Coaching Commandments. Why? What? How? When?

Here is the working list for Coaching Commandments. It is not the gospel, it is just the working starter point for coaches, teachers, parents, and educators. The more that is shared, the more that it is known. We can make this an introduction to who we are, why we do what we do, and the way that we do it. We can express How we work, operate, and function. Once the mission and plan are known, understood, and shared, everyone has a greater opportunity to reach whatever goals we put into play. The printable list is linked below:

COACHING COMMANDMENTS

• ASK. Why? What? How? Who? Why you play or coach. Why it matters. Why you are here. What is the goal, the task, the plan, the assignment, the purpose? Who is this for? Who can help you. Who needs you. Who cares about you. Who made it possible to be here. How will this work. How is this helpful? How is the going to happen. How can you make it simple? How can you make this likely? Who gets honored in this? Why is this important?

• TRUST. Your coaches. Your teammates. Your family. Your plan. Your work. Yourself.

• WORK. Do your job (before, during, and after the season). Even love requires action. Action requires love. Both are required for success and growth. Let your work be your resume and statement of who you are.

• RESPECT. The game. The process. The name. The history. The people. Those who love you. Your body. Your time. Your future. Your body. Your home.

• EFFORT. Give what is required, before it is required. Give yourself every chance. Give yourself the truth. Give your potential a challenge. This can never be an option.

• IMPROVE. Each rep. Each play. Each drill. Each shot. Each throw. Each test. Each practice. Each classroom session. Each assignment. Each day.

• PRESENT. Be present. Firmly attached to effort. If you have honored the above, they allow you to be present in the moment, the drill, the task at hand, the practice, the play, the mission, the goal. This is the process.

• PLAN. Know your responsibility. Know the mission. Know the purpose. Know what you are doing. Know why you are doing it. Understand the plan. Understand that what was planned will happen.

• FINISH. The most difficult thing to do is finish. Be present in the very next task at hand. Be able because you have respected the game and yourself enough to trust your team, coaches, and work. Be calm in knowing that you have the plan, you have worked and worked on it to get better at it, you know what is required before it happens, and you have the energy to do so.

• LOVE. If you do the above, it is winning and loving. No matter the result, if you have done these things, you will be successful. You will have done the work to respect yourself, and gotten the respect of others. They will trust you, and you, yourself. The work will be honored, valuable, and worthy. You will create memories, provide a path for others to follow, create paths for yourself, and be able to be proud of what was done. You will have gotten better at that thing, and things that you did not know were connected. And, I am sure that you complete the task because you cared enough about it, your team, your name, and yourself to not quit before it was done. You will have more love for the game in understanding all that goes into it, and all that was put into it. You will be loved. You will love.

COACHING COMMANDMENTS

Love in Action. Action in Love.

Love Out Loud

Coach DP

LovePrints - Team54 Coach Cazzie Brown

In my Utah radio days, I got blessed with several opportunities that I could not explain. Among them, I got to do the stadium announcing for some sports teams. The Utah Warriors were an indoor football team coached by an amazing man himself, staffed by some great football minds, and a group of players from the local universities. They all had great moments at BYU, Utah, Weber State, Utah State, Dixie and Snow Colleges, and more. One day at a pregame, I felt a hand on my shoul...der as I tried to learn the names of these local stars gone pro, some with Polynesian names that were a mouthful. The hand belonged to a gentle giant of a man. That man had a smile as big as the mountains we lived around. He pointed to the roster and said, I can help you bruh, and pointed to his own name. He said, "the name is BROWN, CAZZIE BROWN!" "Say it with me...CAZ-ZIE BROWN!" His laugh shook me. We laughed for a minute. We went over some of the tough names, and then proceeded to go one on one in hand to hand football lineman combat drills. We talked footwork, eyes, and balance. We talked schemes, leverage, and life. We did this every home game, and every practice that I went to so that I could learn the game and the people I would talk about. Her said " You talk a whole lot like a coach for a radio dude." I told him he talked a lot like a coach for a football dude. His smile. His laugh. His life. I can not even type this without crying. God bless his wife, kids, coaches, teammates, community, and world

You talked a lot like an angel for a football dude my homie.

A players trust. Be what you ask them to be. Be what you want them to be.

Great coaches make great people. Great people make great coaches. Coaches are tasked with leading young people. Please be sure to lead them somewhere wonderful.

Love in Action. Action in love.

There is simplicity in moving young people together, in a singular direction with a singular purpose. They must trust you. They must believe what you say. They must believe that what you say is good for them. They also must believe that you know from personal experience that what you say is good for them because it was good for you.

A very wise coach told me that he had made a lifetime of mistakes so that I did not have to. He was there to share his mistakes, wisdom, and direction. He knew that path that I was walking on, and was there to tell me where the nasty holes in the road were. He was there to help me avoid them. If he could only get me to listen.

The young person is open. They want to believe you when you give them advice, direction, and orders. They want to be able to move quickly and purposefully on your words. To do so, they have to believe that you have been there before. Seen that thing before. Succeeded in that situation before.

The question is this and will always be this:

Have you?

As a coach, I constantly speak on having been through whatever my players are going through. I remind them of moments that were similar, moments that were identical, and how they played out. It helps if I had seen it before and it ended in some successful way. Or, it ended in a lesson that I would never repeat. A lesson that I would never let my players repeat.

A great coach shares himself. His successes, failures, wins, and lessons. One of my favorite coach phrases is Win or learn. Never lose. Losing requires a disconnect. It requires an indifference. It requires a refusal of ownership. A lack of accountability. And players do not lose. They learn. A coach has to be willing to accept ownership of lessons, and pass them along in a constant effort to go towards the common goal. Forward and Up.

A great coach shares his wins. Openly, and out loud. He celebrates the collective progress towards whatever it is that the team is striving towards. A great coach must also be the common goal. They must be the exact image of what they young people should be pursuing. They must be the living example of what the road forward and up will take them to. Remember, the young people need to believe that the coach knows what is good for them, and can get them there. The coach needs to be exactly what the young people aspire to. If they do not admire the coaches path and journey, they will not aspire to it. They simply will ignore it and go on their own path and journey, disconnected and on their own.

A great indicator of trust is watching young people follow a coach. If they trust the coach, listen to the coach, and admire the coach, they will follow. They will do so willingly, freely, and completely. If a team is not following a coach, they do not trust the coach. Its up to the coach to be worth admiring. Worth following. A coach simply has to look at themselves to know if it is so.

Multi sport athlete. Single sport coach.

Great people make great coaches. Great coaches make great people.  

It is a constant. The two are connected, and rely on one another. Thankfully so.

My question for today is:

What happens when a two or three sport athlete meets a single sport coach?

That happens more than is discussed, and often leads to some conflicts of interest, conflicts of purpose, and conflicts in the direction of the most important person in the equation. The multiple sport student athlete.

I feel like I need to repeat this. The most important person in the coach-athlete equation is the athlete. The student-athlete. The multiple sport student-athlete. As unpopular as this may sound, this little fact is far too often forgotten. Ready for this? The coaches are there for the student athletes interests. Not the parents. Not the administration. Not the fans. Not the coach himself. The coach is there for the student athlete.

It is far too common to hear stories of coaches coaxing, nudging, encouraging, and down right demanding that the student athlete not participate in another sport. Studies have shown that participating in multiple sports gives these student athletes advantages over their single sport counterparts. From developing a diverse set of skills, to better conditioning and the using of different muscle groups, there are many advantages.

Why would a coach push for single sport participation?

Selfishness. That is the answer that comes to mind immediately. Pure selfishness. Thinking solely about their team, their sport, and how the student athlete benefits THEM. I know that some coaches will say that its so that the player can pay more attention to the sport that they are best at, or more attention and time to develop the skills needed for them to play that single sport at the next level. Or maybe, they will say that the student athlete is not good enough, and needs to work harder. Or even that they are doing the student athlete a favor. They are helping them.

No. They aren’t.

Most high level, top of the standard college coaches will tell you that they prefer student athletes who have learned to use their skills in different situations. Each sport requires a different skill set, and different problem solving ability. A different conditioning program. Use of different muscle groups. Different abilities to adjust to what the sports puts in front of them.

I am not sure why this is still an issue. Coaches should be thrilled that the student athlete is learning to work in small spaces, getting longer in strides or shorter in strides, to be more explosive in traffic, and to be explosive in space. Most coaches would appreciate the assistance in getting an athlete better during his improvement season, rather than using the same muscles and skills that he or she already has. You would think that getting more comfortable with their bodies in different situations would be a benefit, and not a problem.

What I would hope is that the great coaches will remember why they are there, and for whom they are there. What I would hope is that the parents remind both the coaches and the student athletes of what their constant top focus and priorities are. The student athlete. And that the parents will remember that as well. They should be the light and not the corner. They should be the yes instead of the caution. They should be the parent, loving, directing, and celebrating the student athlete.

As for the student athlete, please remember why you are there. Why we are all there.

For you.

As a coach, parent, or other, please remember who you are there for.

Next question?

Why?

LovePrints-Lyle Milham

Great people make great coaches. Great coaches make great people.

Let us never underestimate the power of great sports parents, especially when they cross over into coaching with the sole purpose of helping everyone grow. It does not happen all of the time, so when someone puts aside the idea of their kid being first and priority, you lean in. And when they get a group of parents and young people to lean in, something wonderful happens.

Such was the case in Riverton, Utah back in the early 2000's. I went to a little league practice with my adopted family and the son that was playing on the team, and I took perch on top of a small hill so that I had a distant few of the goings on. (Yes, I also intended to not be the butting in guy that I have so much distaste for!). I sat up in the Utah summer sun, roasted a bit, and was called to lean in as I saw the coach really making a point to laugh with his players during a water break. I had seen the uncertainty of the team, really young kids who may or may not had totally committed to the idea of playing football in this heat, wearing all of the pads and uniforms and getting hotter, or the running into one another at the fastest pace they could muster. Among the kids were some stars, some studs, and a lot of question marks. I watched and clapped in my head at their successes, clasped my fingers together and prayed at their falling down, and cheering when the coach got one of the questions to become an answer. I saw some things that I could add, but resisted. Temporarily.

I watched another days work, sat through practice and eyeballed from my spot atop the hill, only to be called down by a player with tears. He did not want to hit. He just did not. So, I found my way to him and whispered "It's going to be okay." He looked at me with the oddest of looks and asked how did I know. I simply said "I've been there. I was you a long time ago. He laughed at the big black guy telling the white kid from Utah that they were the same. I laughed too. I walked him over to the coach and handed him off after introducing myself to them both. We started talking about the practice, and then the drills, and then...oh no...im butting in. Doggone it. Im butting in. Well, at least Im not coaching.

The coach and I talked a bit more, and as I stood there a football whizzed near, and old habits die hard, I caught it. I had their attention. Another kid asks if I coach. (Do not say yes DP. Do not say yes. )

"Yes."

The next thing you know, its days letter and I am in the drills with the coach and the kids, beginning years of laughs, car rides, bus rides, hugs, over night sleepovers, ballgames, snow games, wins, championships, and love. That coach became one of my best friends, confidants, and sounding boards. He led this team, program, and community to some great moments, and I can easily say that I am a better coach from having stood next to him on the sidelines in Utah. No matter little league or high school, the conversations were the same. They were about how to raise these young men, how to address their needs, and how to make the parents proud of us all. They were about being decent on the field and off, about taking care of each other, and themselves. And, about winning.

I won when I met Coach Lyle Milham. We certainly won a lot together. His LovePrints are all over the state of Utah.

Well done buddy!