Lewis Howes rides a scooter to and from his office because it’s FUN! He creates time to play in his day because it’s important for creativity, stress relief, and longevity. Fun can look different to everyone. What’s fun for some is NOT fun for others. Whatever your fun looks like, DO IT! https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/what-makes-sports-fun-according-to-this-study-winning-isnt-the-most-important-thing/2019/11/27/63c52f06-0d8a-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html What is fun for so...
Sep 16, 2021•5 min
Fun - at soccer practice every day, we structure it typically as 1) conditioning 2) skill work we need for our game as a team 3) FUN. I always end on something fun, and I got that from Coach Wooden who did the same thing in his practices. https://www.sportscasting.com/why-did-the-ncaa-ban-dunking-for-10-years https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071437924/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Sep 15, 2021•3 min
Maybe not the world in our cases, but certainly a kid or two, or maybe even the whole team. How deep is the fun you’re having? Do you have kids who are comfortable enough within your program to relax? To trust you? They must trust you and each other in order to let their guard down enough to have what’s referred here to as ‘deep fun’. Think about a dog who trusts his owner and the environment. Maybe it’s a dog that loves to swim. When a toy gets thrown or a person jumps into the water with them,...
Sep 14, 2021•2 min
Randy Pauch wrote and delivered ‘The Last Lecture’, when he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I highly encourage you to read it and watch it. It’s moving and has a lot of good lessons throughout it. One of the lessons he emphasizes is it have fun. The whole lecture is phenomenal, one of the stories I remember from it is that Randy and his team of college students who were studying virtual reality design, got to experience a simulated space trip. That was one of Randy's childhood drea...
Sep 13, 2021•3 min
Definition: enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure Sports should be FUN. We have such an advantage as coaches in that our players generally WANT to be doing the thing we’re doing with them! Think about the average kid’s life. Wake up (on mom and dad’s terms), eat (whatever mom and dad feed them), go to school (mandatory), do their homework (also mandatory, and usually alone), do their chores, then, MAYBE get to go to their sport (if they have practice that day). If we’re not having FUN a...
Sep 12, 2021•2 min
Once upon a time there was a king who was unhappy. He had everything he wanted, but felt unfilfilled. One day walking aroud the kingdom, he came upon a street cleaner who was whistling and appeared to really be enjoying his day. The king looked at him funny, but figured maybe he was just having a good day, so he left him alone. A few days later he saw the same street cleaner , just as happy as the first day. This went on for several weeks. The king finally asked him, hey, how come you appear to ...
Sep 11, 2021•4 min
In 1961 John F Kennedy gave a speech before Congress, regarding America's sights to land on the moon. On May 25, President Kennedy challenged Americans to rally behind his call to put a man on the moon. What he said was "If I were to say, my fellow citizens , that we shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of a football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of wit...
Sep 10, 2021•4 min
Every year at my player meeting in my parent meeting, everyone gets a one page handout. I have three expectations for each group, coaches, players, parents. The first they all have in common, and that is to be an example. I want our parents to make decisions that they would want their own children to make, I want our coaches to behave in such a way that we’d be okay if our athletes behaved that way too, and I want our players to realize that whether they’re on the field or in the classroom our o...
Sep 08, 2021•6 min
“I hope you do not let anyone else’s expectations direct the course of your life.” ― Julianne Donaldson This quote stood out to me because we need to have expectations for our lives, for our own seasons, and for our own programs. I've said it before, if you try to be the best New England Patriots, or New York Yankees, or Los Angeles Lakers, the best you'll be is the second best patriots, Yankees, or Lakers. Your expectations should be yours and yours alone. Sit down with your team and your coach...
Sep 07, 2021•5 min
“All of your problems in your business can be solved if you’d only set and manage expectations” - Jerry Durham Jerry is a business coach for physical therapist, who specifically works with the front desk staff offices. He specializes in helping people reduce cancels and no-shows by setting the expectation on that first phone call of the patients responsibilities, and of the facilities responsibilities. He walks the front desk staff through everything from ‘Our location is in X building. When you...
Sep 06, 2021•5 min
Expectations “Expect” definition: to consider probable or certain/ assurance If we can set and manage expectations of ourselves, our players, and our parents, we can establish a foundation for common ground. I have found in my life a lot of disputes and arguments stem from a basis of misunderstood expectations. Everything from, “You didn’t take the garbage out” to “your homework is due today” to “why aren’t we married yet?” revolves around a conversation of expectations. “I expected you to take ...
Sep 05, 2021•3 min
In a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loan-shark was a very old, unattractive looking guy that just so happened to fancy the business owner’s daughter. He decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt he owed him. However, the catch was that we would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. Needless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust. The...
Sep 04, 2021•3 min
Once upon a time there was an old king. He was loved by everyone in his kingdom, he clearly cared for them, making sure they had safety, clean food and water, and an environment that they could thrive in. But sadly, the king's time had come to an end, and he knew that his grandson would be his successor. His grandson wanted to lead the kingdom just like his grandfather did, and carry on his legacy. He took his grandfather to lunch one day, and they laughed, and talked, and appreciated their time...
Sep 03, 2021•4 min
In his book Win The Crowd, Steven Cohen talks about decisiveness and moving with a definitive purpose. He asks the reader to do this experiment: With your right hand pick up a pencil on the right side of your desk. Now reach across your body to your left side and place the pen down on your desk somewhere off to the left. It doesn't matter where. Just place it somewhere on the left side of the desk and leave it there. In trial 2, repeat the action as in trial 1, but this time, decide exactly wher...
Sep 02, 2021•3 min
decisions are made based on perception and information for players - looking at a painting and tracking eye movements. what we see gives us cues. when people were asked to guess the subject’s in a painting’s age, they scrutinized their faces. When asked to scrutinize the subject’s wealth, they looked at their clothes, subjects’ eyes moved in different patterns depending on what they nedded to know. the brain knew to do this based on experience. the tacit knowledge implicit in looking in the righ...
Sep 01, 2021•5 min
When I saw the first Harry Potter movie, I wrote down this quote immediately. I was probably 12 or 13 and that quote spoke to me because at that age, I was stuck somewhere in my thinking of what I was capable of as a student athlete. I had 2 big brothers and a big sister who were competing for spots on high school sports teams (well, my sister ended up being valedictorian, she was competing in an academic realm vs. an athletic one) , and I knew that my brother was probably not as talented as the...
Aug 31, 2021•3 min
Where you are is a direct result of the decisions you have made up to this point in your life. - Anonymous Whether we like it or not, the chair we’re sitting in, the computer or phone we’re on, the coffeeshop or house or school we’re sitting in is a choice we’ve made. Maybe we chose to work at this school 15 years ago and we’ve chosen to stay for this long. Maybe we decided to work at this company that gave us this phone that we’re using to read and work on. If this morning you decided to sleep ...
Aug 30, 2021•4 min
Decide: The dictionary definition of decision. "A determination arrive that after consideration” Decide is defined as making a final choice or judgment about, or to select as a course of action We make decisions every day, most of them subconsciously, based off of our habits. Some are easy, like deciding which way to take to work, others are more difficult by choosing a starting 11, or who to cut, or if you should quit your job and start your own business. We're gonna talk about decisions this w...
Aug 29, 2021•3 min
Once upon a time there was a new member of a company, and the boss wanted to help him feel included, so he decided to throw a pizza party on Friday afternoon. But the newcomer didn’t show up to it. So the boss, determined to make this guy feel included, decided that on Tuesday, the whole team would go to karaoke, but the newcomer didn’t go to that either. Feeling a little discouraged, the boss decides that they’re going to do yoga on Friday, and invites the whole company to yoga. Again, the newc...
Aug 28, 2021•5 min
Once upon a time there was a little boy who was rich and could have anything he wanted. One day he passed the shop where there was a strange mirror in the window. He asked his parents to buy the mirror which they did. When he brought it home he looked at it and couldn't see his reflection. He stood there for a few minutes and suddenly his reflection appeared. But the boy in the mirror was said. His shoulders were forward his head was down he almost looked as if he was crying. The boy made faces ...
Aug 27, 2021•4 min
In the summer of 2020 we weren't sure if we were going to have high school soccer season in the fall. But if we did, I wanted every player to be eligible because they needed soccer more than anything that year. As soon as I could, I checked to make sure that all of our players were medically cleared. I must've sent 50 emails that summer, updating kids on their status, answering questions about who to give the forms to, and by when. Through those efforts, and those of the kids and their parents, ...
Aug 26, 2021•3 min
Last week a few of our players had siblings and close friends who left for college. One player who is usually bubly and energetic showed up about 20 minutes early to practice, with her shoulders slumped, just standing by the equipment we’d put down. I asked her what was up, and she told me ’Tom leaves for college today, he just dropped me off’. I asked if she was okay, to which she replied ‘I broke down last night, but I’m better today. Soccer helps.” I know she wanted to go with her parents to ...
Aug 25, 2021•3 min
Quote - “From caring comes courage.” – Lao Tzu courage to have hard conversations courage to hold players and staff and parents accountable courage to try new things courage to fail and fail safely courage go all out It takes courage to be uncomfortable, so if you care about the people around you, genuinely care about them, you can take courage in acting on the things that are best for them and the team.
Aug 24, 2021•3 min
“They’ll never care how much you know until they know how much you care” Take a minute to think about the person who cares about you the most. Maybe it's a parent, or a sibling, or a spouse, or a child. Who do you know cares about you the most? I want you to think of a time when you had a problem. Who was the first person that you went to to help you solve that problem? I'm curious if it's the same person who cares the most about you. We trust the people who care about us. We go to them for advi...
Aug 23, 2021•3 min
Definition: feel concern or interest; attach importance to something. look after and provide for the needs of. serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk. One of Lewis Howes guests defined greatness as “at my funeral I want people arguing over who I loved the most. I want there to be loud arguments of people saying “I know that she loves me more than anyone else because of the way she cared about me” One of my business mentors (a rough arou...
Aug 22, 2021•3 min
https://www.npr.org/2009/04/06/102649267/i-am-still-the-greatest"I have always believed in myself, even as a young child growing up in Louisville, Ky. My parents instilled a sense of pride and confidence in me, and taught me and my brother that we could be the best at anything. I must have believed them, because I remember being the neighborhood marble champion and challenging my neighborhood buddies to see who could jump the tallest hedges or run a foot race the length of the block. Of course I...
Aug 21, 2021•5 min
Driving through town just my boy and me With a happy meal in his booster seat Knowing that he couldn't have the toy 'Till his nuggets were gone Green traffic light turned straight to red I hit my brakes and mumbled under my breath His fries went a flying and his orange drink covered his lap Well then my four year old said a four letter word That started with "s" and I was concerned So I said son now now where did you learn to talk like that He said I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool I'm...
Aug 20, 2021•3 min
Imagine that at 25 years old you get news that your kidneys don't work, and that you need to be on dialysis in order to survive for the rest of your life. Three hours a day, three times a week, literally forever for you. Do you throw in the towel and let God take you then? Do you give up your hobbies and your passions because there goes a significant part of your weeks? Or do you see it as an opportunity to squeeze every second of every day? Mark test coin what is the assistant girls soccer coac...
Aug 19, 2021•5 min
Can you think of someone in your life who told you, "do as I say, not as I do "? Maybe they didn't even say it, but you knew that their behavior was unacceptable, and so did they, but no one intervened to change their behavior. The world is shown so many examples of what not to do, we need more people showing us what to do instead. And probably the reason for that, is because it can be really difficult to behave in a way that you would like others in your organization to behave. If you want your...
Aug 18, 2021•3 min
In the book transformational leader ship by Joshua Metcalf and Jamie Gilbert, they tell a story on page 114 about motivation. This is a tough one to implement, but if you can do it, and behave in the way that they are suggesting, I think you could serve you really well. The chapter is called "you've lost your privilege. See you tomorrow. "And the purpose of the chapter is to talk about motivation, and why people behave the way they do. The concept is simple, reward healthy behavior that you want...
Aug 17, 2021•5 min
