I just got back from attending the AVCA convention and NCAA Volleyball national championship.  There were some wonderful educational opportunities.  The part I really enjoyed was the informal networking opportunities with former assistant coaches and the mentors I had supported throughout the volleyball season.  Now I need to take time to get more involved in my local community.

Celia Slater from the Alliance of Women Coaches (http://www.gocoaches.org/) spoke at a reception about getting involved with the females coaches and administrators in your community.  She recommends starting a “loop group” to make sure we keep everyone supported while sharing ideas, successes and failures.  She suggests having a different topic for each gathering that will give the group a particular focus. It will be my New Year’s Resolution to work with our university (and another university in our community) to organize a monthly gathering for the women coaches in our surrounding area.  What will you do in 2013 to provide support for the women coaches in your area?

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season!

“Begin with the end in mind” is Habit 2 from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers. This a perfect thought for dealing with student-athletes in your program.  This thought came to me over the weekend as two of our top women’s teams in different sports had their seasons end earlier than everyone thought they would.  Both teams had been ranked in the top ten and one of them had been ranked number 1 in the country for part of the season.  As I witnessed one team lose in person, the seniors and their emotions were hard to watch.  As a coach for 26 years, I vividly remember that last loss of the season as being one of the toughest times as a coach.  You have seniors on the team that naturally thought this will be the best year of the program, ever.  Then, a team you were playing gets a break or shows up and just plays better than your team on that particular day.

Do you have your post-game talk planned?  Can you look those seniors in the eye and tell them they are better prepared for life because they played for you as a coach?

Today’s local newspaper had statements like this:  “The team huddled on the court for a brief meeting.  There were tears, disappointment and disbelief.”  The other team coach playing on the other side of the country talked about “the emotional farewell that would come today when he meets with each of their seven seniors that saw their career end in an overtime loss.”  He said, “the meetings will be positive.  It’s going to be hard when I meet with all of them.  But I’m going to do it with a smile on my face, knowing they’ve achieved an awful lot here.  My hope is they’ve matured while they’ve been here and are now prepared to go on to the next stage of their life.”

As coaches, we have to stress to our student-athletes that they embrace the journey, the practices and training every day, the travel to events, the wins and losses, their teammates, their coaches, and the rest of the staff.  We should sit down with them their first year in the program and let them know what the end will be like and that they have control over how good or bad that experience may be.  They might have an injury, they may have an illness and they may not make a starting line-up, but they have to be prepared for all of it.  As coaches we teach them why and how we develop a game plan, to follow that plan, to be ready to make adjustments and to stick to the guiding principles on what will work to be successful.

If we do these things at the beginning of their career, the end will be a celebration.  They will know they are now ready to make their own life plans, adapt to situations as needed, be a good team player wherever they word and to surround themselves with successful people.  Let’s all work to “begin with the end in mind.”

As coaches we have an opportunity to be the second most influencing person in our athlete’s lives after their parents.  We need to take this seriously and protect the athletes from the varying types of abuses they may encounter throughout their lives.  Every day in the news we read about coaches sexually or verbally abusing athletes, athletes hazing each other, bullying as well as sexual harassment taking place in our programs.  These types of behaviors take place at all levels of sport.

I believe we can best help our athletes by educating them on inappropriate behaviors and what to do about it if it happens to them or to a teammate.  The USOC has developed a SafeSport plan for use in the Olympic community as well as other levels of sport.  The material developed by Malia Arrington, Director of Ethics and Safe Sport for the USOC, and included in this website can help reduce misconduct and abuse in sport.  It includes a handbook that can be edited and used by your program with sample policies, forms, and documents.  There are also videos that can be shown to coaches and staff to help everyone “recognize, reduce and respond” to any type of abuse.

We have a responsibility to help protect our athletes and coaches in our programs.  Taking time to review this website and downloading some of the material may be some of the best time you have devoted to coaching your athletes.  Education is the key for athletes and parents.  Make it happen with your team!

www.safesport.org

Why Not Me?

I was a very young Division I volleyball coach at a major university.  I had been involved in a variety of activities with volleyball that allowed me to meet various people around the country.  In 1983 an announcement was mailed out asking for people to apply for several coaching positions with the USA Volleyball national team program.  One announcement was for the World University Games team coaching staff.  I read the description and thought about how exciting it would be to do something like that “someday.”  A few weeks later I received a hard copy of the description in the mail.  (Mail was about all we had back then without computers and email available at that time.)  The copy I received in the mail had the position announcement circled and a handwritten note next to it saying, “Why not you?”   I couldn’t believe this person, an older man, who had been involved with USA Volleyball thought I should apply for this.  I would never have considered myself ready for something like this even though I had been a college coach for eight years.  I thought about it for a few days, and then sent in my application.  To my surprise I was selected as an assistant coach for the World University Games team and was to work with two of the top male volleyball coaches in the country.  They had coached numerous All Americans and had won national championships as coaches and players.

I remember flying to Colorado Springs to begin this experience.  I lived in the dormitory on that beautiful campus and begin meeting the athletes we would be working with.  These were the All Americans I had only dreamed of coaching.  What a great learning experience for me.  One of the things I learned was even though they were the top college players in the country they still made errors playing the sport.  They still needed to be motivated, corrected, supervised and to my delight, I knew more about volleyball than they did.  The coaching staff was fantastic and this was my first (and only) time to ever be an assistant coach.  Wow, what a different view I had for a change.  No pressure to plan the practices, pick the team, conduct staff meetings, etc.  I loved it.  Everything became much more obvious to me as a coach when I was on the bench and two seats away from the head coach’s chair.  I didn’t have to make decisions on substitutions and game plan changes.  I only had to give my opinion of what I saw happening and suggestions for how to improve our chance of winning.  Sometimes I’d think to myself, “I can’t believe the head coach doesn’t substitute that player out of the game.  She is making too many errors.”  It helped me realize how the view of the game and the players change when you are not under pressure to make the decisions.  It helped me learn that in the future I would need to listen closely to my assistant coaches knowing that they had that unclouded view of the game.

The fact that someone else pushed me to think about including myself for a national coaching position allowed me the following experiences:  I got to shake hands with Lady Di when she visited the athletes’ village at the World University Games in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I met Pat Summitt, Kay Yow and many other fantastic coaches.  It also allowed me to be considered for a head coaching position with the USA Volleyball national team program.  I was selected as the Head Coach for the National Junior Team in 1985.  That team consisted of 16 year old players that had national team potential.  The USA national team coaches wanted to get these players some experience in international travel and competition and see how they responded so they sent us to China for 10 days and Japan for 10 days.  Talk about a real world experience, but that is another blog for later!

So now, WHY NOT YOU?

Moving from NCAA Division II to Division I

I was recently contacted by a former player (and assistant) about a coaching position which would allow her to move from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I.  Coaching at an NCAA Division I university has always been her dream.  She has been a head coach for 10 years and contacts me to get my opinion each time one of these positions comes open that she may be interested in.

Well, this position that came open finally happened to be perfect.  It was a job she had her eye on for a while.  It would not require her to move and it would allow her to finally achieve her dream of coaching an NCAA Division I team and work in an NCAA Division I athletic department again.

I have always told her that being a head coach in a Division I program is not always as exciting as it may seem.  The pressure to win is now elevated to the highest level.  The recruiting of student-athletes is now a 24 hour 7 day a week job with an increasing number of prospects you can realistically recruit with having a chance to sign.  The Division I type of student-athlete is a little different.  While they may be extremely athletic and very good students, they can also be a little more needy and used to having things go their way because they have been the star on every team they have been on.  A Division I program has more staff members in various areas to assist in all parts of the program:  a strength coach, an academic advisor, a person from the compliance office, an athletic trainer, a person that deals with equipment, a director of operations, a staff member from the Life Skills office, marketing personnel, a sports information person, two assistant coaches as well as a volunteer coach and/or a graduate assistant.  So, while she has been very successful working with one part-time assistant, what now seems like a luxury of having a large staff will require her to become a better manager.  The good news is that the more people you have involved in your program the more you can get done.  The bad news is that the more people you have involved in your program the more seams there can be and more potential for conflict.

While giving up some of the day-to-day activities she has been used to doing she will need to learn to manage the overall program. She will need to make sure her vision of the program and goals are crystal clear to everyone.  It will require seamless communication and delegation of work on her part. Fortunately, she is a strong “people person.”  She enjoys what she does and will make others feel that same way with her coaching style.

So, she applied for the position, the administration saw her potential and gave her the opportunity she has always wanted. I look forward to watching a young woman I first met when she was in high school become one of the top Division I coaches in the country.  She has the knowledge, experience and the energy to make it happen along with a supportive husband and family assisting her along the way!

Black & White TV

HD TV

Today (June 23) is the official 40th anniversary of Title IX. I spent time today reflecting back over my past forty years of experience in sport.  It is like going from the Black & White TV’s to the HD Color we have now.

What a pleasure it has been to grow up in this era and actually experience the changes this law brought about for women in sport! I knew in 8th grade I wanted to be involved in sport even though we only had “play days” in high school with no uniforms.  We wore a white one piece gym suit and pennies with our number on it.

After graduating from high school in St. Louis, I decided to attend Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University).  My freshman year I tried out for the field hockey and volleyball teams.  I made both teams and had three great women as coaches.  Rhonda Ridinger was such a great coach I earned an All-State field hockey award my sophomore year.  The award was a small piece of 2 x 4 wood with glitter glued on it with the name of the award and two pipe cleaners glued to the top in the shape of field hockey sticks.

The other team I tried out for was the volleyball team.  I made the top squad and was fortunate to have to played for Dr. Mary Jo Wynn the first year and Linda Dollar the last three years.  These women made such an impression on me I knew I wanted to be a coach!

Because of the experience I had with these awesome female mentors as my coaches I was fortunate to be named the head volleyball coach at Florida state university when I was only 22 years old.  I have maintained a lifetime friendship with these women and I will always be grateful for being in the right place at the right time and more importantly with the RIGHT COACHES for me.

So…I went from no uniforms or scholarships as a player to finally as a coach giving out full scholarships, having a Nike apparel contract, a country club membership, a new courtesy car every 4,000 miles, two full assistants and a comfortable salary.

I hope the young women coming up in athletics can experience the kind of life I have had so far – great female mentors and a long coaching career spending quality time with young female athletes teaching them important life skills through sport.

June, 2012

My first experience in being around women coaches from other sports was in 1983.  I was one of the assistant coaches for the World University Games Women’s Volleyball team.  We were training at the Olympic Training Center in the main gym.  There was another women’s team training on the other side of the curtain.  During a break in our practice I looked around on the other side of the curtain.  Practicing on the next court was the Pan American women’s basketball team.  The head coach was Pat Summitt and her assistants were Kay Yow, Sylvia Hatchell and Nancy Darsch.  I watched a few minutes of practice and enjoyed the pace and the involvement of the all female staff.  I saw them again later that day relaxing by the outdoor pool at the training center.  They noticed that I was by myself and asked me to sit with them. Just to let you know, the two other volleyball coaches I was working with were men and they were not interested in sitting out by the pool.  Pat and I struck up a conversation and found out that we both liked to play racquetball.  We started playing at the training center every day.  As you might imagine, she was extremely competitive on the racquetball court so we had quite the workout every day.  If we didn’t play racquetball, we would go for a run around Colorado Springs.  Our volleyball team eventually left for our competition in Canada after training for 10 days.  The basketball team left for their competition in Venezuela.  When we both returned to the country Pat and I kept in touch.  I began to ask her a lot of questions about coaching and would make periodic visits to Knoxville to watch her Tennessee team practice and compete.  So by accident, I found an awesome coaching mentor that I was in constant contact with throughout my 26 years of coaching volleyball at FSU.  It was the best type of mentor because we were in different sports and didn’t recruit or compete against one another.

This is really what the Alliance of Women Coaches is all about.  We want to recruit young female coaches, continually educate, support and mentor the great women already in the profession.  Make sure you take advantage of any opportunity you have to meet other women in the profession and pick their brains for what works for them. You may be fortunate to find a friend for a lifetime like I did!

I am now serving as the Vice President of the Alliance of Women Coaches. During our first executive committee meeting last week, we were reviewing the vision, mission and objectives of this fairly new organization and talking about how to increase the membership.  We want to make sure we are serving the needs of women coaches. Those of you that are members make sure you let the board members know if you have ideas for growing the organization.  My vision is to have this become the largest coaching organization in the country.  Think about how much you could learn from so many other successful women in coaching?

Years ago I had the opportunity to serve as the co-editor of a book Human Kinetics wanted to publish, The Volleyball Coaching Bible.  HK has published this series in a variety of sports.  We decided on the topics for the book and then went after the volleyball coaches that could best write each chapter.  When we finished that project I told the publishers a book I thought needed to be written was a book with the top women’s coaches in sport.  They agreed and told me to put a proposal together.  As I shared this idea with others around the country several people commented (mostly men) that yes, this was a great idea.  They recommended the women’s basketball coach from U. Conn, the UNC Women’s soccer coach and the U. of Arizona women’s softball coach.  While all of these are highly successful teams, they are coached by men so this was not the concept I had in mind.  I wanted to pick the brains of the top women coaching women.  So I came up with the topics I thought were important, did some research on successful programs at all levels, and began contacting those coaches.

The book, She Can Coach!, has 20 chapters written by coaches in 13 different sports.  The chapters on professional and personal topics include coaching philosophy, ethics, professionalism, competitiveness, motivation, decision-making, self-discipline, focus, stress management. The remaining chapters are more about programs and relationships which include organizational skills, staff management & mentoring, assistant coach role, team management, athlete recruitment, coach-athlete relations, team cohesion, parent relations, marketing and media and networking.  The coaches I was able to sell the idea to were EXTREMELY successful, winning Olympic medals, National, Conference and State championships…the best of the best.  I was able to get each coach connected with a topic that interested them starting with Pat Summitt and the staff management chapter.

This was a labor of love for me being able to share my passion of coaching young women with the best in the business.  She Can Coach! makes the connection between coaches of all sports much like this Women in Coaching blog and the Alliance of Women Coaches organization.  We can all learn so much from one another about coaching young women and get the much needed X’s and O’s from other sources.

     While this website is geared toward women in coaching, I’d like to suggest we look around and make sure to include young women in all areas of sport.  A few years ago I made plans to develop a local non-profit organization called “Making a Difference for Girls and Women in Sports.”  The mission of that organization will be to provide opportunities not only for young female coaches, but in all the other support areas of sport as well.  I will set up mentors for our young girls in a variety of areas.

We need more women as officials in all sports so I’ll ask the officials involved in our high school and university sports to take time to meet with a few young girls. Let young girls shadow the official on the day of a game to see what all goes into getting ready to officiate in an athletic contest.  We want to get them opportunities to sit next to the public address announcer at sporting events to see if this is an area they may be interested in pursuing.  Let’s have them shadow a person in the media, whether it is a sport photographer, or someone running the camera at a televised event, or have them sit in the press box during a major event and attend the press conference.  Let’s show them how a person in the media observes the event, conducts interviews, writes a story and interacts with coaches and athletes.  The athletic training area is a great way to get young girls interested in the medical area of sports and the behind the scenes of getting the athletes ready to compete.  We want them to shadow sport event managers, sport facility personnel, athletic administrators and of course, our female athletes.  The organization would also provide educational opportunities for the parents of young girls interested in getting involved in any area of sport.  We want to make sure parents understand the recruiting process and how to best get their daughter in front of the college coaches.

The budget for the organization will be generated by applying for grants, conducting fundraising events and soliciting sponsors.  The money will be used to make sure young athletes can apply for funding to attend summer camps or coaching clinics as well as hosting an annual banquet to recognize the top female athletes and coaches in our community.

This organization is still waiting to take off once I retire from teaching, but when it finally gets started it will be a great experience for all lucky enough to get involved.  I am anxious to hear your ideas about other areas to include!

Photo from      http://www.girlscantwhat.com/

What do you coach?

What do you coach? Most people ask if it is “volleyball,” “basketball,” “swimming,” etc.?   If you are a coach you should be able to answer this pretty quickly.  You coach “people.”  As you go through your  coaching career learn as much as you can about how to relate to people successfully.  We have lots of opportunities to learn the X’s and O’s in our different sports, but the real difference is made in how well we communicate with our athletes and staff.  Recently I was watching an ESPN classic of the Tennessee women’s basketball team winning the 1997 NCAA National Championship.  Nancy Liberman Cline said during her interview with Pat Summitt, “People think this year was one of your best coaching jobs.”  Pat said, “Nancy, I don’t know any more X’s and O’s than I did two years ago, but our players responded to our system.”  While you certainly have to know the game as well as the tactics and strategies to win, you have to be able to get those points across to your athletes.

There is a leadership style known as “Situational Leadership.”  This leadership theory was developed by Hersey and Blanchard and shows that successful leaders adjust to the “readiness” and “maturity” of their followers.  While we want athletes to respond to our system, we have to make sure we know what the readiness level of our followers is.  We may have a lot of freshmen on our team so we need to use one style, or we may have an experienced team and we should use another style.  The successful and seasoned coach will know their athletes and what style they should use that season to maximize the potential of that particular team.

The Situational Leadership Theory from Wikipedia is explained below:

“Hersey and Blanchard characterized leadership style in terms of the amount of Task Behavior and Relationship Behavior that the leader provides to their followers. They categorized all leadership styles into four behavior types, which they named S1 to S4:

• S1: Telling – is characterized by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, why, when, and where to do the task

• S2: Selling – while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the socioemotional support that will allow the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process.

• S3: Participating – this is how shared decision making about aspects of how the task is accomplished and the leader is providing less task behaviours while maintaining high relationship behavior.

• S4: Delegating – the leader is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has been passed to the individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress.

Of these, no one style is considered optimal for all leaders to use all the time. Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation.

Maturity Levels
The right leadership style will depend on the person or group being led – the follower. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory identified four levels of Maturity M1 through M4:

• M1 – They generally lack the specific skills required for the job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or to take responsibility for this job or task. [unable and insecure]

• M2 – They are still unable to take on responsibility for the task being done; however, they are willing to work at the task.  [unable, but willing]

• M3 – They are experienced and able to do the task but lack the confidence to take on responsibility.  [capable, but unwilling]

• M4 – They are experienced at the task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They are able and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the task.  [very capable and confident]

Maturity Levels are also task specific. A person might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in their job, but would still have a Maturity level M2 when asked to perform a task requiring skills they don’t possess.

Take time to analyze if you are using the best leadership style to coach your team throughout the years.  Remember, as the situation changes, your style may need to change as well.