Coaching

Rule #0: Don’t F*ck Yourself Up

Reading time: 3 min

Rule #0 is the rule that goes without saying. Everyone already knows this right? Not so. The rule must be said loud and clear in a way that you’ll remember. So I repeat again: Don’t F*ck Yourself Up

How does this Rule work?

Simple. If Rule #0 ever pop into your mind during training, stop what you are doing. This is not easy to do! Especially in the heat of the moment.

But eventually, your future self will appreciate your caution. Unfortunately, your current self will NOT thank you – it may be upset or flat-out pissed off.

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A Mindful Coach

Reading time: 3 min

If you ask me, a coach must be sincerely thankful for having the opportunity to coach his or her athletes. When a coach believes that an athlete is lucky to have him or her a coach, things are not going to go well. Training and improvement are NOT about the coach or even the program. The coach’s role is to create an environment of excellence in which athletes maximizes their learning experiences: physical, mental, tactical, and psychological.

The foundational Coach Mindset is a deep feeling of gratitude for all the athletes in the program. The “good” ones and the “bad” ones. The “teacher’s pets” and the “difficult athletes.” All of them, equally. And a Mindful Coach approaches all of his duties with this mindset.

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Two Keys to Coaching

Reading time: 1 min

I said it was simple. Not easy.

– Dan John

Coach Dan John has many memorable quotes. And for good reason. Dan has over 40 years of coaching experience in throwing events and weight training with athletes of all ages and levels. Plus, he is an accomplished discus thrower, highland games competitor, Olympic weightlifter and holds the American record in the “weight pentathlon” (discus, shot put, hammer throw, javelin and weight throw combined).

From a coaching standpoint, below are two Dan John quotes that really stand-out to me. I have burned these two quotes into my brain and continually come back to them when reviewing my own training or that of my athletes.

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Rule #1: If You can’t Stay Loose, You’re Training too Hard

Reading time: 7 min

Demand perfection of yourself and you’ll seldom attain it. Fear of making a mistake is the biggest single cause of making one. Relax — pursue excellence, not perfection.

Lloyd “Bud” Winter

Lloyd “Bud” Winter is one of the most successful track coaches in history. Over a 29-year coaching career from 1949 to 1970 at San Jose State College, his programs produced 37 world-record holders, 49 NCAA records and 27 Olympians. Incredible!

A big part of his program revolves around learning to stay relaxed under stressful circumstances. He developed his techniques during World War II. Bud taught pilots to remain relaxed in the face of heavy gunfire and other brutal wartime scenarios. Talk about stressful! He then transferred these principles from the battlefield to the world of track and field. He outlined all the techniques in his 1981 book Relax and Win, which luckily for me, was re-released in 2012 when I picked it up!

Believe it or not, Bud Winter has only one degree of separation from Usain Bolt and many other of Jamaica’s greatest sprinters. In 1966, one of Bud’s former athletes of Jamaican descent invited him to Jamaica to give a series of seminars on Sprinting. In the audience for the lecture was Glen Mills who went on to become Jamaica’s premier sprint coach. Starting in 2004, Mills coached Usain Bolt, and the rest of the story is history.

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