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Posted on February 22, 2010 – 3:30 pm
Coverage of Olympic speedskating has been dominated by two US legends: Apollo Ohno, fighting to become the most decorated US Winter Olympian ever, and Shani Davis, the coachless wonder who not only was the first to win back-to-back Golds in long-track speedskatings marquee event (the 1000) but 4 years ago was the first African-American athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
Davis’s ‘lack’ of coaching is well documented: he doesn’t train with the US team and lists only his mother as his official manager. However, Davis is largely considered the ultimate student of speed skating.
Instead of a dedicated coach, Davis takes insight from dozens of people:
Davis takes advice from numerous coaches — some connected to the U.S. national team, some not — and then synthesizes their guidance and sets his own course. His coaches are more like a panel of consultants
Also, like all Athleon teams, Davis isn’t afraid to utilize technology in his training:
Davis, who watches video of himself and opponents extensively, does receive some technical and staff support from U.S. sprint coach Ryan Shimabukuro on the road and short-track coach Jae Su Chun when he trains with that team. Former Olympian Kip Carpenter, now a coach, also provides logistical support, and Fenn says he has talked to Davis regularly the last two weeks in the final tuneup for Vancouver.
Finally, Davis uses old-fashioned pen and paper daily, literally journaling everything that happens to him on the ice. From what he worked on to how he was feeling, from his mental processes to what he ate before a good training session. He saves EVERYTHING, so he literally has an encyclopedia of his training.
Try writing a single page every day after practice this week. Save it on Athleon.com or in a notebook. How did practice go? What worked? What didn’t? How was your attitude, energy level, and what do you think attributed to those factors?
Like Davis, once you know what works, you can replicate it and improve upon it, leading to continual improvement and perhaps the top spot on whatever podium you’re chasing.
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Posted on January 14, 2010 – 6:31 pm
Brian Kelly didn’t inherit much when he took over the Cincinnati football team three years ago. As he tries to replicate his success on a larger scale at Notre Dame, his strategies for building something from nothing can be copied by any sub-par program.
1. Demand higher expectations from your players, in referencing Tony Pike, the 5th stringer whom Kelly turned into a Heisman candidate, Kelly said: “He was caught in the same malaise the University of Cincinnati program has been caught in all these years. A collective feeling of: ‘We’re happy to be here, but that’s about it.’” Kelly told Pike to step up or go home. It worked.
2. Demand higher expectations from the program: Kelly refused to build a world-class program with sub-par facilities, and worked hard for better coverage from the press as well. While the new stadium Kelly got may be unrealistic for your program, building support within the athletic department and faculty of your school is key to any successful rebuild.
3. Demand higher expectations from your fan base: Kelly took it upon himself to earn the support and growth of his fan base. “I realized at the beginning that I had to be at every chicken dinner, at every bar, at every community-service event, so the city could see the passion that I had for the program,” says Kelly. “That was the way to build support for it—that and winning games.”
Demand higher expectations, of yourself, your staff, your players, and your school.
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Posted on October 23, 2009 – 5:21 pm
At some point in your coaching career, likely multiple times each season, you made a choice:
I’m going to be a upbeat, excitable coach, not afraid to joke around with my players while keeping my emotions on my sleeve
or
I’m going to be strict, results drive coach that demands the best, keeping everything professional and buttoned up.
Yet somehow, the coaches who can artfully blend both are the most successful in reaching their athletes. Look at Josh McDaniels, who’s brought the Broncos to 6-0 despite having the toughest off-season of perhaps any 1st year head coach in history.
Bleacher Report contributor Courtney Zierk said it this way:
When Josh McDaniels took over the Broncos last January, it was clear that his strategy was to immediately assert his authority onto a franchise that was losing direction under Mike Shanahan. Trading Jay Cutler to the Bears was a clear indication that McDaniels would stand his ground at whatever cost—an attribute of a disciplinarian.
Now we’re seeing video clips of him on the sideline pumping his fist in elation like a teenager on steroids, mic’d-up snippets of McDaniels mixing it up with his players on the sidelines like he is just one of the guys, and even friendly embraces from formerly embittered players. These are all attributes of a player’s coach.
The reason the Broncos are winning games is because they are the most prepared team in the NFL week-in, week-out. They are prepared because the entire team has bought into McDaniels and his leadership. They have bought into his leadership because he has earned their respect. He has earned their respect because he understands the balance between camaraderie and authority.
As you prepare for your upcoming season, decide for yourself: Are you a ‘player’s coach or a disciplinarian? What can you do to be both?
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Posted on September 15, 2009 – 5:18 pm
In an increasingly fast-paced world, your athletes likely don’t have the stamina to stay focused through 3 hour practice sessions. Elite athletic trainer Todd Durkin understands this fact, and he gives Men’s Health a few quick secrets to maximizing the results for stars like LaDanian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, and Reggie Bush.
Secret #2? “Tempo is King”
1. Use high-intensity intervals both in the weightroom and on the practice field
2. “Get in, do your work, and then recover”
3. Diversify training (and practices) to keep things both challenging and interesting. Don’t let your players get in the ‘warm-up rut’ by running the same drills day after day.
Set a goal to keep practices this season under 2 hours, and let your players know it. Encourage short, quick lifting campaigns in season. Players will create a million excuses to get out of a grueling 90 minute lifting session, but create an intense, up-tempo 30 minute routine followed by skill work and players will get the job done.
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Posted on August 13, 2009 – 6:21 pm
Did you catch Rick Reilly’s latest article? Turns out a softball coach in Minnesota gets ripped pretty hard by Reilly for enforcing a ‘fine print’ rule (players can’t high five the player who hit the winning home run until AFTER she touches home plate) and stealing a victory on a technicality.
We here at Chalk Talk will let the big boys pass judgement, but present the case for discussion. Did the coach miss the opportunity to pass a valuable lesson to her players that winning may not be all that really matters? Did she miss the point of the game itself?
Maybe we’ll pass a little judgement. The article can be found here.
Says Reilly: I hate this kind of crap. There’s nothing cheaper than using some tiny, unconnected technicality to rob somebody of her rightful moment of glory, won fair and square. It’s the cheapest thing in sports: an adult pencil-whipping some kid because she can.
Coach Brent
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Posted on July 30, 2009 – 11:25 am
On June 2nd, Heather Tarr lead the University of Washington Softball team to a College World Series Championship, sweeping then #1 Florida.
When Tarr was hired by UW 5 years ago, so inexperienced at the time that she actually had to apply at her alma matter instead of being recruited, few could see nearly instant success coming. Former Husky standout and search committee member Angie Mentick could though.
“Usually people say that when they hire somebody who has big success, they say that they didn’t see it coming,” she said. “But I knew exactly what would happen. Absolutely.”
How? Because Tarr, despite no head coaching experience, came in with a 8 page job plan leading to that exact outcome. No other candidate showed such prepartion. The plan explained who she was, what her practices were like and how she would recruit.
She even included a photo of her, as a child, with legendary Husky Football coach Don James, who, in similar fashion, was legendary for scripting out every practice with a plan for every season.
Are you planning for a championship season? Heather Tarr wasn’t afraid to:
“This is my hometown, my program, my dream.”
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Posted on July 7, 2009 – 2:09 pm
Every coach has a “first job” — that first, usually not-so-glamorous step necessary to launch a career.
NY Jets coach Eric Mangini is no different.
According to a story in this weekend’s New York Times, Mangini finished his college playing career (he was an undersized, overachieving nose guard), coached in Australia for awhile, returned home to do some substitute teaching at local schools, before setting a lofty goal: Become an NFL head coach.
He called his former college coach who had moved on and was coaching with the Cleveland Browns. His old coach helped Mangini land a job with Cleveland’s PR department. From there, he started working as a Browns ball boy — picking up “jocks and socks” — before eventually becoming Bill Belichick’s administrative assistant.
During training camp in 1994, Mangini performed whatever job the team required. He moved blocking sleds during practice, washed laundry, fetched coffee for the coaches, cleaned the locker room. At one point, his mother tried to intervene. “My mom is looking at me thinking, ‘You’re 23, you have a degree from Wesleyan University, and you’re a ball boy,’ ” Mangini said.
He worked his way up to an assistant coach on the Browns staff, worked briefly for the Ravens, then joined Belichick in New England as the team’s DBs coach and, later, defensive coordinator where he helped the Pats win a couple Super Bowls.
In January 2006, at the age of 35, he was named head coach of the New York Jets.
Post By Eric Musselman
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Posted on July 1, 2009 – 4:13 pm
Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy turns 50 next year, but like most good coaches, he’s not too old to learn a few new tricks — like text-messaging.
According to a story in yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel:
To improve communication, Van Gundy this summer reached out to players “in the world they live in,” becoming a text-message master.
When the Magic gave Van Gundy a Blackberry, he looked at it like it was a Rubik’s Cube.
He turned to his kids for texting help. He became skilled enough to exchange texts with [Magic center Dwight] Howard while he was in China during the Olympics.
“Quite honestly, seven months of me is a lot to take,” Van Gundy said. “Players need and want a break from me. What I did more than anything was texting guys. I’m a technological type of guy now.
“The other thing is, that’s not really as invasive to them. If they want to read it, fine. They can see it’s from me and — ‘Click. Delete!’ At least it lets them know that I’m thinking about them.”
Said Dwight Howard, “He’s pretty good at it.”
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Posted on June 24, 2009 – 10:44 am
In its NBA preview, the NY Times contends that “age and health are again the primary concerns for the Spurs, who are trying to keep up their streak of championship parades every other June (following 2003, 2005 and 2007).”
As the Times article points out, for the Spurs, “seven integral players are in their 30s: Tim Duncan (32), Manu Ginóbili (31), Bruce Bowen (37), Michael Finley (35), Kurt Thomas (36), Fabricio Oberto (33) and Jacque Vaughn (33).”
But Duncan says two factors help separate the Spurs from other teams in the West:
“We have a proven system. We have a proven bunch of guys.”
Post by Eric Musselman
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Posted on June 16, 2009 – 1:11 pm
Here’s a great excerpt from Bill Walsh’s book “Building a Champion.” This one’s on the importance of carefully structuring practice sessions:
We’d establish four different practice formats, from a very hard, grueling two-and-a-half-hour practice to a light, thirty-minute practice the day before a game.
It’s vitally important that players take the field to learn something each session. This approach should be reflected all the way down to the Pop Warner level. The player should be taking the field to learn, and usually to practice something specific that has been discussed with him beforehand.
There were at least four major benefits from precisely scheduling training camp and practice during the regular season:
1. No time was wasted on the practice field. Historically, coaches have unwittingly wasted precious minutes on the practice field. They’ve spent time on drills that weren’t relevant to actually playing the game.
Or, they’ve run meaningless “filler drills” on one part of the field while other players at other positions worked on specific techniques, because the schedule has not been organized to incorporate all players working on important techniques concurrently.
2. The learning process was accelerated. Players would see the practice schedule the night before, so they knew those areas they were going to emphasize. When you take the field, you want the best possible learning environment. Most often, when that learning is taking place, the player is also getting the needed physical work.
We didn’t spend as much time on conditioning drills in training camps as some teams do. We felt that we would be in excellent condition when the season started and we didn’t want to fatigue the players so much that they would lose their concentration and be more susceptible to injury.
Teams hold practice for two reasons: To improve their skills and techniques, and to prepare for their next opponent.
During these sessions, it is vital that players communicate with each other. We made a concerted effort to establish an atmosphere in which players communicated in the huddle, at the line of scrimmage, and between plays. Visual and verbal communication can be an extremely important reinforcement during a game.
3. We could approach the game on a broad base, rather than piecemeal. We worked on every phase concurrently. We emphasized all facets of football necessary to ultimately compete with the best.
4. Initially, I coached the coaches. We coached all the players, not just the best ones. We had a distinct philosophy: As long as a man is on the field, he’s a 49er. All players, regardless of stature, would get the same consideration.
The coaches who have been the most successful are usually the ones actively involved in the on-the-field, day-to-day coaching. Players will sacrifice for a hands-on coach, because they identify with him as an integral part of the team.
A head coach who sees his role only as motivating the team and organizing the staff is at the mercy of other people. Having spent so many years as an assistant coach, I became more and more aware that someone had to be the source of game strategy and tactics.
On the professional level, it is important that the coach work with individual players and be actively involved in practice, rather than standing remotely away from everyone.
Exchanging on a first-name basis is very appropriate. There really isn’t much room for protocol in an atmosphere where so many sacrifices are made.
When I arrived at Stanford, I immediately told the team that everybody was on a first-name basis, that it was a two-way street, that I considered them mature men:
“Set aside the student-professor relationship. You are in an arena that calls for bonding among everyone involved. Sacrifices will have to be made, there just isn’t time or need to distinguish between roles and responsibilities. From this point forward we’re a group of men who collectively have one common objective, to compete and win.”
This freed them to totally express themselves on the football field and challenged them to demonstrate their maturity.
Post By Eric Musselman
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