Coaches who only correct never connect.
“Negative experiences without teaching kill morale.” - Nick Saban
The hard moment isn’t the problem.
Leaving it without a lesson is.
That’s what transformational coaching actually looks like.
I think it's pretty simple: As a coach, be supportive (helping someone feel valued, understood, and capable of succeeding). As a coach, be demanding (holding others to clear, high standards and expecting accountability). Be demanding not demeaning!
80% of kids quit youth sports by age 13.
Eli Manning says he hopes his kids say:
“I want to ride home with your dad.”
That tells you everything.
Parents:
The game ends with the whistle.
The ride home decides if they want to keep playing.
Parents, Coaches, and Players choose your words, actions and body language wisely because we're all in the business of being difference makers! Say it often, "YTB'," You're The Best!"
Steve Kerr Coaching Gold🥇
“How are you going to coach your team?”
The #1 job of a coach is to create and build culture.
Culture is:
1. What you allow
2. What you emphasize
3. Every Day!
Culture Wins!
Lack of weight room/S & C nuances in High School sports is a hill I will die on
Limited respect or understanding of male/female, seasonality, considering the time of year for a sport, travel schedules, sport specific performance needs, load management, etc
Kind of sad really.
To the athlete struggling to find their passion:
I want you to know you will find your passion, but it may not be today. The monotony of the everyday grind, the tedious drills and practices, and the days where you aren’t really sure If you want to be there- here is something no one talks about: they are normal. Sometimes there’s only a spark now and then before you feel a fire. You will fall in and out of love with your sport as it smothers you with success and topples you with heartache until you and it’s place in your life find a mutual respect with one another .
You will find your passion again.
It didn’t disappear, it didn’t leave, no, it just needs a little encouragement to find it’s way to the surface. It needs to be reminded, this passion of yours, that it’s not the sport that defines it, but the consistency, discipline, and effort that this sport demands of you. No, it’s not your passion that dies, it’s your faith in your ability that does.
You either have faith or you don’t.
You either believe or you don’t. If you have faith in the unseen, then why is it so hard to have faith in what you can see and what others see in you. As a close friend said, “ You may wonder why you would be given a talent or be called to something You’re not passionate about or have lost passion for, “. I am here to tell you that not every calling or every talent we are given is passion led. I would actually argue that most aren’t. Success does not equal passion. You can have one without the other. If your passion were success based then you know the feeling of joyless victory and indifferent defeat. Success may help spark or grow your passion, but it won’t sustain it.
You’re overthinking it.
Have you ever wanted to know what happens at the end of the book so you can decide if it’s really worth starting the next chapter? You’re basing if you will begin off of where you may end. Knowing what I do now after my athletic career is over, there will rarely be someone that walks away from their sport and says I got everything I wanted to out of that. Yet millions of athletes get up and go to the next workout, the next practice, and the next competition with the faith in the simple fact that the only way they give themselves a chance to maybe feel that contentment one day down the road is showing up.
The time you spend- it is not wasted.
But what if I lose? What if I’m not the best? What if I spend all the time working towards this goal that I never achieved. You know what I say to that: you have made yourself the best guide to help someone else on their own path to that same goal. Passion, true passion, “is a strong barely controllable emotion” ( per Webster), it’s not something you keep to yourself. It spills out of you. Your calling and purpose in this world most likely will come from the passion you have regardless of the outcome of the goal you worked towards.
Start Small.
Find the little things that bring you that deep sense of joy within your sport. Use all your senses. Maybe it’s the ride to the field, maybe it is the laughter or silence in the recovery room after, and maybe it is as simple as the feeling you get when you realized you made it through a tough practice or conditioning. Where are the moments you feel most proud of yourself? Replicate that and journal it to read over and over on the days you feel like you may have forgotten it.
Passion: It is an emotion and just like other emotions we can sometimes learn to harness it and forget to let it loose again. Fear is that harness. If you want to dive into where your passion has gone- the first place I would look is where fear showed up.
Parents:
Some kids quit sports
without ever quitting their team.
They quit the pressure.
They quit the fear of disappointing you.
Lift the weight.
Your relationship ≠ playing time
Your love ≠ performance
Learn to simply say,
“I love watching you play.”
With break around the corner… “Coach, will I lose my gains?” The weight room is an educational setting. A 2 min demo can give student-athletes visual on why we do what we do. There’s not one right way to train, but smarter ways to train throughout the year. #cedarcreststrong
Next up is a Hometown Hero from Ashland, Mo. @gracieb2026 🙌
- Joins the Tigers this Spring
- 4x All-State Performer
- 3x Conference Player of the Year
#MIZ🐯🥎 | #OwnIt