Process Driven Leadership

    My coaching philosophy is simple, “I want to use my passion for the sport of volleyball to make a difference in the lives of others.”.     Every good coach understands the game at a high level and knows how to teach it. What makes a coach different is the methods they use, and what they choose to focus on.     I choose to focus on mental performance.     I do this for 2 reasons.     1.     Because it doesn’t matter how talented you are if you don’t know how to use it. 2. Because the mental skills I teach will impact players lives far beyond sports.     The 2 core areas I focus on are “faith in the process” and “perception”.     I believe that almost every aspect of mental performance comes back to those core areas. I think what I do best, is open players eyes to new ways of thinking.     When you’re having trouble seeing, you go to an eye doctor and they give you glasses.     You put ...

  When you want something, you hope you’re going to get it. When you need something, you’re gonna do whatever it takes to get it.     I grew up wanting a lot of things.     I wanted to be in great shape, I wanted to be the best Volleyball player I could be.     I practiced harder than anyone I knew. Every time I stepped on the court, it was clear I put the time in at practice.     Unfortunately when practice ended, so did my work ethic.     I didn’t go to workouts, because I wanted to hang out with my friends.     I didn’t eat healthy, because I wanted to eat carbs and sugar.     I didn’t get what I wanted, because I refused to do what I needed.     In High School I had 8 years of experience on most of my teammates, yet I spent 3 years on jv.     My senior year of high school I had all of the skill and none of the drive to use it. I walked in on the first day of practice thinking this was my y...

  Human instinct is to find the fastest way to achieve a desired result. We’re so obsessed with the outcome that we only think about how to get there.  Unfortunately the how you get there is easy, it’s the how you stay there that’s difficult.   The fastest way is rarely sustainable.  This is why people often lose excessive amounts of weight through fad diets,  just to gain it all back in the end. People fail to understand that a shack on the rock is far more valuable than a castle in the sand.  The foundation on which your success is built will decide how long it lasts.  Too often we trade a chance at a lifetime of successes for a singular moment of success. We see failure as the enemy, avoiding it at all costs.  However, true success is built on failure. Failure is not the enemy, it’s how we learn.  You can’t just skip to the happy ending without going through the struggle. The struggle is what caused ...

  Programs with great leadership don’t fall apart in their leaders absence, instead they continue to flourish. This is because a great leader trains competent leaders throughout their program as opposed to dependent followers. Sounds great right, but how do you do that?  Well, it starts with absolute authenticity.  Brene Brown says  “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” So in other words It’s about having the confidence to care more about what you think of you, than what others think of you. Michael Jordan said “Authenticity is about being true to who you are, even when everyone around you wants you to be someone else.”  Too often the opinions of others carry so much weight in our minds that sometimes it’s hard to tell who we really are.   When an elephant is born into captivity the first thing they do is tie one side of a rope around a tree and the other si...

  I’d like to start this article by sharing something I read from Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health.   The following is a direct quote, the full article can be found at the this link.  https://www.childandadolescent.org/discipline-vs-disciplined “What comes to mind when you think about discipline? For many people the answer is punishment.  Parents discipline their children for misbehavior.  A disciplinary panel serves to determine whether someone (usually a professional) has violated rules, laws, or a code of conduct, and if so, what punishment is appropriate for the offense.  Disciplinary action generally refers to negative consequences for wrongdoing. The word discipline is derived from the Latin word discere which means “to learn, get to know, or become acquainted with.”  Notice that punishment is not part of this definition. Here at Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health, we use this definition of discipline: A broad program designed to he...

Imagine you’re a young girl named Alice.     you’ve just fallen down a rabbit hole and don’t know where to go.     You come to a door that you’re too large to get through.     Even if you could fit through the door, you don’t know where the key is.     Then you find the key sitting on a table in the middle of the room. You grab the key, but you still can’t fit through the door. Then you find a potion that shrinks you.     Now you’re able to use the key on the door and walk-through.     I believe this is a perfect description of how you need both wisdom and knowledge to be successful.     Knowledge is the collection of information.     Wisdom means being able to correctly use that knowledge.     Think of the Key as Knowledge, the Potion as Wisdom, and the Locked     Door as Success. You see you can have all the knowledge in the world and it’s absolutely useless, unless you have the wisdom ...

Some coaches think that parents shouldn’t be involved beyond making sure their kid arrives on time, and is picked up on time.     In my opinion that belief is ignorant, it’s a belief im ashamed to say I once had.     A parent’s love for their child is a deep unconditional love.     That love drives them to do whatever it takes to protect and care for their child. At times I do believe that parents can act irrationally, but so can anyone. Unconditional love is in itself irrational.     I now understand the “problem” parent, but I don’t believe they’re a problem.     I believe they love their kid, and they don’t wanna see them upset.     The greatest leaders take extreme ownership of all things. As a coach I believe I need to take ownership of my relationship with the parents. If I try to build a wall between us, it creates a false sense of security.     Just because I’m not hearing it, doesn’t mean it’s not being said....