Every Coach Needs A Coach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cROmfTGXEyM Mike Tyson was on the goal cast podcast, and tells a story of meeting Frank Sinatra in the early 90s, why Tyson was in his prime. Sinatra slyly walked by him as he was leaving the event and he said “listen kid, it’s not how good you’re doing , it’s about how long you’re doing good.” Any one of us could have a winning season or a fluke game, but consisten...

Adam Bradley is the founder of Lead Em Up, which is a curriculum for developing leaders through team sports. I recently joined the lead em up community, and will certainly keep you all posted on how i like it and how it’s working with our team. They hosted a webinar yesterday about the art of building connected teams. Stay with me on this, it’s a good lesson. Adam uses an exercise called ‘going fo...

Doug Lemov , in his book ‘The Coaches guide to teaching’, he talks a LOT about feedback and  on page 139 he says- praise the good when they’ve done it , that way there is no doubt that they CAN do it, they already have ! Now “do it again” rather than, “Do it this way” When we offer feedback, we tend to overanalyze and over explain, and over talk. Our kids lose focus (look at their eyes next t...

I once was upset at the effort of a few players on the 8th grade travel softball team I was coaching. So, I yelled. I like to think I encouraged loudly, but I yelled. I was just at the start of opening my PT clinic, and felt like if they were going to lolly-gag, why on earth would I waste my time with them at practice? Then I found out that one of their mom's had passed away from cancer the year b...

We were on vacation last week, and our dog had an upset stomach one night because he stole a piece of coffee cake off the countertop. We were sharing the house with my brother, and I didn’t want to wake anyone, so I tried to wash my hands in our bathroom, but my husband had locked the door while he was in the shower. I was tired, grumpy, and when I tried to open that door and it was locked, I was...

In my PT clinic, I better have a good reason for asking a patient to do an exercise, or get up and down off the ground, or walk every day, or check their blood pressure, or let me stretch them out into sometimes painful ranges of motion. There better be a why, and usually, it better be a good one. This idea of ‘reasons’ was drilled into me when I was a student and out on my clinical rotations. Eve...

We went to see Billy Joel at MSG a few weeks ago. He was incredible. I told a patient about it, and how the first half of the show was for real billy joel fans (I hardly knew any of the songs), and the second half was all his hits (a giant singalong with 20,000 people).  She brought up a good point, in taht he must get kind of bored singing the same songs and playing them performance after pe...

I walk my dog a few times a day, and last week was on vacation. He loves to swim (He’s a chocolate lab), and when we’re down the shore, I usually am more lenient on the rules with walking (as there are not as many cars or other dogs/dangers), so I walk him on a very long, 30’ leash. He can roam around, smell, explore a neighbor’s tree or steps, and usually comes back to me. If he sees a person or...

There was a big storm one day and thousands of starfish washed up on shore. A beach walker was there early in the morning and saw the results of the storm. He knew starfish can’t survive long without water, so he started picking them up one by one and hurling them back into the ocean. There were thousands upon thousands of them, and it took him a few seconds to rescue each one. A bystander watched...

226 Episodes in, and do you know how easy it is for me to tell anyone i appreciate them? I say it to the mailman, my patients, my players, my AD, my husband and family, my vet, the people who pump my gas, our principle and maintenance staff. Literally everyone. I have to credit Coach Lenny Krebs for that phrase. He signs his e mails with it and a few years ago when we met , he sent me something an...

A couple of my kids are struggling with their college essay prompt. My understanding is that they have a lot of freedom to express who they are in those 600 words. They asked me what they should write it on, and I suggested something a little bit morbid. I suggested that they write their own obituary or eulogy. That does two things, number one gives them the opportunity to say Coach Kelley passed...

I am bad at surprises and lying. I enjoy being pleasantly surprised, but I startle and scare easily. I tell my kids what our fitness tests are going to be, and try to give them a timeline of when they will be tested on them. The point of the fitness tests is not to see how fast they are. The point of the fitness test is to get them to prepare to take the fitness test. That preparation puts the mil...

We all know the players who are coachable. They look us in the eye, they give us 100% without us asking for it all the time. They hold their teammates accountable, they are the first to practice in the last to leave. They are eager for extra reps and feedback, and criticism. They know that we love them, and the advice we give country a place of love, and not from personally attacking their charact...

I have a patient who I tell about our leader ship council, and he gave me what he meant as a compliment, when he told me well, you are a natural leader. I asked him why he thought that, and he said because I'm very positive and encouraging. And I appreciate his telling me that. It's nice to hear. It made me think of a story that Dr. Gilbert tells when he asks his classes at the beginning of the se...

D Rose spoke to the kids, and I was fortunate enough to listen in. He said that there are over a million 11 year olds playing basketball in America today. 4,000 will play in college somewhere. Of those 4000, 35 make it to the NBA, and of those 35, 5 earn starting spots, and 7 get appreciable playing time, for 4 years or so. Then they’re done. He pointed to the basketball, and said, ‘Basketball is...

In a strange and exciting turn of events last night, I met Derrick Rose and Ms. Lauryn Hill. Her son was having a basketball themed birthday party at a local gym here, and they rented the facility thinking that officials came with it. One of my former soccer players works the desk at that gym, and had to break the news to her that there were no refs for their court. In desperation to find one, she...

Myron Golden is a motivation speaker and business coach. I went to a conference where he spoke, and he introduced this concept of ‘cheaple people’ and ‘preple people’. We all know the cheapo people. They're the people who drive an extra five minutes to save two or three cents a gallon on gas. They're the people who complain that their taxes are too high, they're the people who shop around for seve...

Have you ever gone to another country where the native language is not your own? Maybe you took italian in high school , and on your trip to italy, you ask the waiter or waitress in italian ‘where’s the restroom’, what do they do?! They smile this huge smile, and show you right away where it is. They compliment your italian (Even if it stinks!) and they appreciate that you attempted to speak to th...

Gary Chapman is a marriage counselor who wrote the book the 5 love languages. He boils successful marriages down the couple’s ability to recobnisez and then speak in the other person’s love language. The 5 love languages are 1 - words of affirmation 2 - quality time 3- receiving gifts 4- acts of service 5 - physical touch And if you’re my husband or brother-in-law,  the 6th love language is ‘...

John Gordon’s book The No Complaining Rule is an anecdote of a woman at a company whose employees are unhappy, she has a potential cancer diagnosis, and her husband recently left her and her 2 teenage kids. In Chapter 6, she says to her daughter ‘dont be such a complainer…you sound like the people i work with.” “complainer! Complainer! Youre calling me a complainer? Countered her strong willed 17...

In his Book Legacy, James Kerr studies the All Blacks, the most successful professoinal sports team of our times. They have a victory rate of 86%. It’s a great book on culture and successful team building. He devotes an entire chapter to language. He introduces that in 1999, the team and it’s results were slipping, so the managers wrote a book that was ‘a system of meanings that everyone understoo...

Defined as a system of communication used by a particular country or community. A SYSTEM. Where you work , there’s a language. In the profession of physical therapy, only other physical therapists know what a goniometer is. ROM is short for range of motion. T tests and Tinetti’s have special meaning to us, and they’re gibberish to other professions. Yours is taht way too, I promise you that you us...

I went to officials Camp again earlier this week, and Cass Beverly was one of the clinicians there. He is right now in the NBA G league, and will likely make it all the way to the NBA as an official. He said something that stood out to me. He said good officials get themselves out of situations that great officials would never have gotten into in the first place. I asked him to tell me more about...

Have you guys seen the pictures from the James Webb telescope? These are the clearest, most beautiful , accurate photos we have of the galaxy. These coming out reminded me of a conversation I had last month with my soccer seniors. We We're talking about Captains, I have 10 capable seniors who have played soccer together just about their whole lives. One of them mentioned that she wants it to feel...

There is no WINNING at a concert. The pure JOY is in the thing itself. The pure joy is in the music itself. Even if you go see an artist you love, to hear the 1 song you LOVE, when that song comes on, you don’t ever want it to end, and when it does, you don’t ask to hear it again. You appreciate it while it’s happening. Our games are like songs in a concert. We are lucky that we get a whole setlis...