doing it. Sometimes actually taking their arm or leg and doing the motion for them.

Handling emotions with kids with special needs

Address it, don't hide from it. Handle it the same as you would with any kid who gets upset - address it, teach them what is acceptable. Then re-focus them.

The parents are a great resource to get ideas

Reach out to the school to get more inclusive

P.E. teachers, school administrators could recommend a few kids that could be good candidates to join your team

Favorite Quotes

Quote: 'Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose' - Friday Night Lights

Quote: 'All of us do not have equal talents. But all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.' - JFK

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2018 will mark John Adair's fourth year at Coerver Coaching. Adair is the Regional Director for all of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, overseeing player development and coaching education. Prior to joining the Coerver Coaching staff, he has enjoyed success at both the club and high school levels in the South Jersey area.

Instagram: coachjohnadair

Twitter: @coachjohnadair

 

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Cringe moment

Early on John did a lot of cone drills and isolated movements without decision-making and learning the game through their own mistakes

Creativity and problem-solving

Instead of cones, set up small area games in confined spaces. 2 v 1's. 3 v 2's.

Training better individuals vs just winning as a team

Instead of 11 v 11, break the game into corridors and small area games

Use this mentality to create mini-goals so each unit has accountability and measurements to look at after games, not just wins/losses as a team

Constraints based coaching

Create games where players have a variety of choices, they learn skills while making decisions

Self-confidence for players

Focus on the process - so it's different for each player. Don't compare them with other kids. Use guided discovery through side conversations with players for them to uncover solutions to what they need to improve.

Team Culture

Involve the kids to get buy-in. Have the kids write down what they thing a good player on this team will do.

Great teambuilder

Have play days. The kids run the day, play mini-tournaments. Kids make all the decisions.

5 for 5

Spend at least 5 minutes talking to 5 different kids about something other than sports

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

John coached a kid who had the physical tools but not the technical and mental tools needed. The kid approached John and worked his butt off over the summer and went on to play college soccer.

The one that got away

Coaching a state playoff game, they played the underdog role too much, changed their tactics too much, and went away from what got them there. This led to a lack of confidence.

Best learned/stolen idea

Constraints based coaching. Make everything in practice relate back to the game and involve decision-making. Don't be reactive in practice-planning - set objectives and have a plan that you stick to.

Great resource: Youtube channel: Opposite Direction Coaching - Task constraints; Environmental constraints

Favorite Quote/Book

Quote: 'If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room'

Book: Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson

Parting Advice

Value the experience over winning, and the results will follow

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Tywanna Smith, President & Founder of The Athlete’s NeXus, has several years of experience working with professional athletes in a financial and business capacity. Smith earned her Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Marketing and her Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). She was also a four-year starter for the SEC program’s women’s basketball team, eventually taking her talents to Europe for a 2-year professional career.

As a Registered Financial Representative, Entrepreneur, and Best-Selling Author of Surviving the Lights: A Professional Athlete’s Playbook to Avoiding the Curse, Tywanna takes pride in her business professionalism and integrity. She is committed to helping each professional athlete become a better citizen, a better role model, and a better businessman.

Website: theathletesnexus.com

Book: Surviving the Lights

Facebook: /TheAthletesNeXus

 

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Transition

Athletes are always preparing for the next transition, on and off the field

Tywanna tore her ACL her junior year of high school - she used this as fuel when people starting to write her off.

The importance of education

Even if a student athlete's priority is to play college athletics, their grades will be extremely important in determining what opportunities they will be afforded

Off the field keys

Grades

Social media - future coaches, employers - will look over your entire history of social media posts

Mental toughness

It comes from the top down. The coach's energy and confidence in the players is very contagious.

Tough practices teach athletes how to deal with adversity, and they want competition

Visualization - Have the athletes close their eyes and visualize favorable results

Surviving the Lights

Preparing for all the different areas of life beyond sports

Book link

Coaching system: survivingthelights.com/

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

An athlete trying to play professionally was struggling to make in into the pros.

Tywanna worked with him to re-center - and reaffirm him what his gifts were and that he had great talents off the sports field

The one that got away

The day Tywanna tore her ACL her junior year, and her team was poised to win the state championship

But she says it was the best day in her life because it gave her the perspective on life that there's more to life than sports

Best learned/stolen idea

The balance between sports and life. Tywanna's college coach, when she walked out of practice was done with sports and focused on life off the court

Favorite quote

'If you stay ready, you never have to get ready'

Parting Advice

Take the edge off a little bit, it's just a game.

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Ben Kissam is a youth sports coach and writer in Denver, CO. Ben's areas of expertise are in relationship-based coaching and teaching, effective communication, and fusing lessons in sport and entrepreneurship.

Website & podcast: thecoachkshow.com

Facebook: /thecoachkshow/

Twitter: @thecoachkshow

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Coaching role models

Ben had 2 examples from his athletic career - 1 very positive and 1 very negative. He learned from both

Cringe moment

His attitude towards the kids - he thought they should just always do what he says. The lesson learned was to focus on getting buy-in instead of just mandating what should be done.

Practice format

Routines help. Teach them to run their own warm-ups.

Lots of reps, but get creative in making it competitive. It's also very important to start with the basics when explaining a skill and continue to reinforce what good looks like.

Good practice games

The gauntlet - Set up a 10 yard tunnel, and kids go 1 on 1 in it

Odd man situations - 3 on 2

Self-confidence

Teaching a growth mindset is key. Every failure is a step on the journey to success and it is a necessary part of learning.

Be a relationships-based coach. Focus on having as many 1 on 1 conversations with your kids as possible.

Captains

It's important to have a right-hand man. They can also help with communication - group texts, etc.

Four Quarter mentality culture

Setting up a practice plan that builds up the intensity throughout and emphasize finishing strong

Best team builder

Eating together. Pasta nights.

Connecting with kids

A goalie who Ben coached lacked confidence, and after working with him for 3 years he sees a totally different kid who now is confident

Favorite quote

'Athletes don't care how much you know until they know how much you care'

The one that got away

Ben coached a team of super talented, super knowledgeable kids.

They rolled through the regular season, and played a way lower ranked team in the first round of the playoffs, and lost.

Best Stolen Idea

Have a sense of urgency in practice. Create a long-term vision but create a sense of immediate urgency of the importance of every drill and everything you do in practice.

Favorite book

How to win friends and influence people - by Dale Carnegie

Parting Advice

Know one thing about each of your kids that has nothing to do with the sport, and check in with them about it.

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Carter Armendarez is a senior at Wesleyan University, where he's also captain of the wrestling team. Getting recruited to play sports in college is confusing to lots of athletes, but it really shouldn’t be. Carter has seen too many athletes fail to get recruited. So he made Acute Recruit’s College Recruitment Guide for Athletes so that doesn’t happen anymore.

Website: acuterecruit.com

Facebook: /Acute-Recruit-369368080173002/

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The best coaches...

Believed in me

Had me focus on becoming an expert in one skill vs trying to be OK at everything

Getting Recruited to college

The most overlooked area is grades

Start early

Coaches want to hear from the athlete, not their parents

Start a website to have as a landing page to share with coaches. Include:

A page with highlight films

An 'about me' with your accomplishments and bio

A contact page with your contact details and your coach's contact details

A big opportunity

A lot of D3 schools have trouble recruiting quality athletes because their academic standards are too high. This is a great opportunity for athletes who may not have been the highest level elite athlete in high school.

Contacting Coaches

Meet them in person at tournaments

Research schools you want to pursue and look up the coaches online

The one that got away

Carter lost by one point his senior year on the match to qualify for state

What he learned: He learned to play to his strengths

Best Stolen Idea

Quote from Tim Ferris when he asked an professional skier what the most important turns are on the run: 'The most important turns are the 3 years I spent preparing before the run.'

Parting Advice

Focus on the basics

Keep it fun!

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Michael Richards is the Owner and Operator of Elite Athletic Performance in Benton, Arkansas. After missing out on an opportunity to play collegiate baseball due to what he describes as  "Youthful ignorance and a slightly bad attitude", Michael began playing semi-pro baseball and attending his sophomore year of college. Shortly thereafter he began training fitness clients and young athletes as a sole proprietor. What started as a fun way to “Not get a real job” and make extra money in college, has turned into 16 years and approximately 30,000 hours of “in the trenches” training experience.

Today he strives every day to help kids be the best athlete and person they can be. A particular love for Velocity and Accuracy training for baseball and softball pitchers has led to a number of 90+ MPH clients, professional and collegiate coaching contacts, and a burning desire to learn new information whenever possible.

Website: eaperformancellc.com

Book : Your Student Athlete: Should Do, Must Do, and Don't: The "Owner's Manual" for parents to maximize their kid's time, help them perform better, and avoid injury

Facebook: /eliteathleticperformancellc/

Twitter: @EAPerform

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Grades and attitude as a high schooler

Michael had the athletic ability to play baseball beyond high school, but his attitude and his grades prevented him from that opportunity

Myths around youth sports

1 - Pitchers running day after pitching to flush the lactic acid buildup. J-bands (Jaeger bands) or massaging the muscles makes way more sense.

2 - Everyone needs to be hyper-flexible. Some people just aren't very flexible, and while some stretching can add a bit of flexibility, there are other things such as massage rollers and dynamic stretches that are much more beneficial.

Multi-sport athletes

 If kids love multiple sports, they should play them. But the belief that you must be a multi-sport athlete to be recruited to college is not always true. Especially in your junior and senior years -  Don't play a 2nd sport just to do it if you don't love it.

Travel ball and showcases

Don't fall into the trap of thinking the most efficient use of time is travel teams and showcases. Private lessons are often a much more time and cost efficient. And the lessons don't need to be year-round.

Favorite books/quotes

Book - Start with why by Simon Sinek

Quote - 'If I had asked my customers what they needed they would have told me a faster horse.' - Henry Ford

Parting Advice

Keep it simple and make sure they're having fun

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Kathy Feinstein is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Sport Performance Consultant (CMPC). Since 1998 her unique practice has empowered adolescents, adults, couples, families and teams to achieve greater satisfaction in sport, health and life. Kathy’s practice focuses on the 3 key areas: counseling, sport performance psychology and education through seminars and workshops. Kathy works with youth, high school, collegiate, adult amateur and professional athletes in such sports as golf, tennis, hockey, volleyball, basketball, figure skating, cheerleading, track and field, swimming and cycling. In addition to sport and exercise psychology consulting, she also offers team and coach consulting.

Website: kafcounselingandsportperformance.com

Podcast: Parenting Peak Performers Podcast

Facebook: /kafcounselingandconsulting/

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Being a crazy sports parent

Kathy got really excited about her daughter riding horses, but she lost sight of doing what's best for her daughter

Performance Anxiety

The first step is to normalize the need - kids need to know that performance anxiety is very normal

The importance of breathing

Anxiety is all about the future. What if...

Breathing is all about the present.

If you can do this 20 minutes per day, it changes your mindset

When you inhale, there will be a cool sensation at the tip of your nostrils. When you exhale, there is a warm sensation at the tip of your nostrils.

When you do this, you will start having some thoughts. Without any judgement, bring your focus back to the breath. Do this over and over again.

Do this for 5 minutes with your team, your coaches, your players, etc.

Recovery routines

Having a discharge routine - if you are upset about something, have a quick discharge routine to flush away the past. Then have a different re-focus routine that gets you back in the moment and focused on the future.

Growth Mindset

Encourage kids to take risks, risk making mistakes. Mistakes are an opportunity to get better.

Confidence inventory

Have kids make a list of all of their accomplishments. Then have them read it before a performance.

Post-competition routine

After routines, write down what you did well, then add 1 or 2 things you want to do better next time

Visualization

You have to train how to visualize: Have the athlete do a simple activity (touch your toes and and jump in the air.) Then have them close their eyes and visualize doing that same activity.

The more vivid the visualization is, the more effective it is. Try to involve as many senses as possible

Visualization exercise:  Imagery Exercise - KAF

The one that got away

Kathy had a presentation that went bad and she got stuck. She learned a new way to prepare for presentations, where she focuses on the audience and their needs.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

The post-performance routine

Well-better-next

Favorite Quotes/books

Quote: 'What is before us and what is behind us are small matters compared to what's within us' - Emerson

Book: The Champions Mind by Jim Afremow

Book: Getting Grit by Caroline Adams Miller

Parting Advice

Ask kids about what mistakes they made today - and be excited about them and celebrate them

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Steve and his wife Kerry started their first camp in 2008, and only 4 summers later, the camp was declared “Best Summer Camp” in Hartford Magazine’s Readers Poll and their programs have received tremendous positive coverage from area media outlets. Now over 1000 kids have come to recognize that “Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport” and kids from throughout the U.S. and beyond are attending their programs.

Website: 241Sports.com

Facebook: /241SportsLLC

Twitter: @241Sports

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Walking-on to his college basketball team

Steve was probably the 4th best player on his high school basketball team. He approached his coach and said he thought he could play D1 basketball. His coach did everything but laugh at him.

That fueled him to go on and start for his D1 team in college

He now takes pride in living life as a 'walk-on.' Trying things he has no experience with and taking risks.

Lesson for coaches: Be careful about ever telling a kid 'this just isn't your sport'- you never know when someone will be a late-bloomer or just outwork the others.

Physical Literacy and Project Play

Physical Literacy - The ability, the confidence, and the desire to be physically active for life

The Quality Coaching Collective - QCoachingCollective.com

Livewellpower.com

2-4-1 Sports

Camps that promote sport sampling

Now in Connecticut, Denver, and 2 more locations coming soon

Recent great books read

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Born a crime  by Trevor Noah

Parting Advice

Be as genuine and honest as you can with your athletes. Value being trusted over being liked.

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Jenn Casey is the Program Director for CrossFit Kids and Swing Fit (a Kettlebell Sport class) at CrossFit Kennesaw in Marietta, Georgia. She is the President and Co-Founder of Georgia Kettlebell Sport, which has the mission to develop and promote Kettlebell Sport in the state of Georgia and the greater Southeast Region of the US. She is developing a youth-focused Kettlebell Sport program and is taking her youth team on their first road trip in December 2017. Jenn is an active Kettlebell Sport athlete and in 2017 was chosen to participate in the IUKL World Championship in Seoul, South Korea as part of Team USA where she placed 4th in 16kg One Arm Long Cycle.

Facebook: /CrossFitKennesaw/ ; /gakettlebellsport/

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Quitting at age 13, because it wasn't fun anymore

Jenn was on the team track in gymnastics, but by age 12 or 13 she quit because it wasn't fun anymore. Then she didn't do much of any athletic activity for 2 decades.

At age 39 she jumped into Crossfit

Kettlebell

Look like a cannonball with a handle

You can use them for hip-hinge movements, but they also can be great for cardio

The competitive side of the sport involves Kettlebell overhead lifts

The competitive side involves how many overhead lifts you can do in 10 minutes

Keeping the fun in movement

Give kids lots of opportunities for success and catch them doing things right

Ask lots of question - 'where do I put my feet in a squat?', etc.

Definitely praise when they self-correct

Rep / No-rep - Coach does a rep, some correctly and some incorrectly, then the kids call out whether that was a good rep or a no-rep.

Good analogies

'Glue your feet to the ground. Pretend you have concrete blocks on your feet'

'Your knees don't like each other'

'Pretend you are lifting an elephant over your head'

Mental toughness

Jenn was a kid who was good in practice, then would freeze up in competition/tryouts

Breathing is key to keep your heart rate steady

Do practice reps using the same routine you will use in games

The Talent Code - by Daniel Coyle

Mindset - by Carol Dweck

Mastery - by Robert Greene

Coaching Better every season - by Wade Gilbert

Start with Why - Simon Sinek

Best borrowed/stolen ideas

Gamifying deliberate practice

Parting Advice

Find the fun in whatever you're doing.

Get the kids involved. Have them help design a practice.

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