4 key takeaways from my recent coaching journey 🏆👑

Published: Mon, 05/08/17

This past week we wrapped up our lacrosse season for the high school team I have helped coach. It was quite a rollercoaster ride, dealing with a toxic culture and quite a mix of coaches. You can follow the whole journey here: link

Here are my key takeaways as I look back over the journey:

1 - Crucial Conversations - I had a good heart to heart conversation with the head coach about two-thirds of the way through the season. I was really honest with my frustrations and he received the feedback very well. Things weren't perfect after this, but they were significantly better. My biggest regret is that I did not have the courage to have this conversation much, much earlier in the season. As I embark on the new adventure to start a new team - the importance of communication strategies within the coaching staff and dealing with different opinions in a healthy way has become one of, if not the most important strategy as we assemble a coaching staff.

2 - Positive energy/ Icebreakers - Starting every practice with some type of teambuilder/icebreaker/positive energy activity was very successful. I kept a list of what we did and some other ideas as well, reply back to this email if you want me to shoot you a copy of that (it's in an Excel spreadsheet, and hopefully you can decipher my notes.)

3 - Leadership Development - Reading The Hard Hat by Jon Gordon with the seniors, and having them present the ideas back to the team was a huge success. I had several of the seniors come up to me at the banquet and tell me how much that book meant to them.

4 - The importance of a coach - As I observed many of the boys' reactions and body language to how they were being coached, I was reminded of what a huge opportunity we have as coaches. We can tear them down and belittle them, or we can pour into them and love them and let them know how much we believe in them. In their successes, and more importantly in their failures, we can help them develop a growth mindset where they truly believe they have the ability to accomplish great things on and off the field.

WYC 115 – Athlete Development – Trevor Ragan talks Training Ugly

Don't miss this great new interview with Trevor Ragan, who has trained many of the best athletes in the world. We talked training, grit, growth mindset, and much more!

Go to podcast episode

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Make winning the right way your habit starting today,
Craig

Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, a site dedicated to helping coaches and parents make youth sports an awesome experience for the youth and the parents. He interviews coaches from around the world and posts them on his podcast, which currently has over 115 interviews and has been downloaded over 160,000 times. He writes a weekly note to coaches and parents. He is married to his high-school sweetheart and they share the blessing of 3 children and live in Franklin, TN. You can sign-up for his weekly note here, find him on twitter at @craighaworth1, or visit his website winningyouthcoaching.com.

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

- Frederick Douglass