Developing and Learning
Finding the Right Mentors
Knowing what you are talking about in your sport is of the utmost importance.... obviously. You can't coach a sport well if you don't understand it. At the Impactful Coaching Project, we see two main reasons why coaches are not competent in their sport. They are either lazy or lack wisdom.
We can't help with lazy, but we can with wisdom.
By wisdom, we mean discerning what the right information is and learning it. In today's day and age, that isn't always easy. There is so much information out there. Not all of it is good. Some of it is marketed very well but is flat out wrong and developed by people that don't know what they are talking about. This post will outline how to find and utilize resources to learn the right things and build relationships along the way.
My Story
I spent the first ten years of my career coaching baseball. Spent a little over a year at the high school level and then nearly nine years at the college level.
When I was hired for my first college coaching job, I was paid $3000 for the year and was given the responsibilities of recruiting coordinator and hitting coach. To this day, I am not sure what Ryan Thompson (the guy that hired me) was thinking. He's now a two-time World Series Coach and one of my closest friends now (and a soon to be podcast guest) but I didn't have the any idea what I was doing. But I was confident and enthusiastic.
I was that way primarily because the coach the coached me growing up was that way. I pretty much had the same little league coach until I got to junior high and then the same coach coached our high school team where we had a lot of success. He was HIGHLY impactful on my as a player and person. Mike Gehrer was our coach. He had an unbelievable ability to get you to play hard and believe in yourself. I still hear his voice in my head.
So, how did I coach when I was given the opportunity? Just like Coach Gehrer. Loud and energetic (which isn't me) and taught the same fundamentals. This did not work for me as a coach. We were pretty much trying to play like everyone else, just dated ten-fifteen years from back when I learned it. The game had evolved dramatically since then due to the evolution of video technology. There were new strategies, mechanics, and evaluative tools that changed the game and our understanding of it.
I also didn't get recruiting. I was working hard but struggling to get the class we wanted without spending 18 hours per day working on it. Ironically, our class that year ended up being foundational to the positive progress of the program, but it was not skill----it was crazy hard work and dumb luck.
Initially, I blamed the guys I was coaching. The typical coach stuff----they weren't working hard, trying hard enough, weren't tough.... all that stuff. The recruits just would not come because of the school and scholarships. I wasn't obnoxious to others about it (I think) but internally I was a blaming machine. It is a coming-of-age thing I think for coaches. As a young coach, you think you have it all figured out. It can't possibly be your fault.
Finally, I decided to learn and grow myself. Take ownership over my development. I had a great boss that was willing to help and teach me, but he encouraged me to go out and learn. So, unwittingly, I went out and found some mentors.
A Career Changing Convention
That year, I went to the baseball coaches convention. The other assistant and I were so desperate to get there (the baseball program didn't have the budget to help pay), that we took a budget airline to Columbus, OH (so cheap it closed within the year) and then hopped in the car with a friend of a friend to drive the rest of the way to Philadelphia where the convention was. We slept on the floor of a friend of a friend in a small apartment for the couple days because that was the cheapest option. Looking back, it is equal parts fun and exhausting. However, we were desperate to learn.
At that convention, I was spell bound by the information presented by speakers. There were two guys that I was very interested in----Perry Husband (hitting guy) and Mike Roberts (baserunning coach). I took a ton of notes while they talked and then reached out to them once I got home to learn from them more. They were unbelievably gracious and took a lot of time with me. We never became close, but I would consider them mentors because they taught me things, in a patient way, that I didn't know. They were both remarkably accomplished guys that did not need to take time with me.... the 24-year-old NAIA assistant coach from some school they probably had not heard of. However, in the highlight of my young career, Mike wrote about me in his blog! And they changed my career both from the content they shared and how they helped me realize that people are willing to help.
The same thing happened to me in recruiting. I was discouraged after my first year of recruiting and went searching for resources. In that search, I found a guy named Dan Tudor who runs the best college athletic recruiting company in the country. Dan was the same way---he was always available for questions, and we've had a working relationship for over fifteen years now.
What is the point?
The point of this post is people want to help but it is often on you to develop mentors. You just need to find the right people and have the courage to ask. Don't always expect it to evolve into some deep relationship but expect to learn and benefit from the relationship. Here are some basic ideas on how to pursue mentors and information:
Go to a coaching convention. Why? The speakers are vetted by experts and know what they are talking about.
Listen to as many as you can at the convention. Learn and process their information.
Once you have learned and processed their information, reach out to them to set up a phone call or zoom to learn more.
Have specific questions when you talk to them to further your knowledge.
After you are done talking to them, ask them if you can reach out with follow up questions. (they'll say yes)
It sounds simple, but, in my career, I have not seen a lot of people that follow through. When I have spoken at an event, there are always a few people that talk after and say they will follow up. But they rarely do. You can not only learn but also separate yourself from others by following up.