Why Mentoring is so rewarding

Posted February 27, 2021January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach

To say that the last few months have been a “wee bit” hectic for me would be a little bit of an understatement, but has all been positive as we continue to move the needle forward working with coaches, parents, officials and other youth sports stakeholders.

Just this week I had my wrap up call with my alum UBC’s School of Kinesiology mentorship program mentee, Wade, and was so proud how he not only met but exceeded his goals that we established at the beginning of the program going back to Oct. 2020.

Unlike many of the students who are enrolled in the Kin program who aspire to become physio, occupational or registered massage therapists, Wade aspires to get into teaching so can coach youth basketball to build on his experience coaching youth at the ages of 8-12.

Over the course of our monthly meetings to ensure we stayed on track for him to meet his goals to better understand the coaching “profession” (as many are volunteers) and build out his network, be better prepared for applying for positions I recommended many books, blogs, videos and he soaked up everything that I recommended like a sponge.

Although I was the one wearing the hat as mentor, much like it has been with fellow coaches, players, and other Kin students as well as co-op students who have worked with me over the years, I was reminded just how rewarding it was for me to also learn from him as well.

As I lost my father at a really young age, it was the coaches and teachers that I had growing up that made me who I am today which is why I believe so strongly in paying it forward to mentor, teach, provide guidance and also tough love when needed to help the next generation of coaches, teachers and numerous other professions develop in to amazing people.

It also reminded me had it not been for a few of those amazing teachers and coaches that I would not be where I am today, quite possibly if my path continued in my early teens with “friends” who were getting into drugs, criminal activities I would not have gone to UBC and be the first of my many cousins to graduate from University, start numerous business ventures, or coached numerous sports myself for over 20 years.

As I have shared in many talks and conversations over the years, probably the greatest anecdote I have received regarding our purpose as coaches (which can also be teachers, managers) is not to make a living…..

….our calling and true purpose is to make a difference developing youth into adults.

When we were wrapping up our final mentorship meeting, Wade shared with me how excited he was that he had exceeded 100 people in his Linked in network which was one of the goals we set (believe he had 27 people when we initially connected back in October) so was one of the many goals he accomplished we celebrated.

The following day I received a notification that Wade had posted in his Linked in account that I was tagged in so I opened it up and this is what he shared;

I must confess, I was a little weepy eyed when I read it because (a) how many people responded from his expanded network and (b) how much an impact that I had on a young man who I believe is going to be a GREAT Coach/Teacher in future and (c) how much I learned from him at the same time.

As coaches in youth sports, don’t ever underestimate the power that you have to be a positive role model for the kids you coach, although at times you may feel that coaching youth sports is a lot of work (which I know first hand how much work coaches do) and little or no financial compensation, the greatest reward you will receive is when they thank you for being such a positive influence.

Thank you Wade for the opportunity to provide you insight and to learn from you as well.

The costs of inactivity

Posted October 26, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

Last night I was recognized with an alumni builder award by the School of Kinesiology, at the University of British Columbia. It truly was a humbling experience to be acknowledged by what is now the top Kinesiology Program in Canada and top 5 Globally.

It coincided with the book launch for Minds in Motion, authored by Don Wells whom stated that the book belonged to all of the former graduates, alumni, and school, he merely did the research to share the history of the evolution of the school from the days of Physical Education, to Human Kinetics to the school of Kinesiology. This after 7 years of research working on the book but like all other selfless athletes, gave credit to all the team members that made the book possible. He shared the insight of all of the amazing alumni that had graduated from the school, including Rick Hansen, who had been motivated to do his man in motion global tour by retired KIN faculty member, Olympians, Coaches, Sports Leaders, and numerous doctorates and postgraduate alumni for their contributions to sports medicine. I was asked to sit in a reserved seat at the front so I could quickly go up, say thanks and return to my seat to permit all of the other guests to speak about the rich history of the program that I graduated from many years back so they could stay on track for the full program. Some interesting statistics were shared by the current director of the school of Kinesiology, Robert Bouschel when he took the stage that I thought would be of interest for all people that are in the youth sports space today;

The demand for entrance to the School of Kinesiology has lead to the GPA required to be 92%, on par with the schools of medicine and engineering. I shared with Robert after all the presentations if that was the case when I was applying I would not have been accepted as I was a jock first, student second. While at UBC I participated in the intramurals program, weight room, completed my bronze medallion and first two levels of the original NCCP program that has now evolved to a multi-sport focus.

I asked him if there had been any changes to the projections by health authorities in Canada in the USA that today’s generation of kids may die 5 years sooner than their parents, making it the first time in history this may occur and he stated was still current even though many organizations have evolved in recent years to buck those trends

The current health costs per person in Canada is approximately $4000.00 per person or just shy of $15 Billion dollars! The upside is my home province, BC has the lowest cost per person average due to the fact many adults are still active in skiing, golf, biking, hiking, walking and other team sports like slo-pitch, ice hockey, soccer.

As Type II diabetes has trickled down in the teen age group because of inactivity and kids spending 7.5 hours a day in front of screens, that cost per person for those with Type II diabetes increases a further 3800.00/Yr (or 7800.00 total)

The current rate of obesity for today’s Canadian youth is 1/3^rd (33%) up over 20% since the 80’s where it was approx. 100%. He confirmed that if the current trends continue by 2040, 70% of Canadian youth will be fat or obese.

This would equate to a twofold or more impact on health costs, pushing it to over $30 Billion

He also shared that there had been a recent study done shared by CBS news that middle age (50) people that that practiced 5 lifestyle habits could live a decade longer than those that did not, one being exercise 30 minutes a day which could just be a brisk walk.

In the room, there was alumni for various years, including one from the first ever graduating class of UBC’s school of PE in 1949! Another from 1950 and others from 60’s and beyond. I had the opportunity to hear them speak to others (the lineup was long with other alumni wishing to speak to them) and they were still sharp as a tack and enjoying life in their 90’s! (albeit they are not quite as mobile as they were when they attended the school decades back)

I also had the opportunity to talk to various other faculty members and one that was just getting started at the school when I was there, Dr. Ian Franks, was credited by the author of the book and Robert for his contributions to the evolution of the school and numerous studies he and other faculty members had done. His area of specialty, which was my major, is motor control and performance. His is one of the global leaders in the field, as are now many of the other faculty members where the school has qualified for over $5 Million in funding for research. The very fact that I was in a room with so many PHD’s and post graduate alumni and was receiving an award when I did not go beyond my undergraduate degree was overwhelming. The reason I was acknowledged was not my scientific research and publications many in the room or the school has now received global recognition for, but for my contributions to the mentorship program, career fair and expert panels the last few years to assist the next generation of leaders in the space. This year I have been paired up with another mentee, who is a UBC Gymnastics High School Competitive Coach. We will meet in a couple of weeks to review his goals as he will be graduating from his undergrad degree in May and is trying to figure out his path to either pursue post graduate studies or work in coaching. In his original reach out to me to setup our first meeting he shared how excited he is to have me as a mentor and get to know my coaching philosophy as well as the key things for a coach to keep their athletes motivated to overcome challenges. I will expand further when we meet in a couple of weeks, but as I have learned asking thousands of coaches over the years what the top characteristics are of great coaches, it is all about the connection, caring and building relationships. I recently shared this short video out on facebook why we coach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgnAm6_DYmU I thought Matt Deggs, Sam Houston State NCAA Div I baseball coach nailed it when talking about his shift from transactional to a transformational coach.

That’s why I coach. That’s why I mentor. That’s why we sponsor co-op students to get valuable work experience as we continue to grow as an organization. To build those relationships and develop youth into adults. The sooner that youth sports coaches shift their current mindset from focusing on winning at all costs to recognizing our calling is to develop the person, the sooner we will reverse the negative attrition rates we are experiencing where kids are quitting sports or not get involved at all which is leading to their projected 5 year shorter life expectancy. Our goal is to do what we can to give kids their 5 years back (and then some). Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids …. where it belongs.

“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.