April 24, 2024 • 45 mins
Explore the essential elements of mental toughness in sports with Westfield's head coach, Josh Miracle, in this insightful episode. We delve into the processes and strategies necessary to build a resilient sports program, examining the incremental steps that contribute to a team’s mental fortitude. This discussion not only covers the development of mental training techniques but also highlights their practical application during high-pressure situations and the evolution of team dynamics.
Gain an in-depth understanding of how tailored mental and emotional strategies are implemented for athletes on game days, the role of consistent communication among coaching staff, and the impact of mental discipline when overcoming adversity. This episode provides a comprehensive overview of how mental preparedness shapes not only game performance but also long-term athlete development.
Concluding with a discussion on the continuous importance of mental training, this episode offers valuable insights for coaches and teams looking to enhance their programs with effective mental strategies. We discuss the successes of teams that have integrated these approaches and the resulting shifts in sports culture. Coaches are encouraged to elevate their mental training techniques to foster competitive excellence and holistic athlete growth.
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I know we've got a lot of schools that are
starting off with the MTPAcademy or we've got a lot of
schools who they're trying tobuild up the mental culture of
their program.
They don't like where themental toughness is at.
They don't like where differentaspects of you know not getting
tight, not getting tense, justplaying loose.
How do we play at our best?
(00:21):
How do we perform at a highlevel when the game's on the
line?
How do we overcome failure?
How do we play at our best?
How do we perform at a highlevel when the game's on the
line?
How do we overcome failure?
How do we overcome adversity?
And one of the one of theprograms that I talk about quite
a bit is the, the Westfieldfootball program, the Westfield
golf program.
You know some of some of theother sports there, just because
that's kind of that's where myroots are, that's where I
(00:41):
started and you know right now,if you were to take a snapshot
of where the high schoolfootball team is at and
everything that they do with themental side of the game, I
would say they're at a prettyhigh level and that's why you
know they've been able to,they've been able to win some
games that on paper, theyshouldn't win.
It's why they're one of thewinningest 6A programs over the
(01:04):
last decade in Indiana highschool football.
And so I want you to hear mesay that, if you're just
starting off, it's not justinstantly and immediately going
to be a.
You know, hey, I listened tothis podcast and poof, now my
team is performing at a highlevel.
(01:25):
Or we did this training for amonth, for six months, for a
year, and now, poof, all my kidsare mentally tough and there's
no more problems, there's nomore issues.
This has been something thatwe've built up over years and
years and years just of trialand error.
(01:47):
And so you know, now to thepoint where we can say, all
right, if we were to go back anddo this again, you know, here's
how we would structure this.
Here's the mental performanceactivities that I can say.
You know, having worked withhundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of individual athletes,and you know, having worked
with hundreds and hundreds andhundreds of individual athletes,
and you know that number getsinto thousands and tens of
(02:10):
thousands if you're talkingabout all the teams that I've
worked with.
But, like I can say with a gooddeal of confidence, here's some
of the things that you can dothat will give you the most bang
for your buck, and that's whatwe've really tried to put
together with the MTP Academy.
But one of the things I'm reallyexcited for you to hear from
the conversation with Josh is,like things didn't always used
(02:32):
to be that way and it's okay ifthings aren't perfect when you
implement them, and it's okay ifthere's a little bit of
messiness.
You know, just like learningany new skill, just like
learning how to ride a bike,there's some, there's some falls
, there's some bumps, there'ssome bruises, there's some
screwing up, there's some thingsthat you wish you did better.
Um, but what I hope you hear isthat if you just what's the
(02:57):
next right thing, what's the?
What's the next way that I canimplement one of these tools?
What's the?
What's the next way that I canget just a small group of guys,
a small group of girls, to buyinto this, how can I get my
leadership you know the, theleaders on my team involved?
How can I get one of my coachesto buy in, or two or three of
(03:20):
my coaches to buy in?
So if that's where you're atand you're just starting off and
you're just putting the piecestogether.
I hope that you don't getfrustrated that it doesn't
happen instantly, because I cantell you it certainly didn't
happen instantly for us, and soI think you're really going to
(03:41):
enjoy today's episode.
But super excited to have JoshMiracle on the show, who has
recently just been named thehead coach at Westfield, taken
over for Jake Gilbert who'sleaving to go be the D
coordinator at Wabash and thenwill be the head coach in
December.
Hey, welcome to the CoachingMinds podcast, the official
podcast of Mental Training Plan.
(04:02):
We want to empower coaches withthe tools and insights needed
to develop the mental side ofthe game so that their athletes
can succeed both on and off thefield.
Tonight we've got a veryspecial guest Josh Miracle.
Josh, thank you so much forjoining us tonight.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Thanks, ben, appreciate you having us.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Josh was on here a while back and we were talking
about success boards and Joshand I have known each other for
a long time.
Coming out of college, he cameand coached at Westfield, joined
us on the staff.
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Back in 2011.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So we've been here about 13 years, so that was two
years before we went to statethe first time, and so you know
Josh was.
Josh was also around Westfieldfor when Westfield just wasn't
good at football.
Now, you weren't necessarilythere for, like the, the no win,
the one win seasons, but like,I want you to take us back to
(04:57):
your memories of when you walkedin the building, like what,
what stood out to you about thestate of the program.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I think it was a unique perspective because I was
just coming out of college, youknow, playing at Wabash college
and just such a historictradition there.
And then you get to Westfieldand all the people are great.
I mean, from day one you couldjust see the passion that people
had.
But I think the vision for whatit could become was maybe
lacking.
And that's where you know,working for Jake and just
(05:29):
playing for him at Wabash, Iknew that he would certainly get
things turned around.
But you looked at the stadiumand it's nowhere close to where
it was today.
You know there were definitelyjust a small group of bleachers
there.
You know your old grass field,you know the small hometown feel
.
You could see some of the fastfood chains, maybe right across
(05:49):
the street, and there wasn'tmuch of a practice facility with
it.
And I do remember going intothe weight room and I just again
come back from Wabash and I waskind of like, well, where's the
real weight room?
This seems like maybe this isjust an auxiliary weight room
and, sure enough, no, that wasit and it was very small, paled
(06:10):
in comparison to what we've seen.
And I think that was one of thefirst things that Jake made a
huge priority of hey, we've gotto get this fixed and we've got
to get in this weight room andget a little more space there.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
In 2013,.
Obviously we went down to state.
I In 2013,.
Obviously we went down to state.
I've told the story, I feel,like a million times.
We went down to state, wewalked into the building, we
peed down our leg.
I think you and I both noticedon separate sides of the ball
that we had players who had beenplaying fantastic football all
year that just weren't ready forthat moment.
(06:41):
And I think you and I bothidentified like this has to get
better.
And so you know, I kind of I'vetold the story before about you
know, Jake, saying hey, we'vegot to do this with the whole
team, and kind of venturing offinto the self-assessment world
of how do we help guys figureout what to do.
But at the exact same time youwere.
(07:02):
I think you had identifiedthere's some weakness here,
there's something that needs tobe better in the mental side of
the game, and I remember that westarted that mental performance
skills camp.
I don't know if that was thatyear or the year after, but you
and I kind of both dove inheadfirst to this is not good
(07:24):
enough.
How do we get these guysplaying at a higher level?
And and I know there are a lotof, there are a lot of teams out
there right now who want tochange the culture of their
program when it comes to themental side of the game.
They want there to be just amental toughness.
They want to feel like they canbe behind at halftime seven
(07:49):
times in one season.
I think Jake said you guys werelast year but expecting to win,
so Westfield's come a long wayfrom, I would say, zero mental
training of any kind up to thepoint where you guys are right
now, which we'll get to later.
But tonight I really want todive into kind of the stages of
(08:12):
change and how that developedthroughout the years.
So, you know, going back tothose, going back to those 2013
offseason meetings, what standsout to you or what stood out to
you kind of the state of themental side of the game for the
team?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know, I think, looking back, one phrase that I
probably carry with me due tothat experience is I never want
to lose the same way twice.
You know, I'm okay withsomebody you know beating us and
they, you know, get the best ofus on a given night, but I
never want to go down the sameway because that shows, you know
, we didn't really progress ascoaches, we didn't grow and put
ourselves, um, in a you know abetter position, and I feel like
(08:52):
in that 2013 it all met wellwhere we were coming from.
But I think, looking back, it'seasy.
You could always put blame onthe players, but I always put
the blame, you know, back myself.
Like maybe there was too muchgoing into it, right, can we
simplify things?
And I think the art ofsimplifying and being able to
let players still play fast,right, and we were kind of at
(09:13):
that point in time where weneeded to do some creative
things, maybe schematically,just to kind of have a chance to
match up with players, just tobe honest.
And at that point maybe it justbecame a little bit too much.
And I would say, when did itbecome too much?
Probably the day of so reallylearning how to manage emotions,
managing just mental capacitythe day of you look at like the
(09:36):
Dierksy-Dotson law, trying to beat the optimal level of
performance, and I think toomany times we've operated, maybe
early on, in the oppositeeffect, where during practices
maybe we're not quite amped upto really simulate what it's
going to be in the true gamefeel.
Yet in the game you look at allthe hoopla that happens
beforehand, where people arerunning out of helmets.
You know you got music blaring.
(09:57):
It's probably the opposite ofwhat a lot of players need and
that's throttling back.
So I think that showed me a lotof each player maybe is
different too, of how we handlethat.
You maybe can't generalize.
Maybe you have one talk for aposition group or an entire team
, but player to player you mighthave to have some individual
ways to connect.
It's been one of my maybechanges or I don't know just
(10:19):
kind of specifics that I dopersonally.
I go out there pregame and wehave our pregame, you know, kind
of walk where guys are hangingout and they're throwing the
ball around but I want to gofrom player to player and just
check in with them.
You know I've done this for ourdefensive guys, you know as a
coordinator and that tells meyou know, do I need to help a
guy, maybe throttle down?
Do I need to hype a guy back up?
Is there maybe one or twothings I can give a guy instead
(10:41):
of hey, here's a list of 10.
That's going to be overwhelming.
So I think the one-on-oneinteraction is maybe a change.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We're talking about the day of so the one of the
things that we've talked aboutbefore is the stages of change,
and pre-contemplation is kind ofthat first step where guys
don't even acknowledge thatthere's a problem and they don't
even acknowledge that thereneeds a problem, and they don't
even acknowledge that thereneeds to be a change.
(11:07):
As you think back to the earlydays, you know, I remember going
into the MPF and everybody'slaying on their back and you
were taking guys throughvisualization and I remember, I
mean, some of those guys, allthey could think about was how
fast they were going to get outof there and go hang out with
their girlfriend or go grab someMcDonald's or whatever.
You know, whatever they weredoing.
(11:28):
Afterwards they they didn'teven think there's a possibility
that this could potentiallyhelp me.
What were, what were some ofthe ways?
As you think back, you know,either getting coaching staff,
you know, getting the defensiveguys to buy into hey, maybe we
should teach these guys how tointentionally train the mental
(11:49):
side of the game or even theplayers, like how do we get them
to even realize there's aproblem here?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I think first you got to be passionate about what you
believe in.
You know we believe this was anavenue to help us gain success
and gain an advantage.
And sometimes you know it takestime, right, we want everything
to happen so quickly in thesociety we live in, you know,
especially, I feel, for ourplayers now.
Just everything's so fast andit's a rush process that just
the ability to slow down and, Ithink, just this mentality of we
(12:20):
could go back and call on that.
It was kind of like deposits,you know, maybe like a
confidence account per se, wherelater on, maybe there was a
tense moment in the game, wecould say, hey, we've used this
breathing before.
So even though before the gameyou know maybe you're getting
10% of guys that it man, itreally sticks with and it's good
, but during the game now theguys maybe they're like, hey, we
(12:42):
really have a need for it inthis moment.
Well, we've already trainedthem to know what it's going to
be like.
So sometimes it was, I think,just the player's recognition of
, hey, now I truly need it andI'm going to be more receptive
to it at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, and I know that's one thing in the
one-on-one training that I dowith athletes.
Parents identify it way beforethe athletes do and they can see
in their kid who they knowbetter than anybody else, like
they're not playing at theirbest.
They know that something isgoing on and they suspect, you
know, maybe it's this or that.
(13:14):
They make some assumptions,they don't really know.
But until that kid realizeslike, oh shoot, I need to get
better in this area, I don'tthink that you're ever going to
get as much out of it.
(13:36):
Can you think back to thecoaching staff?
Because one of the things wetalked about in the podcast
before was like so there's thispre-contemplation where they
don't even know there's aproblem.
Then there's contemplationacknowledging well, there's a
problem, but not really sure ifwe're ready to make the change.
(13:56):
Then we've got kind of thispreparation determination, like
we're getting ready to change.
And then we have like thisaction step where, okay, now
we're changing behavior and thenyou know the maintenance and
kind of maintaining this new wayof doing things.
And I think one of the thingswe talked about before was it's
possible for a couple coaches toget together and go through
(14:18):
steps one, two, three and four,maybe pretty quickly.
But some of the other staffdoesn't even realize that
there's a problem.
Some of the some of the olderstaff, just you know, thinks
maybe we need to hit them harder, we need to be tougher.
You know how do?
How do you get everyone on yourstaff, before they realize
(14:38):
there's a problem, to to kind ofbuy in and to see this for what
it is.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, I think great, great question, right, cause
you're bringing sometimes peoplewho are vastly different
backgrounds, age groups, youknow from a staff, and you're
pulling them together.
I think the first part is justa clear, you know vision Like
it's always been greatexperience, full potential for
us, and if you know our stafftruly believes that that this is
the way to hit somebody's fullpotential, we can get more out
of our kids then I think they'reon board and they're going to
(15:05):
buy in.
One thing about change thatI'll say is that most people
view change usually with alittle bit of fear, right,
because the first question we'reall probably going to ask is
how is this going to directlyaffect me?
Yeah, you know, and I thinkthat's scary as a coach who
maybe has been successful anddone some things for a number of
years.
And then you're saying, hey, wewant to divert and we want to
(15:25):
go a little bit oppositedirection here, and that's scary
, you know, but you have to bewilling to give them the tools
to be able to do that, to getthem on board and, I think,
showing them success, right, youwant to see that there's
actually fruit to this labor andI remember kind of a
breakthrough moment in 2013.
(15:45):
You know, we had been in anotherclose game and it felt like for
two years there we were in ourshare of close games and we just
couldn't quite break through.
Right, we're getting so close.
And then we picked off the ballto kind of seal the game
against Avon early in the year,kind of a Mitch Turley who you
know.
He just made that play and Iremember that was one of those
guys that he was so wellprepared.
He was a guy who probablybought into every detail of some
(16:09):
of that mental training and itwas, instead of now seeing some
words on a page, we saw mentaltraining through a person and I
think when you get to see, youknow core values.
Things like this mentaltraining component come through
in other teammates.
Now you've got a greater buy-inbetween the players and the
coaches yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So the, you know, we, we kind of 2013.
We realize we need to train themental side of the game better.
2016 rolls around.
We've now been doing this for afew years.
We're getting prettyintentional about this there.
We're kind of definitely inthis somewhere between stage two
(16:52):
and stage three, somewherebetween, like, I'm starting to
look into this.
What would it mean if I wasgoing to change and like the
testing the waters kind of thebaby steps of buying in Isaac
talked about at this step, kindof that idea of just striking
the rock over and over and overand eventually it's going to
(17:14):
crack through and that there's,you know, all these small, tiny
steps.
And then at some point, likeyou see, oh shoot, this actually
works.
And now, like the, instead ofthe buy-in being one linebacker
over here and one quarterbackover there, now the, the entire
team, the entire program startsto go oh, this is, this is
(17:40):
pretty big.
What were some of those momentsthat you remember from that
2016 season?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I think we were a little more intentional of
generating specific responses.
I think sometimes, you know,from a mental standpoint it is
helpful to understand it's notgoing to just be smooth all the
time.
It's not going to be just thisupward trajectory.
There's going to be highs andlows, whether it's a given day,
a given game, and I think themore you can expect that
(18:10):
uncertainty and some of thathardship, the easier it is to
react to it.
And we built in some phrases andI can still remember, even in
the state game there whereweather the storm, you know,
there was a time right beforehalf where we felt sort of in
control.
We were playing a pretty goodgame and they just happened to
put together a drive and therewas just a play that, you know,
(18:30):
you couldn't describe it anydifferently than man.
They just found a way where theball hit the turf about twice
and threw it over a guy'sshoulder and there was like a
reverse pass and they scored andyou go into halftime and that's
where the response is like hey,where the storm, confidence
refocus.
Response is like hey,weatherstorm, confidence refocus
.
We already had the words inplace and I think that's very
valuable.
So you already know this is theresponse we're going to.
(18:53):
You know we've trained it.
So you look back at some randomsummer practice, some, you know
, two a day practice that webuilt in some of those scenarios
.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
So now it wasn't overwhelming or fearful because
it's like we've already been inthis moment before and we have a
pretty good idea of what theresponse needs to be like, or at
least what we can control inthis moment yeah, and so the you
know, after that season, youknow whether it's, whether it's
you go back and look at theSnyder game where you know, had
we lined up and played pickupbasketball, we would, we would
have gotten destroyed by then, Imean just out-athleted
(19:28):
everywhere on the field.
Kid going to penn state that wewere terrified of him catching
punts.
Um, the weather ended up beingnasty, which you know helped us,
but at the end of the day, likewe were able to, we were able
to play pretty close to our bestum and beat a team who was more
talented than us.
The you know the statechampionship game, thinking back
(19:50):
to the, they have the ballfirst and goal from what?
One yard line.
And you know we stop them infour plays, like now, I don't
think we had to net.
We're not trying to get our guysto believe that this mental
training stuff is important.
Now it's okay, we gotta.
(20:10):
We gotta maintain this and wegotta make sure that we don't
kind of relapse and go go intosome some bad habits.
Um, talk to us about some ofthe ways that you, that you
remember kind of continuallybuilding in.
Here's how, during practice,we're going to train the mental
side of the game intentionally,rather than just having it, as
(20:33):
like this, separate.
Okay, go over here and domental training.
Okay, now let's get back tofootball.
What talk through thatintegration?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
yeah, I think we just were willing to be creative and
try some things.
You know, it probably wasn'talways perfect, but we built in
some halftime scenarios.
That was one thing like we kindof talked about at one time.
And you know, I think we'veprobably even progressed in that
to where the players now canhandle it so we may put the
scenario on there.
Hey, we're down, you know 17,or we're you know down 17, 14.
(21:03):
There's this much time on theclock.
You know, here's a scenario,what do we do?
And 14, there's this much timeon the clock.
You know, here's the scenario,what do we do?
And now the players can showinitiative and they can have a
conversation within theirposition group.
You know it's going to be afive minute built in water break
anyways.
But now we're training forcertain scenarios and we're
building in the capacity forplayer leadership, because I
think when the coaches saysomething, that's great, you
(21:23):
know we're going to be able tostep up in those moments.
But when the players are takinglead, I think there's a whole
other level of confidence withtheir peers.
So we built some of thosehalftime scenarios in.
I've always been a proponent ofeven in our good-on-good
periods really making thosescenario-based so that guys have
to feel some of the pressure,whether it's hey, we're going to
live drive this, we're going toactually put the third down
(21:44):
markers out there so we can feelwhat the pressure is going to
be like.
I think the more we can putsomething on the line and make
it competitive, the more realismyou know you're going to have
within the practice and probablythe heightened level of focus
that we've gotten with ourplayers.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Fast forward to it's 2023, and Jake was on here, you
know, a few episodes back,talking about just the mental
toughnessness that you guysshowed um and you know I I
didn't have any idea at the timethat he was going to be leaving
and taking the you know thedefensive coordinator job at
Wabash and then will become thehead coach in December.
(22:20):
Um, and so you are.
You are now stepping into therole of head coach, which, which
is a whole new thing, a wholenew animal for you.
Congratulations, by the way,certainly absolutely qualified
for this position.
Talk to us now.
He's gone.
You're now in this.
(22:41):
This is now you are leading thecharge.
This is now you're going todecide what's important.
You're now putting your ownstamp on this program.
Talk to us a little bit aboutyou know.
How is this, how is training,the mental side of the game
going to?
Maybe continue, maybe changeLike?
What's that going to look like?
Moving forward?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Sure, and I mean I would just start out by, you
know, publicly thanking Jake.
I mean it's been such a funride.
We've been together for 17years when he was my coach at
Wabash, prior to this when hewas on staff there and I think
the biggest compliment hopefullywe can give him is that we
continue the Rocks tradition,that we continue to see those
(23:22):
elements that he worked so hardto build the past 13 years, and
I've constantly said this and Ireally believe it.
You know they're not justhiring me.
I may get some of theaccountability now, you know,
when things don't, you know, goas people like, but they're
really hiring our staff.
I'm so blessed to be in aposition where our entire staff
is back.
That's a testament to how hardthose guys have worked over the
years and what our you knowentire community thinks of them.
(23:44):
One of the best strengthcoaches in the entire nation.
He stayed on board, which hasreally stabilized a lot of
things.
I think some of the change of,maybe from a mental standpoint,
how do we continue to developthe whole person?
Jake's put such a greatfoundation in place that it's
(24:04):
not coming in here like we were13 years ago and it's kind of a
rebuild in some ways, or weneeded to revamp some vision.
It's really more about kind ofthat.
You know, james, clear model ofatomic habits, of how do we
make things in every avenuemaybe one to two percent better,
you know, and really continuethat upward trajectory and fight
the.
You know the complacency Ithink sometimes change, like I
mentioned, can be scary.
But I also think it's anopportunity to kind of shake
(24:26):
some things up and for guys toreally say, hey, maybe I'll get
an opportunity to lead indifferent capacity.
You know we're going to needmore out of certain guys and
I've loved just our staff'sresponse to it.
You know it's made thetransition.
You know fun and it's made itdefinitely something that hasn't
been overwhelming.
You know, at first here I thinkthat the mental side building
(24:48):
this is maybe even more like acollege program.
You know this last year we'vehired on academic and wellness
coach.
She's done a phenomenal job.
I think that's important of youknow, building our players
capacity, figuring out wherethey at from mental health
standpoint.
Is there something we can do?
Is it a one-on-one meeting?
Is it a position coach check-in?
I think that's another way tohelp on the mental side we just
(25:14):
brought on, you know, ourservice coordinator, so she's
going to also help with some ofthose activities, and we want
guys to be able to have a roleand view success in a variety of
different ways.
Not just am I on the field atthis given moment.
That's been something that I dothink also keeps you sharp
mentally is that, you know, hey,I can contribute in a lot of
different ways on this.
You know, you know program.
I hope that we also make otherpeople, you know, just continue
(25:37):
to feel valued.
You know, I've met with ourmanagers or trainers.
They've done such a phenomenaljob and, I think, that support
system that you have and we wantthem to feel like they're in it
with us.
So if everybody's moving in theright direction here and we're
all still committed to this ideaof hey greatest experience you
know, of their lifetime in termsof reaching their full
potential, that's going to begreat.
(25:58):
We're continuing to be out,work, out, love.
I hope that maybe we cancontinue to use the staff that's
been in place for you know,years, along with alumni
bringing them back.
It's one thing to talk abouttoughness.
It's another thing to bringback guys from 2013, the Jacob
Robinsons of the world wholiterally went out there on a
(26:19):
broken foot and put everythingon the line for our team.
I mean again seeing that mentalcapacity through players, not
just words on a page, issomething that we hope to build
and that's what's exciting,maybe for me, as we take over,
that it's not just, you know,going from Jake to me here it's.
You know our staff'scontinuation and the idea that
(26:40):
once a Rock, always a Rock.
These guys can come back andthey know what the expectation
is.
Some former player can come inhere and they can give them
advice of here's what it waslike to play in a big moment.
You know, here's what I wouldsuggest.
Here's what it was like when Iplayed in college, and I think
we can continue to build in someof those manners the.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
This off season, um westfield's staff got invited to
speak at the ifca clinic aboutmental health and that was the
you know Jake.
Jake asked me to come talk withyou guys.
That I just you know.
I just talked for the last 10minutes about the MTP Academy
and kind of you know what thatis and how you guys are using it
(27:20):
and what it offers, but I was.
That was the first time that Ihad really heard that.
Number one there was astudent-led support system.
I would love to hear youexplain that and just talk about
that.
And then, number two that wasthe first time that I had met
Alexa, who's now part of youguys' staff and she's looking at
(27:42):
these DOS survey reports and ifthey get flagged red, she sees,
or she sees, okay, something'sgoing on in this student's life
and I'm going to need to followup with them.
And she's not.
You know you didn't.
You didn't bring her onto thestaff because of her X's and O's
football knowledge.
You brought her in because ofthe kind of person that she is
(28:05):
and the relationship that shecan build with these kids and
the support structure that sheprovides there.
So I would love to hear youjust talk about those two things
.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, I think it's been such a blessing.
You know you constantly want tobring the right people into
your program, get them on thebus and then you see where they
fit.
You know I've been lucky enoughto co-teach with Alexa and Ken
who's on our staff, and we justknew that.
You know she loves people.
She connected with the kids andthis was an opportunity.
You know Jake and I had talkedand we felt like let's make sure
(28:38):
that, you know, our young menin our program can also learn
how to interact with females andbe able to treat them the right
way, and bringing somebody inwho doesn't necessarily have a
say in playing time, maybe aless threatening environment and
can really, you know, work tomeet the kids where they're at,
and so far it's been a greatsuccess.
You know there's been a lot ofone-on-ones, there's been some
(28:59):
follow-ups that you know we'vehad.
You know to maybe talk throughas coaches and maybe just puts
it on our coaching radar thatjust because a kid isn't
executing the plays, there mightbe something deeper going on
and let's make sure we continueto connect with them outside of
just the realm of football.
So I think Alexa has been ahuge piece of the rock support
(29:21):
group Just so proud of our kids.
Our kids, I mean, they wereasking to just meet and a couple
of guys that know somebackground with too.
That's been maybe a little bitof a struggle for them over the
course of the last couple ofyears and they just had the
maturity to say, hey, we'regoing to meet together, we're
going to meet together for 20,30 minutes after practice.
Pretty much it's going to bejust the players in there.
(29:43):
If they need us, they're alwayswelcome to reach out, but they
get to dictate the conversation.
They set some pretty goodground rules about.
You know, hey, we're going tokeep things in house, we're
going to be real and upfront andyou know, if something needs to
be shared, you know, to anadult, then they certainly will.
But I think just their abilityto connect and say, hey, we're
going to have intentionalconversation in a time where
(30:05):
that's not necessarily the norm,you know kids are going to text
, but they're not going to havethat face-to-face communication
that's been so rewarding and it,you know, just sharing their
success stories.
I feel like it hopefully willbe something that will be
ongoing in our program.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Just over a decade ago Westfield had zero mental
performance training.
The, you know the head coachwas the strength and
conditioning coordinator.
During football season.
Guys would lift and whateverthe football program was and
then they kind of, you know, gooff and do their own thing
(30:42):
during basketball season or adifferent program during track
or whatever.
So the physical training hascompletely changed at Westfield.
I mean there could be justentire podcasts put together
about you know what you guys dowith rock school.
You know, starting off with theelementary age kids all the way
up through what you're doingyear round with the high school
(31:04):
kids, with having one person inTavio kind of overseeing how are
we training the physical side?
You know we went from we werenot doing any type of mental
training in any way to now.
Here you are, you know, a littleover a decade later and you've
got during water breaks you'vegot mental training built in.
(31:27):
You've got in the offseasonAlexa is taking, you know the
team through the MTP Academy.
Alexa in season is looking atDOS survey results.
I really, year round, islooking at DOS survey results.
So you literally have a coachwho is who is helping with the
mental side of the game.
(31:47):
You've got you know.
It's on the coach's radar thatyou know we're now going to be
speaking this kind of commonlanguage that you guys have
built up like.
If you were to, if you were tolook at the complete program and
I think maybe what stands outthe most to me is is what Jake
said about you you can tell thatit's a culture change when the
(32:09):
sophomore backup left guard cantell you about here's why this
in the strength and conditioningprogram is important.
Here's why this in the mentalperformance training is
important.
Here's why we're going to focuson this or we're going to say
this, or we're going to say thisor this is going to be our
response if we're down athalftime.
(32:29):
We know what to do in thissituation.
We've got our focus cues, weknow how to process things, we
know what our routine is before,during, after the game.
We've got all these tools inplace.
And then we've got a whole bunchof coaches that are like, well,
that's nice, but that seemslike that seems almost
overwhelming, and like dreamland, like I, I don't have that, I
(32:52):
can't do that.
Where.
Where do I even start?
Where do I even begin?
How do I get my staff to buyinto this?
How do I get my players to buyinto this?
What advice would you have youknow, just going through this
the last decade what advicewould you have for kind of
building this up, if you weretaking over a job that was
starting truly from scratch?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I think the blessing is, you know we've been here 13
years.
I've been in a variety ofdifferent roles, you know, from
the freshman on up, so you getto see the importance that it
has in each level of the programand I think you find the right
people that are passionate aboutit.
You know, ben, you did such agreat job when you were here.
You were passionate about it,so there's got to be somebody on
the staff that you know canmaybe take that lead within the
(33:36):
program.
What's really fun is when nowyou use, you know, maybe, your
players.
So, like some of the leadershipcouncil, they do a phenomenal
job, like they'll lead, you know, different parts of the MTP
Academy to the entire team, andI'm sure that you know our guys
would probably prefer to listento the players than they would
the coaches.
Sure, you know they probablyget more out of it at this point
too.
So use the resources that youhave.
(33:57):
You know, something that I thinkJake said from day one and it's
really, you know, stuck with ustoo is we can't complain about
what we don't have.
You know we can't ever be anexcuse like that.
Every job has its own problems,you know.
Small school, small problems,big school, big problems
Everybody has those.
But you embrace what you dohave and if you can only spend,
(34:18):
you know, one or two days onmental training, great, make it
the best one or two days thatyou have.
If it's something that fitswell in pieces of your practice
or your culture that you alreadyhave, awesome, plug them in.
But I think just to say yeah,we're not going to do it.
That's probably the easy way.
It's probably going to bedifficult because there's a lot
of things stealing attention.
So you got to value it.
(34:42):
I do think we certainly have.
We've seen the by-product of it.
So if it's important enough,then you got to spend that time
and put it at the forefront ofyour program.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Then you got to spend that time and put it at the
forefront of your program.
Talk to me.
Talk to me about that piecealso, because you know, I know
that there are, there arecoaches who you know and Jake
talked about this like theydon't want to be in the weight
room, they just they wantsomebody else to be a part of
that, they just want to, youknow, draw up the X's and O's,
put the game plan together.
You know that kind of stuff.
(35:07):
It's no different with themental side of the game, like if
you're, if you're running backs, coach doesn't have any clue
what a go to statement is and,you know, doesn't have any idea
what, how diaphragmaticbreathing works, then you know
you're not, you're not reallytruly sending the message to the
kids that, yes, this isimportant.
So how do you, how do you thinkfrom a, from a value and a
(35:31):
priority standpoint?
How do you communicate that tothe coaching staff and also to
the players?
This is important and we aregoing to do this well.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, I think you you tie it into that program.
You know vision I mean for us,again, full potential, but it's
not just the full potential as aplayer, it's full potential in
all areas of your life.
So at the end of the day, wewant our kids to be able to deal
with adversity.
Our goal is not just, hey, wewant to win games, we're
competitive and we absolutelywant that.
(36:01):
But you know we really we'retrying to turn, you know, boys
into men and you know our youngladies in our program and to
women and being able to impactsociety, whether that's one day,
you know, when our you knowathletes are going to be dads,
one day they're going to behusbands.
We got to give them some ofthose skills and a lot of times
the mental training matches upwith that.
You know how do you deal withadversity in life.
(36:22):
How do you deal when you knowyou get something in your life.
Maybe it's a diagnosis or it'sa death.
It's something like we got toprepare these kids for life
outside of just football.
So I think, connecting it tothe deeper vision of we want to
impact them, you know, forgenerations to come.
Now most of those coaches cankind of get on board and see
(36:42):
that and they may not all takeit to the same level, you know
the same depth, but giving uswords which I really appreciate
about you know your program weall can speak the same language
and as long as we're speakingthe same language and the same
vocabulary, that I think it'seasy for some coaches that maybe
are not as on board with it.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
But they know what to say and as long as you make it,
you know, a priority you knowwhoever's in charge of the
(37:33):
program, then I think if youfind it valuable, other people,
if they're buying into you andyour vision, then they're going
to carry that as husbands.
I know having a screaming babyat three o'clock in the morning
put me under more stress andmore pressure than any football
game ever did.
Talk to us a little bit aboutwhat you guys do also outside of
the football field.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
I think one thing that you know, jake, has
certainly been intentional fromthe get-go of making sure each
of us you know, whether it'scoaches or players understand
our passions, principles,purpose, and I hope that you
know, when people come on ourstaff, that we challenge them.
I don't just expect them to bean elite football coach, that's.
You know we're hiring.
That's great, but we want youto be an elite husband, elite
(38:08):
dad, elite friend.
If you can't be elite in thoseareas too, then it's probably
going to seep into your coachingand, you know, maybe that isn't
the fit for you.
So one way that you know Ithink we've been able to manage
some of this on our own is, youknow, from our family standpoint
, like this is our ministryno-transcript kids, but you know
(38:57):
M is just make memories.
You know we want to be a familythat we make memories together
and you know we enjoy thesemoments and I'd say that in your
football program, like, enjoythe moments.
You know you only get one yearwith those seniors, whatever
senior class it is, and that'stheir only senior year.
So making it a priority forthem is the utmost importance
you know we talk about.
I just intentionally invest ourtime, talent and treasures,
(39:18):
like as a coach.
You get to be intentional aboutthat time.
Now don't forget that, yes,you're a coach, but you better
be intentional at home.
So we talk to our coaches andwe try to make that.
Hey, it may not be the samequality-quantity ratio in season
as opposed to out of season,but we've got to make sure
there's still high quality whenwe still have this workload.
R for us is just roadmap.
(39:39):
We're going to be a biblicalprincipal family.
I think you've got to have someprinciples that you stand on.
That helps you navigate thedifficult situations.
You know A for us is add value.
We want to be a staff thatconstantly grows.
We don't feel like, hey, we gotit all figured out, because we
certainly don't.
I think that's what's allowedus maybe to be successful is
we're willing to adapt and trynew things.
(39:59):
And when we add value, thatalso means add value to our
players.
You know we want to make animpact in their life and you
know they're better because, hey, we were a part of their life
and vice versa.
You know we talk a lot about inour family celebrate and cheer
like we're going to cheer oneverything that we're involved
in.
You know, and again, if you'rea coach, there at least in our
program we're allowing coachesto go to any function that
(40:21):
involves their kids.
You know we have a big enoughstaff where we can cover each
other, but you only get so manymoments with your kids.
You need to make sure thatthose coaches if you're a head
coach on there that they havethat liberty, that freedom to be
able to go off and watch themand you cover a practice here or
there.
We need to.
We mentioned love and respectand we just feel like in our
(40:42):
household that's something wewant to portray to our kids If
they see how we interact, momand dad together, and they can,
you know, hopefully give us thesame back and then our family's
version, just elbow grease, youknow, just working hard.
And that's maybe a little bitabout where I grew up, maybe my
background from Hobart, but Ihope that that's carried over.
You know I've seen that when wewere at Wabash, when we've been
(41:02):
here at Westfield.
We kind of pride ourselves onthis, outwork, out love,
mentality, and I think hopefully, if you're a coach, listening,
you develop your own, you know,philosophy, vision, what you
want to call it, uh, with yourfamily and you make it a part of
what you do together, becausethat's so important.
You're going to spend so manyhours and times impacting.
You know other people's kids.
(41:23):
You know those of you that arelistening that you know you have
a significant other, you'remarried, you got kids.
I mean, make sure that theyfeel a part of it, because
you're in this thing together.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
I love that.
It's been.
You know I said this, I saidthis in the podcast with Jake
it's.
It's brought joy to my heartJust watching my alma mater go
from I mean we won two games inmy senior year to, you know,
hopefully not losing more thantwo games in a year it's been a
blast watching that.
(41:53):
And you know, to see Westfieldnot and not just a flash in the
pan either, but you know, one ofthe one of the programs in 6A
that's got, you know it doesn'thave the most wins, but it's up
there, uh, has just been, hasbeen really great.
And I'm excited to see what thefuture holds and excited to see,
um, you know, not not to seeyou carry on the tradition, but
(42:17):
for you to elevate things and tocontinue this trajectory of
just getting better.
You know there's obviously notas much room for growth as there
was a decade ago.
Um, just that one or twopercent better.
I'm excited to see where theprogram goes from here.
One of the last questions Ialways love to ask guests is
(42:38):
knowing what you know.
Now.
If you were to go back and giveyourself advice as that
first-year coach, what would yousay to yourself?
I think maybe.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I'm reliving that right now in the new position
advice as, like that, that firstyear coach, what would you say
to yourself?
I think maybe I'm reliving thatright now in the new position
Um, you're kind of figuring outlike, what's your priority,
whether you're a first yearcoach, your first year in that
position.
It seems like a lot of thingsare maybe coming at you at one
point, um, but I would say thatpeople are still the priority.
Whatever you do, people are thepriority.
Like I've loved the last monthor so just getting to meet with
(43:10):
people and hear theirperspectives and how we can help
them and how we can elevatetheir game and I think hopefully
that's something we can do isyou know, it doesn't need to be
me and some spotlight, it'selevating the great people that
we have around us.
Um, so when you're even a firstyear, people are priority.
Learn from the best people thatyou have on staff.
I mean, that's how you grow asan assistant coach.
(43:32):
You just learn from guys who'vebeen doing it for a while too.
So if you can keep people ofpriority, I think you'd be in
good shape.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I love that.
Well, josh, thank you so muchfor coming on here, my friend.
I really, really appreciate itand wish you nothing but the
best, moving forward.
Thanks, man, appreciate all youdo.
Thank you If you got value outof today's episode.
The highest compliment that youcan pay us is to share this
with somebody else, to continueto just grow the show.
If you've got questions aboutsomething that you'd like to
(43:59):
hear about on the show, don'thesitate to go to mental
training plancom slash podcast.
There's a button that you canclick on says send us a question
podcast.
There's a button that you canclick on says send us a question
.
Would love to.
Would love to get thoseanswered for you on the show.
If you are a coach and you'reinterested in year round mental
performance training for yourteam, we've basically taken all
the things that we do with ourin person training and we've
(44:22):
condensed that into 15 minutemodules.
You can do year roundperformance training where
literally all you have to do isprint the worksheet, play the
video, we deliver the contentand then you come alongside your
athletes to help out withimplementation.
The results so far and thefeedback so far has been
fantastic, just as teams havestarted to implement the academy
(44:46):
, starting off with thefoundation program.
I'm excited about some of theways that we're going to be
building that and growing thatin the future.
But if you want to know howthis could fit your sport, this
could fit your team, how thiscould be customized around your
schedule, whether you've got oneday a week, two days a week,
whatever that looks like inseason, off season, summertime
(45:06):
answering questions, how do wedo this?
How do we fit it to that?
You know we can do a mentalskills assessment with your team
so that you have a concreteidea of here's where we're at,
here's where we're starting.
Would love to have aconversation with you.
Don't hesitate to reach out.
There's links in the show notes, my contact information's on
the webpage and, as always,until next time, make your plan
(45:27):
and put it to work.
So I know we've got a lot of schools that are
starting off with the MTPAcademy or we've got a lot of
schools who they're trying tobuild up the mental culture of
their program.
They don't like where themental toughness is at.
They don't like where differentaspects of you know not getting
tight, not getting tense, justplaying loose.
How do we play at our best?
(00:21):
How do we perform at a highlevel when the game's on the
line?
How do we overcome failure?
How do we play at our best?
How do we perform at a highlevel when the game's on the
line?
How do we overcome failure?
How do we overcome adversity?
And one of the one of theprograms that I talk about quite
a bit is the, the Westfieldfootball program, the Westfield
golf program.
You know some of some of theother sports there, just because
that's kind of that's where myroots are, that's where I
(00:41):
started and you know right now,if you were to take a snapshot
of where the high schoolfootball team is at and
everything that they do with themental side of the game, I
would say they're at a prettyhigh level and that's why you
know they've been able to,they've been able to win some
games that on paper, theyshouldn't win.
It's why they're one of thewinningest 6A programs over the
(01:04):
last decade in Indiana highschool football.
And so I want you to hear mesay that, if you're just
starting off, it's not justinstantly and immediately going
to be a.
You know, hey, I listened tothis podcast and poof, now my
team is performing at a highlevel.
(01:25):
Or we did this training for amonth, for six months, for a
year, and now, poof, all my kidsare mentally tough and there's
no more problems, there's nomore issues.
This has been something thatwe've built up over years and
years and years just of trialand error.
(01:47):
And so you know, now to thepoint where we can say, all
right, if we were to go back anddo this again, you know, here's
how we would structure this.
Here's the mental performanceactivities that I can say.
You know, having worked withhundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of individual athletes,and you know, having worked
with hundreds and hundreds andhundreds of individual athletes,
and you know that number getsinto thousands and tens of
(02:10):
thousands if you're talkingabout all the teams that I've
worked with.
But, like I can say with a gooddeal of confidence, here's some
of the things that you can dothat will give you the most bang
for your buck, and that's whatwe've really tried to put
together with the MTP Academy.
But one of the things I'm reallyexcited for you to hear from
the conversation with Josh is,like things didn't always used
(02:32):
to be that way and it's okay ifthings aren't perfect when you
implement them, and it's okay ifthere's a little bit of
messiness.
You know, just like learningany new skill, just like
learning how to ride a bike,there's some, there's some falls
, there's some bumps, there'ssome bruises, there's some
screwing up, there's some thingsthat you wish you did better.
Um, but what I hope you hear isthat if you just what's the
(02:57):
next right thing, what's the?
What's the next way that I canimplement one of these tools?
What's the?
What's the next way that I canget just a small group of guys,
a small group of girls, to buyinto this, how can I get my
leadership you know the, theleaders on my team involved?
How can I get one of my coachesto buy in, or two or three of
(03:20):
my coaches to buy in?
So if that's where you're atand you're just starting off and
you're just putting the piecestogether.
I hope that you don't getfrustrated that it doesn't
happen instantly, because I cantell you it certainly didn't
happen instantly for us, and soI think you're really going to
(03:41):
enjoy today's episode.
But super excited to have JoshMiracle on the show, who has
recently just been named thehead coach at Westfield, taken
over for Jake Gilbert who'sleaving to go be the D
coordinator at Wabash and thenwill be the head coach in
December.
Hey, welcome to the CoachingMinds podcast, the official
podcast of Mental Training Plan.
(04:02):
We want to empower coaches withthe tools and insights needed
to develop the mental side ofthe game so that their athletes
can succeed both on and off thefield.
Tonight we've got a veryspecial guest Josh Miracle.
Josh, thank you so much forjoining us tonight.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Thanks, ben, appreciate you having us.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Josh was on here a while back and we were talking
about success boards and Joshand I have known each other for
a long time.
Coming out of college, he cameand coached at Westfield, joined
us on the staff.
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Back in 2011.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So we've been here about 13 years, so that was two
years before we went to statethe first time, and so you know
Josh was.
Josh was also around Westfieldfor when Westfield just wasn't
good at football.
Now, you weren't necessarilythere for, like the, the no win,
the one win seasons, but like,I want you to take us back to
(04:57):
your memories of when you walkedin the building, like what,
what stood out to you about thestate of the program.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I think it was a unique perspective because I was
just coming out of college, youknow, playing at Wabash college
and just such a historictradition there.
And then you get to Westfieldand all the people are great.
I mean, from day one you couldjust see the passion that people
had.
But I think the vision for whatit could become was maybe
lacking.
And that's where you know,working for Jake and just
(05:29):
playing for him at Wabash, Iknew that he would certainly get
things turned around.
But you looked at the stadiumand it's nowhere close to where
it was today.
You know there were definitelyjust a small group of bleachers
there.
You know your old grass field,you know the small hometown feel
.
You could see some of the fastfood chains, maybe right across
(05:49):
the street, and there wasn'tmuch of a practice facility with
it.
And I do remember going intothe weight room and I just again
come back from Wabash and I waskind of like, well, where's the
real weight room?
This seems like maybe this isjust an auxiliary weight room
and, sure enough, no, that wasit and it was very small, paled
(06:10):
in comparison to what we've seen.
And I think that was one of thefirst things that Jake made a
huge priority of hey, we've gotto get this fixed and we've got
to get in this weight room andget a little more space there.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
In 2013,.
Obviously we went down to state.
I In 2013,.
Obviously we went down to state.
I've told the story, I feel,like a million times.
We went down to state, wewalked into the building, we
peed down our leg.
I think you and I both noticedon separate sides of the ball
that we had players who had beenplaying fantastic football all
year that just weren't ready forthat moment.
(06:41):
And I think you and I bothidentified like this has to get
better.
And so you know, I kind of I'vetold the story before about you
know, Jake, saying hey, we'vegot to do this with the whole
team, and kind of venturing offinto the self-assessment world
of how do we help guys figureout what to do.
But at the exact same time youwere.
(07:02):
I think you had identifiedthere's some weakness here,
there's something that needs tobe better in the mental side of
the game, and I remember that westarted that mental performance
skills camp.
I don't know if that was thatyear or the year after, but you
and I kind of both dove inheadfirst to this is not good
(07:24):
enough.
How do we get these guysplaying at a higher level?
And and I know there are a lotof, there are a lot of teams out
there right now who want tochange the culture of their
program when it comes to themental side of the game.
They want there to be just amental toughness.
They want to feel like they canbe behind at halftime seven
(07:49):
times in one season.
I think Jake said you guys werelast year but expecting to win,
so Westfield's come a long wayfrom, I would say, zero mental
training of any kind up to thepoint where you guys are right
now, which we'll get to later.
But tonight I really want todive into kind of the stages of
(08:12):
change and how that developedthroughout the years.
So, you know, going back tothose, going back to those 2013
offseason meetings, what standsout to you or what stood out to
you kind of the state of themental side of the game for the
team?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know, I think, looking back, one phrase that I
probably carry with me due tothat experience is I never want
to lose the same way twice.
You know, I'm okay withsomebody you know beating us and
they, you know, get the best ofus on a given night, but I
never want to go down the sameway because that shows, you know
, we didn't really progress ascoaches, we didn't grow and put
ourselves, um, in a you know abetter position, and I feel like
(08:52):
in that 2013 it all met wellwhere we were coming from.
But I think, looking back, it'seasy.
You could always put blame onthe players, but I always put
the blame, you know, back myself.
Like maybe there was too muchgoing into it, right, can we
simplify things?
And I think the art ofsimplifying and being able to
let players still play fast,right, and we were kind of at
(09:13):
that point in time where weneeded to do some creative
things, maybe schematically,just to kind of have a chance to
match up with players, just tobe honest.
And at that point maybe it justbecame a little bit too much.
And I would say, when did itbecome too much?
Probably the day of so reallylearning how to manage emotions,
managing just mental capacitythe day of you look at like the
(09:36):
Dierksy-Dotson law, trying to beat the optimal level of
performance, and I think toomany times we've operated, maybe
early on, in the oppositeeffect, where during practices
maybe we're not quite amped upto really simulate what it's
going to be in the true gamefeel.
Yet in the game you look at allthe hoopla that happens
beforehand, where people arerunning out of helmets.
You know you got music blaring.
(09:57):
It's probably the opposite ofwhat a lot of players need and
that's throttling back.
So I think that showed me a lotof each player maybe is
different too, of how we handlethat.
You maybe can't generalize.
Maybe you have one talk for aposition group or an entire team
, but player to player you mighthave to have some individual
ways to connect.
It's been one of my maybechanges or I don't know just
(10:19):
kind of specifics that I dopersonally.
I go out there pregame and wehave our pregame, you know, kind
of walk where guys are hangingout and they're throwing the
ball around but I want to gofrom player to player and just
check in with them.
You know I've done this for ourdefensive guys, you know as a
coordinator and that tells meyou know, do I need to help a
guy, maybe throttle down?
Do I need to hype a guy back up?
Is there maybe one or twothings I can give a guy instead
(10:41):
of hey, here's a list of 10.
That's going to be overwhelming.
So I think the one-on-oneinteraction is maybe a change.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We're talking about the day of so the one of the
things that we've talked aboutbefore is the stages of change,
and pre-contemplation is kind ofthat first step where guys
don't even acknowledge thatthere's a problem and they don't
even acknowledge that thereneeds a problem, and they don't
even acknowledge that thereneeds to be a change.
(11:07):
As you think back to the earlydays, you know, I remember going
into the MPF and everybody'slaying on their back and you
were taking guys throughvisualization and I remember, I
mean, some of those guys, allthey could think about was how
fast they were going to get outof there and go hang out with
their girlfriend or go grab someMcDonald's or whatever.
You know, whatever they weredoing.
(11:28):
Afterwards they they didn'teven think there's a possibility
that this could potentiallyhelp me.
What were, what were some ofthe ways?
As you think back, you know,either getting coaching staff,
you know, getting the defensiveguys to buy into hey, maybe we
should teach these guys how tointentionally train the mental
(11:49):
side of the game or even theplayers, like how do we get them
to even realize there's aproblem here?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I think first you got to be passionate about what you
believe in.
You know we believe this was anavenue to help us gain success
and gain an advantage.
And sometimes you know it takestime, right, we want everything
to happen so quickly in thesociety we live in, you know,
especially, I feel, for ourplayers now.
Just everything's so fast andit's a rush process that just
the ability to slow down and, Ithink, just this mentality of we
(12:20):
could go back and call on that.
It was kind of like deposits,you know, maybe like a
confidence account per se, wherelater on, maybe there was a
tense moment in the game, wecould say, hey, we've used this
breathing before.
So even though before the gameyou know maybe you're getting
10% of guys that it man, itreally sticks with and it's good
, but during the game now theguys maybe they're like, hey, we
(12:42):
really have a need for it inthis moment.
Well, we've already trainedthem to know what it's going to
be like.
So sometimes it was, I think,just the player's recognition of
, hey, now I truly need it andI'm going to be more receptive
to it at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, and I know that's one thing in the
one-on-one training that I dowith athletes.
Parents identify it way beforethe athletes do and they can see
in their kid who they knowbetter than anybody else, like
they're not playing at theirbest.
They know that something isgoing on and they suspect, you
know, maybe it's this or that.
(13:14):
They make some assumptions,they don't really know.
But until that kid realizeslike, oh shoot, I need to get
better in this area, I don'tthink that you're ever going to
get as much out of it.
(13:36):
Can you think back to thecoaching staff?
Because one of the things wetalked about in the podcast
before was like so there's thispre-contemplation where they
don't even know there's aproblem.
Then there's contemplationacknowledging well, there's a
problem, but not really sure ifwe're ready to make the change.
(13:56):
Then we've got kind of thispreparation determination, like
we're getting ready to change.
And then we have like thisaction step where, okay, now
we're changing behavior and thenyou know the maintenance and
kind of maintaining this new wayof doing things.
And I think one of the thingswe talked about before was it's
possible for a couple coaches toget together and go through
(14:18):
steps one, two, three and four,maybe pretty quickly.
But some of the other staffdoesn't even realize that
there's a problem.
Some of the some of the olderstaff, just you know, thinks
maybe we need to hit them harder, we need to be tougher.
You know how do?
How do you get everyone on yourstaff, before they realize
(14:38):
there's a problem, to to kind ofbuy in and to see this for what
it is.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, I think great, great question, right, cause
you're bringing sometimes peoplewho are vastly different
backgrounds, age groups, youknow from a staff, and you're
pulling them together.
I think the first part is justa clear, you know vision Like
it's always been greatexperience, full potential for
us, and if you know our stafftruly believes that that this is
the way to hit somebody's fullpotential, we can get more out
of our kids then I think they'reon board and they're going to
(15:05):
buy in.
One thing about change thatI'll say is that most people
view change usually with alittle bit of fear, right,
because the first question we'reall probably going to ask is
how is this going to directlyaffect me?
Yeah, you know, and I thinkthat's scary as a coach who
maybe has been successful anddone some things for a number of
years.
And then you're saying, hey, wewant to divert and we want to
(15:25):
go a little bit oppositedirection here, and that's scary
, you know, but you have to bewilling to give them the tools
to be able to do that, to getthem on board and, I think,
showing them success, right, youwant to see that there's
actually fruit to this labor andI remember kind of a
breakthrough moment in 2013.
(15:45):
You know, we had been in anotherclose game and it felt like for
two years there we were in ourshare of close games and we just
couldn't quite break through.
Right, we're getting so close.
And then we picked off the ballto kind of seal the game
against Avon early in the year,kind of a Mitch Turley who you
know.
He just made that play and Iremember that was one of those
guys that he was so wellprepared.
He was a guy who probablybought into every detail of some
(16:09):
of that mental training and itwas, instead of now seeing some
words on a page, we saw mentaltraining through a person and I
think when you get to see, youknow core values.
Things like this mentaltraining component come through
in other teammates.
Now you've got a greater buy-inbetween the players and the
coaches yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So the, you know, we, we kind of 2013.
We realize we need to train themental side of the game better.
2016 rolls around.
We've now been doing this for afew years.
We're getting prettyintentional about this there.
We're kind of definitely inthis somewhere between stage two
(16:52):
and stage three, somewherebetween, like, I'm starting to
look into this.
What would it mean if I wasgoing to change and like the
testing the waters kind of thebaby steps of buying in Isaac
talked about at this step, kindof that idea of just striking
the rock over and over and overand eventually it's going to
(17:14):
crack through and that there's,you know, all these small, tiny
steps.
And then at some point, likeyou see, oh shoot, this actually
works.
And now, like the, instead ofthe buy-in being one linebacker
over here and one quarterbackover there, now the, the entire
team, the entire program startsto go oh, this is, this is
(17:40):
pretty big.
What were some of those momentsthat you remember from that
2016 season?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I think we were a little more intentional of
generating specific responses.
I think sometimes, you know,from a mental standpoint it is
helpful to understand it's notgoing to just be smooth all the
time.
It's not going to be just thisupward trajectory.
There's going to be highs andlows, whether it's a given day,
a given game, and I think themore you can expect that
(18:10):
uncertainty and some of thathardship, the easier it is to
react to it.
And we built in some phrases andI can still remember, even in
the state game there whereweather the storm, you know,
there was a time right beforehalf where we felt sort of in
control.
We were playing a pretty goodgame and they just happened to
put together a drive and therewas just a play that, you know,
(18:30):
you couldn't describe it anydifferently than man.
They just found a way where theball hit the turf about twice
and threw it over a guy'sshoulder and there was like a
reverse pass and they scored andyou go into halftime and that's
where the response is like hey,where the storm, confidence
refocus.
Response is like hey,weatherstorm, confidence refocus
.
We already had the words inplace and I think that's very
valuable.
So you already know this is theresponse we're going to.
(18:53):
You know we've trained it.
So you look back at some randomsummer practice, some, you know
, two a day practice that webuilt in some of those scenarios
.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
So now it wasn't overwhelming or fearful because
it's like we've already been inthis moment before and we have a
pretty good idea of what theresponse needs to be like, or at
least what we can control inthis moment yeah, and so the you
know, after that season, youknow whether it's, whether it's
you go back and look at theSnyder game where you know, had
we lined up and played pickupbasketball, we would, we would
have gotten destroyed by then, Imean just out-athleted
(19:28):
everywhere on the field.
Kid going to penn state that wewere terrified of him catching
punts.
Um, the weather ended up beingnasty, which you know helped us,
but at the end of the day, likewe were able to, we were able
to play pretty close to our bestum and beat a team who was more
talented than us.
The you know the statechampionship game, thinking back
(19:50):
to the, they have the ballfirst and goal from what?
One yard line.
And you know we stop them infour plays, like now, I don't
think we had to net.
We're not trying to get our guysto believe that this mental
training stuff is important.
Now it's okay, we gotta.
(20:10):
We gotta maintain this and wegotta make sure that we don't
kind of relapse and go go intosome some bad habits.
Um, talk to us about some ofthe ways that you, that you
remember kind of continuallybuilding in.
Here's how, during practice,we're going to train the mental
side of the game intentionally,rather than just having it, as
(20:33):
like this, separate.
Okay, go over here and domental training.
Okay, now let's get back tofootball.
What talk through thatintegration?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
yeah, I think we just were willing to be creative and
try some things.
You know, it probably wasn'talways perfect, but we built in
some halftime scenarios.
That was one thing like we kindof talked about at one time.
And you know, I think we'veprobably even progressed in that
to where the players now canhandle it so we may put the
scenario on there.
Hey, we're down, you know 17,or we're you know down 17, 14.
(21:03):
There's this much time on theclock.
You know, here's a scenario,what do we do?
And 14, there's this much timeon the clock.
You know, here's the scenario,what do we do?
And now the players can showinitiative and they can have a
conversation within theirposition group.
You know it's going to be afive minute built in water break
anyways.
But now we're training forcertain scenarios and we're
building in the capacity forplayer leadership, because I
think when the coaches saysomething, that's great, you
(21:23):
know we're going to be able tostep up in those moments.
But when the players are takinglead, I think there's a whole
other level of confidence withtheir peers.
So we built some of thosehalftime scenarios in.
I've always been a proponent ofeven in our good-on-good
periods really making thosescenario-based so that guys have
to feel some of the pressure,whether it's hey, we're going to
live drive this, we're going toactually put the third down
(21:44):
markers out there so we can feelwhat the pressure is going to
be like.
I think the more we can putsomething on the line and make
it competitive, the more realismyou know you're going to have
within the practice and probablythe heightened level of focus
that we've gotten with ourplayers.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Fast forward to it's 2023, and Jake was on here, you
know, a few episodes back,talking about just the mental
toughnessness that you guysshowed um and you know I I
didn't have any idea at the timethat he was going to be leaving
and taking the you know thedefensive coordinator job at
Wabash and then will become thehead coach in December.
(22:20):
Um, and so you are.
You are now stepping into therole of head coach, which, which
is a whole new thing, a wholenew animal for you.
Congratulations, by the way,certainly absolutely qualified
for this position.
Talk to us now.
He's gone.
You're now in this.
(22:41):
This is now you are leading thecharge.
This is now you're going todecide what's important.
You're now putting your ownstamp on this program.
Talk to us a little bit aboutyou know.
How is this, how is training,the mental side of the game
going to?
Maybe continue, maybe changeLike?
What's that going to look like?
Moving forward?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Sure, and I mean I would just start out by, you
know, publicly thanking Jake.
I mean it's been such a funride.
We've been together for 17years when he was my coach at
Wabash, prior to this when hewas on staff there and I think
the biggest compliment hopefullywe can give him is that we
continue the Rocks tradition,that we continue to see those
(23:22):
elements that he worked so hardto build the past 13 years, and
I've constantly said this and Ireally believe it.
You know they're not justhiring me.
I may get some of theaccountability now, you know,
when things don't, you know, goas people like, but they're
really hiring our staff.
I'm so blessed to be in aposition where our entire staff
is back.
That's a testament to how hardthose guys have worked over the
years and what our you knowentire community thinks of them.
(23:44):
One of the best strengthcoaches in the entire nation.
He stayed on board, which hasreally stabilized a lot of
things.
I think some of the change of,maybe from a mental standpoint,
how do we continue to developthe whole person?
Jake's put such a greatfoundation in place that it's
(24:04):
not coming in here like we were13 years ago and it's kind of a
rebuild in some ways, or weneeded to revamp some vision.
It's really more about kind ofthat.
You know, james, clear model ofatomic habits, of how do we
make things in every avenuemaybe one to two percent better,
you know, and really continuethat upward trajectory and fight
the.
You know the complacency Ithink sometimes change, like I
mentioned, can be scary.
But I also think it's anopportunity to kind of shake
(24:26):
some things up and for guys toreally say, hey, maybe I'll get
an opportunity to lead indifferent capacity.
You know we're going to needmore out of certain guys and
I've loved just our staff'sresponse to it.
You know it's made thetransition.
You know fun and it's made itdefinitely something that hasn't
been overwhelming.
You know, at first here I thinkthat the mental side building
(24:48):
this is maybe even more like acollege program.
You know this last year we'vehired on academic and wellness
coach.
She's done a phenomenal job.
I think that's important of youknow, building our players
capacity, figuring out wherethey at from mental health
standpoint.
Is there something we can do?
Is it a one-on-one meeting?
Is it a position coach check-in?
I think that's another way tohelp on the mental side we just
(25:14):
brought on, you know, ourservice coordinator, so she's
going to also help with some ofthose activities, and we want
guys to be able to have a roleand view success in a variety of
different ways.
Not just am I on the field atthis given moment.
That's been something that I dothink also keeps you sharp
mentally is that, you know, hey,I can contribute in a lot of
different ways on this.
You know, you know program.
I hope that we also make otherpeople, you know, just continue
(25:37):
to feel valued.
You know, I've met with ourmanagers or trainers.
They've done such a phenomenaljob and, I think, that support
system that you have and we wantthem to feel like they're in it
with us.
So if everybody's moving in theright direction here and we're
all still committed to this ideaof hey greatest experience you
know, of their lifetime in termsof reaching their full
potential, that's going to begreat.
(25:58):
We're continuing to be out,work, out, love.
I hope that maybe we cancontinue to use the staff that's
been in place for you know,years, along with alumni
bringing them back.
It's one thing to talk abouttoughness.
It's another thing to bringback guys from 2013, the Jacob
Robinsons of the world wholiterally went out there on a
(26:19):
broken foot and put everythingon the line for our team.
I mean again seeing that mentalcapacity through players, not
just words on a page, issomething that we hope to build
and that's what's exciting,maybe for me, as we take over,
that it's not just, you know,going from Jake to me here it's.
You know our staff'scontinuation and the idea that
(26:40):
once a Rock, always a Rock.
These guys can come back andthey know what the expectation
is.
Some former player can come inhere and they can give them
advice of here's what it waslike to play in a big moment.
You know, here's what I wouldsuggest.
Here's what it was like when Iplayed in college, and I think
we can continue to build in someof those manners the.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
This off season, um westfield's staff got invited to
speak at the ifca clinic aboutmental health and that was the
you know Jake.
Jake asked me to come talk withyou guys.
That I just you know.
I just talked for the last 10minutes about the MTP Academy
and kind of you know what thatis and how you guys are using it
(27:20):
and what it offers, but I was.
That was the first time that Ihad really heard that.
Number one there was astudent-led support system.
I would love to hear youexplain that and just talk about
that.
And then, number two that wasthe first time that I had met
Alexa, who's now part of youguys' staff and she's looking at
(27:42):
these DOS survey reports and ifthey get flagged red, she sees,
or she sees, okay, something'sgoing on in this student's life
and I'm going to need to followup with them.
And she's not.
You know you didn't.
You didn't bring her onto thestaff because of her X's and O's
football knowledge.
You brought her in because ofthe kind of person that she is
(28:05):
and the relationship that shecan build with these kids and
the support structure that sheprovides there.
So I would love to hear youjust talk about those two things
.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, I think it's been such a blessing.
You know you constantly want tobring the right people into
your program, get them on thebus and then you see where they
fit.
You know I've been lucky enoughto co-teach with Alexa and Ken
who's on our staff, and we justknew that.
You know she loves people.
She connected with the kids andthis was an opportunity.
You know Jake and I had talkedand we felt like let's make sure
(28:38):
that, you know, our young menin our program can also learn
how to interact with females andbe able to treat them the right
way, and bringing somebody inwho doesn't necessarily have a
say in playing time, maybe aless threatening environment and
can really, you know, work tomeet the kids where they're at,
and so far it's been a greatsuccess.
You know there's been a lot ofone-on-ones, there's been some
(28:59):
follow-ups that you know we'vehad.
You know to maybe talk throughas coaches and maybe just puts
it on our coaching radar thatjust because a kid isn't
executing the plays, there mightbe something deeper going on
and let's make sure we continueto connect with them outside of
just the realm of football.
So I think Alexa has been ahuge piece of the rock support
(29:21):
group Just so proud of our kids.
Our kids, I mean, they wereasking to just meet and a couple
of guys that know somebackground with too.
That's been maybe a little bitof a struggle for them over the
course of the last couple ofyears and they just had the
maturity to say, hey, we'regoing to meet together, we're
going to meet together for 20,30 minutes after practice.
Pretty much it's going to bejust the players in there.
(29:43):
If they need us, they're alwayswelcome to reach out, but they
get to dictate the conversation.
They set some pretty goodground rules about.
You know, hey, we're going tokeep things in house, we're
going to be real and upfront andyou know, if something needs to
be shared, you know, to anadult, then they certainly will.
But I think just their abilityto connect and say, hey, we're
going to have intentionalconversation in a time where
(30:05):
that's not necessarily the norm,you know kids are going to text
, but they're not going to havethat face-to-face communication
that's been so rewarding and it,you know, just sharing their
success stories.
I feel like it hopefully willbe something that will be
ongoing in our program.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Just over a decade ago Westfield had zero mental
performance training.
The, you know the head coachwas the strength and
conditioning coordinator.
During football season.
Guys would lift and whateverthe football program was and
then they kind of, you know, gooff and do their own thing
(30:42):
during basketball season or adifferent program during track
or whatever.
So the physical training hascompletely changed at Westfield.
I mean there could be justentire podcasts put together
about you know what you guys dowith rock school.
You know, starting off with theelementary age kids all the way
up through what you're doingyear round with the high school
(31:04):
kids, with having one person inTavio kind of overseeing how are
we training the physical side?
You know we went from we werenot doing any type of mental
training in any way to now.
Here you are, you know, a littleover a decade later and you've
got during water breaks you'vegot mental training built in.
(31:27):
You've got in the offseasonAlexa is taking, you know the
team through the MTP Academy.
Alexa in season is looking atDOS survey results.
I really, year round, islooking at DOS survey results.
So you literally have a coachwho is who is helping with the
mental side of the game.
(31:47):
You've got you know.
It's on the coach's radar thatyou know we're now going to be
speaking this kind of commonlanguage that you guys have
built up like.
If you were to, if you were tolook at the complete program and
I think maybe what stands outthe most to me is is what Jake
said about you you can tell thatit's a culture change when the
(32:09):
sophomore backup left guard cantell you about here's why this
in the strength and conditioningprogram is important.
Here's why this in the mentalperformance training is
important.
Here's why we're going to focuson this or we're going to say
this, or we're going to say thisor this is going to be our
response if we're down athalftime.
(32:29):
We know what to do in thissituation.
We've got our focus cues, weknow how to process things, we
know what our routine is before,during, after the game.
We've got all these tools inplace.
And then we've got a whole bunchof coaches that are like, well,
that's nice, but that seemslike that seems almost
overwhelming, and like dreamland, like I, I don't have that, I
(32:52):
can't do that.
Where.
Where do I even start?
Where do I even begin?
How do I get my staff to buyinto this?
How do I get my players to buyinto this?
What advice would you have youknow, just going through this
the last decade what advicewould you have for kind of
building this up, if you weretaking over a job that was
starting truly from scratch?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I think the blessing is, you know we've been here 13
years.
I've been in a variety ofdifferent roles, you know, from
the freshman on up, so you getto see the importance that it
has in each level of the programand I think you find the right
people that are passionate aboutit.
You know, ben, you did such agreat job when you were here.
You were passionate about it,so there's got to be somebody on
the staff that you know canmaybe take that lead within the
(33:36):
program.
What's really fun is when nowyou use, you know, maybe, your
players.
So, like some of the leadershipcouncil, they do a phenomenal
job, like they'll lead, you know, different parts of the MTP
Academy to the entire team, andI'm sure that you know our guys
would probably prefer to listento the players than they would
the coaches.
Sure, you know they probablyget more out of it at this point
too.
So use the resources that youhave.
(33:57):
You know, something that I thinkJake said from day one and it's
really, you know, stuck with ustoo is we can't complain about
what we don't have.
You know we can't ever be anexcuse like that.
Every job has its own problems,you know.
Small school, small problems,big school, big problems
Everybody has those.
But you embrace what you dohave and if you can only spend,
(34:18):
you know, one or two days onmental training, great, make it
the best one or two days thatyou have.
If it's something that fitswell in pieces of your practice
or your culture that you alreadyhave, awesome, plug them in.
But I think just to say yeah,we're not going to do it.
That's probably the easy way.
It's probably going to bedifficult because there's a lot
of things stealing attention.
So you got to value it.
(34:42):
I do think we certainly have.
We've seen the by-product of it.
So if it's important enough,then you got to spend that time
and put it at the forefront ofyour program.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Then you got to spend that time and put it at the
forefront of your program.
Talk to me.
Talk to me about that piecealso, because you know, I know
that there are, there arecoaches who you know and Jake
talked about this like theydon't want to be in the weight
room, they just they wantsomebody else to be a part of
that, they just want to, youknow, draw up the X's and O's,
put the game plan together.
You know that kind of stuff.
(35:07):
It's no different with themental side of the game, like if
you're, if you're running backs, coach doesn't have any clue
what a go to statement is and,you know, doesn't have any idea
what, how diaphragmaticbreathing works, then you know
you're not, you're not reallytruly sending the message to the
kids that, yes, this isimportant.
So how do you, how do you thinkfrom a, from a value and a
(35:31):
priority standpoint?
How do you communicate that tothe coaching staff and also to
the players?
This is important and we aregoing to do this well.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, I think you you tie it into that program.
You know vision I mean for us,again, full potential, but it's
not just the full potential as aplayer, it's full potential in
all areas of your life.
So at the end of the day, wewant our kids to be able to deal
with adversity.
Our goal is not just, hey, wewant to win games, we're
competitive and we absolutelywant that.
(36:01):
But you know we really we'retrying to turn, you know, boys
into men and you know our youngladies in our program and to
women and being able to impactsociety, whether that's one day,
you know, when our you knowathletes are going to be dads,
one day they're going to behusbands.
We got to give them some ofthose skills and a lot of times
the mental training matches upwith that.
You know how do you deal withadversity in life.
(36:22):
How do you deal when you knowyou get something in your life.
Maybe it's a diagnosis or it'sa death.
It's something like we got toprepare these kids for life
outside of just football.
So I think, connecting it tothe deeper vision of we want to
impact them, you know, forgenerations to come.
Now most of those coaches cankind of get on board and see
(36:42):
that and they may not all takeit to the same level, you know
the same depth, but giving uswords which I really appreciate
about you know your program weall can speak the same language
and as long as we're speakingthe same language and the same
vocabulary, that I think it'seasy for some coaches that maybe
are not as on board with it.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
But they know what to say and as long as you make it,
you know, a priority you knowwhoever's in charge of the
(37:33):
program, then I think if youfind it valuable, other people,
if they're buying into you andyour vision, then they're going
to carry that as husbands.
I know having a screaming babyat three o'clock in the morning
put me under more stress andmore pressure than any football
game ever did.
Talk to us a little bit aboutwhat you guys do also outside of
the football field.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
I think one thing that you know, jake, has
certainly been intentional fromthe get-go of making sure each
of us you know, whether it'scoaches or players understand
our passions, principles,purpose, and I hope that you
know, when people come on ourstaff, that we challenge them.
I don't just expect them to bean elite football coach, that's.
You know we're hiring.
That's great, but we want youto be an elite husband, elite
(38:08):
dad, elite friend.
If you can't be elite in thoseareas too, then it's probably
going to seep into your coachingand, you know, maybe that isn't
the fit for you.
So one way that you know Ithink we've been able to manage
some of this on our own is, youknow, from our family standpoint
, like this is our ministryno-transcript kids, but you know
(38:57):
M is just make memories.
You know we want to be a familythat we make memories together
and you know we enjoy thesemoments and I'd say that in your
football program, like, enjoythe moments.
You know you only get one yearwith those seniors, whatever
senior class it is, and that'stheir only senior year.
So making it a priority forthem is the utmost importance
you know we talk about.
I just intentionally invest ourtime, talent and treasures,
(39:18):
like as a coach.
You get to be intentional aboutthat time.
Now don't forget that, yes,you're a coach, but you better
be intentional at home.
So we talk to our coaches andwe try to make that.
Hey, it may not be the samequality-quantity ratio in season
as opposed to out of season,but we've got to make sure
there's still high quality whenwe still have this workload.
R for us is just roadmap.
(39:39):
We're going to be a biblicalprincipal family.
I think you've got to have someprinciples that you stand on.
That helps you navigate thedifficult situations.
You know A for us is add value.
We want to be a staff thatconstantly grows.
We don't feel like, hey, we gotit all figured out, because we
certainly don't.
I think that's what's allowedus maybe to be successful is
we're willing to adapt and trynew things.
(39:59):
And when we add value, thatalso means add value to our
players.
You know we want to make animpact in their life and you
know they're better because, hey, we were a part of their life
and vice versa.
You know we talk a lot about inour family celebrate and cheer
like we're going to cheer oneverything that we're involved
in.
You know, and again, if you'rea coach, there at least in our
program we're allowing coachesto go to any function that
(40:21):
involves their kids.
You know we have a big enoughstaff where we can cover each
other, but you only get so manymoments with your kids.
You need to make sure thatthose coaches if you're a head
coach on there that they havethat liberty, that freedom to be
able to go off and watch themand you cover a practice here or
there.
We need to.
We mentioned love and respectand we just feel like in our
(40:42):
household that's something wewant to portray to our kids If
they see how we interact, momand dad together, and they can,
you know, hopefully give us thesame back and then our family's
version, just elbow grease, youknow, just working hard.
And that's maybe a little bitabout where I grew up, maybe my
background from Hobart, but Ihope that that's carried over.
You know I've seen that when wewere at Wabash, when we've been
(41:02):
here at Westfield.
We kind of pride ourselves onthis, outwork, out love,
mentality, and I think hopefully, if you're a coach, listening,
you develop your own, you know,philosophy, vision, what you
want to call it, uh, with yourfamily and you make it a part of
what you do together, becausethat's so important.
You're going to spend so manyhours and times impacting.
You know other people's kids.
(41:23):
You know those of you that arelistening that you know you have
a significant other, you'remarried, you got kids.
I mean, make sure that theyfeel a part of it, because
you're in this thing together.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
I love that.
It's been.
You know I said this, I saidthis in the podcast with Jake
it's.
It's brought joy to my heartJust watching my alma mater go
from I mean we won two games inmy senior year to, you know,
hopefully not losing more thantwo games in a year it's been a
blast watching that.
(41:53):
And you know, to see Westfieldnot and not just a flash in the
pan either, but you know, one ofthe one of the programs in 6A
that's got, you know it doesn'thave the most wins, but it's up
there, uh, has just been, hasbeen really great.
And I'm excited to see what thefuture holds and excited to see,
um, you know, not not to seeyou carry on the tradition, but
(42:17):
for you to elevate things and tocontinue this trajectory of
just getting better.
You know there's obviously notas much room for growth as there
was a decade ago.
Um, just that one or twopercent better.
I'm excited to see where theprogram goes from here.
One of the last questions Ialways love to ask guests is
(42:38):
knowing what you know.
Now.
If you were to go back and giveyourself advice as that
first-year coach, what would yousay to yourself?
I think maybe.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I'm reliving that right now in the new position
advice as, like that, that firstyear coach, what would you say
to yourself?
I think maybe I'm reliving thatright now in the new position
Um, you're kind of figuring outlike, what's your priority,
whether you're a first yearcoach, your first year in that
position.
It seems like a lot of thingsare maybe coming at you at one
point, um, but I would say thatpeople are still the priority.
Whatever you do, people are thepriority.
Like I've loved the last monthor so just getting to meet with
(43:10):
people and hear theirperspectives and how we can help
them and how we can elevatetheir game and I think hopefully
that's something we can do isyou know, it doesn't need to be
me and some spotlight, it'selevating the great people that
we have around us.
Um, so when you're even a firstyear, people are priority.
Learn from the best people thatyou have on staff.
I mean, that's how you grow asan assistant coach.
(43:32):
You just learn from guys who'vebeen doing it for a while too.
So if you can keep people ofpriority, I think you'd be in
good shape.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I love that.
Well, josh, thank you so muchfor coming on here, my friend.
I really, really appreciate itand wish you nothing but the
best, moving forward.
Thanks, man, appreciate all youdo.
Thank you If you got value outof today's episode.
The highest compliment that youcan pay us is to share this
with somebody else, to continueto just grow the show.
If you've got questions aboutsomething that you'd like to
(43:59):
hear about on the show, don'thesitate to go to mental
training plancom slash podcast.
There's a button that you canclick on says send us a question
podcast.
There's a button that you canclick on says send us a question
.
Would love to.
Would love to get thoseanswered for you on the show.
If you are a coach and you'reinterested in year round mental
performance training for yourteam, we've basically taken all
the things that we do with ourin person training and we've
(44:22):
condensed that into 15 minutemodules.
You can do year roundperformance training where
literally all you have to do isprint the worksheet, play the
video, we deliver the contentand then you come alongside your
athletes to help out withimplementation.
The results so far and thefeedback so far has been
fantastic, just as teams havestarted to implement the academy
(44:46):
, starting off with thefoundation program.
I'm excited about some of theways that we're going to be
building that and growing thatin the future.
But if you want to know howthis could fit your sport, this
could fit your team, how thiscould be customized around your
schedule, whether you've got oneday a week, two days a week,
whatever that looks like inseason, off season, summertime
(45:06):
answering questions, how do wedo this?
How do we fit it to that?
You know we can do a mentalskills assessment with your team
so that you have a concreteidea of here's where we're at,
here's where we're starting.
Would love to have aconversation with you.
Don't hesitate to reach out.
There's links in the show notes, my contact information's on
the webpage and, as always,until next time, make your plan
(45:27):
and put it to work.
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