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Remembering The Past, Embracing The Present, Looking To The Future!

 Here we are finally at the end of the first year and this year has brought so much to the table.  Obviously the big elephant in the room is Covid and the effects it has had on sport, businesses, peoples health and livelihood.  As many who have followed my journey so far have come to notice that many of my blogs have been about situations that have happened due to Covid and the struggles on making changes on the fly.  For the honor and respect of one of my coaches I do want to throw a special prayer to one of my coaches in my club that has past away due to this.  Alan was a great man and a great coach who truly coached unselfishly and for the right reasons.  Ace will truly miss him and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Over this past year taking the HPCTL at UBC I got to jump in to an incredible group of coaches in a wide variety of sports. The coaches are at the top of the food chain within their respective sports and this would be the first time I travelled outside my comfort zone of volleyball to work with and learn from other professionals.  Not only was this intimidating on a coaching front but intimidating on an academic front, seeing I have not written a paper in 17 years.   Jumping into this world was something I was not going to shy away from even with a family tragedy that happened 5 days prior to the start of the course.

I came here to learn from the best, be taught by the best, and embrace new ways on maximizing my athletes performance.  This course has not disappointed.  Even though Covid has thrown a kink into all sports seasons I have changed my perspectives on the What, How, Why due to this course.  Coming from a place where I don’t believe I am overly challenged, I have found myself being complacent in my habits and/or trying to spread myself too thin.

Through this journey, I have found myself changing the ways I think.  Someone who never really leaned on statistics, or studies.  Now I see myself looking at research papers way more. while also looking at different training methods.  Even though I have not had a “normal” year to try these things on court, the silver lining of Covid is that I have had more time to do research for future programs/teams.

Starting off this schooling I had 4 goals that I discussed between David Hill and my mentor Ryan Hofer (Trinity Western Women’s Volleyball Head Coach)

  1. Incorporate more research based information to help YTP.  Improve on workload management for athletes and incorporate into the YTP.
  2. Learn from other sports who teach at a HP level (Olympic and Pro)
  3. Add and contribute to my network for long term and a lifetime of continuous learning.  Using this network to throw ideas off of.  Learn from there success and or mistakes. (Vice versa)
  4. Position myself to be a strong if not top candidate for a USPORT head coaching position or a post-secondary coaching position down south.

Following up on this year I feel I have been able to reflect on this years goals that were set fourth in June of 2020.  Some of these things are still works in progress and will be a continuous work in progress as I travel down my coaching career.

1.

Through the various courses taken in year 1, I have had a chance to really dive into the YTP.  This was an extensive outlook not only to a specific team within the ACE program but also a look at the program as a hole.  Looking at different aspects of the program/team, I have had a chance to explore a variety of changes that will be put in place for next club season. Some changes include adding dryland and mental training to the high performance program.  Our coaching education will be something put at the top of the priority list to ensure proper mentorship for new coaches looking to give back to the volleyball community.

 2/3.

Through the program this year I have had made connections with national and pro level coaches in a variety of sports including soccer, downhill skiing, soccer, and baseball.  Through these relationships that have been gained through this first of the course will provide great long-term learning for my future career in volleyball.  Even though much was learned from the professor’s during the various courses, one of the biggest learning points was listening to the questions asked by other coaches in other sports.  This opened up my mind to other perspectives, and ways of thinking by learning from other coaches situations.  During the time of this course I created Volleyball Coaches of Canada.  This platform has brought all coaches in Canada to a central location to discuss current issues while educating each other within the sport.  I have also pursued other groups such as “COACH+ Coffee Club” which has nothing to do with “volleyball” to pursue learning experiences from other coaches in sport.  Moving forward I want to be able to create relationships with coaches in other sports that I can phone up and pick their brain once in a while on new coaching techniques.

4.

Over the past 20 years there has been a transition in what a professional coach is.  If you asked a random person many would go straight to NHL or NBA coach being a professional coach.  Like most things Canada normally is 5-10 years behind the USA standards.  Club level sports has taken a huge step towards being more structured rather than mom and pop one off sports teams.  Don’t get me wrong they do exist still but parents are now steered more to programs that have proven track records and long term sustainability.  This is a double edged sword because with that comes higher prices to play sport.   Again a rabbit hole for another day.  What I will say is with higher fees, higher expectations, comes more education.  Standards for coaches to coach is going up every year.  More coaches are looking to pursue coaching as a career and not at the NHL or NBA levels.  Taking this course I aspire to be educated and learn ways of maximizing athlete performance.  With taking this course I also hope to put myself in the top 3% moving forward on applying for a U-Sport or NCAA job.  Even though at this time I don’t know what my future holds I hope that pursuing excellence will open doors for me in the future either at the University or National level.

I want to thank all the teachers for being such amazing facilitators.    I want to thank all my fellow students for pushing my boundaries and providing opportunities to learn throughout all the courses. Thanks to Ryan Hofer my mentor.  Ryan I have known for 20 years and its weird how the world has ways of bringing people back together. Thank you to my family, this year has had some of the lowest of lows with my father passing away, but also has had some of the highest highs, with my first daughter being born.

Now I look to the future.  I am going to pursue the next 2 years with an open mind and challenge myself to continuously pursue excellence.  Here is to the past year and looking forward to my final 2 years of the masters program.

In memory of Alan Samchek

 

 

UNCHARTED WATERS

Dear World (Athletes, Parents, Administration, Coaches, Board Members, Family)

The year of 2020 brought new strains on anyone and everyone with no limitations as Covid dug its nails into the entire world.  Sitting back on March 15 when the pro leagues got shutdown, I first thought what is the big deal.  These leagues bring in thousands of people into condensed venues so it made sense that this was a good start to prevent any spread.  Over the next two weeks I sat on the phone with many other clubs, coaches, and provincial associations trying to decide what the correct course of action was going to be for kids/youth in amateur sports.  The answers I got were all over the map.  I am the type to listen to all views and then make a decision based on everything that is on the table.  There were so many things rushing through my mind as I played out the scenarios….

  • shutdown for 2 weeks everything back to normal
  • Things go a month and have a modified season
  • Total shutdown of the season with no start-up date.

Now the hard things here is even though there are only three options here, there are about hundred branches that come off the last two, then another hundred branches off those branches.

So now Covid has brought a state on society where some people want to sit in their basement all locked up and wait this thru.  Other people are ignoring the news and trying to live life as per normal.  Then there is everyone in between.

The reality is that as two weeks turn into three, which turn into four then five etc.  The harsh reality is that option three is becoming the only option.

 

 

TOTAL SHUTDOWN WITH NO RETURN

So even though we have solved the first problem, or the answer became more clear overtime, there is at least a clear direction moving forward. Now the next problem comes into play.

  • full refunds
  • 1/2 refunds
  • modified refunds
  • credit for next year

Again, many sleepless nights come into play trying to figure out the solution to one of these four options.  Again, like the ones above there are about hundred different branches on each of these.  You get the point.

What parents and people don’t understand looking in from the outside is the logistics and all the different things into play.  Youth sport is HEAVILY FRONT LOADED. I can’t emphasize how front loaded.  Every year I stand in front of five hundred players and parents and say those exact words.  We have never had a season cancelled so there has never been any issue on refunds or no refunds.  Now we are in a middle of pandemic with people losing their jobs and of course I want to give back as much as possible to help these families during this time.  The reality though is that suppliers have been paid.  Provincial and National associations have never planned for this and totally understandable.  There was no book of rules you go to telling you what to do in this scenario.   Every business, club, association is different when trying to figure out what they can or can not refund.  As a director of the club, I knew that full refunds was impossible.   I knew credit was going to piss people off.  It came down to 1/2 or modified refund.

Now the long days and night on the phone with other clubs and associations trying to figure out what they are doing.  Do you pay the coaches full do you not?  Do we take an admin fee for our time to process everything or don’t we?  How much will vendors give back, if anything? The list of questions goes on and on.

At the end of the day after talking to many clubs and mentors, we (the club) decided to give back a modified refund.  This breakdown was calculated on anything we got back we gave back.  What parents didn’t like was the amounts the third-party vendors gave back.  A problem for some but not for others.  Here nor there something out of the control of the club.  Navigating through uncharted waters myself and the club were able to figure everything out and do our best to serve our participants.

In retrospect looking back trying to solve all these unknowns, I wouldn’t have done anything different.  We provided clear up to date communication with everyone, were one of the largest clubs that processed refunds faster then any other club, while taking care of the heart beat of our club, the coaches.  After a few weeks and months went by, it came to light what other clubs/sports did or did not do.  Some clubs gave more back, some gave less, while others didn’t give anything.  Other groups gave credit, while others just closed their doors forever.

I know when making decisions to solve problems on a grand scale they will not always make everyone happy.  I can say that the decisions made were correct for everyone involved.  We are still here, we are still providing for the communities we serve, and we are even still growing under the shadow of a pandemic.

Even though I find problem solving interesting and intriguing.  I much rather solve a problem like speaking with a parent about playing time over this. Lets hope this never happens again, but if it does we will be more prepared.

Onto the next problem….

The Evolution of Parents In Youth Sports

Being able to coach an individual team and oversee all the teams in the club comes with many exciting unknowns every season.  Thoughts swirl around in my head, including but no limited to:
“how can I get the best out of each athlete I coach to maximize their potential?”
“What split decisions am I going to make during a game that will turn the tides and put in a better place to win?”
“Will the club thrive with the coaches in the roles and age categories they are in?”
“Will we be off better at the end of the season this year than last?”
The intrigue of those unknowns, and the balance between the factors I can and cannot control, against those I can and cannot influence, against those I cannot control at all provides optimism and drive to press for positive outcomes on all fronts. Not all thoughts are exciting however, but the lack of fanfare or allure attached to these thoughts doesn’t make facing them any less necessary:
“Will there be any issues this year?”
“What will those issues be?”
“How can I prepare in advance, in order to address these issues as they occur?”
“Which parent is going to be the one that comes unglued?”
“Will this be the year I just tie up the shoes and say I don’t need this added stress in my life?”

 

Over my entire coaching career I have had to ask myself all of these questions at the beginning of the season.  But as much as I would like to focus on the positives, today we are going to focus on the dark shadow that lurks in the back of the mind of any coach, manager, or administrative body in competitive youth sports.

 

Let’s rewind 20 years ago.  I am in my mid teens playing multiple sports.   I enjoyed playing them all but really enjoyed playing volleyball the most, with rugby and baseball being close behind.  I played on teams of various levels, “house” style fun leagues all the way up to and including high performance, high stakes, ultra competitive teams.  My parents never really pushed me towards one or the other, rather choosing to sign me up if I asked and taking that as an indication that I enjoyed it.  Back then, “private coaching” and “sports psychology.”  were not something that the average athlete participated in while competing in sports. These were emerging phenomenon in their infancy, and words that were only beginning to enter the realm of sporting competition as factors to be taken seriously.  Kids would go to tryouts, both in high school and in the community, and teams would be selected either via a phone call or a list posted on a wall.  With that came a range of emotions for all hopefuls: heart break all the way to excitement.  I experienced the full range of that spectrum, multiple times.  With each scenario came character building and learning opportunities.  The one thing that was consistent in my household was that there was never EVER “hand-holding” or sense of entitlement.  When I made a team I got a pat on the back from my parents and a good job.  When I got cut from a team and I was crying beside my bed I got a rub on the back saying “it’s ok” and a “you did your best.”  At no time was there any hate or ill feelings exhibited by my parents towards the coach who selected the team, or any insinuations of favoritism towards the school or association.  I would handle the inevitable few days of feeling sad or angry, and life would go on.  I would be back outside throwing a ball with my dad, playing basketball with my brother, or throwing a football with friends.   The love never subsided, nor should it have at any time. I moved on and I would be right back there the next year, with fresh initiative for tryouts, with the objective being a better outcome.

 

Over the past 20 years the interaction between coaches/managers/administrators and parents has changed drastically.  My coaching career started in 2001.  In my early days I coached school volleyball and basketball.  I was able to choose teams, make cuts, and plan a season with the team that was chosen. My parents were supportive and happy through the process, even though my role on the landscape had drastically cahnged.  This remained the “norm” for many years. Then, in 2009-2011 I started to see a shift.  During this shift in the landscape, there were more news articles of legendary coaches at the youth level stepping down and more news of parents fighting at hockey arenas. In hindsight, which we often say is 20/20, I don’t see this as an accident. Over these past 20 years I have been able to watch and experience the change in culture that has swept through competitive youth sports.  This change has forced coaches to modify and change how they interact not just with athletes but, perhaps more importantly, with parents.

 

In the past five years, I have had parents demanding in person meetings or phone calls to discuss why their son or daughter was cut. I have fielded abusive emails or phone calls due to their kids, in their eyes, not receiving enough playing time.  Parents have taken it upon themselves to coach from the sideline or fight with other parents.  Parents have openly gossiped, often within earshot, about decisions coaches have made during games. There have been dirty looks and profanity directed at coaches or other parents.  Parents now get upset that their kid was not chosen as captain, or was not played.  Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of all of this, is that these behaviours are directed at coaches who coach for the love of the game and put them in terrible situations that they do not deserve. These are coaches who take time away from their family and their hobbies, in order to develop not only self but others.  2013-2017 saw a massive surge on parents thinking all kids needed to win a medal, whether it was first, second, or participation.

 

Coaches not only need to be masters of their respective technical trades, but also masters in listening, interacting, choosing their words carefully, and acting the amateur physiologist not only in regards to their players but to their players’ parents.  This is the era of lawsuits for the major, the frivolous, and everything in between.  This presents a backup in the civil court system (another matter entirely), that puts disproportionate pressure on critical legal infrastructures and processes. I opened with questions I ask myself at the outset of every season. The new questions include “Where did we as a society go wrong and feel having mutual human respect was not needed:
Saying one thing, yet doing another?
Not responding to emails?
Slandering or fabricating lies to create tension?
Manufacturing animosity?”

 

The new reality is that coaches put themselves in the cross hairs, everyday, doing what they do.  For all the emotional output that we field in a given year, we are capable of emitting emotion too and do so regularly. For me this takes the form of, when I start a season, remembering the player who said “thank you David” or the team that signed the Thank You card. It takes the form of remembering the player who told me my influence played a part in their not slicing their wrists. It takes the form of the player who came back years later to coach after their playing career was over. It takes the form of the parent who shakes my hand and says thank you for everything.  These are the positive interactions that keep me pressing forward on the psychological side of the equation. These are the positive that keep me coming back, making me want to do it again, season after season. I know I’m not alone. This is why many coaches come back and coach again, because  at the end of the day if our interactions with parents and player are able to impact one life in a positive way, that is why we do what we do and it is what makes this all worth it…..

 

(Currently writing a future New York Times Best Seller Stay Tuned)

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