What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Paul shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Paul is in technical sales, father of 3 boys, and has coached youth football, baseball, and lacrosse. His youth football team last season went undefeated in a 20 team league and won the league championship.
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Coaching/Leadership Quote

‘Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together, Play True’

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Coaching your own kids

Best thing you can do is have an assistant take the lead with your son or daughter

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

Not speaking up when seeing an unsafe drill being run

Coaching AH-HA Moment

The importance of being organized and having detailed practice plans

Teaching a Skill to Children and Keeping it Fun while they Learn

Keep it simple and stay positive – instead of yelling at a kid when they make a mistake – show them exactly how you want them to do it next time
Fun games: Ultimate football; Dodgeball with footballs

Best Stolen Idea

Mantra: ‘Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together, Play True’

Coaching Resource

Impact! Coaching Successful Youth Football by Derek Wade: Great thorough book on how to organize your youth football team

Discipline

Sometimes a glare is enough
Don’t use running laps as a punishment – Kid is ostracized, it wastes time where they are not learning
When disciplining – the whole team does the punishment – something quick like 10 push-ups

Reward/Recognition

They pick out a different star-performer each practice and game- and have them in the middle of the circle leading the team chant. Make sure you pick different kids that aren’t just the star athlete.

Teambuilding

Paul emphasizes that ‘You are a teammate on and off the field’ to build a special bond amongst players
Amongst parents – parental rules laid out up front – they must ‘act their age’. Any conversations about playing time must be away from the practice or game field. Over-communicate – Send quick emails about what is going on.

Changing the Future of a Kid you Coached

Paul had a player with some learning disabilities on one of his teams –he practiced a play to set up that player to score a touchdown in a game – it fired up the team to get a lead and then execute that play so that he could score.

Managing Playing Time

You never know who the studs are going to be in high school – so your goal is to teach the kids to love the game as much as we do as coaches.

The One that Got Away

They lost a playoff game where one of his players got hurt – Paul put in a player that didn’t end up adjusting to the new position – his biggest regret was not making an adjustment and moving a few players around to stop the other team.

Coaching/Leadership Book

London Fletcher’s story – Always told he was too small, too slow to play – and he went on to be All-Pro in NFL and played 15 straight years without missing a game.

Interview Links

HUDL 

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