Looking back, my heart got too big when I was coaching. I could rationalize poor behavior that I said I would not accept, because I cared for the kid and wanted to impact their life. If I am being more brutally honest, I think at times I rationalized most when the player was really good. […]
Over the years, I have guided countless leaders on how to support their nervous system to stay flexible enough to think clearly, respond wisely, and tolerate uncertainty without collapsing into reactivity. We focus on resilience, stress regulation, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, communication, mindset, burnout, and the ability to stay grounded and adaptive under pressure. We also […]
The New York Knicks’ NBA championship run shows us that long-term turnarounds don’t require endless tanking. Through smart leadership, player development, and a “never say die” resilience, they proved that acquiring the right core pieces can rapidly build a title-winning culture. Specific and actionable takeaways from the Knicks’ historic season include: Resilience and Composure: The […]
Every generation says the next one is soft. Rob’s dad said it. Dustin’s dad said it. Now coaches are saying it about the athletes in their gyms right now. But before we accept the premise, it’s worth asking a harder question: what if they’re not softer at all? What if they’re just more aware, more […]
I want to talk about the Texas Tech quarterback situation, but not the part everyone else is covering. Brendan Sorsby, a transfer Texas Tech Quarterback, admitted to placing over 9,000 bets totaling around $90,000, including bets involving his own team. Betting on your own games has been a red line in athletics, and the NCAA […]
In his book Maintenance of Everything: Part One, Stewart Brand opens with the story of the 1968 Golden Globe Race. The more I sit with it, the more it feels like a parable for coaching. In 1968, the Sunday Times of London sponsored a race for the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the world. Roughly […]
For our newer subscribers: most of what we publish is about coaching and player development, but every so often we take on a current issue shaping the world coaches and athletes operate in. This is one of those pieces. Athletic conferences across the country have been expanding aggressively over the last several years. The recent […]
What separates a program people remember forever from one they forget the moment they graduate? Dr. Hunter Taylor has spent his career chasing that question — first as a basketball coach, then as a researcher embedded inside a high school football program, and now as a professor running coaching fellowships across three states. In this […]
We asked successful coaches in a survey to share a story that showed their culture in action. One of them stuck with me. It was the biggest game of their season. Their best player, the guy they depended on, choked. Played horribly and selfishly. The team lost. No single player loses a game, but his […]
What happens to the body when we contribute Contributing to someone else’s wellbeing changes the physiology of the person doing the contributing. This is not a philosophical claim — it is a measurable biological event. Research using daily diary data from the nationally representative MIDUS study found that on days when people engaged in volunteer […]
