“à bientôt” (see you soon)

Posted August 24, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents, Uncategorized

For the last couple of months we have been going thru a move from our former office, a 2 story warehouse with office buildout that was very cold in winter, very hot in summer as we had no HVAC systems and we have now officially moved into a new 2^nd floor office space with HVAC, multiple workstations, a boardroom, a “real” lunchroom and fully wired for sound with Fibre Optic to permit us to upload and download audio and videos much faster than we were able to in prior office space.

We also will be able to host workshops in our open area for 20 or so, and the ability to rent and ultimately lease the adjacent office space to host workshops and presentations for groups up to 80 vs. having to rely on orgs to provide meeting spaces with all the A/V setup for our presentations.

Why am I doing a post this week on the subject of our move?

Because yesterday I said, “à bientôt”, ( = see you soon) to our most recent co-op student who had worked with us this summer and continued to add to the building blocks of prior students since we started a few years back.

Her name is Myla, and she was responsible for editing and uploading all of the interviews for our inaugural For the Love of the Game Youth Sports Digital Summit that we hosted mid-July. She also created the new blog thumbnails, quote templates for both PARADIGM Sports and our digital arm For the Love of the Game in addition to posting to all of our social media platforms including setting up our Instagram account.

The reason I am sharing this is when I went thru her evaluation as a part of the co-op requirements, she shared with me that her experience working with us this summer was unbelievable, mainly as we are advocates for providing a safe to fail environment for all of our staff just as I do when I coach teams. We also have a zero tolerance for ANY forms of harassment, something that many NCAA schools in particular need to implement, including the most recent at Maryland University due to prehistoric coaching practices that lead to the death of one of their football players from heat exhaustion.

She was not the first, nor will be the last co-op student that will work with us, and each time that there last day comes it is a difficult one for me as I look back on the prior 4 months and am truly amazed of everything that they have accomplished by praising their effort, encouraging them to make mistakes vs. being concerned about outcomes and the fallacy of being perfect as I learned from an executive coach I worked with there is no such thing.

This is the main issue that I see with many youth sports coaches, regardless of the sport they are coaching, until they have coached for many years and realize there is so much more to coaching than writing up a drill on a whiteboard or drawing up lines, positions for games. Particularly in today’s environment with the pay to play system and emphasis on winning at all costs that have been outlined in numerous articles and press that we have contributed to.

Prior to Myla, there were several other co-op students that were instrumental in our growth as an organization, whether developing our websites, social media platforms, graphic design, research, creating data systems, audio and video editing.

Every single one of the students has shared with me how much they enjoyed the experience, learned a ton and gained valuable work experience to prepare them for the workforce after they graduated and all have reached out to me for references or commented on posts we have done thru social media.

The first was Mitch, he worked with me as was coming up with the initial business plan and brainstorming for PARADIGM Sports in the summer of 2015.

Another former co-op student was Jordan, who worked with us last fall term, and was responsible for creating our For the Love of the Game Website on our hosting platform for online training and setting the building blocks for us to be able to host our first digital summit.

Just last week he sent me these two images of the great John Wooden, one when he was coaching Kareem Abdul Jabar at UCLA when they went on their great run of national championships, the other when Kareem was walking with John 38 years later during an event to honour him at halftime for his contributions to coaching and the development of the young men at UCLA under his watch. Some of which including Kareem went on to play in the NBA, many others became doctors, lawyers or other professionals in the workplace and have left positive legacies thanks to John’s guidance as COACH.

Another of our students, Melvin, worked with us last Spring, he created our original WordPress site and registration links for the love the game.org for our inaugural live conference where we created our first wave of training modules with some amazing speakers. He then went to China for a back to back co-op as a hockey instructor as they are aspiring to put a competitive team together for the winter Olympics they will be hosting in 2022. His partner, Chase, when we were going thru the interviews made me aware of various grant programs to help us sponsor co-op students and was instrumental in creating our new PARADIGM Sports website last spring which we continue to build on today.

Two others, Danette and Karly that worked with us a couple of years back, were key in developing the initial WordPress PARADIGM Sports Website, powerpoint decks, logo, colors, business card design and sourcing imagery for blogs.

Karly shared this with me after she completed her co-op term,

“My time working for Glen was great – not only do you learn about business practices you also learn a lot about yourself. Though his guidance and mentorship, I gained confidence in my work abilities and succeeded in areas of my job that I presumed to be impossible. For example, I never thought that I would be able to create and maintain a website with no prior training, but Glen was confident that I could figure it out, which gave me sureness in my own capabilities. This is how he treated every task that was foreign to me – he believed that it was possible for me to accomplish it and knew I would benefit from learning something new. With some dedication, encouragement, and help from Google (and Youtube) I have found a new sense of certainty in my work and what I can produce.

Glen also instills a great amount of trust and loyalty in his employees, which is reflected in the work he does. He is incredibly passionate about youth sports and making a positive change in this environment. It was great to learn from someone who is so invested in making a difference and who truly cares about this matter. His high values and business integrity were very impactful and they will be brought forward into my future career.”

Needless to say, when I read this I got weepy-eyed that I had this type of impact but as I have continued to learn more about transformational leadership, that is the effect it has. In lieu of old-school coaching/leadership that creates an environment of fear and hesitation, it provides the opportunity for people to thrive and achieve things they never thought were possible.

In the summer of 2016 I attended John O’Sullivan’s Way of Champions inaugural conference, was unable to go last year but went again this June and connected with all of my Changing the Game Projects counterparts and interacted with over 100 coaches from across the world that was looking for more insight on transformational coaching, something that still in its infancy in youth sports and is our focus to change in Canada and beyond.

The last contribution that Myla did in her last couple of weeks was developing the Love what you Play podcast platform that will permit us to host the audio-only clips of our interviews from digital summits as well as other interviews going forward.

Our first podcast launches today, my talk with James Leath, and he shares insight on his new organization he founded Unleash the Athlete and his role working in the Esports segment coaching Egamers for a team that is owned by Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He also talks about the importance of engaging parents on your team and many other tidbits.

Pic of coin provided to all coaches at the Way of Champions conference, this one outlining core values on the back with the first being fearlessness.

When we were at the first Way of Champions conference, I recall all too well how James reminded us all of one of the quotes from Dr. Jerry Lynch made on Friday evening as we were all wrapping up Sunday afternoon to head to the airport to return to all of our various homes.

“I don’t have a Job (this from one of the top Sport Psychologists in the USA who has guided over 30 teams to NCAA national championships and worked with Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors in recent years winning NBA championships and author of 13 books)

When you have a job, all you are doing is making a living, paying the bills.

In lieu, I learned long ago that my calling, purpose if you like, is to make a difference.

As coaches, our calling is to make a difference developing youth into adults.”

That was an epiphany moment for me and all the other coaches that were sitting on the gym floor in 104 degrees heat with no AC in Boulder, Colorado and as our most recent co-op student tapped the sign I finally got up from unpacking “Play like a Champion Today” and headed down the stairs for the last time it was further reinforcement that is our role as coaches, leaders, managers, teachers.

Each week we will be releasing another podcast to coincide with our newsletter and as we now have a dedicated space in our new office we are calling the “Green Room” (due to green screen and green workstation that my kids said why are you moving this Dad, it’s UGLY but it I countered back it is functional) will be sharing video clips as well as working on incremental training modules.

This fall we will have two new co-op students, Cairo and Francis, working on the podcast, our next digital summit and continuing to build our social media platforms to provide you insight from ourselves and our various allies in the space who are aspiring for the much needed change needed to reduce the attrition rates and a generation of kids missing out on what should be a “transformational” youth sports experience so it ultimately leads to being active as adults.

As I have with all prior co-op students, I am looking forward to seeing how they continue to build on the prior blocks from prior students and how they thrive in a safe to fail environment that strongly believes in the Growth Mindset “I can’t do that YET” vs. fixed mindset “I can’t do that”.

We would love to hear from you in terms of feedback on what we can do to help you as a parents of young kids involved in youth sports, help you become the best coach you can be or administrators to develop cultures of excellence so you not only recruit, but retain your players and ultimately grow your programs.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids …. where it belongs.

Please ensure that your legacy is a positive one and you recognize your role as a coach is to develop youth into adults, not just writing up X’s and O’s on a whiteboard.

Ode to the Hail Mary

Posted July 23, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Uncategorized

As we are now in week 4 of the CFL season when I came home from a long road trip where I was off-line literally for 5 days (very limited, if any access to internet/phone/TV) and turned on Sportsnet to catch up on latest highlights, of particular interest to me was the fact that former Heizman winner Johnny Maizel has been traded to my former home team, the Montreal Allouettes.

Although it has now been a few decades since I actually lived in various suburbs of Montreal, the Allouetes back in the day was one of the reasons why I chose to play football among the others I played, their great teams in the 70’s/80’s I had an opportunity to see play live and watched them with great interest in the 2000 era in BC where they appeared in the Grey Cup eight times including the comeback classic in 2009.

The quarterback that lead them to those 8 appearances was Anthony Calvillo, now quarterback coach of the Allouettes whom will mentor Johnny to bring the once proud franchise back to their competitive glory.

The big unkown is whether Johnny will be the savior that Montreal is looking for, even the smaller McGill stadium that the Allouettes moved to from the Big O when the franchise came back from the failed attempt by the CFL to expand into the USA (much like when the Expo’s moved to Washington for good, it truly saddened me when the Allouettes left my home town but fortunately returned much like the Winnipeg Jets did in the NHL).

It got me thinking about the days when I was playing and my buds would head to the park for good old pickup games, just a football, cleats and full on tackle (GAME ON) without any equipment.

Thinking back, probably not the smartest thing to do (in recent years due to CTE, concussions and head trauma’s but we never lead with our heads like kids do today as think they are safe with all the gear) but anyone that has watched the movie invincible about Philadelphia Walk-on Vince Papale played by Mark Wahlberg and his buds playing in the rain on the field with car lights get it. When I had the opportunity to connect with Wade Gilbert (AKA the Coaches Doc) for our summer summit and we talked about all the sports we played as kids, we both agreed there was nothing better than sliding around in the mud (although our mothers were not too happy when we came home)

One of the things I prided myself when we were in tight pickup games I would tell our QB (whoever stepped up to play QB at the time) was I wanted to that GUY that caught the hail mary pass at the end of the game to win the game. Unlike what the Hail Mary pass has evolved to now, it could merely have been a 20-40-year dash but it still was a Hail Mary.

It got me thinking, what were some of the greatest Hail Mary Passes of all time and here is my list of fav’s;

THE original Hail Mary – thrown by one of the classiest to play the game, Roger Staubach, in a playoff game against Minnesota Dec 28, 1975. When he was interviewed after throwing the game-winning pass to Drew Pearson “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary” and the desperation longshot pass for trying to win/ tie in the dying seconds was born.

Dec 3, 2015 – Miracle in Motown – Aaron Rodgers of the Green Packers threw a 61 yard Hail Mary pass in extra time as Detroit took a defensive penalty and were knocked out of the playoffs as a result

Jan 16, 2016 – Aaron Rodgers did what many thought to this day was impossible, he threw a 60 yard Hail Mary pass to score in the final minute of the fourth quarter, followed by a 41 yard touchdown pass to Jeff Janis (who caught the 60 yard pass as well) to tie the game in the final play. Sadly, Green Bay lost in OT but what a game.

Dec. 23, 1984 – The Hail Flutie game when Doug Flutie threw the 63-yard “flood tip” for Boston College to win in a nail-biter 47-45 over the Miami Hurricanes. Doug was the first to throw for over 10,000 yards in college, won the Heisman Trophy that year, went on to play many years in the CFL and NFL even though many felt he was not big enough to play beyond college and he proved all the naysayers wrong.

Sept 28, 2009 – Brett Favre’s miracle pass to defeat the 49’ers at the end of the game early in the season playing for Vikings, the very same team that were victim to Roger Staubach’s original Hail Mary Pass. It also was the team that sadly he would retire playing for, after too much drama if was retiring or not to make way for Aaron Rodgers when Green Bay Managment said ENOUGH, as decision many questioned at the time, but have not looked back since.

There are many, many other instances of the Hail Mary Passes leading to games being won, including those in pickup games playing in the mud, turning on car lights to finish as I did with many of my buds after our competitive careers finished, including infamous New Years Day bashes recovering from the festivities the night prior.

Here is the prayer that started it all …

SPASIBO (THANK YOU)

Posted July 9, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Uncategorized

As this year’s World Cup is being hosted in Russia, my wife’s family have been rooting for their home country as they moved to Canada from Russia a generation back (my wife’s Baba (AKA Grandmother) was born in Russia and only English word she knew was EAT. Each time she extended the invite, I learned to say “Spasibo” / Thank-You from my wife and in-laws (one of the few Russian words I know).

Now that they lost in the semi-final in a closely contested match vs. Croratia, suspect her family will not be glued to the TV watching remaining games, but I wanted to touch on a couple of other teams that have made headlines this World Cup.

The first, is Japan, and how they handled a bitter defeat losing to Belgium who came from behind and show the world the epitome of class and respect for the hosts.

Not only did the team leave the dressing room cleaner they found it, they left a note of gratitude to the hosts in Russian.

Their fans, also did the same in the stands, they picked up all the litter although the stadiums operation staff were paid to do so.

As a result of their demonstration of true sportsmanship and respect for the game, their hosts, their opponents, the image of the dressing room and thank you note was shared amongst numbers social media accounts across the world.

Kudo’s to the coach, the players, the Japanese National Team and all their organizers for showing us what winning with humility and losing with dignity really means (one of the core values that I have taught all my players since I learned the same from my coaches.

The other team that is receiving a lot of attention is the very same team that defeated Japan in the bittersweet game coming back from behind to win, Belgium.

It all happened due to the changes that Belgian FA director of coaching education Kris Van der Haegen made to the football program starting at the grassroots level.

He shared insights with our good friend John O’Sullivan, host of Way Of Champions Podcast, the changes they made to their program since they did not make it thru the first round of the Euro Cup they hosted in 2000 and have since moved from being ranked 66^th in World Rankings to #1 in 2015.

Player-Centred Approach – he changed the approach from being a team or coaches ego’s to focusing on the players wants and needs to ensure they not only attracted players, but retained and grew their football programs (reverse of trends facing many youth sports globally today)
They implemented Small-Area Games so 1 on 1, 3 on 3 vs. 8 on 8 or 11 on 11 so it increased the number of touches, scoring opportunities, dribbling. Other sports have also followed suit, like Hockey Canada rolling out cross-ice hockey to mirror for USA Hockey a few years prior to ensure that kids touch the puck vs. beehive that I saw when coaching novice age group and still was full ice hockey.
Multi-Move (Multi-Sport/Activity) – ensuring that kids sample as many activities as possible until they are 13 years old to pursue football if that is the sport they love the most.
Giving Players Freedom (AKA Street Soccer) – No refs, parents, coaches, kids just play without the fear of being criticized

A strata in Chemainus may want to look into the benefits of street sports as I read in the paper today SORRY KIDS, NO FUN ALLOWED they passed an amendment to their bylaws to prohibit any form of PLAY on the streets.

Really?

Obviously, the very same people that voted for are oblivious to the fact that there are multiple organizations that are promoting the importance and benefits of free play so that kids LOVE to be active and are ultimately active for life. The list of banned activities includes “hockey, baseball, basketball, skateboarding, chalk artistry, bicycling and other sports and recreational activities”

Wonder what Sidney Crosby is going to say when he finds out after he battled a street hockey ban in his hometown Province in 2006, followed by other former NHL’s who did the same when the issues came to light including another “pretty good player” Bobby Orr, Tiger Williams just to name a few. I imagine Walter Gretzky, whose legacy is the world’s largest street hockey tournament, as would his son Wayne, may have a few words to say also on the same subject.

Even the VP of the very same strata council voted against the bylaw as she enjoys watching the kids PLAY, the others that voted for the bylaw should give their heads a shake as playing on the streets in urban areas, especially those in poorer neighborhoods is for many kids the ONLY option to get outside and PLAY.

Game-Based Approach for Practices

Kris also changed the way that coaches run practices to ensure it is based on a game based approach, in lieu of deferring to scrimmaging the last 5-10 minutes of a practice followed by technical drills only, he implemented the slogan “make your players love the game” After that, you can help them learn the game.

Winning doesn’t matter – No Competitive games until 14 Years old

Perhaps Kris researched the model in Norway, who don’t permit competitive play in many of their clubs until same 14 year od age group.

This is now the second nation that not keep track of wins, losses, goals, assists who has reached the HIGHEST level of the sport with their national teams.

Hmmm … wonder when Canada, USA and other countries that are suffering horrific attrition rates in youth sports will GET IT … KIDS JUST WANT TO PLAY.

Looking after the late bloomers

If late bloomers need to drop down a level until they catch up to their early bloomer counterparts, they will, to ensure they develop confidence and love the sport vs. chasing the ball like kids do in North America chasing as only recently USA soccer is experimenting with bio-banding putting players in their physical maturity groupings vs. chronological.

With early exits in this year’s World Cup by Germany, Brazil, Argentina I suspect all eyes are on Belgium to see if they advance and potentially win.

I would be remiss not referencing Iceland, who in their FIRST EVER World Cup tied Argentina, who like Belgium, totally revamped their approach to how they develop their players going back also to 2000 when they were ranked 124^th in the world and now are ranked 22^nd.

The Nations that continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results (AKA Insanity) need to seriously look at how others have developed cultures of excellence.

Better yet – cultures where kids LOVE to play and continue to play beyond current trends where 70% by the age of 13 because the game is not about the kids, it is about adults competing with other adults thru kids.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

What is a Great Coach?

Posted June 25, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents, Uncategorized

This past weekend I was in Boulder, Colorado for the 3rd annual Way of Champions Transformational Coaching conference hosted by my good friend John O’Sullivan and my other Changing the Game Project colleagues, Dr. Jerry Lynch, James Leath and Reed Maltbie.

Just as it was two years ago during the inaugural conference (I was unable to attend last year), I came away with so many great takeaways and contacts with some amazing people that were aspiring to move the needle to bring the game back to the kids in youth sports. Not sure what I am more in awe about, the information we shared or the people that I met over the course of the three days.

One of which was the founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance, Jim Thompson, others were TEAM USA or US Olympic committee members in swimming, lacrosse, AD’s (Athletic Directors) for schools ranging from 123 kids in Buffalo, Wyoming (where 90% of the kids play 3 sports a YEAR) to private school in Honolulu, Hawaii with over 4000 kids, Div I/II colleges and universities or coaches from youth all the way to Div I NCAA and everything in between.

I also connected with a Rugby Coach of Coaches in the UK, Coach developer for Football (AKA soccer) in Australia, National Cricket Coach in New Zealand and even a Coordinator of a conference in Bankok who is the AD for a private school in Moscow and female coach of a Men’s Div I NCAA Water Polo Team.

In all my interactions and I shared what we do in Canada, every single person said “you are doing great work, keep it up”

Reason?

Because as I found out from many of my interactions with those in the USA and many of the other countries I learned that the levels of coaching certification are few and far between.

One of the AD’s I talked to from a university in San Diego shared that there is NO mandatory coaching certification or ongoing professional development for University coaches.

I shook my head in disbelief, as I did when I interacted with all others that only had limited or no coaching certification programs for their respective sports in their respective countries.

Being that I have been a Hockey Canada NCCP Facilitator since 2009 and have now certified thousands of coaches in both the recreational and competitive streams I know that Canada is setting the bar for many other countries due to the great work by the Coaches Association of Canada (CAC) who have developed coaching certification programs for 65 national sports in Canada which includes both traditional team sports but evolving sports like mountain biking, rock climbing, ski cross and others.

In order for all coaches of sanctioned programs by the CAC* to maintain their certification, they must augment their original certification with other professional development by attending conferences, doing online courses, reading books and so forth.

* Many Canadian Private, Academy programs who are charging 10’s of thousands of dollars to parents ironically are not sanctioned by NSO’s so their coaches can “coach” with NO CERTIFICATION whatsoever even though they make “claims” that they will get your child Full Ride scholarships or playing professionally when less than 1% of kids reach that level.

That is why I was so excited to have dialogue with a few committee members of TEAM USA that shared insight on the USOC Quality Coaching Framework that several of the NGB’s are looking at incorporating to establish national coaching standards for their respective sports.

The framework was developed by USOC coaching education director Chris Snyder and Dr. Wade Gilbert, author of Coaching Better Every Season AKA “The Coaches Doc”.

There are 6 segments to the framework;

Chapter One: Quality Coaching
Chapter Two: Essential Coaching Knowledge
Chapter Three: Athlete-Centered Outcomes
Chapter Four: Contextual Fit
Chapter Five: Evaluation and Recognition
Chapter Six: Coach Well-being

As the conference was wrapping up Sunday afternoon, one of the sponsors, Bill Kerig, founder of Great Coach Inc. reached out to many of us as we were leaving to get insight for his research and development his new ap similar to Linked in but specifically for sports coaches. He aspires for coaches to receive the credibility and professional respect they deserve, regardless if a volunteer at the grass roots level or those coaching national programs or everything in between.

He asked us all to share in one minute sound byte and answer …..

What is a great coach?

Talk about being put on the spot, end of the conference and anxious to head home with many great nuggets, having coached now for over 20 years and have been writing about, speaking, teaching other coaches for the last decade there is so much I could have shared.

Honestly, I am not sure what I was able to get in 1 minute, but thought about it on the flight home and lineup for Canada Customs, get my bag, park and ride shuttle to get my car how I would have answered if was given a “wee bit more time” to do so.

A Great Coach ….

… Is one that knows that …

… Cares about their athletes more they do about themselves, they are humble, honest, fair, great communicators, motivators and leaders by providing a safe environment for their athletes, safe to fail and make mistakes, but also safe from all forms of harassment.

… Is demanding, not demeaning, to push their players to become not only the best athletes, but the best people they can be.

… Is truly grateful for the opportunity to coach and thanks their players for the opportunity to Coach them on a consistent basis.

… Teaches their athletes the skills of the game (the competence), and cares enough to teach them confidence so they aspire to come back every season to improve and teach character life lessons like respect, sportsmanship, humility, integrity, honesty, selflessness, work ethic, leadership, communication, punctuality, commitment and NEVER giving up.

… Demonstrates they not only care, but love their athletes and the game so they love the game more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning.

… Is a positive role model and not only talk the talk, but walk the walk

… Gets invited to weddings, lunch, dinners, baptisms of their players kids or other milestones of their alumni athletes years after the athlete hung up their skates, cleats.

… Is one that current or former players reach out to in times of hardship after they lost a family member closest to them, get into trouble with the law or just need a shoulder to lean on.

… Responds to texts, emails, phone calls, or even a knock on the door at all hours of the day in or off seasons.

… Gives credit to the players for a win and takes responsibility for the loss when they lose

… Is a new school positive facilitator (AKA empowerment) vs. being an old-school negative dictator (AKA my way or the highway).

… May be a parent coach that recognize they not only are coaching their son or daughter (their original reason for getting into coaching) but have adopted 10-20-30 others depending on the sport they coach and when in the car or at home wear their parent hat, when at the field/rink or other team activities wear their coach hat.

.. Knows the reason why we all play is it is fun and will quit when it no longer is

… Knows the difference between beginners and experts

They know how much more there is to learn.

As each of shared over the course of the weekend how little we knew and that to become the best coach we could be it required lifelong learning much like Clare Drake, John Wooden who were taking pages of notes at conferences well after they retired as they may learn something.

Even the one that knew the most, Dr. Jerry Lynch, who has over 50 years’ experience that includes 38 NCAA Div I National Championship Rings, author of 13 books and has worked with Steve Kerr and Golden Sport Warriors the last 4 years where they have gone to the NBA finals and one 3 of the 4 NBA Championship titles.

He was introduced on Friday night by Reed and he shared Jerry’s story from 2 years ago when he was reviewing his background on the first night that even after 50 years he was only ½ way there in terms of his quest for knowledge to share with fellow coaches.

1/2 WAY after 50 years … REALLY?

Jerry further shared with all of us in the inaugural WOC conference 2 years ago that he did not have a job.

He stated while seated on his infamous stool (that I want to recommend to John to get him one that swivels 360 degrees so he can see all the eyes of those seated around him in the circle) while we sat on the hardwood gym floor that when you had a job all you were doing was making a living.

In lieu, he shared that as coaches, we have a calling to make a difference.

Making a difference by developing youth into adults.

That is the business we are all in as coaches, AD’s, Directors, Board Members, Exec members all others adults involved with youth sports.

Coaches please ensure that the legacy that you leave behind is a positive one and Don’t Be A Kid’s Last Coach.

Let’s All work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

The top characteristics of great coaches blog thumnail

What are the characteristics of great coaches?

Posted June 18, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents, Uncategorized

In every talk I do I ask coaches the following question:

What are the top 3 qualities of the greatest coach (or teacher, manager) you ever had?

In hindsight, if I had kept track of the responses from every talk I would have had a 10 Year + Longitudinal study so this fall I started to keep track of the responses in an excel sheet. By no means is this a formal research study, and although the order may be different from 1-9, these are the top characteristics of great coaches from the next generation of coaches;

No matter what group answered this question, whether it be coaches just starting to coach 5-6 year olds in hockey or High performance coaches I have asked in conferences or everything in between the top characteristics of great coaches is they truly care about their players.

Not only do they care about helping them develop into the best athletes they can be, but the best people.

This is what John Wooden, Clare Drake, Phil Jackson in past and current coaches like Pete Carroll, Mike Kryzyzewski and other GREAT coaches, not all the wins, national titles but the legacy the left behind developing youth into adults – that’s how coaches make a difference.

Coaches that care, not only teach the skills of the game, but the skills of life.

Many misinterpret that I am not competitive because my philosophy of coaching is “FUNdamentals, not winning, at all costs”. Like all the great coaches who worked on the process of developing all players on their teams that lead to results on the scoreboard, I know how important it is for players to have fun, even on the most competitive teams. I also am totally against Participation Trophies, check out prior blog on the subject HERE.

Mike Babcock, now the highest paid NHL coach with Stanley Cup, World Championship and Olympic Gold achievements on his resume is another one of those great coaches. When he became the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he shared that his main role was to develop all the players into great young men. Prior to the 2010 Olympic Gold Medal game, when he was coaching some of the best players in the WORLD at the time, when asked by the media what he told the team before the game he said “I just told them to go out there and have fun.”

Many people think when kids they just want to have fun that it means goofing off, but kids actually don’t want their team mates to do so they want to play, the want to compete, they want play for the love of the game. That is what fun is.

When Amanda Visek did her groundbreaking study and identified the 81 characteristics of what is fun in youth sports, the number 2 reason, second only to having the opportunity to try your best was when coaches treated players with respect

Although I would NEVER consider myself to be in the same company as John Wooden, his three rules are very similar to mine and his third was “Never criticize your team mates”, mine is Respect. Respect yourself, teammates, coaches, officials, other teams, parents, class mates, parents and so on.

I believe respect is a two-way street, if coaches respect their players then they players will in turn respect their coaches and vice versa.

Sadly, although there as many great coaches in youth sports do respect their players, there are coaches that think nothing of screaming at a player, singling them out in front of the teams, criticizing their mistakes over and over again and other ways that are not only disrespectful but crossing the fine line from demanding (pushing players to be their best) to demeaning (belittling players).

PS – notice where winning was in terms of fun, bottom ½ of the list, 47 other reasons why sports were fun. Others also in the bottom 1/3, playing in tournaments, practicing with speciality trainers, earning medals/trophies and traveling to other place to play.

Why then has youth sports evolved to a $15 Billion Industry in the USA?

Because adults either have not asked the kids or think they have the best interests of the kids at heart because they are “the adults.” If you thought the great recession was bad in 2007, or the .com bust prior was bad … I can hardly wait for parents, coaches and players to realize the insanity has to end.

It is no wonder why 70% are quitting by the age of 13 of those that can afford youth sports to begin with, 33% in Canada can’t afford to play any youth sports and that number continues to rise due to “travel teams”.

In this day and age with today’s generation having an 8 second attention span, have grown up in the digital era it is refreshing to find out Generation Z prefers face to face communication over texting, so you have the players attention COMMUNICATE.

Ask them what they want – Ask them if they understand – Ask them what they learned after practice – Ask them if they had fun.

This is a skill that coaches not only need to connect with their players, but engage parents as today’s generation Z are very close to their parents.

Yes we have had to deal with helicopter/snowplow and lawnmower parents, but the best way I have found to engage parents is by communicating well and communicating often.

Don’t be the coach that a parent shared with me last year who walked into the team parent meeting at the beginning of the season and say;

I don’t deal with F**&^^T& Parents, deal with the manager if you have any issues.

PS – I can’t make this stuff up, there are coaches out there that refuse to deal with parents and think nothing of using inappropriate langue when/IF they do so

Like Caring, great coaches support their players to become the best they can be and achieve their goals. I will never forget when I got a call from a goalie who has been on many of my teams last year and he thanked me for helping him get to Junior Hockey.

I was very proud of him and many of the other players that have achieved that milestone that I had coached over the years.

Coaches can also fill the gap for kids like me who lost their father at a young age.

All of the coaches I had over the years were my second father in a sense, they took me under their wing and supported me in my goals each and every year.

Great teachers do the same, if it had not been for my Grade 12 French Teacher who took me aside one day and said “you can do better” after I acted up in class for the umpteenth time.
She was the one that motivated me to pursue post secondary education and as a result I was the first of all my cousins to graduate from University.

Passion does overlap with fun in part, so although as a % was 6th when reviewed this fall it is the second top characteristic that coaches have shared with me over the years.

Passionate coaches OOZE passion for the game, the tradition, the respect and as a result make their players love the game the same way.

Due to the current winning at all costs environment in youth sports that has evolved, I have seen passion by coaches, but moreso temper tantrums because games did not go their way.

Think back when you grew up, did you ever take a class in school and thought you would HATE it like calculus, accounting, history, literature? Then to you surprise you ending up loving the course – Why? Because your teacher was so passionate about the subject.

Same holds true for youth sports … if coaches are passionate about all aspects of the game they will instill that same passion in their players so they play For the Love of the Game.

An analogy that one my colleagues shared with me that I relay in talks is coaches must focus on P&R – that came from Terry Crisp, former NHL coach.

P = Patience
R = Repetitions

In order for players to develop, it make years for them to develop some of the core skills in the game and while doing so do numerous repetitions which requires a considerable amount of patience on the coaches part (as well as parents)

But when that light bulb goes on – Man is it worth it.

The biggest challenge that coaches face today is being patient to adhere to the LTAD/LTPD and other models and also getting parental support.

Too many parents are trying to fast track their kids development via early sport specialization and is the wrong pathway to follow “Early Sport Specialization does more harm than good”

We could have lumped this into supportive or caring, but encouragement also pertains to how coaches provide praise to their players.

Thanks to the great work by Carol Dweck and he ground breaking book “Growth Mindset”, many in the sport and even business spaces are recognizing there are two types of mindsets

The Fixed Mindset – those feel that effort is not important as their skills are part of their DNA and they are not that good

Or – they focus on proving their ability

The mistake coaches make all the time is telling kids how smart, how good they are and this becomes fixed

The Growth Mindset – those that welcome taking on tasks that become more challenging each time, belive they can continue to improve and believe the harder they work (effort) the better they will become.

Or – they focus on “im”proving their ability

Coaches that reinforce the growth mindset encourage effort and God Forbid to make mistakes, the uglier the better. Players develop confidence when doing so, more creativity and continue to improve vs. those with the fixed mindset

Other words that coaches have come up with that fall in this category – approachable, open, thinking back on all my coaches they were friendly.

They would have your back when you made a mistake vs. screaming at your for doing so.

They would welcome you into their “office” whenever you needed to speak to them

They would be your friend (or father/Mother) whenever you needed a friend.

1. Other – the list of other responses were endless but included characteristics like calm, challenging, committed, confident, consistent, disciplined, energetic, enthusiastic, fair, firm, forgiving, genuine, trustful, inspiring, integrity, invested, kind, listens, motivator, organized, personable, positive, role model, teacher and leader

I plan to revisit the results at the end of each year now that I have the template in place to share in future but in the interim

Make it Fun – Make it Safe – Teach Skills – Care Passionately

AND

Don’t Be A Kid’s Last Coach