I recently spent time training and learning with the Wake Forest Educating Character Institute. It has been a meaningful experience. The conference this past weekend about 30 people on character and sport generated a lot of ideas and learning for me. Over the next couple of months, I’ll share some of what I took away. […]
In this episode of Beyond Coaching, Rob sits down with Russell Smelley—NAIA Hall of Fame coach, longtime Westmont College faculty member and coach, and one of the most thoughtful voices in collegiate coaching—to explore what it really means to coach people, not just train athletes. Russell shares stories from nearly five decades in coaching, including […]
In leadership as well as coaching, we face competing truths all the time. You can have firm standards and still discover that you were wrong. There are multiple ways to teach and coach just about any skill. The coaches who keep growing are the ones who stay curious. They can hold that tension. However, this […]
Youth sports isn’t collapsing because kids changed. It’s collapsing because the adults around them don’t always know how to help. In this episode, I continue the conversation with longtime coach and youth-sport observer Shaun Reid. We move past diagnosing what’s broken and get into solutions—what parents, coaches, and leaders can actually do to make youth […]
Each month, Dustin and I sit down for a 10–15 minute conversation where we dig deeper into a topic. This month we are talking about transactional leadership. If you’re already a paid subscriber, we’d love your feedback! Let us know if you find the content helpful and meaningful. And if you’re enjoying it, consider gifting […]
A Short Conversation While We Fix the Shaun Reid Episode Part 2 of the Shaun Reid conversation ran into a technical issue, so that episode will drop next week. In its place, Dustin and I recorded a short discussion on clean and dirty motivation and why it matters for anyone coaching or leading athletes. The […]
Last week I had a spirited conversation with a few coaches at Friends University about replay review in college sports. At the NAIA level, we continue to incorporate more replay review each year. In theory, that is not a bad thing. Getting the call right in big moments matters, and officials are human. They are […]
Last week I had a spirited conversation with a few coaches at Friends University about replay review in college sports. At the NAIA level, we continue to incorporate more replay review each year. In theory, that is not a bad thing. Getting the call right in big moments matters, and officials are human. They are […]
In Part 1 of Rob’s conversation with Shaun Reid, they diagnose what’s gone sideways in youth sports. Shaun—originally from Wales and a longtime soccer coach—breaks down why the youth sports “system” has drifted from child-centered development toward a pay-to-play business model. Rob and Shaun discuss dropout rates, parent pressure, over-trusting underqualified coaches, and the way […]
