I received this email from Rett Larsen of velocity Sports Performance, who got it from Cal Dietz at the Univ. of Minnesota. Had to pas it on since its a great piece. I know Dan Bylsma, Jay's son, who is currently the Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team that won the Stanley Cup last season. Dan had a hockey career in the NHL, and I coached him when he was with the Long Beach ice Dogs and the Los Angeles Kings. He's a great, stand-up guy. This will help you understand why.

So You're Going to Coach My Grandchild?
A message to coaches from Jay M. Bylsma:

I'm so grateful that you've volunteered to be the coach of my grandchild's ice hockey team. I'm getting a bit too old to be out on the ice with these young kids and without you volunteering, it's possible my Bryan wouldn't have an opportunity to play this wonderful game that's meant so much to his father and uncles and myself. My Bryan made it through tryouts. You might have thought that the tryouts were to see whether or not Bryan was good enough to make your team. That wasn't it at all. It was to see if you were good enough to be entrusted with my grandchild. You see, I don't really care if you know much about hockey, or whether you have a winning record. I don't know or care if you've ever coached a kid that made it in the NHL, or Division I college hockey, or even high school. But I know that every one of the kids you coach will have a life to lead after hockey. You will coach far more doctors and lawyers than professional hockey players. So I'm more interested in what kind of a role model you are and your ability to teach Bryan life lessons than whether you can teach him the left wing lock or backwards crossovers.

Let me explain why I don't care if you have a winning record. Think back over all the games you played in organized sports as a kid - any and all the sports. Can you remember any of the scores of any of those games or even if you won or lost? If you're like me you can't remember many - if even one. But I can remember every coach I ever had. Mr. Sterkenberg, Mr. Naerebout, Mr. VanderMey, and others. I can even picture them in my mind. Images of good men who taught me (whether they knew it or not) sportsmanship, integrity, to play by the rules, and to have fun. They made a lasting impression on me, just as you will have a lasting impression on my little Bryan. But apparently winning wasn't important enough for me to remember. Bryan hasn't been enrolled in the youth hockey program to win. He's been enrolled to have fun, to increase his athleticism, and to learn life lessons. What kind of a lasting impression will you have? You are his coach, a position just bit lower than the angels. He will hang on your every word. He will skate into the boards for you. He will never forget you as you've never forgotten your coaches. And he will learn from you, perhaps as much by what you do as what you say. You are the potter and Bryan is the clay.


For example, if you pick your team based on talent and ability you will show
Bryan that talent and ability are the criteria that a person needs to be
successful. If you pick your team based on the associations you have - that is,
your GM's kid gets to play, your brother-in-law's kid is on the power play -
each regardless of ability - you will show Bryan that you get ahead in life by
who you know, accomplishment and achievement don't count for as much as
connections. If you tell the kids, "Every one pays equally, everyone plays
equally" and then only some kids get on the power play and play in the third
period, you influence kids about the meaning of honesty and deception. If you
say disparaging remarks about the other team, the other coach, or the officials,
you demean the game and incidentally yourself and you teach Bryan that it's okay, perhaps even manly - to be disrespectful and pejorative. If you need to put ringers on your team to be competitive in an out-of-town tournament, you are
influencing your players about your standard of honesty and the importance of
winning at the cost of your integrity. If you say a disparaging remark about
education, you may depreciate the value of education - this in a sport where if
you aspire to play at a higher level, good grades may be as - or more important
than - your hockey skill.

Your demeanor, your language, your deportment, your values, your aspirations, your character becomes the role model. You are the potter, Bryan is the clay. You see, I don't even think this is about hockey at all. It's about teaching Bryan life lessons. It's about re-enforcing the lessons he learns at home. Hockey is just the blossom we use to attract the bees. And we attract the bees to teach them to respect the game, to respect their opponents as worthy competitors, to respect the officials and their decisions, to teach them fairness, and how to maintain self-control.

If he's a good player, I hope you won't aggrandize him or over-use him but help him be a team player. If he's a poor player, I hope you won't demean him but give him his fair share of ice time and help him become a better player. I hope you will remember he's just a child and your career as a coach isn't riding on his back. I hope you will remember that a word of encouragement after a mistake is worth more than a pile of praise after a success.

My son Dan and I started the IT PAYS initiative because for all its inherent good, changes in youth sports are very disturbing to us. There are the well publicized instances of cheating, abuse, assaults, and even murder. But these are only the tip of the iceberg. The sport is having ever increasing difficulty attracting and keeping officials because of verbal abuse and assaults by coaches and parents. Skilled players are leaving the game because of violent play by bigger less skilled players who are instructed "take them out" instead of improving their own level of play to compete successfully. A win-at-a-cost mentality demeans less skilled players who may rarely see ice time in the third periods of close games - which ironically impacts their ability to improve. Sadly, some coaches have taken the fun out of the game for the children by exerting too much pressure, being too critical, being demeaning, and being too vocal in an inappropriate way. The consequences of losing sight of the purpose of youth sports - that is as a game of childhood, a wonderful pastime - is that the life lessons that are being taught are less than wholesome and sometimes destructive. Dan and I hope that you will wholeheartedly continue to support goals of IT PAYS - for the good of this great game, for its reputation, and for the positive influence we hope you'll have on the child we entrusted to you.

If you work with young athletes, or athletes of any age for that matter, remember this.<

Coaching Technique: Do It Well or Don't Do It

There are a lot of different training methods, drills, and exercises. You can use them in different ways and combinations to achieve the same goal. Here’s the key, whatever methods you choose, they need to be done right.

It’s frustrating to watch a coach use exercises that may be appropriate, but can’t coach their athletes to do it right. It does no good if the program looks good written on paper, if the actual training looks like crap.

I have seen a lot o reasons why this happens. They either don’t know what the proper movement should look like, they don’t know how to correct it, or they don’t care.

When it’s a case of not being able to recognize errors compared to a proper technical model, it’s fixable. You should watch the movement done properly. Live when possible, by video when needed. Watch, AGAIN and AGAIN! Then start watching movements and comparing them to the model and noting differences.

I’ve seen some coaches who I’m sure can see the difference between correct and incorrect movements, however they don’t fix it. I think they are concerned about their athletes, and they think doing the movements properly is important.

So why don’t they coach it? I suspect at one time they tried. They tried, but didn’t know enough to give the right cues, or discover the true problem. Instead they ended up frustrated that it didn’t improve and probably so did the athlete. So over time, they stopped trying to correct it. A lot less frustration for all.

This too is fixable. Learn from other coaches who can coach that movement. Learn to analyze, discover different fixes, and develop different cueing methods. It’s called COACHING.

Technique does matter, because if you don’t get it right, it’s ineffective or a waste of time at best, or detrimental and harmful at worst. In the last case the solution is easy. GET OUT OF COACHING. If you don’t care enough to help your athlete’s, then STOP!

Coaching Education Rant

There are a lot of people being mis-guided at best and some probably ripped off. Institutionally ripped-off. By the very people they were looking towards, to educate them for their future.

It's that time of year when a lot of graduates are looking for jobs. I'm looking for some coaches. The former and latter don't match up however. Unfortunately, many (if not most) college graduates are not ready to coach.

They play or like sports. They may enjoy coaching, sports medicine, and/or fitness. They pick an exercise science or kinesiology program. Spend lots of money for years or school, exercise science classes, and expensive textbooks. They finish with a degree. They send out resumes and look for a job as strength or performance coach. They put in the hard work and spent the money. That's what everyone said they were supposed to do.

Now look at it from my point of view. Most apply and don't even know what we do in sports performance coaching. They think its like personal training. They have never coached any athletes. None of their classes were in pedagogy (the art or science of being a teacher and generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction). They have never coached anyone in max velocity mechanics or a power clean. They probably haven't even dealt with kids in a large group at a camp, but they can tell me about the krebs cycle.

This does me no good. They have no skills of value yet. They probably don't even know enough about what we do to determine if they like it or not. I have to teach them how to do anything useful at this point.

Now don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in education. You need the science, but coaching is a HANDS-ON field. If your intention is to coach in some way, and you get zero experience coaching during your education, you are not being prepared.

I think the blame lies with both the student and the institution.

The students needs to be wise consumers and select the best programs for where they want to go. As someone who's undergraduate degree is in Sound Engineering & Acoustic Design, I understand students often start school without knowing what they really want. Still, I choose a school that provided me with hands-on learning and multiple internships.

Institutions are often so caught up in theory and the business of traditional schooling that students finish with no appreciable skills. If a student is on a track that leads to coaching, fitness training, or something where they will actively interact and instruct people in movement, than you better expose your students to it. Not just in a week overview, but more in-depth. I like the programs where the upper level student have to do an internship.

Make your students do some training as well. One of the values of the physical education majors was that they had to go out and learn different sports and experience that process. They also had to teach activity classes and learn pedagogy.

Part of the problem is also the "SHOW ME THE MONEY" attitude of many graduates. They think they've earned something. You have, the readiness to start learning how to coach. If you show promise, I'll even offer you an extensive internship where you can learn coaching skills in strength, speed, video analysis, coaching pedagogy, exposure to experienced coaches and experts in multiple disciplines, become part of a broad coaching network, and more. I wont even charge you for all this, but don't expect to be highly paid yet.

I was always impatient and hated being told I had to "pay my dues." You do need to develop some coaching skills however so you become valuable to an employer, team or institution.

A degree does not a coach make.

Are You A Cook or Chef

Over the years I’ve heard from several coaches the analogy as the coach as a chef and it’s one that resonates. I know Mike Boyle has used this and I think it's right on point. We are trying to produce a product that is the result of multiple ingredients. The successful chef has not only an in-depth knowledge of the cooking process and ingredients, but they are also artists.

Executive Chef
Executive chefs run the whole kitchen. They hire and fire the staff, determine costs, revamp the menu, take care of all administrative tasks, interact with the dining room managers, and generally oversee the well-being of the restaurant. In smaller, less flamboyant restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine sees to all this, and an executive chef would be redundant.

Sous-Chef
Next under the Executive Chef, depending on the restaurant, this chef is always in the kitchen. He/she comes up with the daily specials, takes inventory, watches over the staff, expedites, and basically does all the hands-on work. There are sous-chefs of two ilks: those who will soon move on to open their own restaurants, becoming Executive Chefs, and those who will remain as they are, preferring the rhythmic rigors of the kitchen to the bright lights of chef stardom.

Line Cooks
The line cooks are the people who actually cook your food. They are divided up, either by cooking technique (saute, grill, etc.), or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). When the expeditor shouts out an order (they always shout), the line cooks jump to prepare it. Most cooks work up through the line (working every position), before being promoted to sous-chef.

Learning to Cook
Imagine. You haven’t been much of a cook in the past. It’s new to you. You got down the difference between broil and boil but creme brulee is still a mystery. If you were cooking a dish for the first time, would you take two recipes from two different cookbooks and combine them? Would you add ingredients from one of the recipes while using the preparation and cooking directions from the other? If you did, would you expect it to come out right and taste good? What if you took two cakes recipes. They both call for flour, sugar and eggs, but you double the eggs and omit the sugar. How’s that going to go over? Obviously it’s not going to work. Unfortunately, when it comes to program design, this is exactly what many coaches do.

With so many coaches taking in seminars, DVDs and internet information, coupled with an impatient attitude for honing their craft, I see many programs being written by short order cooks and not chefs. Usually the program is a little of this philosophy, and a little of theirs, with maybe a sprinkling of another guru. It’s a combination of recipes to use the analogy, and the result is less that optimal.

When it comes to designing programs, you need to know where you are on the road to being an executive chef.

Out of College / Full Internship
When you first come out of college you have some scientific basis to understand what an athlete needs. It’s like knowing the properties and tastes of various ingredients, and you have developed some basic cooking skills, but that’s it. Many former athletes that go into coaching are also at this point and they know a variety of drills and exercises. You know how to chop, broil and blend. You’re a line cook.

At this stage, you need a recipe to follow. Don’t go changing the recipe to suit your tastes. You need direction while you hone your skills in cooking. It’s not yet the time for you to be creating a menu and recipes, but you should be honing your craft with an eye on the future. As you show your skill, you will be given opportunities to display your ready for the next step. The sous-chef should be continuing to train and mentor you as you develop.

Coach well and learn how to observe the movements, analyze for technical errors, and then problem solve. Learn the rules of program design while you do this, but its not time to be creating your own dishes and menus.

Coaching for Several Years and Writing Some programs
Many third to fifth year coaches are analogous with the sous-chefs. The sous-chef is the second in command in the kitchen and have developed their ability to alter the recipe without spoiling the meal. They understand how to alter the ingredients but also know there needs to be a plan and it should be followed. The sous chef understands that the ratio of ingredients and their timing matter, and that you don't simply cook to your own taste.

The sous-chef also is the one that prevents the phrase, “too many cooks spoil the broth” They manage the kitchen staff and assign duties. This is the role of the 1st assistant in coaching. They may assign schedules and duties, and are instrumental in helping develop the younger staff.

After five years of successful program design, you might now qualify as a chef.
It takes time to learn your craft. After time serving as a sous-chef, you now think about bolder changes to the recipe because you have extensive experience "cooking". Every coach wants to do this, but you need to know the rules before you try and break them.

As a chef experiments, they don’t throw out their entire style of cooking and all that they have learned. They build on it and make smaller changes to their fundamental cooking philosophy. To use a line from Mike Boyle, “Chefs don't abandon their chosen cooking style after watching an episode of Hell's Kitchen, instead you are now making small changes to what should be a system.”

Learn to Cook
Figure out if you are a cook or a chef. If you are a cook right now, find some good recipes to follow. Find a chef to learn under and develop your skills. If you are on your own, find those recipes and mealplans and learn the appropriate time to serve each dish. Eventually you can become a chef, but go through each step to be a successful one.

What Do You Want to Learn?

When interviewing potential rookie coaching candidates I ask questions about what they would like to learn to become a better coach. Hopefully they have an answer or else it’s a very short conversation. I need to know they have a passion for this field and learning. They have to have been doing some reading beyond school work and something needs to have sparked their interest.

The follow-up question is along the lines of, “if you could go anywhere and learn from anyone, what would you do to become a better coach?” I expect an answer. Seldom do I get good ones. When I get, "I don't know, I've been busy in school." I can be pretty sure this person is not deeply passionate about this field of coaching.

In a rookie coach I am not really judging who they want to learn from or the specific topic. I want to know they are already interested in this field and know some of the players. I don’t even hold it as a major strike when all they can name are internet gurus who are selling products (at least they are on the internet looking at the field).

For a more senior coach, the topics, the areas of interest, and the approach become more important. I am searching for them to have a philosophy that is complimentary, views that will help us grow as a team, and that they are intelligent and engaged. I am really hoping to find coaches who are looking to not just improve their science knowledge, but improve their Art of Coaching.

All the best coaches I know are always learning from others. Others in this field and others outside of it. I have a long list and its diverse in its settings, expertise and industries. From sport coaches who have built winning programs, to motor control experts who are on the cutting edge of how we control movement , to marketing experts who know about how to get a message across to people. All can help me become a better coach.

So this begs the questions, where would you go and who would you look to grow as a coach? Figure out the answer and do the best you can to get there.

Coaching Eye Tools

What will you do to develop your coaching eye in the next month? If you are a coach with decades of experience its probably just a matter of consciously going out and actively watching athletes. If you are still developing your eye, then I think it needs to be a more planned effort.

Without question in my mind, the #1 thing you need to do is coach side by side with a mentor. If you can find a skilled coach, to coach with, DO IT! Time spent watching reps and comparing what you saw, to what a more experienced coach may see will accelerate your learning more than anything else. Being able to ask questions while right there in the action lets you find out not just WHAT that coach sees, but WHY its happening, and WHY they gave WHICH cues.

If you can't do that on an extended basis, do it when you can. I was not in a position early on to have a daily mentor to work with, so instead I found opportunities. These were chances to observe better coaches than me during training sessions. At times, I was able to take my athletes to workout in other coach's sessions. I could get their eye on my athlete, and get their input.

In my experiences, its a regular occurence to ask a fellow coach to watch a rep or run. "Can you take a look at this next one", "What do you see happening with his recovery?" etc.... Its not a lack of skill that makes us ask, its enough intelligence to get other qualified points of view.

Don't leave it to luck and chance to develop your coaching eye around a better coach. Make it happen. During the next month, where is an opportunity to develop your coaching eye with the helpof another coach?

Developing Your Coaching Eye

One of the biggest challenges I see new coaches have is seeing whats in front of them. I mean literally. Watching and athlete move in real time and analyzing their technique is a highly refined skill. Its your coaching eye.

Over time, I have looked back on that process for myself and recognized how long it took. I want to speed it up. I want my coaches to be able to do it now! So I thought long and hard about what the keys were and how we could accelerate the process.

First, I watched lots of movement. I was a strength coach before a speed coach. I first learned to watch slower motions like squats, deadlifts, etc… Then I learned how to watch the Olympic lifts. They are faster. Then I could watch acceleration, before maximum velocity. So the first lesson is progressive development from slow to fast movements.

Next, like most things, I found mentors who were better than me and learned from them. I stood in the gym and on the track and watched the same movements them, and tried to see what they saw. Often times, I was entirely lost as they picked out technique details, and I saw nothing near the level of detail. They gave me feedback and pointed me in the right direction. The next lesson is to compare yourself with a more trained eye who can guide you.

I have studied the movements using video (yes it includes many vcr tapes and dare I admit a little film). A big part of this is studying expert movement. Skilled performers. Watching them again and again. Getting my hands on everything I could. I distinctly remember when I first got access to a vcr with slow motion and a thumb wheel control. It was heaven! The lesson is that you have to watch and study the movement over and over. You need to have a proper technical model in your head if you are going to compare what you see.

An easy to overlook element is that I have watched thousands upon thousands of movements. Not “looked at” or “saw”, but watched. Its an active process. You can go to the track meet and see the race, or you can watch the movement of an athlete. In the weight room, or out on the track and field, I watch movements. This may be the most important lesson of all, WATCH ACTIVELY.

In coming posts I’ll talk more about each of these steps, but if you want to be a great movement coach, ask yourself; “which are you doing?”