Why Do We Think Physical Punishment is a Good Teaching Tool in Sports?

The other day I got an interesting question via email from a mom of a young travel volleyball player. Her daughter and her team had missed quite a few serves their previous tournament. There were serves into the net. There were serves wide of the court. There were serves over the endline. They were told
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No Excuse for the Abuse: Don’t Tolerate Negative Coaching

“Where did we ever get the crazy idea that to get children to do better, first we have to make them feel worse?” – Jane Nelsen Early in my coaching career, I was speaking with a parent of an athlete about the methods employed by her daughter’s coach. The parent explained how the coach ruled
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Are you a Blockbuster Coach, or are you a Netflix Coach?

Have you ever heard of Blockbuster Video? Have you seen one lately? There is a reason only one Blockbuster store remains today. Let me explain. In 1992 I was a senior in High School playing for one of the top high school soccer teams in the state. We were successful because our coach was one
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Why is Abusive Coaching Tolerated in Sports?

On May 29, 2018, University of Maryland lineman Jordan McNair ran the last sprint of his life. After a series of 110 yd runs, during which he became disoriented and had trouble standing, McNair collapsed and died of heat stroke. He had a body temperature of 106 degrees in the hospital. He was only 19.
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How Do I Balance My WHY with the Demands of the Youth Sports Culture?

“This season was a disaster.” A former colleague of mine said to me recently. “We had a ton of fun, the kids learned a lot of new skills and gelled as a team, but we didn’t win as many games as last season.” “Fun and learning are the two primary things we always wanted out
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Parenting and Coaching The Perfectionist Athlete

Last week, we received a question that we get often, so we thought it would make a great blog: “I was wondering if you could provide some advice. My son is 8 years old and plays on a travel baseball team. [He is ] blessed with athleticism. He’s fast and has great hand-eye coordination. The
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How to Make Coaching a True Profession

“It ain’t what you know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know that just ain’t true.” – Mark Twain “What makes you a professional?” That was the question Dr. Richard Bailey, Head of Research at the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education, posed to me and 250 PGA instructors in Orlando
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The One Question All Coaches Should Ask Their Athletes

Coaches, imagine if there was a way to gain insight, understanding, and connection with your athletes by asking a simple question? There is. let me explain how. A few years back, I coached a talented, yet underperforming sixteen-year-old girl I will call Maddy. She was incredibly inconsistent in her play and often looked very depressed.
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WOC #34 Best Selling Author, Dan Heath, on How Coaches can Create Extraordinary Moments for their Athletes

Everyone has these defining moments in their lives that they vividly recall. Some are extraordinary and some are terrible. As coaches, we do not get to choose which moments our athletes recall, but we do get to choose the moments we create in order to ensure what we leave our athletes with are exceptionally positive
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WOC #33 Best Selling Authors Wade Gilbert and Jerry Lynch Discuss What Quality Coaching Really Looks Like

How do you define a quality coach? Is it number of wins? Are we expert coaches because of the amount of time we have coached the game? Wade Gilbert and Jerry Lynch have a candid conversation with John about what it really means to be a quality coach and the definition is not what we
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The “Power of Moments” in Youth Sports

The Magic Castle Hotel is one of the top three rated hotels in Los Angeles. Of its nearly 3000 reviews, 93% rate it very good or excellent, putting it above properties such as The Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton. Yet, as you flip through the photos online, you don’t see much that makes you
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WOC #31 Mark Bennett, Founder of Performance Development Systems, How Coaches Can Shape Behavior, Influence Training Habits, and Build Accountable Teams

What can sport coaches learn from a former British Commando? A better way to deliver content, ensure learning has occurred, and empower players to own their learning process. In this episode, Mark explains how coaches can more effectively shape behaviors, which will lead to better learning outcomes. Bio Mark has been training, coaching & mentoring
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Performance is a Behavior, NOT an Outcome!

Last week I received the following email (edited for anonymity). We get calls and emails like this quite often from amazing, passionate coaches who are trying to make a difference. Take a read: Dear John, I’m currently a head football coach…I took over the program last January after being on staff for the previous 10
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WOC #25 Dr. Richard Bailey, Head of Research at ICSSPE, On What We Need to Make Coaching a True Profession

Is the way we coach based upon the latest science, research, and best practices of how children learn? Or is it based upon how we were coached growing up? In this fantastic interview, Dr. Richard Bailey, Head of Research at ICSSPE, separates fact from fiction and discusses some of the common mistakes that he sees
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WOC #23 – Jenny Levy, Two-Time National Lacrosse Champion and Coach of the Year, on why it’s not the winning, it’s the atmosphere that matters most

“…and it may mean you may never win.” What if one of the best basketball coaches in the world told you that doing what you think is best for the culture and the program is more important than winning an NCAA title? Would you be willing to let go of the fallacy of winning for
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WOC #22 John Kessel, USA Volleyball, Lines Teach You How, but the Game Teaches You Why

Neurosurgeons say if they practiced the way they did 18 months ago, they’d be sued for malpractice. Heart surgeons believe if they practiced the way they did 5 years ago, they’d be sued for malpractice. Yet, in youth sport coaching we still practice the way we did when we were kids. John Kessel believes we
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WOC #21 Nate Sanderson, Two-Time Iowa High School State Champion Basketball Coach, On The Art of Engaging Parents in a Winning Team Culture

If an athlete’s inner dialogue is made up of the voices they hear most often and most intensely in their daily lives, what are we as parents and coaches saying that can form a champion’s mind? Join us as we talk to Two-time Iowa High School State Basketball Championship winning coach, Nate Sanderson, to discuss
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WOC #20 Jim Thompson, Founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance, on How Connection Precedes Commitment in Leadership

What if there was a single component you could add to your coaching that would get total commitment from your players, create better relationships with your parents, and possibly help you win more games? Jim Thompson shares this component and more in the newest Way of Champions Podcast. He also discusses the knowledge, strategies, and
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Looking for Answers? Get Our FREE Booklet With Links to Our Most Popular Articles for Parents, Coaches, Athletes and Youth Sports Organizations

Here at Changing the Game Project, every week we get a call or email that says “remember that article you wrote about…? We want to use it in our newsletter and we can’t find it. What was it called?” Well, after four years of publishing thousands of words a month, we have realized that we
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WOC #17 Lynn Kachmarik, First Female Coach of a Men’s Division I Sport, On Protecting Our Children In Sports

Lynn has over 45 years of experience in youth, high school, collegiate, and professional sports. Lynn was an All-American water polo player and swimmer at Slippery Rock University where she received her BS and MS Degrees in Physiology and Education. She was a 12-year member of the United States National Water Polo team, and then
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WOC #16 Stuart Armstrong, Head of Coaching for Sport England, “Learning Happens in the Ugly Zone” and other coaching factors

Stuart Armstrong is the Head of Coaching for Sport England. Prior to Sport England, he was the Player Development Manager for the Rugby Football Union. He is one of the world’s top experts on player development pathways and skill acquisition, and has helped thousands of coaches in the UK create better learning environments and develop
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WOC #14 Mark Upton, International Skill Acquisition and Coaching Education Expert, on Quality Coaching

As co-creator of social enterprise ‘myfastestmile’ and with a role in the UK Olympic sport system, much of Mark’s work revolves around understanding learning & expert performance in order to facilitate the development of sport participants, coaches and leaders. He is passionate about creating dynamic environments for people at all levels of sport to be
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WOC #13 Nicole LaVoi, Co-Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport

Author of Women in Sports Coaching, Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in the area of social and behavioral sciences in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota where she is also the Co-Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, and the co-founder of the
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How Would You Spend $100 Million to Improve Your Favorite Sport? My Advice for US Soccer

What would you do with $100 million to improve the sport you love? It’s kind of a magic wand question, isn’t it? You have enough money to make a significant impact in a sport on every level, how do you spend it? Recently in the news, it has been reported that the US Soccer Federation
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A Case for Nurture Over Nature

“Your daughter is so beautiful.” The kind woman said, smiling at my 18-year-old daughter. “Thanks, she got her mother’s looks.” I said reflexively. Then I cringed. That’s my “go to response”. Anytime I receive a compliment on my daughter’s looks, I immediately reply about her genetic connection to her mother. She did get her mom’s
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WOC #9 Rise and Shine with English Premier League and World Cup Soccer Player Jay DeMerit

Jay DeMerit has one of the most unique stories to success the sport of soccer has ever seen. An MLS reject that backpacked to Europe and climbed the English soccer pyramid from the 12th tier to become the captain of Watford FC in the English Premier League. He also represented the US Mens National Team
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WOC #8 Catch Them Being Good with Olympic and World Cup Champion Coach Tony DiCicco

Tony DiCicco is the former Head Coach of the US Women’s National and Olympic Soccer Teams, as well as the US U20 Women’s National Team.  He coached the US National Team to their famous victory in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Championship, the largest women’s sporting event in history. In 1996, he coached the
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Can We Shift the Paradigm in Youth Sports?

I was recently in Ohio for a family event. At this event, my father and his friends began sharing stories of their childhood. Everyone shared stories of their days of triumph on the sporting fields in their small Midwest town. As the event progressed, it evolved into a full on discussion about youth sports coaching
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WOC #7: Destination Unstoppable, The Journey of No Teammate Left Behind with Author Maureen Monte

Maureen Monte is the author of the incredible book Destination Unstoppable: The Journey of No Teammate Left Behind, one of our favorite books of 2016. She was also a participant in our first ever Way of Champions Conference in 2016, and will be joining us again in Princeton NJ June 2-4 for our next event.
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WOC Podcast #6: USOC Coaching Education Director Chris Snyder

It is not often you get the opportunity to speak to a coach that has the task of supporting and assisting some of the best coaches in the world, across a multitude of sports, but that is what Chris Snyder does. Chris is the Director for Coaching Education in the Sports Performance Division of the
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