(Photo by pedrosimoes7)

This is a continuation of the Credibility in Coaching post, based on the same lecture and influences.

1. Don’t make stupid mistakes on purpose!
   - If it’s about you and not the team, you are making a giant mistake!
   - Don’t undermine the team’s trust! If you tell the team, “If you work hard, we’ll be out by five,” and the team is still working hard at 5:30, why should they trust you again?
2. Don’t make criticism personal.
   Never say, “Are you an idiot?” Talk about criticism in a positive way, explain that it’s there for the team’s improvement. Make sure your players know you’re trying to help them. At least once a week, remind the team that it’s about the we effort.
3. Avoid sarcasm, belittling, and embarrassment.
   Making fun of players, yelling at players in front of the team, the other team, or spectators is extremely belittling and embarrassing.
4. Don’t use profanity – not even for attention.
5. Evaluate yourself.
   - After every session, practice, or class evaluate how you did. What worked and what didn’t? Did you accomplish your goals?
   - At the end of every week, take time to review the whole week as well. Are you on plan? What have you discovered? What do you need to work on?
   - Ask people you trust. Your other coaches can provide valuable, honest feedback. If you ask your athletes, give them with anonymity (ie. suggestion box, survey). You can’t expect them to criticize you openly when you’re in charge.
6. Focus on the solution.
   How are we going to get there? We all know complainers and we know how we feel about them. Don’t be one! We want to know how to fix the problem. Choose a practical, realistic approach and do it!
7. How effective am I in getting coaches to lead?
   Your effectiveness is your credibility. If you back your team 100% they should back you 100%. If they don’t, you have a problem. If you have a credibility problem, you have a lost team. Don’t put your players in that position.
8. Be a transformer.
   You set the environment. The greatest thing about being a coach is you have the power to shape the lives and characters of your personnel and players.
9. Do you create fear or develop confidence?
   - Have you ever had a coach you feared? Did he do a good job? (Prob. not)
   - Do you inspire loyalty and allegiance or create antagonistic behavior?
   - Never say, “We have to man up.” Only idiots who lose focus say things like this. Be honest, say, “We need to work ___.” Noone on your team “has no heart” and everyone “wants to give their best try.”
10. Credibility
    - Don’t lie. Don’t turn away. Address the issue. You don’t have to seek out a confrontation, but be honest and stand up for what’s right.
    - Stay human. Stay consistent. Understand integrity. People have to believe in you. Back up who you are. If you don’t have integrity, you are not a leader, you are not a coach, and you cannot teach effectively. Sell who you are. Prove what you say. Build trust. Earn trust.
11. Cohesive Leadership
    We may not like our players every day, but we will show our players that we love them every day.
    “Even if I ride a player and she has a tough day, I make sure at the end of the day, she knows that I care about her. Coaching may be a business, but it’s not all business.” You never want a player to think, “He hates me,” or, “I hate him.” If it got to this, there’s been a big mistake and it needs to be fixed. It’s not your team. It’s not my team. It’s our team.

This is based on a lecture from Mike Perez’s Intro to Physical Education class. The material is a combination of Mike’s extensive experience as well as notes from a talk by Dr. Gregory Dell, Professor of Sport Psychology and Sport Ethics at Duke University (excellenceinperformance.com). If you’re in the South Bay Area, I highly recommend taking Mike’s course (PE.30) at West Valley College.

If you like this article, please take a second to digg, post, or stumble it.

Also, feel free to subscribe to receive email or feed updates or follow @livetruly on twitter.

(Photo by apesara)

Credibility in Coaching

1. Coaches need to understand players first as people and second as athletes.
2. Quality of Effort: The process is more important than the product. Aim to develop your players and help them do their best. The focus should be on effort and improvement rather than on the scorecard. Even from the competitive standpoint, building hardworking, self-improving attitudes is the best way to achieve results.
3. Good coaches improve all their players: Make it a we project. A good coach makes the least talented player feel as important as the most. Players who didn’t make the winning shot or didn’t even play in the game still helped the team during practice. That contribution should be recognized, thanked, and appreciated. This way each team members understands his or her responsibility and the entire team develops and grows stronger.
4. Communication: Take the time to be a good listener. Keep reiterating to players, “Let me know if you need to talk. We can sit down and have a word together.”
5. Be a consistent coach: The same rules apply to all people. People are different and have different needs and learning styles, so you can’t treat everyone exactly the same way. But when it comes to goals and punishments, you must be consistent. Ask your team to help you with this: have them hold you accountable and call you out when you aren’t consistent.
6. Be yourself… unless you’re a jerk… If you’re a jerk, change!
7. While 75-80 percent of success is in recruiting, once you get your athletes, don’t let the nuts and bolts make you lose track of the cultural chemistry. A group of top players can lose half their games if the right chemistry isn’t there. “My most talented team stunk: four Draft Picks, four 90+mph pitchers, seven Division 1 Players, and we lost half our games. Too many I’s and not enough we’s. You need the right chemistry.” Make sure each team member understands his or her responsibility and that it’s a team effort.
8. Once (or more) per month, have a topic for motivation: It could be a talk from you, a guest speaker, or fun off the wall activities. A cooler with some treats or a bowling night. (Note to coaches: If you give the talk, keep it under a few minutes, especially after a game! You’ve been there yourself. Don’t torture your athletes.)
9. Demonstrate passion about your job. Show you are committed. Show your enthusiasm. “I have the greatest job in the world. I’ve gotten to put on a uniform for 27 years.”
10. Caring: Talk, be consistent, and praise. Take the time to say “thank you” to individuals and to the team as a whole.
11. Confidence building: Be enthusiastic. Have a sense of humor. Be creative. Be passionate. Try hard to bring a joke. Show that you’re human. Laugh with the team and laugh at yourself. If you’re one of those serious types, make an extra effort here. Players will appreciate it.

This is based on a lecture from Mike Perez’s Intro to Physical Education Class. The material is a combination of Mike’s extensive experience as well as notes from a talk by Dr. Gregory Dell, Professor of Sport Psychology and Sport Ethics at Duke University (excellenceinperformance.com). If you’re in the South Bay Area and are serious about physical education and development, I highly recommend taking Mike’s course (PE.30) at West Valley College.

Also, feel free to subscribe to receive email or feed updates or follow @livetruly on twitter. ]]> http://www.livetruly.com/credibility-in-coaching/feed/ 0 http://www.livetruly.com/getting-educated-about-physical-education/ http://www.livetruly.com/getting-educated-about-physical-education/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:05:53 +0000 Boris http://www.livetruly.com/?p=403
(Photo by Kapungo)

This summer, I took a class all about physical education. The course is taught by Mike Perez, an athlete, a coach, and a teacher with decades of experience, and the current head of West Valley College’s Athletics Program. So far it’s one of the most interesting and inspiring classes I’ve ever taken. Even if you’re not planning on entering the field–and especially if you are–you have take this class. Every day is a bit like The Last Lecture. I sure wish I took this course earlier in life and sure am glad I’ve had the chance to take it now.

Fixing Common Problems in PE

There’s quite a lot that goes into a good physical education program that we, and perhaps our PE teachers, have taken for granted. Some of it is glaringly obvious: for example, how important is it to let kids choose teams? Were you ever the last kid chosen? Do you remember how that felt? If you weren’t, what did you think the kids that were felt like? It takes a few minutes, no seconds, for the teacher to split the class up into teams and this saves a lot of the kids from a lot of anxiety.

Another major problem were teachers who just rolled the ball. “Here’s the ball, go play.” In a way it gives some freedom, but on the other hand, how many of the kids participate? Do the kids that need PE most get involved? This was the number one problem I heard when interviewing about the subject. Physical education should help develop cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills. While gameplay is important, a good educator should take the time to help his students improve, try new things, and build healthy habits for life. There are actually some well developed frameworks and motivational climate considerations that go into making a truly effective class. Take a look at this instructional environments article from The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance.

The article highlights the importance of creating an environment where the aim is mastery (personal improvement, building a solid foundation, working together to figure out tasks) versus one of competitive performance (where students compete for class standing). It also provides guidance in creating this motivational climate and evaluating the results of the lesson. The idea is that by setting up the lesson in a way that lets students measure themselves by their own improvements and mastering of tasks, far more students take part, enjoy, and benefit from the activity. In fact the focus on mastery over performance isn’t just for beginners, but applies to the most elite levels of competition, where mastery enables top athletes to keep competing and improving. This very much parallels Josh Waitzkin’s ideas in The Art of Learning. If a focus on personal improvement is more beneficial to the awkward kid in the corner and the top athlete in the class, shouldn’t that be the focus instead of endless competitions? Our teacher sums this up as “quality of effort” and “process versus product.” The process is what real physical education is all about.

It’s great to see that perhaps the two top problems in physical education are so quickly highlighted and addressed in courses aimed at future PE teachers and that a focus on personal improvement for each student is underscored as a goal so early in the teacher development framework.

Making PE More Relevant

I must give credit to my schools, because many of my friends still bowl and play soccer, badminton, and basketball. Many were happy that at least for a fraction of the school day, they got a chance to play the sports they watch on TV. Although, I think most of these sports were more developed in after-school sports and junior leagues than in physical education classes themselves. For me, high jump, shotput, discus, wrestling, football, and badminton were new and I would never have tried them were it not for my school’s PE and sports programs. I’m sure it was that way for many other students as well.

Personally, I always liked PE. I was never a top athlete, but I liked my PE classes and did all sorts of afterschool sports. Looking back now, I’m grateful for the experiences and especially some of the teaching I received from my coaches. However, after taking this class, I see how much more is possible in a PE class. Did any of you have classes with obstacle courses? How about activity stations that let you choose skills? Think of playing baseball in PE, how many students are actually physically active and for what portion of the time? Did any of you have classes where you could try dancing salsa or hip hop instead of square dancing? Did anyone have yoga, pilates, martial arts, or the activities you participate in now? Today, my three top physical activities are house dance, yoga, and running. The first two were never even mentioned in my PE classes and I think running could have been presented in a far more fun and inspiring way (although, perhaps I wasn’t ready for Murakami back then). These, and many similar activities are far more inclusive, active and beneficial for students, and may help start these healthy activities earlier on in life and from what I see, physical education training programs realize this, and are helping today’s gym classes become more relevant.

Today’s Physcial Educators

Today’s physical education teacher training, covers a wide range of fields, including philosophy and history, to psychology and biomechanics and motor learning and development, to sports management, motivation, coaching, and educational theory and practice. It takes just as much care and ability to prepare a good PE lesson as it does to prepare a math or language arts one, and often the PE teacher must prepare this lesson for a far larger size class. Physical education teachers also get trained to help students build lifelong healthy habits. Perhaps it’s a bit easier at a college level, where most of the students are eager to learn and an instructor can just focus on her discipline, but I’ve been truly blown away by the level of teaching skills I’ve seen from both my yoga teacher and from Mike. It’s unfortunate some folks don’t give physical education the credit it’s due, especially with today’s problems of obesity.

Demand More

Next time your kid comes home, ask them what they did in PE? When you have back to school night, ask the PE teacher about his philosophy on the topic. (Really!) You will be pleasantly surprised. If you know someone who coaches or runs a class, ask them about their objectives, methods, and goals. You’ll see there’s a great depth and value in what they’re doing. If you don’t see it, you should demand more, their teachers sure do.

How About You?

Have you had an awesome PE or fitness experience? Have most of yours just faded away? Was there a coach or teacher that had a major impact on your life? Was there one you wish you never had? Please comment. I’d love to hear about it.

Check it out for yourself. hundredpushups.com.

John Stone Fitness: johnstonefitness.com

The story started almost half a year ago. Not far from when I started my web development internship. My dad set an anchor for learning Spanish and, right on time, a new guy joined his company–fluent speaker, with software in the language. He also let my dad listen to some tapes called “Rich Dad Poor Dad”

At the dinner table:
Dad: “Say you need some extra cash, what do most people do? What’s the most logical thing to do?”
B: “Get another job?”
D: “That’s what most people say. But it’s absolutely the wrong answer. To really make it, you shouldn’t work two jobs, you need to start your own business. A business can grow and make you more money, but working that second job, you’ll just be wasting your time. You won’t be getting any better at it, advancing, or getting well paid. It’s just not worth it.”

I liked this idea. Both my parents work two jobs. They make decent money, but end up stuck in the same situation, working to exhaustion and worrying about losing their jobs. Making almost nothing with the internship and learning even less, I started thinking about what to do. I realized this job was leading nowhere and perhaps school wouldn’t be so bad. I needed to study for the GRE’s or the GMAT. Since I’ll be studying, why not start a business as I do it. Tutor kids in SAT’s and practice my own stuff at the same time. It would pay just as much for like a half or third the time I spend at work, and it’d be time well spent.

For about a week I searched for a desk on craigslist. Coming home tired, I’d just look for an hour or so, then crash. One night I just had enough. I was just going to go buy a new one. It would be an investment, a place where my students would study. I ran out of the house to buy the perfect desk at Target, from the Metropolitan Collection. Sleak, simple, and comfy and tall. (Sorry for the tangent, I’m quite a fan of interior design.)

After one final check for responses to my desk inquiries, I was out the door. Right as it closed I remember the faceplace to my CD-player. I go back in and switch it with my keys and head out again. Again, I realize the keys are gone right as the door clicks locked. With my roomate out for the day and a spare car key in my wallet, the journey began.

I got the desk. Oh, so lovely. But now what? With no way to get into my place and nowhere nearby to go, why not hit up a book store? I drove the desk over to Borders and somehow ended up picking out that book. I finished a third by the time the store closed.

All my training, my programming, my getting programmed. It finally dawned on me. What am I going to do to make it? I couldn’t put down this book. It’s like picking up a manual on your life. Not just some VCR manual, but a fun one, written in real words, by real people, and about you. I just couldn’t stop.

After the store closes, I read another hour in my car, but realizing that it’ll get too cold to sleep there, I call up J, a buddy in the Mission. Just a few weeks back, my roomate and I stopped by J’s place for a chat. Back in the days, J and I would carpool to math classes at the local high school and were micro-community presidents, in high school we were both programming nerd and took classes at the JC with my dad. Toward college, we didn’t kick it as much, although I’d end up at a bunch of political rallies with his mom. He was a contractor for Y2K stuff and a waiter, while I worked at the library. He started college a semester before me, and by the time I started, he joined a frat. I joined some atheist group. Eventually realizing what a waste of time it was, I evolved to a dance group. By this time he took on a job at the Computer Center. He ran the house budget and then ran the house, while I took summer school. He eventually chose Cog Sci, and I followed in his tracks. By the time I followed him to becoming an advisor, he went to study business in Spain. While I grunted through my last year, he took a trip to Peru to teach and raise funds for an orphanage in Peru. By the time I was done with Cal, he’d joined an internet company and worked his butt off. He had a powerful work ethic and a very strong personal and leadership skills and I had only respect for him. And tonight, he saved me from the cold (the desk could take it).

That night, as he and the girl he met on match.com had some fun in his room, I kept reading the book. Around three, a few friends came back from the bars and crashed in the living room too. I took a nap and went into the bathroom to keep reading. Around six, his roommates came back from the clubs. This whole time I was reading. I couldn’t stop until I finished. I finished around six in the morning. I can’t describe what’s in the book. The first few chapters take all the things you learn in school and flip them on their head. It’s just amazing.

Reading this book was one of the biggest turning points in my life. It shook me up and made me realize that I need really sit down and really think about how I want to live my life. While this book isn’t a clear formula, it’s a big wake-up call and should be mandatory reading for people going into high school. I wish I read it then.

So why do companies do this? Why give away a share? Because when a person actually owns part of something, she becomes a lot more productive. She has an interest to succeed, and an interest to stay.

Other things, joining established or not? Here’s the gamble, on one hand it takes luck but on the other without taking this risk, it’s hard to ever get passed regular income. Joining a small starting group or starting your own thing means a very high investment of time and energy and it might not succeed. If it does, you’re set. If it doesn’t you’ve lost time but learned a lot. On the other hand, say you join a big company, in fact an ideal working environment by Good Business : Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning standards. You get paid a nice salary, are gauranteed a steady, and secure life. You also get stocks, but at such a high price, the exponential growth point has most likely passed (although it did grow a lot this year).

This is the tough choice. As someone just starting out, and very eager to make my first hundred thousand and go to Thailand to study (yes, that’s part of the plan now, once I make my first first hundred thousand, I’ll study for all those pesky certifications and exams in Thailand, it’s a good motivation to get myself to make it fast), I wondered if it wouldn’t be just easier to join the simple happy job, instead of working like mad and risking not getting anything. However, seeing yesterday’s events and seeing how a real passive income generation works and how a business starts to take off, I got really inspired. It may be harder right now, with little income coming in. But I’m determined to break out of the rat race. I know that a person cannot depend on an hourly wage to truly live and I want to build something, whether it’s a real estate empire, an invention, or a product. For a while, I was getting really tired and annoyed, but yesterday inspired me. I’m more eager than ever to finally get this project done, and I’m really annoyed at myself for having taken this long and for not really appreciating how great an opportunity this is.

I have an interview with the big established company next week. The phone interview was a disaster, but I guess my resume and writing helped a bit. I don’t know. I’m actually not that interested, which makes the whole idea of interviewing kind of fun. For the position and for the long term, they’d have to offer something really creative. Perhaps they will. I’m just curious at what it could be. Nearly half a dozen of my aquaintances work there right now, and they love it, and the lure of having that steady income sounds really nice when you don’t have it. But I’m just checking it out. I’m determined to finish this project first and hopefully get the chance to grow where I’m at right now.

So much going on right now: project, tutoring, real estate class. As the The ABC’s of Building a Business Team points out, now is the time to develop character. I have a few goals, very little spare time, and very little sleep. We’ll see how it all turns out.

You can live in a palace filled with treasures and still be poor. To be wealthy you must own the things you have.

So too with poverty of the mind: You may have all the knowledge and brilliant ideas in the world, but you are still poor until they have become part of you.

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman. To order Tzvi’s book, “Bringing Heaven Down to Earth”, click here.

(from Chabad’s Thought of the Day)

There will come a time to your life
When you ask yourself a series of questions
Am I happy with who I am
Am I happy with the people around
Am I happy with what I am doing
Am I happy with the way my life is going
Do I have a life
Or am I just living

Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength from the sound
And make your transition
Make your transition

Do I spend too much time thinking
And not enough doing
Did I try my hardest than any of my dreams
Did I purposely let others discourage me when I knew I could
Will I die never knowing what I could have been or could have done

Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength from the sound
And make your transition
Make your transition

There will be people who will say you can’t
But you will (you will)
There will be people who will say you don’t mix this with that
And you will say watch me (watch me)
There will be people who will say play it safe, that’s too risky
And you will take that chance and have no fear (no fear)

Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength from the sound
And make your transition
Make your transition

For those who know
It’s time to leave the house
And go back to the field
Find your strength from the sound
It’s what you gotta do in the first f-cking place

I posted this song on my other site a while back. This lyrics really belong here too.