Dr. Colleen Hacker is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Sport, and Performance Psychology at Pacific Lutheran University and has served as a member of the Team USA coaching staff for six Olympic Games as a Mental Skills Coach and Performance Psychology Specialist.

This clip comes from our AD Insider | Thursday 30 episode #112. Click here to view full episode.

By: Jamy Bechler

Originally Published in The Leadership Playbook

The old acronym of T.E.A.M. in which together everyone achieves more is true more often than not. Players need teammates that are willing and able to do the things that they can't or don't want to do.
We all have strengths and weaknesses. Just like the strength of each wolf is the wolfpack and the strength of the wolfpack is each individual wolf, so it is on teams. Each team has players with different strengths and weaknesses.

The best teams have players that understand that they all fit together like a puzzle. Even the most talented softball pitcher can't strike out every batter. They need competent fielders to make plays in the field when the batter hits the ball. A talented outside hitter in volleyball knows that their skills are not maximized if they don't have a good setter.

A team-first mentality and understanding of how crucial every member of a team can be to achieving a common goal is a must in utilizing your leadership potential. The more you respect and praise the various roles on a team, the greater your opportunity for influence will be.

THE TEAM! THE TEAM! THE TEAM!

Regardless of whether you are a fan of the Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes or the Alabama Crimson Tide, you can appreciate the importance of teamwork and how it is crucial for your favorite team to play in an important bowl game or contend for a championship. Bo Schembechler played football at Miami of Ohio for the legendary Woody Hayes. He would also be an assistant coach for Hayes at Ohio State.

When Schembechler took over as head coach at the University of Michigan, he and Hayes embarked on a fierce rivalry that came to be known as the "Ten-Year War." Overall, Schembechler ended his college career with a 234-65-8 record. He ended his career as an athletic director at Michigan and then president of the Detroit Tigers. Schembechler was a fiery coach known for his motivational speeches. One of his most popular has come to be known as "The Team The Team The Team" and it is a good reminder of how special it is to be a part of a team,

"We want the Big Ten championship and we're gonna win it as a Team. They can throw out all those great backs, and
great quarterbacks, and great defensive players, throughout the country and in this conference, but there's
gonna be one Team that's gonna play solely as a Team.

No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here. You will never play for a Team again. You'll play for a contract. You'll play for this. You'll play for that. You'll play for everything except the team, and think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is The Team.

We're gonna win it. We're gonna win the championship again because we're gonna play as a team, better than anybody else in this conference, we're gonna play together as a team. We're gonna believe in each other, we're not gonna criticize each other, we're not gonna talk about each other, we're gonna encourage each other. And when we play as a team, when the old season is over, you and I know, it's gonna be Michigan again, Michigan."

Mike Horowitz was previously a coach at Saint Joseph's University.

Peter Dolan was previously a coach at High Point University and Rutgers University.

Learn more about Randy here: FoxPoint.Net.

By: Adam Sarancik

Author of: Coaching Champions for Life

"Face toward the problems"

Sports afford coaches a wonderful opportunity to teach life lessons within the game for beyond the game. The first step in this endeavor is to connect with, validate, and support the players as people to earn their trust so they will be willing to adopt the coach’s philosophy and to learn from them.

Today, before coaches can empathize with their players as people, they must recognize that the players have been raised with some difficult challenges that may be far different than those faced by the coaches when they were children. Traumatic events in the world (e.g. the pandemic, wars, etc.) and in American society (e.g., mass shootings, the disintegration of the family unit, etc.) have caused many parents to overcorrect by wanting to snow plow life for their children to be sure there are as few bumps in their road as possible.

These parents tell their children they are “special” and that they can “have anything they want in life”. In school, too often, low standards, weak competition, and parent “advocacy” to teachers and administrators delude their children into believing they are “honor students”. In sports, sometimes they level up their children through politics and bullying.

The truth is the children are loved, but are not special or entitled just by existing. The children have abilities and talents which, if developed and utilized properly, make them capable of achievement.

These misguided parenting strategies cause children to grow up with very low self-esteem. Youth learn very quickly when they enter the working world that they are not special and they do not get rewarded or promoted just for showing up. Their parents can no longer advocate for them; they must self-advocate. As a result, their self-image becomes shattered. Many youth today seek to cope with the stress caused by all of these things through quick, temporary means such as tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. Youth suicide and death by accidental overdose are at an all-time high.

Technology brings children tons of information, but not necessarily facts or truth. The information may come very quickly, but it is merely consumed by them with very little independent thought or creativity. Youth become impulsively dependent on instant gratification. They seek solutions for their problems from devices, not people because they have never learned that the truly important things in life such as love, joy, marketable skills, self-confidence, real friendship, and an appreciation of the beauty and joy of life itself are obtained through a long, arduous process and journey.

In sports, many coaches and leagues enable these same behaviors by doing such things as: micromanaging every step and thought of their players during games, participation trophies, speaking to parents before the player when disputes arise, refusing to acknowledge that wins are the result of weak competition, over-using technology at the expense of teaching personal communication and mindfulness skills, and allowing teams with losing records to make the playoffs. In short, they prioritize winning, numbers, and short-term gains rather than growth for a lifetime by achieving results and character through persistent hard work.

As teachers, coaches must reward the process and not just results and prioritize life skills more than sport skills. They must not rescue players from tough situations and protect them from failure by quickly pulling them from a game when things go bad or by being afraid to change a player’s mechanics for fear of disrupting what they have always been comfortable with.

As role models, coaches must demonstrate that the “get better every day” mantra begins with them and that they can stay “in the moment” at all times too.

As mentors, coaches must have the hard conversation that while the personal challenges described above are not the fault of the players, they are realities which must be retrained to achieve success in life and maybe to even survive.

Adam Sarancik is the Author of Four Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Baseball Coaching Books:

• Coaching Champions for Life – The Process of Mentoring the Person, Athlete and Player
• Takeaway Quotes for Coaching Champions for Life
• A Ground Ball to Shortstop – How and Why Coaches See Their Game Differently Than Anyone Else.
• Teacher, Role Model, Mentor: Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Coaching.

  ]]> https://coachesinsider.com/lacrosse/a-hard-conversation-3/feed/ 0 111820 https://coachesinsider.com/lacrosse/faceoff-wing-strategies-know-the-3-basic-moves-with-will-corrigan-united-states-air-force-academy/ https://coachesinsider.com/lacrosse/faceoff-wing-strategies-know-the-3-basic-moves-with-will-corrigan-united-states-air-force-academy/#respond Wed, 11 Jun 2025 13:00:13 +0000 https://coachesinsider.com/?p=102293 Watch as Coach Will Corrigan explains that your wings and faceoff guys must be connected going into and throughout the faceoff no matter the strategy you are using. Your wings must know the 3 basic faceoff moves and Coach will discuss their alignments and responsibilities for the Clamp, Rake, and Shovel moves. The wings must play the percentages on where the ball is most likely going to go and be able to execute the responsibilities.