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

Dr. Steve Grosserode and Dr. Jared Vagy were collegiate athletes and soccer players. Both suffered injuries that affected their ability to play and led to the pain of lifelong injury. Determined to figure out why injuries happen and how to prevent them lead both to pursue our Doctorates in Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California, the #1 ranked program in the country. It was at USC that they began to understand how to prevent injury. After nine years of study, the singular reason for continued injury became clear; misaligned movement.

Through many years of research and practice, they consolidated there plan into a three step process. The three step system popularized and they began teaching seminars internationally to soccer coaches on how to prevent injury. They soon realized that we needed to spread the word to as many players, coaches and parents as possible. They knew that if they could stop injuries from occurring, they would be able to change the course of a player’s career and life. They now have written ebooks and have an online academy to share what they have learned, much of which we will discuss in this episode.

Website: yourmovementsolutions.com

Link to the ebook from website and a link to the paperback version on Amazon available after Sept 1st:

Prevent Soccer Injuries eBook

Prevent Soccer Injuries Paperback Amazon

 

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Quote

'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.'

Injury Prevention Discussion

How do ACL injuries and other non-contact injuries happen and who is most at risk?

How has sports injury prevention changed over the years? What does the current research show?

Why do these injuries continue to occur in youth sports?

What are the best methods to prevent injuries in youth sports?

How do you make an injury prevention program specific for each individual player?

What can parents and players do to stop injuries?

How can coaches help prevent these injuries?

Lessons learned on these topics

Learn what to watch for in athletes - A knee diving in, body leaning off to one side

A large majority of non-contact injuries can be avoided - it's by identifying high-risk athletes - there are 5 specific movements that put athletes at the highest-risk

Early sports specialization is a big cause of dramatic increase in ACL injuries

Videotaping athletes on the field and then analyzing their movements is a really effective method

3 Step process for coaches

1 - Analyze movement

2 - Provide exercises for homework to change movement

3 - Coaches give cues to athletes when they see

Static stretching - Don't do it before practice/game. 10 minutes of Dynamic stretching before the practice/game is good, then static stretching can be done after the practice/game - or even better is to do static stretching throughout the day. Muscle-Activation exercises with bands before you do the dynamic warm-up is the latest and best method - see more at yourmovementsolutions.com

Parents - Add an exercise to your kid's bedtime or morning routines to strengthen their muscles

Favorite coaching book/quote

Quote: 'It's not ease, but effort; it's not facility, but difficulty, that makes oneself. There is perhaps nothing in life in which difficulties have not been encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.'

Quote: 'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.'

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Corey Bridges is a former NFL wide receiver who played for the Bears, Vikings, and Browns. He also had an outstanding football, track and baseball career at Newnan High School and football  and track star at the University of South Carolina, including many All-SEC honors and the SEC 60 meter sprint champion. He has spent the last 10 years training athletes from the youth to the professional level. Corey founded C4 Performance, Personal and Professional Sports Performance Specialist. C4 specializes in the following: Toning & Sculpting; Flexibility/Stability/Mobility; Body Fat Reduction; Stretching; Injury Preventive Program (FMS); Strength and Conditioning; and Speed Training. He was recently featured in a Sports Illustrated article leading up the the Olympics: si.com/vault/2016/03/29/ping-pong-physicality.

Website: nsta.net

Twitter: @CoreyBridges004, @NSTA_ATL

Facebook: /Norcross-Sports-Training-Academy, C4-Performance-trainingfitness

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Quote

'If it is to be, it's up to me' - Max Bass

Sports Illustrated article - training a ping-pong player for the Olympics

Corey trained Timothy Wang, Olympic table tennis player

Corey didn't know much about the sport, so he watched Timothy play and analyzed the movements, then created a workout routine to focus on the critical areas

Article: si.com/vault/2016/03/29/ping-pong-physicality

Coaching your own kids

Let them play. Keep it fun.

Strength and Conditioning

Always think through the purpose of every drill - ask a lot of why's. Why are we doing this drill? Why are we doing it this way?

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

Give kids the opportunity to see improvement.

Take the emphasis off their individual achievement and turn it around to have them want to run through a wall for the team and for you

Culture 

Corey was part of a World Bowl Champion team. This team had great culture because:

They alternated starting every other game. Took away jealousy.

They sometimes had to play both ways because they were short on players

Being in a culture outside of their own (they were in Germany) helped them bond

Army term: 'You gotta know who's got your 6'

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

Corey coached who a kid who made some bad decisions and got kicked off his high school team. Corey was patient and just committed to being a great listener with him. After earning his trust, the young man opened up more and more and Corey now is a mentor who has changed the direction of this young man's life.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Everybody steals most of their ideas, the key is to make it your own and individualize everything based on the needs of the team/person

Favorite coaching book/quote

'If it is to be, it's up to me' - Max Bass, Corey's high school coach

Norcross Sports Training Academy

Gray Institute - Gift Fellows - Corey did 3 year training program that changed his paradigm. Specifically on biomechanics.

Check out more at: nsta.net

Parting Advice

Don't make it about you. Make it about the kids.

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Related Episodes

WYC 030 Performance Training – Amanda Kephart from Akron General Sports Performance talks getting faster, stronger, and more powerful

WYC 085 – Performance Training – Bryan Schwebke talks Building a Strong Base

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Reviews are the lifeblood of the podcast!

Glen Mulcahy is a speaker with a down to earth flair who shares his knowledge from a lifetime of involvement in multi-levels of sport. Glen has a degree in Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia, is a contributor to One Million Skates and both an instructor and regional evaluation coordinator for BC Hockey. As a Hockey Canada NCCP instructor/mentor of adult coaches for BC Hockey, Glen has now certified over 2000 coaches in the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association since 2009. He brings a 360 degree view of sports that is unique, from that of a youth athlete, to a coach of various sports for 20+ years and also parent of two children playing both recreational and competitive sports.

His lifetime in sports includes honors while playing various team sports including municipal banners as well as provincial titles in Hockey, Football and Rugby.   His belief in focusing on transformational long term developmental vs. transactional short term immediate results orientated coaching you will find both refreshing and inspiring. Glen is passionate about sharing what he has learned to bring the game back to the kids and lead others to do the same.

Websites: paradigmsports.ca; changingthegameproject.com/hire-a-speaker/

Twitter: @IncParadigm

Facebook: /Paradigm-Sports-1653362264912581

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Quote

'Who you are as a person is far more important than who you are as a basketball player' - John Wooden

Coaching your own kids

Glen was shocked by how early the parents are pushing for competitive games

Youth sports: It's not about banners and wins, it's about the kids. Teach them to love the game.

UPDATE on Travel Sports Math & # of Touches: USA Hockey has been implementing 'Cross-Ice' to create more small area games and increase touches

My Cringe Moments

Glen put both of his hands on a kid's shoulders and was talking to him - the kid was laughing . The kid's parents were watching and thought he was shaking their child and thought the kid was crying. Glen learned that as a coach you are in a fishbowl so be wise with all of your actions.

Teaching Skills

The curse of knowledge - sometimes it's hard for athletes to remember how to go back and teach the most basic skills.

If you have many different skill levels - breaking kids into developmental groups can help all the kids stay challenged. Creative names for the groups helps also: Superman group, Batman group, etc.

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

P&R - Patience & Repetitions

Glen had a kid who couldn't understand the concept of offsides, even after 3+ years of coaching.  Glen knew the kid played an NHL video game, so Glen asked the kid to turn the Offsides option on while playing the game. The kid did it, and totally understood the concept going forward.

Glen saw another coach berate his 13 year-old son for trying a new type of pass, so Glen focuses on encouraging the kids to be aggressive and that mistakes when trying something new are great.

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

3 standards his teams have:

1 - Don't be late

2 - No profanity

3 - Respect each other, your parents, your teammates, your officials, your competitors

Rewards - After games the kids go around and compliment something the person next to them did well.

MVP - Don't just give MVP rewards to your leading goal scorers, recognize kids doing the dirty work

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

Pelle Nejman is a Philadelphia native and graduate from Penn State's Sports broadcasting school. He is a teacher and coach in Danville, Pennsylvania. He has coached football and currently coaches girls basketball.

 

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A few days left to sign up: Coaching Mastery - with John O'Sullivan

Many of you know that I work closely with John O'Sullivan and the Changing the Game Project. John's is an internationally known writer and speaker, as well as a former professional soccer player and longtime coach. We share a lot of each others content as we work to transform youth sports and make it a better place for coaches to coach, and for players to play.

This week - for the first and only time in 2016 - John is releasing his amazing online video series called "Coaching Mastery." He first ran this course in the Fall of 2014, and since then coaches from nearly every sport, from over a dozen different continents, have called it one of the most unique and inspirational coaching courses they had ever done. I was lucky enough to be one of the select few coaches John offered it to last year, and the things I learned really blew me away.

See, this course is not your traditional X's and O's course. It is all about things such as the psychology of performance and leadership, how to build a winning team culture, and even how to educate your team parents so they don't drive you up the wall. He has some amazing interviews with some of the world's leading experts in sport science and psychology, coaching, and leadership. The things you will learn in this course will take yoru coaching, and your teams, to a whole new level.

This course is truly one of a kind.

If you are interested in this type of coaching, John has asked me to invite all of you to his FREE video series, where over the next 2 weeks you will learn many of these things, and hear from some amazing experts. You also get a free eBook copy of his international bestseller Changing The Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids just for registering for the FREE series.  All you have to do to get over an hour of this one of a kind coaching and leadership training, plus a free book, is go here and sign up:

Click here to get started

I know I am looking forward to the 2016 version of Coaching Mastery and I am confident that many of you will get a ton from this free video series. Its all new content, and I can't wait to get started.

Again, if you want to join, just sign up here.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this course.

(I am an affiliate for this course, so if you decide to sign up - please sign up through one of the links above - Thanks!!)

Quote

'Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle' - Abraham Lincoln

My Cringe Moments

I talked WAY too much

Teaching Skills

Different learning styles - Some kids are visual, some audio, some hands on - So use multiple styles to teach

Break everything down into small groups. If he has 15 girls, he will break down into 5 stations of 3.

When running plays - split the court in 2 and stand in the middle and have 2 groups running a bunch of reps

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

It starts with you being calm as a coach. If tension is building in a game- call a timeout and tell a joke and be relaxed.

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

It all starts with establishing standards.

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Today’s episode is a bit different from the norm, instead of interviewing a great coach, this week’s episode is a compilation of the interviews I did while at the conference. There are a few sound bites with me sharing a lesson I learned, and definitely don’t miss the 18 minute interview with the leaders – I call them the 3 J’s - Dr. Jerry Lynch, John O’Sullivan, and James Leath. So hopefully this is a great way for you to be able to absorb a little of the great content even if you weren’t able to make it out to Colorado. Also - just FYI - they are planning to do 2 or 3 more of these conferences around the country next year, so stay tuned at changingthegameproject.com or wayofchampions.com.

Listen Now:

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Coaching Mastery - with John O'Sullivan

Many of you know that I work closely with John O'Sullivan and the Changing the Game Project. John's is an internationally known writer and speaker, as well as a former professional soccer player and longtime coach. We share a lot of each others content as we work to transform youth sports and make it a better place for coaches to coach, and for players to play.

This week - for the first and only time in 2016 - John is releasing his amazing online video series called "Coaching Mastery." He first ran this course in the Fall of 2014, and since then coaches from nearly every sport, from over a dozen different continents, have called it one of the most unique and inspirational coaching courses they had ever done. I was lucky enough to be one of the select few coaches John offered it to last year, and the things I learned really blew me away.

See, this course is not your traditional X's and O's course. It is all about things such as the psychology of performance and leadership, how to build a winning team culture, and even how to educate your team parents so they don't drive you up the wall. He has some amazing interviews with some of the world's leading experts in sport science and psychology, coaching, and leadership. The things you will learn in this course will take yoru coaching, and your teams, to a whole new level.

This course is truly one of a kind.

If you are interested in this type of coaching, John has asked me to invite all of you to his FREE video series, where over the next 2 weeks you will learn many of these things, and hear from some amazing experts. You also get a free eBook copy of his international bestseller Changing The Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids just for registering for the FREE series.  All you have to do to get over an hour of this one of a kind coaching and leadership training, plus a free book, is go here and sign up:

Click here to get started

I know I am looking forward to the 2016 version of Coaching Mastery and I am confident that many of you will get a ton from this free video series. Its all new content, and I can't wait to get started.

Again, if you want to join, just sign up here.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this course.

(I am an affiliate for this course, so if you decide to sign up - please sign up through one of the links above - Thanks!!)

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Interviews & Sound Bites from WOC Conference

Craig - Description of how to create self-affirmation 3x5 card

Craig - Description of fun Rock,Paper,Scissors,Cheerleader Energy Builder

18 minute interview of Dr. Lynch, John O'Sullivan, and James Leath: Self-affirmation; Building Energy levels at the beginning of practice; Building championship culture in our families; Taking ONE action; Simplifying your playbook; the importan...

Dr. Bryan Schwebke is the founder of Paramount Performance as well as a performance physical therapist, coach and consultant. Bryan has worked with some of the world's best athletes as well as many college and youth athletes. He is dedicated to providing athletes and their parents with the guidance, education and tools to safely and efficiently reach their goals.

Website: paramountperformancept.com

Facebook: /ParamountPerformancePT

Twitter: @ParamountPfrmPT & @BryanSchwebke

Youtube: Paramount Performance

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Quote

'On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt'

Topics/Questions

What is the biggest problem you notice with the athletes you see on a daily basis?

Their base isn't strong enough to support what they are trying to do

What do you think is causing this problem?

Throwing kids into strenuous environments too early - specifically travel teams

What happens if you don’t have a strong base ?

Performance is decreased and recovery time from injury is increased

How can you fix or build a strong base? How do you know if you don’t have a strong base?

You probably don't. Have them evaluated by a physical therapist and create a gameplay. This could start around 5th grade.

What is the Athlete Centered Model and what is your Performance Team?

Instead of having 4 or 5 different people coming up with a gameplan for an athlete (physical therapist, nutritionist, skills coach, personal trainer) - have all of them work together to come up with a joint gameplan

What are the biggest restrictions to coaches and parents not being able to give their kids a good base.

Lack of education and understanding where to invest your time and money as a parent

Multi-sport athletes have advantages

Story on multi-sport athletes: Steve Boyle podcast

Self-confidence & Peak mental performance

Visualization can be key to recovering from injury

It does NOT mean you are weak if you need to practice and work on the mental side of the game

Visualization - free throw shooters who had 60% average

Practiced 500 shots per day - improved to 70%

Visualized their shot for 20 minutes per day - improved to 83%

Practiced 500 shots per day and visualized 20 minutes per day - improved to 85%

Website: paramountperformancept.com

Functional warm-ups

Make sure it's applicable to the sport you are playing

Needs to activate the muscles

A couple good examples:

Alan Stein's basketball warm-up - Link

Amanda Kephart's warm-up description - Link

Outside of practice:

1 - Forget your ego - You probably aren't an expert in performance training - learn from others

2 - Promote multiple sports

3 - Promote education for parents and athletes on why it's important

4 - There's more to being a coach than just practicing - bring in other experts - nutritionists, personal trainers, sports psychologist

Favorite quote

Quote: 'On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt'

Paramount Performance

Check them out - they can help you find and vet local trainers in your area

Website: paramountperformancept.com

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Reviews are the lifeblood of the podcast!

Ryan Hohman has lived in the Pennsbury School District for 29 years and has been working with children since he was ten years old when his mother ran an in home daycare out of his home in the Thornridge section of Levittown. He attended West Chester University and graduated with a degree in education, and after two years of teaching in the city of Philadelphia, Ryan returned to Pennsbury where he has served as a Language Arts teacher and head basketball coach at William Penn Middle School for the past 10 years. Coach Hohman has established a reputation as a dedicated and passionate teacher both in the classroom and on the court. He has established Lady Falcons Elite Hoops to offer the level of basketball instruction that the girls of his beloved community deserve. Coach Hohman lives in the North Park section of Levittown with his wife Brooke and their two daughters Joley and Nola.

Facebook: /LFEHoops

Website: ladyfalconselitehoops.org

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Quote

'It's about we, not about me'

If you can't find the youth sports program you want...start your own!

Ryan was frustrated with the lack of attention the leaders of the youth basketball program were giving to the girls side of the program

They did a bunch of research on how to start a non-profit, did a Gofundme, and launched program with 250+ girls in the 1st year and going into year 3 they will have 450+ girls!

Coaching your own kids

'You told me to pass more' - Ryan was very stubborn when his dad coached him, and one time after scoring 27 points, his dad told him to pass more, so for the next couple games Ryan overreacted and took it to the opposite spectrum

Ryan goes with the 'I love to watch you play' after coaching his daughters

Ryan wants 'Try-hards' - kids that give it their all

My Cringe Moments

Most of all of Ryan's cringe moments are sarcastic things he said to refs

The second thing was he used to take the results of all the games way too personally

Teaching Skills

You have to establish what the core fundamentals are that the level of kids you are coaching need

Make skill work fun and turn it into a game

With smaller kids it often starts with their feet!

Good game: Defensive slide duck-duck-goose: So you play the normal game but have to do defensive slide when running around the circle.

Another good game: Jump stop Mr. Fox

Mental Toughness/Achieving Peak Performance

Biggest thing a coach can do to help his kids: SMILE. Remind them that this is fun

Jay Bilas' book Toughness talks about 'Next Play' - you can't worry about previous plays, bad calls, etc. - you need to focus on the Next Play

All you can control is yourself and preparation, so don't worry about things outside of your control

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

Anytime they refer to people involved in the program they talk about the LFE Family. They constantly hashtag #LFEFamily

Establishing mentors within the program - Have the older girls connect with the younger girls

The standard is that everyone is going to work hard

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

Ryan coached a team that had a really tough situation with a girl who had a serious eating disorder - the team rallied around helping this girl out and it actually brought the team together

The One that got away

They have one team that spooks his girls - the best thing he has found is just to be prepared.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Troy Silva is the author of the #1 bestselling book on Amazon & iTunes for coaching baseball - 9 Innings of Hitting. Troy spends his days coaching baseball at Rijo Athletics in the Seattle area. Troy has spent his life playing and coaching baseball, including being drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1997 and playing 6 years of professional baseball. Troy is married and has 3 beautiful children.

Book: 9 Innings of Hitting

Twitter: @TroyPSilva

Facebook: /Rijo-Athletics-Baseball-Softball-49661522946

Websites: rijoathletics.com ; rijobaseball.tv

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Quote

'Hitters have to be smart enough to have a  good approach and dumb enough to get in there and hit.'

Pretty swings vs. developing consistent swings in players

Swing instruction is different than hitting instruction - you need someone to develop the concept of hitting. It starts with the swing, but that's just the first step in the process of hitting.

Each individual has different needs

Early on while Troy was coaching - he realized that kids weren't necessarily getting better, they were just looking better. He was trying to teach them all one way to swing, instead of working with each individual's strengths.

Mental Toughness

There is a huge difference between expecting to hit the ball vs. trying to hit the ball

Mental approach actually has a physical effect on batspeed

Mental approach - how do you not overthink when at the plate?

'Hitters have to be smart enough to have a  good approach and dumb enough to get in there and hit.'

'Free hitters up to be athletic and just get in there and compete'

Quiet the mind - it's ok to be thinking about 1 thing while at bat - just don't start complicating it by thinking of 5 or 10 different things you need to do

Teaching progression

A great start is just to have kids watch their favorite big-leaguer and copy what they are seeing.

Start with mechanics. Then it comes down to the individual and what they need to become a productive hitter. Great progression chart in the book 9 Innings of Hitting

Should we teach the ‘oppo first’ approach when setting up our batting practices?

You should learn power first and how to swing hard BEFORE learning how to hit to the opposite field

HIT - Honor, Integrity, Truth

As a Christian, Troy uses baseball to be a light in a dark world.

As a coach your job is to be a mentor and positive influence in these young peoples' lives.

The One that got away

Being drafted as a pitcher was really tough for Troy

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Ed Sheft - Mental toughness - You have to know you are better than your competitor

Favorite coaching/leadership quote/book

Personal experience is the best teacher

Rijo Athletics and 9 Innings of Hitting

Online video hitting/fielding portal with over 300 videos: rijobaseball.tv

Book by Jose Rijo: Creating Winning Relationships through Sports

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Greg Robinson has spent 6 years developing a non-contact system to train athletes ages 3 to 11 to catch, throw, and kick footballs. In 2015 he helped launch iYouthFootball to do just that. iYouthFootball is a system that can be brought to any town and can be taught by anyone regardless of their level of football experience. In this episode we discuss this system as well as other secrets to teaching kids skills.

Twitter: @iYouthFootball

Facebook: /iyouthfootball

Website: iyouthfootball.com

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iYouthFootball

Complete training curriculums for coaches, orgs, and parents to teach fb skills on the field to kids ages 3-11.

Great chance to improve skills for a position you don't get to play on with your team (i.e. a big/tall kid who wants to play quarterback but because of his size always gets put on the line)

They offer complete training packages and territory ownership to coaches, parents, and/or organizations

Website: iyouthfootball.com

Teaching Skills

Set the expectations up front. With the parents and the kids - This is what we are going to be learning, and these are the expectations of how you need to act so that we can achieve these goals.

Age-appropriate - Make sure you are making your drills age appropriate - this includes the size of the ball you are using.

Impacting Kids

The ultimate satisfaction as a coach is seeing the lightbulb go off when teaching a kid how to improve a skill

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Greg's high school football coach is in the Pennsylvania hall of fame - and he was a disciplinarian, who kept things simple and would only run a few plays but they would practice them over and over again until they perfected them. The details are important. RUN LESS PLAYS!

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John just finished his first year as the the Brownsburg Lacrosse High School Head Coach after 2 years as the 7th/8th grade coach.  John played collegiate lacrosse as a goalie at San Jose State University. He was named a West Coast Lacrosse League (WCLL) All-Star 3 times.  Coach Doss also played 3 years of post-collegiate lacrosse with San Francisco Lacrosse Club and still remains active as a player with DOGS Lacrosse in Indianapolis.

John previously joined us in WYC Episode 52, but I asked him to join us again to share the awesome ways he has built an incredible culture into his program.

Twitter: @laxcoachdoss

Websites: brownsburglacrosse.com; indyelitelacrosse.com

 

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Starting a High School program

Communication

High school kids don't check email much - so you might have to text or use a social media group

Own it - if the kids aren't understanding something, that's on me, not them

Everything starts with trust - 'Build a relationship so strong that it bears the weight of honesty'

Mission 2 Assist

How do you have kids value assists as much as goals?

John used system described by Willie Cromack in WYC Episode 63:

John worked with 3 of the team captains to let them take ownership of it

They partnered with an adaptive sports wheelchair lacrosse program

They used the walk-a-thon type forms to fundraise - but used assists as the pledge criteria

By the end of the season they have raised almost $10k for that organization

Link to Go Play Better: GoPlayBetter.com

Culture and pre-game routine

They have helmet stickers with 3 chain links. In their pre game they link arms and talk about how strong a chain is and how they are there to play for the person on their right and left

The second part of their pre-game routine they share with each other what they are grateful for

The final thing they do is visualize, as specifically as possible, the success they are going to have in the game

Post-game talks & the 24 Hour Rule

John has converted the 24 hour rule that he uses with parents (parents don't talk to me about issues for at least 24 hours after a game)- he now uses that same rule to not point out issues to his players immediately after the game. They usually aren't in the mindset to listen or learn, so he saves it for the next practice.

Communicating with players - the '0 for 2' Rule

When communicating instructions from the sideline - be careful not to go 0 for 2 - meaning your communication had a negative tone, and had no instructional value. Yelling 'play harder' or 'catch the ball' are examples of 0 for 2 communication.

Free Play Saturdays

This summer John is telling parents they can drop off their kids from 4 to 6 every Saturday and there will be pick-up games. Their will be 2 or 3 coaches there to make sure everyone is staying safe, but other than they the coaches are staying out of the way and letting the kids figure out teams, resolve arguments, pretty much do everything themselves. This is great not only for developing their skills, but it also teaches them conflict resolution and many other great life skills.

Parting Advice

John asked one of his kids: 'If I told you that if you practiced wall-ball for 25 minutes 3 times per week that I would guarantee you start and play 100% of the time next season, would you do it?' - The kid answered 'Yes', then John asked him 'Then why aren't you doing that now?