These articles were written and contributed by Scott Rosberg

Theme # 1

Character/Integrity

This post is part of a series of short posts based on the Team Themes & Quotes in my gift booklet “Senior Salute.” Today’s post is on the theme of “Character/Integrity.” We start with the most important one of all because without Character/Integrity, any other behavioral characteristic that you have or claim to have will be doubted. Integrity is the most important of all the traits that one must have to be successful in life.

Being a person of integrity is especially critical for people in leadership positions or those who aspire to become leaders. People will not follow leaders for very long who do not have integrity because they can’t be trusted. The moment bad character and a lack of integrity are exposed, people start “heading for the hills” away from the supposed leader. This is because while the person said that s/he stood for certain things or certain standards, once it is found out that the person really did not live by those standards, s/he can no longer be trusted to be telling the truth.

However, integrity and great character are required of people in all walks and stages of life, not just leaders. No matter what you do in this world, if you interact with others, you must live with integrity if you want people to trust you. Trust is a key building block of any solid relationship, and trust starts with integrity.

Integrity is basically when your actions and your beliefs are in alignment. When you say you have certain standards and values, and then you go out and live by those standards and values, you show yourself to be a person of integrity and character. You are someone who walks your talk. Your word is good. Your signature has value. People know that what you say and what you do will be one and the same.

However, when you claim certain standards, and then when faced with a choice, choose to act in a way that is not accordance with your standards, you are living a lie, and you are showing yourself to be a person who lacks integrity.

For instance, student-athletes are often asked to sign an athletic contract. Their signature on that athletic contract is saying, “I will live by the standards and rules set forth in this document.” However, the person who lacks integrity signs the contract and then goes out and does whatever s/he wants to do without regard to what the standards and rules have set forth as the proper behavior for them to exhibit.

As you make your way through life, choose to walk the path of great character and integrity. As Alan Simpson once stated, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

Theme # 2 – Trust

This post is the second in a series of short posts based on the Team Themes & Quotes in my gift booklet “Senior Salute.” Today’s post is on the theme of “Trust.” Trust is a key piece to any relationship. In the last post, I discussed how important character/integrity are to the relationships that you have with people. I said that character/integrity are absolutely vital for anyone in a leadership position. Integrity is one of the key ingredients to creating trust in others, and leaders have to have the trust of the people they lead.

However, trust is not critical only for leaders. For any relationship you develop with someone, there must be trust for that relationship to thrive. Trust allows massive growth in the relationship. It allows people to speak openly, honestly, and freely with the other person. This is critical for the relationship to grow and develop and become something deep and meaningful.

The moment trust is broken, the relationship breaks down. Open, honest, and clear communication is stunted or halted completely. When people don’t trust one another, they shut themselves off from the other person. A breach of trust stifles any chance for true growth to occur.

So how do you create trust? Bruce Brown of Proactive Coaching has an outstanding booklet called “The Impact of Trust.” In the booklet and the presentation based on the booklet, Brown discusses what I call the 3 C’s of trust – Competence, Caring and Character. To develop trust with others, you must be competent in your field, you must care about others, and you must be a person of character. I always add another C to the mix – Consistency. To create and develop real trust with others, you must demonstrate your competence, caring, and character consistently over time. (I have just scratched the surface here. To delve deep into these concepts, I highly recommend you pick up “The Impact of Trust” at the Proactive Coaching website – www.proactivecoaching.info.)

Who do you trust? Why? When you think about the people you trust, chances are that the 4 C’s mentioned above are key elements to your level of trust in them. Now the big question becomes this – Who trusts you? Are you doing those same things in your relationships that those people you trust are doing in their relationship with you? If not, it is time to start. This is the best way to develop the trust necessary for you to have a trusting, fruitful, meaningful relationship with those people.

“Senior Salute” is a gift booklet for coaches, parents, or anyone else to give to senior athletes at the end of their season. It covers 7 different team themes that have played and will continue to play a role in athletes’ lives – Character/Integrity, Trust, Toughness, Passion, Accountability, Teamwork, & Success. There are quotes from famous (and not-so-famous) people in support of each theme. Finally, the inside front cover is set up for people to write a personal note to their senior. Individual copies of “Senior Salute” cost $6.00, but a 10-pack is only $50.00. You can also purchase gift envelopes to put them in. To purchase “Senior Salute” or to download the “Introduction and First Chapter Theme & Quotes” for Free, go to the Coach with Character website.

This article was provided by Coaches Network

By Dr. David Hoch, CMAA, CIC

When someone mentions communicating with classroom teachers, the first thing that probably comes to mind is grades. Are all of your student-athletes achieving as they should? Are they eligible to play?

Supporting your players’ academic work and checking on their progress is important, but did you realize that there are many other good reasons for coaches and teachers to communicate? Together, you and your players’ teachers can be a powerful team, ensuring the best for kids. Below are some scenarios where connecting with your classroom counterpart can benefit you, the teacher, and most importantly, your student-athletes.

An athlete is acting out. When a student-athlete is causing a disruption in class, his or her teacher may turn to you for help. As a coach, you often have a great deal of influence over your players. Simply taking the athlete aside and making a couple of comments after practice might do the trick. If the problem requires a little more intervention, discuss your expectations with the athlete and also listen to what he or she has to say. Keep the dialogue going and continue to touch base with the teacher.

There is trouble at home. Classroom teachers have about 50 minutes of contact with students each day, but as a coach, you probably have two or three times this amount. Because of this increased interaction, you may be the first to know about a difficult situation at home or a challenge in a player’s personal life that is affecting their behavior in the classroom. When this happens, you can reach out to your student-athletes’ teachers and alert them, allowing all the adults involved to support the student-athlete.

Missed work or tests. When an athlete needs extra help or tutoring, or needs to take a test he or she missed, you and the teacher can put your heads together to come up with a workable plan. While it is important for players to be involved in practices leading up to a game, it is more important that they first take care of their academic responsibilities. This means that you have to be understanding, supportive, and receptive in order to find a suitable solution.

Monitoring grades. And of course, you do want to stay in touch with teachers to monitor the academic progress of your athletes. You should encourage and support your players’ classroom efforts, but be careful. It is never okay to ask a teacher for special treatment of an athlete. This crosses a line from being concerned and involved to being inappropriate.

Making an effort to work more closely with your players’ teachers this year can pay dividends. Keep the following suggestions in mind for the most effective communication.

1. Prioritize academics. The first key to a great relationship with teachers is to understand and respect their role. Academics are the reason schools exist and students attend. Athletics are important, but academics hold the highest priority.

2. Remember your common goal. Both you and your players’ teachers want the same thing—a great outcome for the kids you work with. Make an effort to develop a two-way, open, polite, and sharing relationship, keeping in mind that you have the same end goal. You and the teachers of your players are teammates, and you can best accomplish the goal of helping students and athletes when you work together.

3. Think and plan ahead. As with most aspects of coaching (and teaching), this approach usually yields the best results. Waiting until the night before a player has an exam to explore ideas for extra help will have little value. Identify potential problems early and come up with solutions as soon as possible. And remember that all teachers and coaches are extremely busy, necessitating as much lead time as possible.

4. Student-athletes first. In the heat of a competitive season, it’s easy to start thinking wins and losses are the most important thing. They are not. When needed, remember to step back and ensure that you’re making decisions and plans based upon what is best for the student-athlete.

This article was provided by Coaches Network

By Dr. Richard P. Borkowski

Developing offensive and defensive game plans is old hat for coaches. This article, however, is about a new type of game plan: a defensive strategy to lower the chance of injuries and the likelihood of a coach being blamed for one.

Lowering the risk of injury to your athletes is not a one-time task. It is an ongoing commitment that should take place in-season and out-of-season, on the field and off. In this article, I provide a risk management game plan for coaches to use throughout the year.

Pre-Season
To start, carefully re-read your athletic department’s handbook and any school policies that pertain to coaching. Next, make sure your own rules are in agreement with the department’s directives. Finally, meet with your athletic director to review policies and procedures. Get the answers to your safety concerns before problems arise.

Make sure you have met all state association certification regulations. Read and follow the rulebook. Read it every year, even if there haven’t been any changes from the previous year.

Check all your equipment, uniforms, and facilities. When buying new equipment, purchase only from reputable dealers. Follow all manufacturers’ guidelines. Wait until so-called “state-of-the-art” equipment becomes widely accepted before purchasing it, and avoid using any “homemade” equipment.

Hold a parent information meeting to preview the season and outline the risks and benefits of participation. Take time to answer parents’ questions about safety issues. Go over the informed-consent form.

Make sure every player has passed a physical exam. Obtain a completed emergency information card and an informed-consent form for each athlete, and make sure all forms are signed.

In-Season
Review all safety rules with your players. Remind your athletes that they play an important role in their own safety and the safety of others on the playing field.

To avoid injuries, provide your athletes with progressive conditioning and instruction. Do not allow them to attempt a new move or play if you feel they are not ready for it. Always assess their capabilities as you instruct them.

Reinforce safety rules throughout the season. Immediately correct any unsafe situation. If you cannot correct a problem, notify the administration immediately.

Use the word “no.” “No, we won’t use that broken backstop.” “No, we won’t practice on that field.” “No, we won’t play with that equipment.”

Know that proper supervision means having a staff member present at the practice or contest site at all times. Know what general and specific supervision is, as well as the supervisory technique known as “scanning.”

Have “buffer” or safety zones for practices and games. Always try for a “first down” (30 feet) in outdoor situations (including keeping 60 feet between two adjacent playing areas) and five to 10 feet for indoor play. If that is impossible, adjust the situation. That may mean padding the potential hazard, adjusting the playing field, or decreasing the number of participants.

Avoid mismatching your athletes in competition and practice. Look at factors such as age, experience level, maturity, sport, size, strength, skill, and stamina.

If an injury occurs, always follow the directions of qualified medical personnel. Avoid post-injury discussions with anyone except your supervisor. Accident and incident reports should be factual and to the point. An athlete should not return to play after an injury or illness without a completed “return to play” form signed by a qualified medical professional.

Have an emergency plan in place. Review it to make sure it works. Test your plan at every venue you use for practice or competition. Have a plan for away contests.

Understand the importance of athletic safety public relations. Avoid terms such as “blood alley,” “bell ringer,” or “suicide drill.” Yes, words can come back to haunt you.

Walk into every situation and ask yourself, “Have I done all that is reasonable to lower the chance of injury to those in my charge?” and “What can I do to make the setting safer?”

Off-Season
After the season ends, re-examine your program from a risk management point of view. Take a look at all your forms, records, and procedures. Ask yourself, “How can I make it better?” Another idea is to seek outside evaluations of your risk management program from a coach or athletic administrator at another school.

Consider implementing an out-of-season conditioning program for athletes who are not participating in other sports. Make sure any conditioning program is progressive, well taught, and appropriate for your athletes’ age level.

Attend seminars and workshops, and continue your education in all areas of coaching. Join professional groups and subscribe to professional magazines.

Hire qualified assistant coaches. Along with being well-versed in coaching techniques, viable candidates should be caring individuals with your athletes’ welfare as their top priority. Encourage your assistant coaches to continue their professional development.

As you review this game plan, remember these three major points:

1. You are measured by the standard of care for your profession and not by standards of practice. “Lots of other coaches do it that way” is not an excuse for an unsafe practice. The profession’s standard of care and your standard of practice should be the same.

2. Know your legal duties as a coach. You have a duty to properly condition, supervise, give instruction, provide correct equipment and safe facilities, offer emergency care, and warn players of potential injuries.

3. The key to lessening liability is being a competent, caring professional who runs a worthwhile program. This establishes your professional credibility, which goes a long way toward decreasing your chance of being sued.

Using this defensive game plan accomplishes two important things. It decreases the chance of injury to your athletes and establishes you as a caring, vigilant, and credible professional. Both will appreciably decrease the claims against you as a coach.

Championship teams have players that are highly skilled and well-conditioned. They have coaches that use great strategies and training techniques. They also have great team chemistry.

The best teams are the ones where everyone involved is committed to the success of the team.

Having all your players more concerned about team success and truly caring for their teammates is often the difference between good and great teams.

Having great team togetherness can also make a season with less victories still feel like a winning experience for the participants.

In the clip below Grapevine High School (Texas) head football coach, Randy Jackson, gives you some ideas on what you can do to help build a family feeling on your team. This clip comes from a DVD devoted to developing a program’s culture. For more information about that DVD click the link Culture Defeats Strategy: How to Create a Championship Culture for Your Program

The YouTube video has sound, so please make sure that your sound is turned on and that your have access to the site.

These notes on Bill Walsh’s Philosophy are from Bob Starkey’s Coaching Blog, hoopthoughts.blogspot.com.

Coach Starkey said, “The following comes from one of the absolute best coaching books I’ve every read, Finding the Winning Edge by Bill Walsh. I agree that it is one of the best coaching books I have read as well regardless of your sport.

Drive the players to concentrate. Be assertive in your insistence that they focus on the task at hand.

Individualize your teaching approach to fit certain individuals, when necessary. Give extra time to those players who need it.

Be as precise as possible when teaching. Always use the system’s terminology as a common language.

Be patient, but demanding. Require your players to adhere to proper techniques at all times.

Teach the skills progressively. Adhere to a systematic methodology of teaching that allows the players to improve and enhances their level of confidence in your competence and professionalism.

Keep your finger on the pulse of the situation. Be alert to the intensity level of the players. Be sensitive to signs of those factors which can affect the learning curve. Never overlook the fundamental reality of the teaching axiom, “quality repetitions are the mother of all learning.”

Keep the meetings quality, not quantity, oriented. Use a variety of learning tools to enhance the learning environment and to help stimulate the players’ level of concentration and focus.

Demonstrate the highest level of knowledge about the subject matter being taught.

Teach the players in a professional manner. Unless you’re trying to elicit a specific emotional response from your players, refrain from screaming and demonstrative behavior. Keep in mind that such behavior seldom, if ever, enhances the learning curve particularly if the subject matter involves technical information.

Evaluate the players’ performance on a daily basis to ensure that they are progressively mastering the techniques required to perform the tasks they are assigned in an effective and efficient manner.

Rapidity is the essence of war; take advantage of the enemy’s unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attach unguarded spots.

Another teaching technique that has proven to be very effective is to have players emulate the techniques and actions of other athletes. For example, if players watch videos showing Jerry Rice run a particular pattern in a certain way, you (as the head coach) can single out and stress particular coaching points, by using Rice as the case in point.

All factors considered, players tend to respond more favorably to an actual visual representation of a particular teaching point than to tan abstract illustration of that point drawn up on a chalkboard or written up in a playbook. This learning technique is typically referred to as “modeling.”

“Win the war, then win the fight.”

And, a few more notes from Bill Walsh on Decision Making

A big part of coaching is the ability to make decisions.  When you think about it, coaches have numerous decisions that they must make on a daily basis.  All are relevant to our programs though certainly some are more important than others.  Here is a great list of thoughts in regard to decision making from Bill Walsh from his book “Finding The Winning Edge.”

-One of the main attributes a leader must have is the ability to discriminate from what is often contradictory information. In this matter, it takes a thorough understanding of the situation and of the sources of information to act effectively.

-Decision making involves more risk and responsibility than any other managerial activity. The work of problem analysis and evaluation can be delegated to others in the organization, but the responsibility for decision making is ultimately assigned to one individual. Choosing among various alternatives often demands courage and moral judgment, as well as intelligence.

-Effective decision making is vital to the growth of any organization.

-Toward that end, there is a series of questions that you should address when making a decision, including:

• What difference does it make what course of action you decide to adopt?

• Do you have sufficient information to fully analyze the issue/matter under consideration?

• If you are lacking essential information, do you know how to get it?

• How critic al to implementing your decision is its acceptance by those who will be affected by it?

• To what degree does the commitment of others to your decision depend on their active participation in the decision-making process?

• Is everyone affected by your decision in general agreement with its basic objectives?

• To what degree will those who will be affected by your decision disagree over possible alternative solutions?

• Do the individuals involved in your decision have the capability to implement the decision as planned?

– An educated guess is just as accurate and far faster than compiled errors. – George Patton

You can click the link below to find out more about the book:

Bill Walsh: Finding the Winning Edge

And, a few more notes from another of Coach Walsh’s Books,

Process vs Result

1. Aim for a Standard of Performance (which is absolute) vs winning (which is relative to others).
2. “Process” of improvement leads to “result” of victory and not vice-versa.
3. Focus on process which produces results and not on results.
4. Promotions/wins/sales quotas are results, they do not provide information about performance. And its important to dig into performance to find truth hidden behind these results.