October 4, 2025 ⢠59 mins
đď¸Â Ruth N. Nelson â Pioneer, Innovator, Trailblazer in Womenâs Sports đđ
When you talk about pioneers in womenâs athletics, Ruth N. Nelson is on the shortlist. With 557 career wins as a Division I head coach at Houston, LSU, and Iowaâand as a U.S. National coachâRuth helped shape the aftermath of Title IX and build opportunities for generations of athletes. Â
In this episode, Ruth shares stories from coaching legends like Flo Hyman, Rita Crockett, and Rose Magers, to creating innovative programs like BYOPÂŽ (Bring Your Own Parent) and the GoKids Youth Sports Certification. Sheâs an innovator who continues to shape the game at every level, proving that the story of womenâs sports is still being written.
Donât miss this conversation with one of the most passionate, energetic, and visionary leaders in volleyball and beyond.
đ Learn more about Ruthâs work at Ruthipedia.com, and find more recruiting tools and resources at CoachMattRogers.com.Â
Learn more and connect with Matt Rogers here: https://linktr.ee/coachmattrogers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome back to The SignificantCoaching Podcast.
I'm your host, Matt Rogers.
First off, let me apologize.
I've had a bad cold for the lastfour days, so my, my voice isn't
the best.
But I wanna warn you before weget started today.
You better buckle up and strapin because we have a special
guest today who I believe hasmore energy than the 6-year-old
(00:33):
she works with today.
After years of being the headwomen's volleyball coach at such
schools like LSU and theUniversity of Iowa and the
University of Houston.
I challenge you to keep anotebook of all the great
college coach names that shedrops in this conversation.
She knows everyone and hassomehow worked with everyone.
(00:55):
When you talk about pioneers inwomen's athletics, Ruth N.
Nelson has to be on the shortlist.
She's not just a coach with 557career wins.
She's an innovator, a builder,and one of the true architects
of what women's sports became inthe aftermath of Title ix.
Ruth spent decades shaping thegame at the highest levels as a
(01:19):
Division one head coach and as aUS Olympic coach.
But she didn't stop there.
She's still leading today,pouring into the next generation
through her BYOP.
Bring your own parent programand the Go Kids youth sports
certification, where six yearolds are learning the
fundamentals, not just ofvolleyball, but of teamwork,
(01:40):
confidence, and team play.
What I love most about Ruth isthat she's never accepted the
idea that the story of women'ssports is over.
She keeps writing new chapters.
From coaching the great FloHyman and great athletes like
Rita Crockett and Rose Majors atHouston, to creating programs
(02:02):
that empower kids and parentstogether, her impact stretches
across generations.
Thank you to my friend SueWeber, who has been on the show
for introducing us.
I'm honored to call them bothfriends, so today we get to sit
down with a true trailblazer,Ruth and Nelson.
Coach Nelson, so great to seeyou, and I'm so honored to have
(02:25):
you on the show.
It's I told you as before weclick record, I have about
10,000 questions for you.
I want to pick your brain oneverything, but how are you and
what's going on this week withyou?
I can tell you this, that Iwent.
And looked for 15 minutes tomake sure I had the best virtual
background for you that dealtwith name, image, and likeness.
(02:46):
And you see the, these are 20,34 kids.
That's sounds so awesome.
Doesn't it just break your heartthat's what we're talking about
right now?
What can I say?
Because it's funny, is my friendRuss Rose.
Who retired early, which I toldhim he had 10 more years.
He says, yeah, but Ruth, youcan't compromise.
And I said, okay.
(03:07):
So Russ was in my badmintonclass when he was in
undergraduate school and I wasgetting my master's degree and I
did my master's thesis onpassing and serving in men's
volleyball in the Midwest.
So it was under Jim Coleman.
So it's funny, he says, Ruth,every time I hear you talk about
that, your training.
Nine year olds, and I know theparents have been interesting to
deal with.
(03:27):
And then he always asked me,okay, what age are you training
now?
Because he wanted to know howfar that went down, college
level parent, high school levelparent.
So I must admit that.
I'm still training and now I'mtraining more of these same kids
that you see behind me.
Yeah.
That were in my Bring Your ownparent program.
(03:49):
But now I'm training them insmall group training and private
training, and they're now 10 and11 years old when they first
started with me at four.
Isn't that amazing?
That's gotta be a great feeling.
It's crazy because I have acouple former players or mentees
that I, now they come and helpme and they said, Ruth.
You have three kids and they'reanalyzing each other's skills,
(04:14):
how is that possible?
And I said, you think of this,if you were a player, look back
on your playing days.
If you could adjust somethingyourself without one looking
over at your parents or twolooking over at the coach, but
you could change somethingyourself or even a friend that's
on the court.
(04:35):
Just think how powerful that iswith an eight or 9-year-old.
That can tell you the reason whyI'm passing the ball at a system
or I, or if we wanna do it in alayman's term up in the air and
in the middle of the court isbecause their arms are up not
down.
An 8-year-old can tell 11 yearolds doing that.
So you think of how powerful,because everybody talks so much
(04:57):
about biomechanics.
You don't, you shouldn't bedrilling, you should.
The game teaches the game.
You tell that to afive-year-old.
Who can't walk or jump rope ormove, and the only thing they
think about is swinging theirarms.
So how's that for a starting?
Oh I love it.
We're seeing that with 15, 16,17 year olds that don't
(05:18):
understand that and can't figuresome of that out.
Yep.
So it's like a foreign language.
The earlier you're teaching thatforeign language to somebody,
the more it becomes a part oftheir being.
And if we're doing that stuffwith skills and we're teaching
these kids that it's fun and allthe different ways they can get
their fingers and their mindinto it.
I love it a ton.
You know the former CEO DougBeal, who, you know, 84 Olympic
(05:42):
coach.
Yeah.
He once said to me, he said,Ruth, in your, bring your own
parent program.
Don't you think the kids couldpotentially get burnout if
you're starting them at four andfive?
And I said, Doug, you've neverseen what I do in a training
session.
So to answer your question,absolutely not.
(06:02):
Because when I'm teaching a kidhow to side skip.
Yeah.
Or backpedal, or even we startjumping ropes at age three.
Love it.
Love.
So that's like coordinationstuff.
And then I said, Doug, think ofthis.
60% of my parents in bring yourown parent program.
'cause they're, they have to beon the court with the kid.
(06:24):
They're not talking to kids,teaching them.
Think of how educated thoseparents are becoming.
He says, are any of thosecoaches coaching?
I said, 60% of my parents end upcoaching recreation.
So you know what that's gonnado?
That's not gonna only justeducate them.
They're gonna keep those youthcoaches.
(06:44):
So that they keep learningbecause they're gonna challenge
youth coaches because they'vebeen through the process.
Let's jump into that.
Let's talk about that.
'cause that's a big issue forme.
It's a big pet peeve.
I live in the Denver area now.
Yeah.
And we've got clubs with 25, 30teams.
And it's hard for them to findfive or six coaches.
(07:10):
That can do the job withcompetence.
I'm not talking about techniqueand knowing how to do rotations.
I'm talking about they haveexperience on working with a
group of kids and bringing themtogether and building a culture
and building an ideal, and beingable to teach the technique.
Where are you at with that, withparent involvement and training?
(07:32):
These coaches?
We see it in Europe with soccer.
They're so good at growingcoaches and certifying coaches
and getting them there.
Is there a path for us here inthe states to be more consistent
with that, with volleyball?
It's interesting.
I've been working on a workingcommittee with USA volleyball
for the first time.
I'm not sure why it took them 25years to ask me what I thought.
(07:55):
Because, yeah.
But I'm specializing at 10 andunder the 12.
So think of this, if 75%, andyou'll relate to this, if
everybody in the country knowsthe top 25% of the best athletes
every college coach knows thetop 25.
Who's helping the other 75%.
Okay.
(08:15):
Exactly.
Relate this.
25% of the kids that are 10 andunder are big and strong.
They're playing club, right?
But who's helping the other 75%?
So what my specialty in the last25 years, there's some people
said, oh, I've been coaching for39 years, and I said.
(08:36):
I've been coaching for 56 and 25of'em are at 10 and under.
And Andy Bcast, UCLA, all time1000 went said to me in 2003
here in Dallas, he goes, Ruth,how do you deal with those young
kids?
How can you do that?
And I said, everybody has whatSimone Biles says, a superpower.
(08:57):
So you must find yoursuperpower.
So if that superpower for me isone energy.
Innovation, creativity, and allthose things involve looking at
the big picture.
Now, a lot of people say Ruth,can you really see the narrow?
(09:18):
I said, yes.
Are you asking me can I befocused?
Yes, I can.
But it's not as much fun islooking out what potentially can
happen.
So in 25 years, think of it thisway.
I started in Dallas in 1995.
I'd already been here because Icoached professional major
league volleyball, which nowuses our name from way back.
(09:41):
But 95, there was two or threeclubs, maybe five facilities,
175 clubs now in 57 facilitiesfrom 95 to now.
Okay, so now who really is.
Doing the youth side of it,there's maybe one or two clubs
(10:02):
in this area that really expelon that.
But why is it that more clubsare not retaining or attracting
the 10 and under group?
Because it takes a lot of energyand it's not everybody's gifted
at that age group.
It's, I started a program withBring your own parent.
(10:23):
Because I started that in 2013.
Trademark it for all youthsports, not just volleyball.
I haven't done anything butvolleyball.
Indoor and some a little bit inbeach.
But I trademarked it and I said,why wouldn't the parents?
Because how much time do parentsreally spend with kids?
Do they spend one hour everyweek quality where the kids in
(10:45):
control?
Probably not.
No, unless the kid says, Heymom, come over Anna, I'm doing a
game, but I wanna start the gameand I'm gonna tell you the
rules.
That doesn't last very long.
So I started that and then whathappened was is a lot of people
said, Ruth, why can't I justdrop my kids off?
I said, you can, but not in myprogram because it's bring your
(11:07):
own parent.
And so then I got to thinkingand everybody says, Ruth, we
wanna learn more about whatyou're doing at 10 and under.
So I started Go kids.
Go Kids is a separatecertification to certify people
for 10 and under.
And I got on this project GoKids where I'm going to certify
a hundred coaches by 2030 andI've had 45 now in the last 18
(11:30):
months I just certified 20 inNebraska with one club.
I certified seven in Connecticutwith one club.
And then I've done the rest inthe Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But the idea for me is.
That I developed a curriculum,which is I try anything that I
put into effect, I test with theprogram.
(11:52):
I do.
Okay.
So I test like one of thebiggest things that happen that
help is bring a friend night.
Okay?
You okay?
You know what happens?
These kids don't bring the bestkids of their friends.
They bring the kids who don'tknow anything about volleyball,
so they look great.
So I bought that.
Then I did skills contests.
I added that.
Then I've added all differentthings.
(12:13):
I tried, I test, I tried fourweeks.
I tried 10 weeks.
I tried 12 weeks because mybackground is teaching.
I graduated from University ofNorthern Colorado up in Greeley
and there, during that time youwere taught all sports how to
officiate.
Oh, modern dance.
Everything.
You had to do swimming.
You had to do all sports.
You had to do, I had.
(12:34):
Almost graduate level courses inpsychology.
So we were all educated duringthat period of time in the
seventies with everything,right?
So when you start talking about10 and under, you're not talking
about just the kids.
Probably the majority reallycan't jump rope.
(12:55):
It's I can tell you funny as thegirl, the little girl in the
yellow, her mom sent me a video.
She goes, Ruth.
My daughter wanted you to seethe video because she can now
jump 10 times.
And she said, and my daughterthought it was just like winning
a gold medal because she couldjump 10 times.
So you think of all the thingswe could be teaching that used
(13:18):
to be taught in elementaryschool.
Okay.
Now in elementary school, theyhave 80 and a hundred kids.
How do you teach anything?
So right during this whole timeI'm thinking.
What can we do to reallyemphasize?
So I developed two onlinecourses with Art of Coaching,
and the one course was doneduring COVID, but I had already
(13:41):
started it before.
And somebody says Ruth, what isit?
And I said, what do allelementary school teachers want?
They want to have to go to oneplace and get all the
information.
So I developed an onlinetraining course called RN in
Sports Gym, and it's in justlike Google Classroom and Ready
(14:05):
is free.
Set goal is a paid subscription,but it has to do with the video
of the history of the sport.
It has to do with some of the,but there's two elements in
training any age, and that's thephysical elements of
performance, which you wouldconsider, jumping, roll,
hand-eye coordination, movementskills.
Yeah.
All those things that you needin order to perform in any
(14:29):
sport.
Not just volleyball, but anysport.
Then the other one is thefundamental skills of
volleyball.
So I match those together andthen put together that home
training program.
And the kids, it's kid friendly.
You go in and all the questionsare age appropriate.
So they watch a video, theyanswer some questions, and then
they go do the video.
And.
(14:50):
You print the pages, you put'emon the wall, and the kid keeps
track of what they're doing on adaily basis.
This is the thing that you haveto do to train 10 and under
kids.
You can't just say how?
How do we get that in the handsof every physical education
teacher in the country?
How do we get them to say.
(15:12):
We've got these videos, we'regonna watch it with the kids.
We're gonna do pe You know Istill don't understand why PE
has become one of those thingswe do every other day or every
other week, or we do it once amonth.
That drives me crazy.
But how do we get that?
'cause I'm worried about, mybiggest concern is not what
you're doing.
You're doing exactly what shouldbe doing.
But how do we clone Ruth Nelson?
(15:33):
There's only you, there's onlyso many hours in the day for you
and there's only so many kidsyou can train.
So how do we get our physicaleducation teachers and our
principals and oursuperintendents to take a look
at this and go, boy, this isgreat.
This is, maybe this is the firstthree months of school every
year.
Nobody has a mailing list ofelementary school PE teachers.
(15:55):
Yeah, you have a mailing list ofhigh school.
Yeah.
But you don't have it ofelementary schools.
And it's interesting is, this isa question to ask me.
Where do, so that's why I startcertifying coaches.
'Cause by and large, everybodythinks you can go play two B,
two three B three, four B you.
You've gotta learn some movementskills and you've gotta have
(16:16):
some success.
Okay, so if I look at, Matt, ifyou think about this, success
means something very differentto everybody.
Success in most cases in juniorclubs means Winnie.
Most of all winning at thenational championship.
Okay.
But to me, success means if thiskid now can jump 20 jumps.
I got a kid now who's goingtriple under.
(16:39):
That's her goal by December.
She's 11 years old.
I got my tens and nines that aredoing double unders now.
So it's a challenge of givingthem something that they
potentially could do themselveswithout relying on somebody else
checking on them.
So it's almost like one, how toget people motivated.
Okay.
(16:59):
Why did the coach in Nebraskawhere we, Nebraska fans are
unbelievable.
She certified 20 coaches.
Four in Montana and 16 inNebraska because they needed a
system and she believed in thesame thing.
'cause she's a physicaleducator.
She believed in the same thing Idid.
(17:20):
And that is, you have to havemovement skills.
You do when you, okay.
When people think of high schoolkids, I don't think they would
go to movement skills as thefirst thing they would think.
They would think passing orserving, right?
Yes.
Those fundamental skills thatare needed, we know that.
But if you really think aboutit, what happens when you watch
(17:41):
a college match?
I'm wondering, I see a six footsix player and somebody says,
Ruth, what do you think?
And I said, oh my God, they're,they can hit it a hammer, but
why don't they jump?
They go they don't have to.
I go, Phil Hyman jumped 28inches.
She's the best player in theworld.
(18:01):
I never had a player atUniversity of Houston that
jumped less than 28 inches.
Nobody less than 28 inches.
That is crazy.
But they never started there.
One of my guests, one of my 28inch jumpers, started at 13.
She ran, now listen to this.
She ran, she's probably, she'lllisten, I'm gonna forward this
to her.
She'll know I'm talking aboutit, but I don't say her name.
(18:22):
She ran a mile in 15 minutes,ran, okay, we know I've got
other players at sub six, right?
So when you really think aboutit.
Why is it that when people getto the collegiate level, and
this is what's been, and it'snot like I've not been at the
collegiate level at the very toplevel and had some of the best
athletes in the world.
(18:43):
You have.
So you do have time to train,but yeah, the key is this, are
the players willing to make achange?
Yeah.
And you think of this in highschool because I spend most of
my time.
Trying to figure out what thecoach that they have is teaching
(19:04):
them.
And then I try to find otherthings that the coach isn't
teaching, and then I try to helpthem make what the other coach
is teaching more efficient.
Because what does the youngcoach usually do in, they're
training someone.
They go that's not correct.
Your high school coach isn'tteaching you, correct?
No, that's not correct.
With your club.
You can't do that.
(19:24):
Because everybody comes from adifferent, okay.
It's like someone says Ruth,I've been coaching for 10 years.
I said I spent 10 years withAri.
Can you compare the 10 years,your 10 years with my 10 years?
Can you compare?
The fact is that I trained withprobably six of the best coaches
in the world.
It doesn't mean that I doeverything that they did, but I
(19:47):
test it.
Okay?
Like I test.
Ari and I, former, Olympic gold,silver medalist and coached
three teams to the Olympiclevel.
A lot of people in this countryhave forgotten about it, but
he's the reason why the womenwon the silver medal in 1984,
right?
'cause he started in 75 and wetrained full-time 24 7 till the
84 Olympic Games.
(20:09):
And a lot of people don'tunderstand we'll talk about
parallel feet.
I used to tell him, you knowwhat?
I think parallel feet might bebetter at five.
And he goes.
Why is that?
And I said, because they stepwith the right and they're, then
they're balanced.
And he said, I never thought ofthat.
And so I did that for a littlebit.
Then I thought, no, I got a linethere.
So I'll keep'em on the line sothey can have one foot a little
(20:31):
bit further in front of theother and then, but I'll have
them switch up.
But I think it's things that youtest.
It's for instance, the otherday, three of the players who
are comparing each other andcorrecting, and I said, you're
not coaching them, you aretelling them what you're seeing.
The ball is going up.
You said let the ball come down.
(20:52):
We practice catch the ball lowerthan your knees and that puts
your hands in the right positionfor passing.
And I said, you know what I'mgonna do?
I take a box, I put it in, leftback, I put the player behind
the box.
Two of the people that helpedme, they go, Ruth, I've never
seen you do this.
And I said I said, you they toldeach other what they need to do.
(21:13):
I tell'em what to do and theystill play the ball up high.
I said, I've gotta come up withsomething different.
So I threw the ball.
It bounced off the top of thebox.
It pushed it toward them.
They had to wait for the ball tocome down in order to pass it
forward.
But the first time they passedit, they went up.
I said, okay.
(21:34):
You figure out how you're gonnaget it forward.
But that bounce made them movetheir feet, let the ball come
down, and then they saw theycould pass it forward even
though they were passing on theleft side of their body.
So with little kids, I always domidline, and then as they get
better.
I'll let them go outside theirbody.
(21:55):
But if I told a five-year-oldthat they could play the ball
out here, you know how muchswinging they would be doing and
they wouldn't moving their feet.
Yeah.
So that's, you're right.
It's amazing what their braincan process.
Yep.
But how we start that processingand what we give them to begin
(22:16):
with can change.
Change how they get there andhow quickly they get there.
Sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's interesting.
Most people think I'm very rigidand I'm drill.
I'm a game situation person, i'mnow hearing people say, oh,
we're playing six on six, butwe're doing game related things.
I've been doing game situationdrill since 1970, so it's not
(22:39):
like it's nothing new.
Yeah.
But I do a drill that.
Helps them focus and like forinstance, I came up with a
finally A 10 U competition balland the reason why is because
the 12 U is very difficult forthe little ones to set.
Yeah.
(22:59):
Alright.
So I have the soft light, whichis for 10 and under, but there
needed to be a ball that was forcompetition that was a little
bit heavier, but was a littlebit lighter because I'm dealing
with the 75% of the kids aren'tbig and strong.
Not the 25%.
So a lot of people, they don'tlike to buy extra balls, but yet
if we care about the kids, andone of my mentors, he was in a
(23:23):
training session and he has a6-year-old and he brought one of
the soft light balls.
Yeah.
And it was sitting over thereand it, of course it's blue in
an orange.
And kid said, can I try that?
He goes, absolutely.
He took it and, and he says,coach David, this doesn't hurt.
Okay.
If it hurts, I'm not playinganymore.
(23:43):
Or That's right.
Or my mom said I'm playing, ormy dad said I'm playing, but
when I pass, I'm gonna what?
Bend my arms because it hurts.
It hurts.
So when that 10 U Ball came out,which we came out in December,
the most important thing was isif you're in any other country
besides the United States,you're not teaching setting
(24:04):
until probably 13.
Kids could get bigger andstronger.
You pass, you see the Asianpassing passing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm not someone that says Icriticize other countries for
what they do.
I don't.
I say, you know what?
Maybe that works in theircountry and it might not work
here.
If it doesn't work here, then wehave to adapt something.
I don't say I don't criticize itbecause they've been successful,
(24:26):
so when you do that with the 10U Ball.
What it does is now I can take akid and I had them, I threw up
some of'em in the bag and stuff,and someone grabbed that ball
and said, coach Ruth, I can setit instead of deep dishing it
because I said, watch beachvolleyball when they deep dish.
But then what happens is thereferees don't call it.
(24:49):
So now I'm doing this all theway through twelves.
Thirteens 14.
Yeah.
All of a sudden now they'resaying, no, you can't do that.
You can splat it now and you cando whatever you wanna do with it
now.
And they don't call it, butthey're not gonna call that.
So I said I'm helping coaches attwelves, elevens, and tens to
(25:09):
start understanding to use a 10U ball.
Yeah.
Because it's only right.
You have to modify some aspectsof your training with different
tools that make sense.
Not just come up with somethingbecause someone says, Ruth, all
of a sudden you're coming upwith, puffers now where you can
(25:30):
serve for float and all that.
I said, do you think these kidsat this age, gen Z kids, want
you to tell'em more than twice?
No.
They want to get better, butthey don't wanna hear it five,
six times.
So if I can come up withsomething that will allow them
to see the feedback, if it goesover the net and it doesn't
(25:52):
move.
I did a good floater.
I didn't tell'em.
They know it now.
That's awesome.
If I jump and hit and I hit itthrough the net, it means I
didn't reach right?
So if you can, and see, everyonethinks it's so easy to train 10
and under, and it's only easy ifyou understand that you can't do
(26:15):
what you do in high school.
At a level of that, theprogression goes and everybody
says, oh, Ruth progressions isold school.
I go, old school methods becomenew school ideas.
And I said, by and large, youprogress from something simple
to something that's moredifficult.
(26:35):
And you have to do that at eventhe younger age.
And most people get really boredat the younger age because they
wanna do more advanced things.
The way you advance'em, there'stwo ways to advance.
One, you advance skill or youadvance knowledge and all of a
sudden everybody had to come upwith a new name.
Okay, now we got iq, right?
I still not understand.
(26:56):
Do they order a set of pins ordo they order a set of antennas?
But anyhow, so coming up withsomething so I can now work.
So I had a kid yesterday, 10years old, she's a gal that's up
in the orange.
She started when she was four.
Couldn't jump one jump.
We were setting because she'sgonna be on the setting team,
she's playing up and I said,catch it first because we do 10
(27:19):
and under.
We catch and set right because Iwanna catch in the right spot
and use their legs and armsbecause they're not love that
strong for a long time.
So love that now.
So she's setting, and I said,okay, go ahead, catch it and
push it up.
All right.
Good.
All right.
Now, did you notice how the ballwent up and came down?
She said yes.
(27:40):
How does that outside hitter,that's 10 years old, get all the
way over to you and hit thatball?
She goes it doesn't.
And I said, okay, then how doyou need to do it?
She goes, I need to use my legs.
Oh.
I says, okay, could you repeatthat again?
So all you know, so she uses herlegs, but it still goes up.
I said, okay, now what do I needto do?
Throw the ball or kick a balllike you do in soccer.
(28:01):
I relate it.
'cause these kids all do allkinds of sports.
She goes.
Coach Ruth.
I see.
Now I need to lean and I push itup.
Yep.
All right.
So she was her own mechanic.
Yep.
And you know what, if love it,if that is what Ruth Nelson
does, it's okay with me becauseRuth Nelson's gonna continue to
do it.
(28:22):
Look let me ask you this.
'cause somebody asked me yearsago, they asked me what, when
was I at my peak?
I was a college basketballplayer.
They said, when did you know youwere really good?
And I go, I don't know if I wasever really good at basketball,
but I was at my best when I wasabout 24, 25 years old.
And they go, really?
And I go, yeah.
It was about three years after Istopped playing and I was
(28:45):
coaching Uhhuh that I started tosee the game differently.
I started to understand thegame.
I started to understand allthose things my coaches were
trying to tell me.
I've now been outta collegecoaching for 12 years.
You've been out for a little bitlonger.
If I put you back at LSU, if Iput you back at LSU today, what
would you do differently fromday one?
(29:08):
Let me tell you what, when Icoached in the pros I had, you
remember John Ralston football?
Yes.
Yes.
Gary Carroll and him.
They are the ones that startedthe Canadian Football League.
Gary Carroll was my generalmanager.
Okay.
John Roston was a league andBanovich was the owner after I
got fired from LSU.
The ad said you just need tocoach the national team.
(29:29):
I go, okay, I wasn't good enoughto coach here, but I'll go to
the national team.
Okay, so I go, they fly me toDallas to interview first
question Ro Roston, and Carolasked me, why'd you get fired at
LSU?
Just like bam.
To the board.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I gave, that's about right.
A very simple answer.
And they said, okay, you'rehired.
You can go back to Baton RougePack and come back.
(29:49):
Alright.
So I said then, okay, what arethe things.
I think I need to change.
Okay.
Okay.
I'm coaching the pros.
29 players.
I never had done three persondrill ever.
Ever.
Never.
Because you always had twoperson drills.
That's everybody in the wholeworld.
Yeah.
I had to do three person drillsand I had three players from LSU
(30:11):
and they go, coach Ruth, howcome we didn't never do these at
LSU?
How come we didn't even do that?
And I just thought, look at alot of these angles and stuff.
Make sense?
Why didn't we do jump servingwhen we had won the national
championship and club?
Mary Joan, we jumped and served,but we never did it in
competition.
So there's lots of things wedid.
We swung block in this earlyseventies and we quit doing it.
(30:32):
There's so many things.
Everything that's coming outwe've already done, that's what
I was, so LSU.
So I get hired in Gary Carroll.
He said to me, Ruth, and hechanged my life, and that's why
I went back and coached at Iowa.
Otherwise, I probably wouldn'thave ever.
I told one of my colleagues, Isaid, I'm never gonna coach ever
(30:52):
again after I got fired fromLSU.
I don't care.
I don't, no.
I was done.
I was done.
Yeah.
Gary said to me, he said,practice is where you do
everything you need to do, andwhen it comes game time, you are
a cheerleader.
That's what he said.
I changed my whole coachingstyle, my entire coaching
(31:14):
approach, everything.
Yeah.
Then I went to Iowa and I tookthe job and I wasn't the first,
there was somebody else that wasoffered the job, that had a lot
less experience than me.
I was second choice.
Now I'm almost like, okay, I'vebeen in the, top final four,
twice I've been on the nationalteam, three stars on the Olympic
team.
I'm going back in my head withAri, with Jim Pullman.
(31:35):
And I'm being picked second, sothat's humbling.
It is.
I think everybody in their lifeshould be fired one time because
you have to readjust everythingabout what you think about
everything.
So I went to Iowa.
I agree.
I went to Iowa and I had, one ofmy assistant coaches was one of
my former players that playedfor me at LSU.
I said, okay.
(31:55):
I just want you to know, I'vebeen in the pros now and I'm, I
do things completely different.
And everybody at Iowa on thescore benches, they would argue
to who could sit next to mebecause they said they were
entertained.
'cause that was a completedifferent man.
I was a cheerleader.
And even when I played StephSchluter from Minnesota, who
(32:17):
developed the Minnesota programby the way, and developed the
Alabama program.
I'd say I'd do like this, totell her she needed to sub the
person out.
We had fun.
We, that's great.
Were competitive in that.
And you know what, I now see howimportant that is.
And when I came back and startedmentoring coaches, I said, you
(32:41):
gotta quit breaking thatclipboard.
You just can't do that.
And this is before Gen Z.
You're talking, nineties, earlynineties.
I think that what happens if youhad the question is how do you
mold yourself and still be open?
And most people think I'm notopen about ideas.
(33:01):
Oh, yes I am.
I'm open about ideas, but you'renot gonna convince me on a
5-year-old what they can do.
You're not gonna convince me.
Okay.
You got a kid in college andthey're goofy footed, they're
jumping 28 inches.
Do you change'em?
You think in your mind?
First thing I think is itbiomechanically sound?
Is it anatomically correct?
(33:21):
Does it make sense?
If it does, then probably youneed to do it like, but
everybody always says they gotno time to change.
But what happens if you'reteaching this?
I've never in Rose Majors whostarted for the 84 Olympic team,
played three years at Houston asa setter, transferred to LSU,
played her last year, went tothe national team, and two years
(33:42):
on the national team and at theOlympics, she was the best
blocker.
She could play right side, she'dplay middle, she'd play left,
she could set, and she playeddefense.
She wasn't taken out.
So we talk about this all thetime, about what is it that
really should be doing?
Why is it that basketball, andthis is a big thing I've been
watching since you think ofKaitlyn Clark and Barbie.
(34:06):
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I started watching then becauseof Kim Mulkey and Staley,
because it's obvious they don'tlike each other.
But when it comes to supportingbasketball, they do everything
to make sure women's basketballgets what they have.
Yep.
I look at Terry Petit started inNebraska, but before him, pat
Sullivan.
Then John Cook came on, they didthe event on the football.
(34:28):
That wasn't the first one thatwas done.
There was others done in theseventies, but that's okay.
90 some thousand people.
Why isn't all the volleyballcoaches just completely flooding
and supporting?
More about the sport because thesport is at a level.
You look at, I give a friend ofmine, he, Nike is their sponsor,
(34:50):
and I said, when are you gonnastart dressing up and coaching?
He goes Nike's my sponsor andthey tell me what to wear.
I go, oh, they wouldn't tell mewhat to wear.
Nope, me neither.
No.
See in.
In reality, COVID caused thatprofessionalism in all sports to
drop.
And volley volleyball becausethe beach, it's always had that
(35:13):
flavor.
I listened to somebody the otherday, the coach at Arizona State,
he was in this and he says, Hey,I'm in club.
I'm doing khakis.
I'm doing a nice polo shirt.
I'm not gonna wear my flipflops.
Somebody, when you think of thisrole models, where do we look
for our role models?
On podcasts?
On tv.
Tv, yeah.
And our president.
(35:33):
Okay.
So you have to decide.
I, my first role model was CoachTom Landry, 1972.
He was my role model.
Pretty good one.
Classy.
Yep.
Christian.
Good.
(35:54):
Supportive.
Yes, of course.
That means that you're good too,because you got a hat, not just
like his, but all those things.
In 1972, he was my role model.
Now, Billy Jean King was,'causeI played tennis, but yeah, other
role models.
And I followed him all the waythrough of the values.
And dressing up and all this.
(36:14):
It's like some of the people inthe stand says, Ruth, we just
come to see what you're gonnawear.
And I'm thinking of Kim Mokey,yeah.
Now I did it for a differentreason.
Kim was doing it to supportsomeone who makes her clothes.
But to me, you have to have, youhave to decide what your role
model's so coach to Landry, hewas my role model.
Okay.
Then I told you I'd got inbusiness with him and his son.
(36:38):
I walked in the office all thetime.
We're in the telecom business.
We're the official telecomcommunication system of the Nike
World Masters games.
Okay.
They were never in prepaid phonecards before, but I have a whole
complete, I have over a thousandcards autographed by Coach Tom
Landry from the prepaid phonecard business.
'cause I went into that after Igot out of coaching in special
and also with Special Olympics.
(36:59):
And so I walked in and I goCoach Landry.
He go, yes, coach.
How many cards are we gonna signtoday?
He signed all of his frickingautographs.
Nobody signed for him.
He signed everything all thoseyears.
So he always would ask me, okay,how many are we gonna sign
today?
I says, no, I gotta importantquestion.
I really would like to know.
(37:21):
And I said, I want you to knowyou're my first role model.
I followed you since 1972.
This is, and I said, I'm not somuch a Dallas Cowboys fan now,
yeah.
But what is it that was the mostbeneficial thing that happened
to you in your coaching careerthat made an effect on the
(37:43):
outcome of you as a coach oryour players?
He says, when I was a coachplayer for New York, and I can
make all the decisions.
Right Then think of that.
Yeah.
Here's a statement.
Daniel Scott, five time Olympianin my junior program in Baton
Rouge.
She says, just because I'veplayed five Olympic games does
(38:05):
not mean I know how to teach allthe skills and know all the
knowledge about coaching.
And I said, but you have onething that many coaches will
never have, and that is youexperienced playing at a high
level, right?
When you coach, it's, I alwayssay, you've got trainers and
(38:27):
you've got game coaches.
There aren't a lot of gametrainers that are, that do both
really well.
And I think when you reallythink about how do you know at
certain decisions to makecertain decisions, a player that
played that level learned that.
A coach, it takes'em five to 10years to do it by trial and
(38:49):
error, right?
'cause Jody Conrad, one of themost successful basketball
coaches at Texas, she alsocoached volleyball.
She always said, Ruth, tell methis.
How long do you think it willtake to get in the final four?
I said, if you have all thethings that are necessary now,
this is in the seventies, rightbefore NCA took over volleyball
in 1981.
(39:09):
I said, I think it takes you 10years.
That's if you're exposingyourself to good competition,
you get the recruits and all ofthose things, right?
So my question always is, ifyou've never been there, then
you need to get around somebodywho's been there, because you
need to learn what they learnedwhen they moved into that arena.
(39:33):
Because so many players now arecoaching college, but they've
never coached.
They've only played and theircoaching style will probably
more than likely be an extensionof who's coached them.
Agreed.
So if you have somebody likeAri, who is a, innovator that a
(39:54):
teaching or myself, you aregonna think about skills and
fundamentals and how that makesyou much more effective.
So think of it this way, Matt.
We're gonna play cross courtpepper, which a lot of colleges
do.
Left back to, left back.
You might put a setter in, youmight put one hitter in.
I'm gonna play cross court pep.
What if I can't even get it toyou because my feet aren't, is
(40:17):
are like this instead of likethis.
So what makes people think thatyou shouldn't be teaching some
type of body mechanics to atleast initiate something so you
don't get injured?
Yeah.
How long does a baseballplayer's arm last when they
start going way outside?
Not long.
(40:37):
Now that's not saying that oncein a while you might have to be.
Now, if I'm on a run and I doit, I might take a little bit
more, a little less pressure offmy shoulder.
Yeah.
But I think that what happens iswhen you think of the sport of
anything, if if you ask Brian,Jim Aero 15 years ago, he says,
60% of my freshmen coming inwere seriously injured before
they even got to my college.
(40:58):
That was 15 years ago.
So if a kid's come in andthey're already, you look at
this.
Why is it that, that so many ofthe women's top basketball
players are injured this season?
Yep.
Every one of them.
Yep.
Why?
They changed the schedule fortv.
They play twice.
They travel, so you think ofthis, okay, you come in August,
(41:20):
if you come in further now yougotta come in.
Now you gotta come in more to bea no.
Why don't you just move thecompetition later?
Yeah.
Why you need to, and then,you've got off season, then
you've got summer.
Who's monitoring those people?
So if someone thinks I gotta goget in the gym and I gotta get
more what happens?
Your body might need rest withyour arm, but you can do stuff
(41:43):
with your feet and everything,right?
There's, I looked, I rememberwhen they first started allowing
returning service with theirhands.
I counted at a facility, whichwas the largest facility in
Dallas.
12 courts was built by myfriend.
Castro kept his dad,'cause hisdad was a doctor and he let him
and his mom come to the country.
He built a$42 million facilityin Dallas.
(42:05):
It was Eastern European.
Wasn't great for volleyball'cause it was noisy, but
basketball did their Adidas mainevent there.
And we always talked about thisis what is it that you need to
be doing so that you caneliminate the injuries?
Okay, so everybody's gonnareturn service.
I counted in 16 months, 32 wristhand.
(42:27):
Fingers.
Fingers.
Yeah.
So you're not thinking about,and why would I think that I
need six subs at junior clublevel to just to play on the
national team.
But how many people are gonnaever play the national team?
I can tell you I was fortunatebecause I had Flo, Rita, rose,
Cheryl, I had some great player,but they also left, they didn't
(42:51):
come back to college.
They left and they just.
Stayed on the national team.
Oh, would I loved to have hadthose four together when we had
beaten UCLA the year before andfinished third, yep.
Yeah.
So I just think the injury, theoveruse, and for people to
think, I can tell you this, someof the kids that I train once a
week, and I do it based on whatthey're doing.
If they're doing a lot ofjumping this week in jump
(43:11):
setting, then I keep'em down.
Have they practiced their lefthand for hitting, maybe they
gotta work a little bit on, ondefense, but what happens is.
That kid is practicing twice aweek in club right now, and
they're in high school.
So why aren't we as parents?
They're afraid to get behind.
But if one in every 100 get ascholarship, you know this with
(43:34):
your recruiting service.
Yeah, that's, I put this upbehind me because this is what
people are really I put, I madethis, think of this 15 years
ago.
These, all these four year olds.
Yeah.
And I was already thinkingalready before name, image, and
(43:54):
likeness because my backgroundis marketing.
Yeah.
And it's like anything else.
And somebody says, Ruth, what doyou think kids should be doing
right now?
'cause all these, eight,9-year-old parents are asking me
I said, I'm gonna tell you this.
I know a ninth grader inLouisiana.
That has 50,000 followers onInstagram and all she does is do
nail penny, 15,000 followers.
(44:16):
50,009.
Yeah, she's in high school.
She's a follow, oh my gosh.
She does makeup and all thatkind.
It's so to answer that, if youwanna monitor, okay.
I have coming on my show onWednesday, Rita Crockett's
daughter, Marita, her daughter.
She just came from New Yorkstyle show.
She's six years old.
(44:39):
That's great.
I think there's something if youallow a kid to explore.
Yeah.
And I would say the majoritykids you see there, they did,
most of'em did gymnasticssometime soccer, basketball, got
one's doing softball and thenvolleyball.
My first group of BYOP playersof the eight six were
(45:04):
cheerleaders.
They practice three times a weekand they were all eight years
old.
Cheerleaders.
Love it.
Six times a week.
That's right up your alley.
Oh my God.
I don't want, you know what,lemme just tell you this.
I have, somebody said, Ruth,what would you do if you had my
daughter?
And I said, I have her once aweek.
That's enough.
No, because it's like.
(45:25):
There's a difference, and I'llsay this, there's a difference
between being a parent and afriend.
And I think right now, even withcoaches and parents, there's
gotta be something that has somekind of line.
(45:46):
Because one parent said to me Iwon't say one parent.
Oh, I have a lot of parents say,Ruth, my kid is so much better
at home of doing chores anddoing the things I say, since
they've been in your BYOPprogram.
And I said you know what?
If you would do more at home, Iwouldn't have to do as much, but
no, exactly.
It's, and you know what youthink of this, Matt?
It's not easy.
(46:08):
To say the same thing orreinforce structure.
Yeah.
See everybody, even if you askplayers, and I always, I mentor
quite a few high school coachesand I said, you know what?
There's certain things you'renot gonna compromise.
Like Russ said, I'm not gonnacompromise on certain things.
But if there's certain thingsthat if they're late to practice
(46:29):
or that tell'em they gotta comeup with the rules.
Yeah, they come up with therules now guess what?
They gotta reinforce'em, not me.
So everybody wants some type ofguidelines, but nobody wants to
be the bad guy.
Yeah.
I love it.
And it's you, if I go back andcoach again, you've got my brain
(46:50):
working in so many differentways today.
It's gosh, why did I do that 25years ago?
All right.
I could talk to you about thisall day.
I want to talk about one morething in this segment, and then
I want to get into recruitingwith you because you are dealing
with these little ones.
You have seen what they'vebecome.
Yeah.
12, 15 years later.
So I want to get into that inthe next segment.
But I would beat myself up if Ididn't ask.
(47:11):
You better ask this question.
Yes.
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'mgonna shape it very personally.
Okay.
I remember growing up, I grew upin the seventies and eighties,
Uhhuh, and I remember just beingenamored with the Olympics.
The 84 Olympics were my wake upcall to sports and what I could
be and the role models that cameout of that 84 Olympics were
(47:32):
just.
Amazing.
I remember how important JackieJoyner, EY Cheryl Miller and Flo
Hyman were to my young brain.
Because I was seeing my, my, mysister was a college basketball
player.
My, all my brothers and sisterswere athletes, Uhhuh.
But to see what they were doingand the, not just the
(47:54):
athleticism, but the composureand how they handled themselves
it shaped me.
Maybe more than anything elsethat summer Uhhuh, talk a little
bit about Flo and what thatgeneration of athletes did and
what she meant to you and whatshe meant to the community down
(48:15):
there.
I think everyone has to realizethat things happen for a reason.
Yeah.
I am always, God has a plan.
Agreed.
And I always say, my sister saysyou know he has a plan.
I said, yeah, but I need to beon his A-list.
She goes he might be on hisA-list, but he doesn't say,
(48:37):
think the same thing you do.
So my plan is this, myundergraduate degree.
'cause it all started there.
I had a supervising teacher inDA of Dallas, sorry, in Denver
and.
Her name was Virginia Mc Criminand she was black and she taught
(48:58):
me so much about, I come from asmall town that they didn't keep
black people in our town norHispanics.
They went to the town next doorto it not, and my mom always
said, doesn't matter race,religion, pre you treat
everybody the same.
That's right.
So I learned from her and shemade one statement to me one
time.
She says, when you're, when youare playing with your dolls,
(49:21):
we're outside running.
We're outside playing games.
And it was like, is that becauseshe thought we could afford
dolls and they couldn't?
I never quite really understoodthat, but I knew that the
opportunities for the black.
We're not there, right?
So when I went to GeorgeWilliams, I had three or four
(49:42):
black athletes on there.
I learned a little bit more whenI got to Houston.
Flo was recruited to EPU withMary Jo and Maryland 64 and 68
Olympians, and I was recruitedfrom D and Chicago because to
come down to set, and Flo was 17years old, and Marilyn actually
was her guardian because you hadto, 17, you gotta have somebody.
(50:03):
And we were playing together onthe same team, the EPLs Unum.
We became the USA national teamin Pasadena, and Pat Zortman was
our coach and we double dated.
Harold and I, we double datedand went everywhere and Flo and
I would sneak in the movies andbring our McDonald's hamburger
(50:25):
and french fries and everybodybehind us would say somebody's
been to McDonald's.
So we were friends and we, Itaught her how to water ski.
She almost killed me in surfingin Hawaii.
And then I became the coach atHouston by name, whereas my
first year I couldn't because ofthe amateur rules.
They couldn't pay me and name mebecause I was still playing on
(50:47):
the national team.
That's when Ari came in 1975 toPasadena, Texas, which a lot of
people didn't realize.
That's the first full-timetraining center for volleyball.
Really.
Then the next year was the menin Ohio, but the women, yes,
mayor Harrison in Pasadena andBilly Fi, they and Al Stokes
Volkswagen, they all puttogether.
(51:09):
We got apartments andeverything.
So now I'm coaching.
I'm playing.
So we train four hours and wedid it and I, it Flo and I say,
Flo, what do you think aboutgoing back to college?
Alright, so she goes and shegoes back to college, she's in
my classes and all that.
And so we came that kind of, soit's not just she was a player
of mine.
She was a friend.
And then she would, when shewould get mad at me in training
(51:31):
at Houston, she'd go, okay, Ms.
Nelson, what's next?
I could just, it's okay.
So then the national team, I wasassistant coach National, he
moved to Colorado.
I decided to stay at Houston andwork full time.
Okay, so now she goes toCalifornia, Colorado, back and
forth, national team, Ari'straining.
These we're, we're doing sevendays a week training.
Ari.
It's too bad.
(51:51):
Most people have never read hisbook because he was the biggest,
okay.
Val Keller was first, then JimColeman's system, and then Ari
took part of that.
And then I took a part of allthree of their system and Mopar
and I did my own offensivesystem.
But Flo, she would always say,oh, I can't see.
Da, can you come?
And so I would fly to ColoradoSprings, we would work out.
(52:15):
That was part of my speech.
I'd run outside in the snow andmy feet were frozen.
That's a true story.
I didn't make that up.
We'd come back in and I'd getballs at her in the racquetball
court.
So back to the barracks.
And shower.
And then we'd be at breakfast.
We never told anybody becauseshe wanted to be an all around
player, but she did not want Arito know she was working on it.
(52:37):
Okay.
So then what happens is shegoes.
California, she ends up passingaway.
In 1986, we had, we werestarting Louisiana Volleyball
Club, which is a nonprofit tohelp low income minority
athletes.
She passes away right awayMarvin Syndrome.
They find it's, Marvin Syndrome.
So the Marvin Foundation startthat.
She's on the front cover ofSports Illustrated.
(52:59):
All of a sudden Maren Syndromeis now famous all over the world
because of Paul Hyman.
In Japan.
They were on every billboard.
They had songs, they hadeverything on the, so then I
said to myself, I'm not lettingFlo Hyman's name not keep on
everybody's head.
So I've continued her website,all her social media, since
(53:22):
1986, and I said, it's sofantastic.
It's important.
Think of this, if you playtennis, Billy Jen King, Arthur
Ashe?
Yeah.
Why don't you know Phil Hyman?
Why don't you, I mean you, whydon't you know the 64 and 68?
Okay.
Yeah.
But because the women won thefirst several, if the women won
gold in 84, I think thingswould've changed.
(53:44):
I agree.
Yeah.
Because all the emphasis, inthis country, in, in Texas, you
know that too.
It's a man's world.
Seriously, all my mentors aremen.
Yeah.
Except Eunice Kennedy Shriverwas my mentor too.
Pretty good one.
So she gets inducted?
Yeah.
Okay.
Your friend Sue, I call her, Isaid, you wanna, you know that I
need someone who's gonna carryon her legacy.
(54:05):
She goes, oh my God, Ruth.
Yes.
I wanna be there.
So to think of this, out of 210athletes that have been selected
for the United States ParalympicCommittee Hall of Fame, there
are only four.
Cart was first, then misty, sowe now we got two beach, but
indoor, then Carrie and Flo, nowfour out of 210.
(54:32):
Okay.
Now what can be the differencebetween volleyball and other
sports?
I sat there and I looked okay.
Serena was being inducted.
Gabby Douglas is being inducted.
Alex Flex, Anita de France, whois the most influential woman in
this country in women's sports.
The first vice president of theUIOC, and now her mentor is now
(54:53):
the president from Africa.
She was a swimmer at Auburn.
So all of this red carpet thing.
I'm not an in, in, in frontperson.
I'm a behind the scenes, i, younotice I don't put so much of my
pictures.
You see all my emojis online.
That's my way of saying, okay,that's me, but you're not gonna
get me And to go there, I did.
(55:14):
I didn't feel comfortable atall.
Yeah.
Because I wasn't the Olympian.
But I had a chance to expose FloHyman to the world.
The guy from the Washington Postwrote the article and he says,
Ruth, we've never, he says, I'mshocked we had this much
exposure for the article aboutflow, because, now women's
(55:35):
sports is becoming more popular.
It's like anything else whoshould be supporting those
pioneers Starts from the topdown.
Yeah, it does.
And if it's not being done.
Guess what you have theresponsibility of as a person, a
coach, a leader, a recruiter,all of that.
(55:56):
You have the responsibility tostart telling about the history.
And the history is this swingblocking just didn't come into
effect.
I gotta tell you one quickstory.
A friend of mine coaching GenZ's doing this, he's gonna get
ready, he's watching his matchand he's pretty vocal and I've
been mentoring him for quite afew years.
And kid comes to the frontcourt.
(56:19):
Okay, so she goes in, okay, getsready to go back to serving.
She comes to the attack line,says, coach, I'm coming out.
He goes, what do you mean you'recoming out?
I don't play back court.
He says, okay, because he didn'tknow what to say and he said to
me, Ruth, what would you havesaid?
I go, you're gonna be playingfront court and back court on
the bench from now on.
(56:40):
You think you listen to TaraRossi's?
What?
What Gino did to her when shewas a freshman boy?
Yeah.
Hey.
No, I mean you, you have to becareful, but my point is Flo
Hyman read a Crockett is thehighest jumper in the World at
42 inches.
(57:00):
Don't forget that.
People don't realize justbecause outta sight outta mind.
Now she started to read aCrockett Sports Beach Academy.
She doing all sports now.
She's in a brook major.
She has her own facility.
She's the first Olympic playerto pay for it with her own
money.
Indoor volleyball facility,three courts in Huntsville,
(57:22):
Alabama.
But anyhow, history, I, great.
I love the history because youknow what?
Me too.
How do you know where you'regoing?
Unless you know where youstarted?
That's right.
And too much of our history isbeing forgotten and too much of
it is being ignored and too muchof it is being brushed under the
rug.
And I will always promote it.
(57:42):
I want more of you no matterwhat you say.
I want more of you and I'm gonnahave more of you if you'll have
me.
Yeah.
Thank you for doing this.
You're welcome.
Can't wait to talk aboutrecruiting with you because
you're really being a big partof raising these young people.
You're doing a great job ofcertifying coaches and
certifying parents to keep thisthis sport we love.
And sports in general, we lovegrowing.
(58:04):
So thanks for doing this.
They can't wait to haveeverybody come back and listen
to your thoughts on recruitingin a bit.
Thank you and it's my pleasurebecause Sue speaks so highly of
you.
I love you both I can't haveenough of you and Sue, and I'm
so thankful you did this.
But we'll be back in a littlebit and we'll talk some more.
All.
What a great conversation RuthNelson has lived at the
(58:26):
intersection of history andinnovation from the earliest
days of Title IX to coachinglegends at Houston, LSU, and
Iowa to pioneering new ways forkids and parents to learn the
game together.
Her story reminds us of why weplay the game and why we love
these games so much.
She has motivated me to keepfeeding my passion for coaching,
(58:47):
leading, and mentoring.
She's a role model for all of uscoaches.
I.
If you're a coach, a parent, oranyone who cares about the
future of athletics, I hopeRuth's passion and persistence
inspired you as much as it didme.
She's proof that one person'svision can influence
generations.
As always, you can find moreconversations like this along
(59:10):
with resources for your coachingand recruiting
journey@coachmattrogers.com.
Until next time, stay focused,stay humble, and keep chasing
significance.
Welcome back to The SignificantCoaching Podcast.
I'm your host, Matt Rogers.
First off, let me apologize.
I've had a bad cold for the lastfour days, so my, my voice isn't
the best.
But I wanna warn you before weget started today.
You better buckle up and strapin because we have a special
guest today who I believe hasmore energy than the 6-year-old
(00:33):
she works with today.
After years of being the headwomen's volleyball coach at such
schools like LSU and theUniversity of Iowa and the
University of Houston.
I challenge you to keep anotebook of all the great
college coach names that shedrops in this conversation.
She knows everyone and hassomehow worked with everyone.
(00:55):
When you talk about pioneers inwomen's athletics, Ruth N.
Nelson has to be on the shortlist.
She's not just a coach with 557career wins.
She's an innovator, a builder,and one of the true architects
of what women's sports became inthe aftermath of Title ix.
Ruth spent decades shaping thegame at the highest levels as a
(01:19):
Division one head coach and as aUS Olympic coach.
But she didn't stop there.
She's still leading today,pouring into the next generation
through her BYOP.
Bring your own parent programand the Go Kids youth sports
certification, where six yearolds are learning the
fundamentals, not just ofvolleyball, but of teamwork,
(01:40):
confidence, and team play.
What I love most about Ruth isthat she's never accepted the
idea that the story of women'ssports is over.
She keeps writing new chapters.
From coaching the great FloHyman and great athletes like
Rita Crockett and Rose Majors atHouston, to creating programs
(02:02):
that empower kids and parentstogether, her impact stretches
across generations.
Thank you to my friend SueWeber, who has been on the show
for introducing us.
I'm honored to call them bothfriends, so today we get to sit
down with a true trailblazer,Ruth and Nelson.
Coach Nelson, so great to seeyou, and I'm so honored to have
(02:25):
you on the show.
It's I told you as before weclick record, I have about
10,000 questions for you.
I want to pick your brain oneverything, but how are you and
what's going on this week withyou?
I can tell you this, that Iwent.
And looked for 15 minutes tomake sure I had the best virtual
background for you that dealtwith name, image, and likeness.
(02:46):
And you see the, these are 20,34 kids.
That's sounds so awesome.
Doesn't it just break your heartthat's what we're talking about
right now?
What can I say?
Because it's funny, is my friendRuss Rose.
Who retired early, which I toldhim he had 10 more years.
He says, yeah, but Ruth, youcan't compromise.
And I said, okay.
(03:07):
So Russ was in my badmintonclass when he was in
undergraduate school and I wasgetting my master's degree and I
did my master's thesis onpassing and serving in men's
volleyball in the Midwest.
So it was under Jim Coleman.
So it's funny, he says, Ruth,every time I hear you talk about
that, your training.
Nine year olds, and I know theparents have been interesting to
deal with.
(03:27):
And then he always asked me,okay, what age are you training
now?
Because he wanted to know howfar that went down, college
level parent, high school levelparent.
So I must admit that.
I'm still training and now I'mtraining more of these same kids
that you see behind me.
Yeah.
That were in my Bring Your ownparent program.
(03:49):
But now I'm training them insmall group training and private
training, and they're now 10 and11 years old when they first
started with me at four.
Isn't that amazing?
That's gotta be a great feeling.
It's crazy because I have acouple former players or mentees
that I, now they come and helpme and they said, Ruth.
You have three kids and they'reanalyzing each other's skills,
(04:14):
how is that possible?
And I said, you think of this,if you were a player, look back
on your playing days.
If you could adjust somethingyourself without one looking
over at your parents or twolooking over at the coach, but
you could change somethingyourself or even a friend that's
on the court.
(04:35):
Just think how powerful that iswith an eight or 9-year-old.
That can tell you the reason whyI'm passing the ball at a system
or I, or if we wanna do it in alayman's term up in the air and
in the middle of the court isbecause their arms are up not
down.
An 8-year-old can tell 11 yearolds doing that.
So you think of how powerful,because everybody talks so much
(04:57):
about biomechanics.
You don't, you shouldn't bedrilling, you should.
The game teaches the game.
You tell that to afive-year-old.
Who can't walk or jump rope ormove, and the only thing they
think about is swinging theirarms.
So how's that for a starting?
Oh I love it.
We're seeing that with 15, 16,17 year olds that don't
(05:18):
understand that and can't figuresome of that out.
Yep.
So it's like a foreign language.
The earlier you're teaching thatforeign language to somebody,
the more it becomes a part oftheir being.
And if we're doing that stuffwith skills and we're teaching
these kids that it's fun and allthe different ways they can get
their fingers and their mindinto it.
I love it a ton.
You know the former CEO DougBeal, who, you know, 84 Olympic
(05:42):
coach.
Yeah.
He once said to me, he said,Ruth, in your, bring your own
parent program.
Don't you think the kids couldpotentially get burnout if
you're starting them at four andfive?
And I said, Doug, you've neverseen what I do in a training
session.
So to answer your question,absolutely not.
(06:02):
Because when I'm teaching a kidhow to side skip.
Yeah.
Or backpedal, or even we startjumping ropes at age three.
Love it.
Love.
So that's like coordinationstuff.
And then I said, Doug, think ofthis.
60% of my parents in bring yourown parent program.
'cause they're, they have to beon the court with the kid.
(06:24):
They're not talking to kids,teaching them.
Think of how educated thoseparents are becoming.
He says, are any of thosecoaches coaching?
I said, 60% of my parents end upcoaching recreation.
So you know what that's gonnado?
That's not gonna only justeducate them.
They're gonna keep those youthcoaches.
(06:44):
So that they keep learningbecause they're gonna challenge
youth coaches because they'vebeen through the process.
Let's jump into that.
Let's talk about that.
'cause that's a big issue forme.
It's a big pet peeve.
I live in the Denver area now.
Yeah.
And we've got clubs with 25, 30teams.
And it's hard for them to findfive or six coaches.
(07:10):
That can do the job withcompetence.
I'm not talking about techniqueand knowing how to do rotations.
I'm talking about they haveexperience on working with a
group of kids and bringing themtogether and building a culture
and building an ideal, and beingable to teach the technique.
Where are you at with that, withparent involvement and training?
(07:32):
These coaches?
We see it in Europe with soccer.
They're so good at growingcoaches and certifying coaches
and getting them there.
Is there a path for us here inthe states to be more consistent
with that, with volleyball?
It's interesting.
I've been working on a workingcommittee with USA volleyball
for the first time.
I'm not sure why it took them 25years to ask me what I thought.
(07:55):
Because, yeah.
But I'm specializing at 10 andunder the 12.
So think of this, if 75%, andyou'll relate to this, if
everybody in the country knowsthe top 25% of the best athletes
every college coach knows thetop 25.
Who's helping the other 75%.
Okay.
(08:15):
Exactly.
Relate this.
25% of the kids that are 10 andunder are big and strong.
They're playing club, right?
But who's helping the other 75%?
So what my specialty in the last25 years, there's some people
said, oh, I've been coaching for39 years, and I said.
(08:36):
I've been coaching for 56 and 25of'em are at 10 and under.
And Andy Bcast, UCLA, all time1000 went said to me in 2003
here in Dallas, he goes, Ruth,how do you deal with those young
kids?
How can you do that?
And I said, everybody has whatSimone Biles says, a superpower.
(08:57):
So you must find yoursuperpower.
So if that superpower for me isone energy.
Innovation, creativity, and allthose things involve looking at
the big picture.
Now, a lot of people say Ruth,can you really see the narrow?
(09:18):
I said, yes.
Are you asking me can I befocused?
Yes, I can.
But it's not as much fun islooking out what potentially can
happen.
So in 25 years, think of it thisway.
I started in Dallas in 1995.
I'd already been here because Icoached professional major
league volleyball, which nowuses our name from way back.
(09:41):
But 95, there was two or threeclubs, maybe five facilities,
175 clubs now in 57 facilitiesfrom 95 to now.
Okay, so now who really is.
Doing the youth side of it,there's maybe one or two clubs
(10:02):
in this area that really expelon that.
But why is it that more clubsare not retaining or attracting
the 10 and under group?
Because it takes a lot of energyand it's not everybody's gifted
at that age group.
It's, I started a program withBring your own parent.
(10:23):
Because I started that in 2013.
Trademark it for all youthsports, not just volleyball.
I haven't done anything butvolleyball.
Indoor and some a little bit inbeach.
But I trademarked it and I said,why wouldn't the parents?
Because how much time do parentsreally spend with kids?
Do they spend one hour everyweek quality where the kids in
(10:45):
control?
Probably not.
No, unless the kid says, Heymom, come over Anna, I'm doing a
game, but I wanna start the gameand I'm gonna tell you the
rules.
That doesn't last very long.
So I started that and then whathappened was is a lot of people
said, Ruth, why can't I justdrop my kids off?
I said, you can, but not in myprogram because it's bring your
(11:07):
own parent.
And so then I got to thinkingand everybody says, Ruth, we
wanna learn more about whatyou're doing at 10 and under.
So I started Go kids.
Go Kids is a separatecertification to certify people
for 10 and under.
And I got on this project GoKids where I'm going to certify
a hundred coaches by 2030 andI've had 45 now in the last 18
(11:30):
months I just certified 20 inNebraska with one club.
I certified seven in Connecticutwith one club.
And then I've done the rest inthe Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But the idea for me is.
That I developed a curriculum,which is I try anything that I
put into effect, I test with theprogram.
(11:52):
I do.
Okay.
So I test like one of thebiggest things that happen that
help is bring a friend night.
Okay?
You okay?
You know what happens?
These kids don't bring the bestkids of their friends.
They bring the kids who don'tknow anything about volleyball,
so they look great.
So I bought that.
Then I did skills contests.
I added that.
Then I've added all differentthings.
(12:13):
I tried, I test, I tried fourweeks.
I tried 10 weeks.
I tried 12 weeks because mybackground is teaching.
I graduated from University ofNorthern Colorado up in Greeley
and there, during that time youwere taught all sports how to
officiate.
Oh, modern dance.
Everything.
You had to do swimming.
You had to do all sports.
You had to do, I had.
(12:34):
Almost graduate level courses inpsychology.
So we were all educated duringthat period of time in the
seventies with everything,right?
So when you start talking about10 and under, you're not talking
about just the kids.
Probably the majority reallycan't jump rope.
(12:55):
It's I can tell you funny as thegirl, the little girl in the
yellow, her mom sent me a video.
She goes, Ruth.
My daughter wanted you to seethe video because she can now
jump 10 times.
And she said, and my daughterthought it was just like winning
a gold medal because she couldjump 10 times.
So you think of all the thingswe could be teaching that used
(13:18):
to be taught in elementaryschool.
Okay.
Now in elementary school, theyhave 80 and a hundred kids.
How do you teach anything?
So right during this whole timeI'm thinking.
What can we do to reallyemphasize?
So I developed two onlinecourses with Art of Coaching,
and the one course was doneduring COVID, but I had already
(13:41):
started it before.
And somebody says Ruth, what isit?
And I said, what do allelementary school teachers want?
They want to have to go to oneplace and get all the
information.
So I developed an onlinetraining course called RN in
Sports Gym, and it's in justlike Google Classroom and Ready
(14:05):
is free.
Set goal is a paid subscription,but it has to do with the video
of the history of the sport.
It has to do with some of the,but there's two elements in
training any age, and that's thephysical elements of
performance, which you wouldconsider, jumping, roll,
hand-eye coordination, movementskills.
Yeah.
All those things that you needin order to perform in any
(14:29):
sport.
Not just volleyball, but anysport.
Then the other one is thefundamental skills of
volleyball.
So I match those together andthen put together that home
training program.
And the kids, it's kid friendly.
You go in and all the questionsare age appropriate.
So they watch a video, theyanswer some questions, and then
they go do the video.
And.
(14:50):
You print the pages, you put'emon the wall, and the kid keeps
track of what they're doing on adaily basis.
This is the thing that you haveto do to train 10 and under
kids.
You can't just say how?
How do we get that in the handsof every physical education
teacher in the country?
How do we get them to say.
(15:12):
We've got these videos, we'regonna watch it with the kids.
We're gonna do pe You know Istill don't understand why PE
has become one of those thingswe do every other day or every
other week, or we do it once amonth.
That drives me crazy.
But how do we get that?
'cause I'm worried about, mybiggest concern is not what
you're doing.
You're doing exactly what shouldbe doing.
But how do we clone Ruth Nelson?
(15:33):
There's only you, there's onlyso many hours in the day for you
and there's only so many kidsyou can train.
So how do we get our physicaleducation teachers and our
principals and oursuperintendents to take a look
at this and go, boy, this isgreat.
This is, maybe this is the firstthree months of school every
year.
Nobody has a mailing list ofelementary school PE teachers.
(15:55):
Yeah, you have a mailing list ofhigh school.
Yeah.
But you don't have it ofelementary schools.
And it's interesting is, this isa question to ask me.
Where do, so that's why I startcertifying coaches.
'Cause by and large, everybodythinks you can go play two B,
two three B three, four B you.
You've gotta learn some movementskills and you've gotta have
(16:16):
some success.
Okay, so if I look at, Matt, ifyou think about this, success
means something very differentto everybody.
Success in most cases in juniorclubs means Winnie.
Most of all winning at thenational championship.
Okay.
But to me, success means if thiskid now can jump 20 jumps.
I got a kid now who's goingtriple under.
(16:39):
That's her goal by December.
She's 11 years old.
I got my tens and nines that aredoing double unders now.
So it's a challenge of givingthem something that they
potentially could do themselveswithout relying on somebody else
checking on them.
So it's almost like one, how toget people motivated.
Okay.
(16:59):
Why did the coach in Nebraskawhere we, Nebraska fans are
unbelievable.
She certified 20 coaches.
Four in Montana and 16 inNebraska because they needed a
system and she believed in thesame thing.
'cause she's a physicaleducator.
She believed in the same thing Idid.
(17:20):
And that is, you have to havemovement skills.
You do when you, okay.
When people think of high schoolkids, I don't think they would
go to movement skills as thefirst thing they would think.
They would think passing orserving, right?
Yes.
Those fundamental skills thatare needed, we know that.
But if you really think aboutit, what happens when you watch
(17:41):
a college match?
I'm wondering, I see a six footsix player and somebody says,
Ruth, what do you think?
And I said, oh my God, they're,they can hit it a hammer, but
why don't they jump?
They go they don't have to.
I go, Phil Hyman jumped 28inches.
She's the best player in theworld.
(18:01):
I never had a player atUniversity of Houston that
jumped less than 28 inches.
Nobody less than 28 inches.
That is crazy.
But they never started there.
One of my guests, one of my 28inch jumpers, started at 13.
She ran, now listen to this.
She ran, she's probably, she'lllisten, I'm gonna forward this
to her.
She'll know I'm talking aboutit, but I don't say her name.
(18:22):
She ran a mile in 15 minutes,ran, okay, we know I've got
other players at sub six, right?
So when you really think aboutit.
Why is it that when people getto the collegiate level, and
this is what's been, and it'snot like I've not been at the
collegiate level at the very toplevel and had some of the best
athletes in the world.
(18:43):
You have.
So you do have time to train,but yeah, the key is this, are
the players willing to make achange?
Yeah.
And you think of this in highschool because I spend most of
my time.
Trying to figure out what thecoach that they have is teaching
(19:04):
them.
And then I try to find otherthings that the coach isn't
teaching, and then I try to helpthem make what the other coach
is teaching more efficient.
Because what does the youngcoach usually do in, they're
training someone.
They go that's not correct.
Your high school coach isn'tteaching you, correct?
No, that's not correct.
With your club.
You can't do that.
(19:24):
Because everybody comes from adifferent, okay.
It's like someone says Ruth,I've been coaching for 10 years.
I said I spent 10 years withAri.
Can you compare the 10 years,your 10 years with my 10 years?
Can you compare?
The fact is that I trained withprobably six of the best coaches
in the world.
It doesn't mean that I doeverything that they did, but I
(19:47):
test it.
Okay?
Like I test.
Ari and I, former, Olympic gold,silver medalist and coached
three teams to the Olympiclevel.
A lot of people in this countryhave forgotten about it, but
he's the reason why the womenwon the silver medal in 1984,
right?
'cause he started in 75 and wetrained full-time 24 7 till the
84 Olympic Games.
(20:09):
And a lot of people don'tunderstand we'll talk about
parallel feet.
I used to tell him, you knowwhat?
I think parallel feet might bebetter at five.
And he goes.
Why is that?
And I said, because they stepwith the right and they're, then
they're balanced.
And he said, I never thought ofthat.
And so I did that for a littlebit.
Then I thought, no, I got a linethere.
So I'll keep'em on the line sothey can have one foot a little
(20:31):
bit further in front of theother and then, but I'll have
them switch up.
But I think it's things that youtest.
It's for instance, the otherday, three of the players who
are comparing each other andcorrecting, and I said, you're
not coaching them, you aretelling them what you're seeing.
The ball is going up.
You said let the ball come down.
(20:52):
We practice catch the ball lowerthan your knees and that puts
your hands in the right positionfor passing.
And I said, you know what I'mgonna do?
I take a box, I put it in, leftback, I put the player behind
the box.
Two of the people that helpedme, they go, Ruth, I've never
seen you do this.
And I said I said, you they toldeach other what they need to do.
(21:13):
I tell'em what to do and theystill play the ball up high.
I said, I've gotta come up withsomething different.
So I threw the ball.
It bounced off the top of thebox.
It pushed it toward them.
They had to wait for the ball tocome down in order to pass it
forward.
But the first time they passedit, they went up.
I said, okay.
(21:34):
You figure out how you're gonnaget it forward.
But that bounce made them movetheir feet, let the ball come
down, and then they saw theycould pass it forward even
though they were passing on theleft side of their body.
So with little kids, I always domidline, and then as they get
better.
I'll let them go outside theirbody.
(21:55):
But if I told a five-year-oldthat they could play the ball
out here, you know how muchswinging they would be doing and
they wouldn't moving their feet.
Yeah.
So that's, you're right.
It's amazing what their braincan process.
Yep.
But how we start that processingand what we give them to begin
(22:16):
with can change.
Change how they get there andhow quickly they get there.
Sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's interesting.
Most people think I'm very rigidand I'm drill.
I'm a game situation person, i'mnow hearing people say, oh,
we're playing six on six, butwe're doing game related things.
I've been doing game situationdrill since 1970, so it's not
(22:39):
like it's nothing new.
Yeah.
But I do a drill that.
Helps them focus and like forinstance, I came up with a
finally A 10 U competition balland the reason why is because
the 12 U is very difficult forthe little ones to set.
Yeah.
(22:59):
Alright.
So I have the soft light, whichis for 10 and under, but there
needed to be a ball that was forcompetition that was a little
bit heavier, but was a littlebit lighter because I'm dealing
with the 75% of the kids aren'tbig and strong.
Not the 25%.
So a lot of people, they don'tlike to buy extra balls, but yet
if we care about the kids, andone of my mentors, he was in a
(23:23):
training session and he has a6-year-old and he brought one of
the soft light balls.
Yeah.
And it was sitting over thereand it, of course it's blue in
an orange.
And kid said, can I try that?
He goes, absolutely.
He took it and, and he says,coach David, this doesn't hurt.
Okay.
If it hurts, I'm not playinganymore.
(23:43):
Or That's right.
Or my mom said I'm playing, ormy dad said I'm playing, but
when I pass, I'm gonna what?
Bend my arms because it hurts.
It hurts.
So when that 10 U Ball came out,which we came out in December,
the most important thing was isif you're in any other country
besides the United States,you're not teaching setting
(24:04):
until probably 13.
Kids could get bigger andstronger.
You pass, you see the Asianpassing passing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm not someone that says Icriticize other countries for
what they do.
I don't.
I say, you know what?
Maybe that works in theircountry and it might not work
here.
If it doesn't work here, then wehave to adapt something.
I don't say I don't criticize itbecause they've been successful,
(24:26):
so when you do that with the 10U Ball.
What it does is now I can take akid and I had them, I threw up
some of'em in the bag and stuff,and someone grabbed that ball
and said, coach Ruth, I can setit instead of deep dishing it
because I said, watch beachvolleyball when they deep dish.
But then what happens is thereferees don't call it.
(24:49):
So now I'm doing this all theway through twelves.
Thirteens 14.
Yeah.
All of a sudden now they'resaying, no, you can't do that.
You can splat it now and you cando whatever you wanna do with it
now.
And they don't call it, butthey're not gonna call that.
So I said I'm helping coaches attwelves, elevens, and tens to
(25:09):
start understanding to use a 10U ball.
Yeah.
Because it's only right.
You have to modify some aspectsof your training with different
tools that make sense.
Not just come up with somethingbecause someone says, Ruth, all
of a sudden you're coming upwith, puffers now where you can
(25:30):
serve for float and all that.
I said, do you think these kidsat this age, gen Z kids, want
you to tell'em more than twice?
No.
They want to get better, butthey don't wanna hear it five,
six times.
So if I can come up withsomething that will allow them
to see the feedback, if it goesover the net and it doesn't
(25:52):
move.
I did a good floater.
I didn't tell'em.
They know it now.
That's awesome.
If I jump and hit and I hit itthrough the net, it means I
didn't reach right?
So if you can, and see, everyonethinks it's so easy to train 10
and under, and it's only easy ifyou understand that you can't do
(26:15):
what you do in high school.
At a level of that, theprogression goes and everybody
says, oh, Ruth progressions isold school.
I go, old school methods becomenew school ideas.
And I said, by and large, youprogress from something simple
to something that's moredifficult.
(26:35):
And you have to do that at eventhe younger age.
And most people get really boredat the younger age because they
wanna do more advanced things.
The way you advance'em, there'stwo ways to advance.
One, you advance skill or youadvance knowledge and all of a
sudden everybody had to come upwith a new name.
Okay, now we got iq, right?
I still not understand.
(26:56):
Do they order a set of pins ordo they order a set of antennas?
But anyhow, so coming up withsomething so I can now work.
So I had a kid yesterday, 10years old, she's a gal that's up
in the orange.
She started when she was four.
Couldn't jump one jump.
We were setting because she'sgonna be on the setting team,
she's playing up and I said,catch it first because we do 10
(27:19):
and under.
We catch and set right because Iwanna catch in the right spot
and use their legs and armsbecause they're not love that
strong for a long time.
So love that now.
So she's setting, and I said,okay, go ahead, catch it and
push it up.
All right.
Good.
All right.
Now, did you notice how the ballwent up and came down?
She said yes.
(27:40):
How does that outside hitter,that's 10 years old, get all the
way over to you and hit thatball?
She goes it doesn't.
And I said, okay, then how doyou need to do it?
She goes, I need to use my legs.
Oh.
I says, okay, could you repeatthat again?
So all you know, so she uses herlegs, but it still goes up.
I said, okay, now what do I needto do?
Throw the ball or kick a balllike you do in soccer.
(28:01):
I relate it.
'cause these kids all do allkinds of sports.
She goes.
Coach Ruth.
I see.
Now I need to lean and I push itup.
Yep.
All right.
So she was her own mechanic.
Yep.
And you know what, if love it,if that is what Ruth Nelson
does, it's okay with me becauseRuth Nelson's gonna continue to
do it.
(28:22):
Look let me ask you this.
'cause somebody asked me yearsago, they asked me what, when
was I at my peak?
I was a college basketballplayer.
They said, when did you know youwere really good?
And I go, I don't know if I wasever really good at basketball,
but I was at my best when I wasabout 24, 25 years old.
And they go, really?
And I go, yeah.
It was about three years after Istopped playing and I was
(28:45):
coaching Uhhuh that I started tosee the game differently.
I started to understand thegame.
I started to understand allthose things my coaches were
trying to tell me.
I've now been outta collegecoaching for 12 years.
You've been out for a little bitlonger.
If I put you back at LSU, if Iput you back at LSU today, what
would you do differently fromday one?
(29:08):
Let me tell you what, when Icoached in the pros I had, you
remember John Ralston football?
Yes.
Yes.
Gary Carroll and him.
They are the ones that startedthe Canadian Football League.
Gary Carroll was my generalmanager.
Okay.
John Roston was a league andBanovich was the owner after I
got fired from LSU.
The ad said you just need tocoach the national team.
(29:29):
I go, okay, I wasn't good enoughto coach here, but I'll go to
the national team.
Okay, so I go, they fly me toDallas to interview first
question Ro Roston, and Carolasked me, why'd you get fired at
LSU?
Just like bam.
To the board.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I gave, that's about right.
A very simple answer.
And they said, okay, you'rehired.
You can go back to Baton RougePack and come back.
(29:49):
Alright.
So I said then, okay, what arethe things.
I think I need to change.
Okay.
Okay.
I'm coaching the pros.
29 players.
I never had done three persondrill ever.
Ever.
Never.
Because you always had twoperson drills.
That's everybody in the wholeworld.
Yeah.
I had to do three person drillsand I had three players from LSU
(30:11):
and they go, coach Ruth, howcome we didn't never do these at
LSU?
How come we didn't even do that?
And I just thought, look at alot of these angles and stuff.
Make sense?
Why didn't we do jump servingwhen we had won the national
championship and club?
Mary Joan, we jumped and served,but we never did it in
competition.
So there's lots of things wedid.
We swung block in this earlyseventies and we quit doing it.
(30:32):
There's so many things.
Everything that's coming outwe've already done, that's what
I was, so LSU.
So I get hired in Gary Carroll.
He said to me, Ruth, and hechanged my life, and that's why
I went back and coached at Iowa.
Otherwise, I probably wouldn'thave ever.
I told one of my colleagues, Isaid, I'm never gonna coach ever
(30:52):
again after I got fired fromLSU.
I don't care.
I don't, no.
I was done.
I was done.
Yeah.
Gary said to me, he said,practice is where you do
everything you need to do, andwhen it comes game time, you are
a cheerleader.
That's what he said.
I changed my whole coachingstyle, my entire coaching
(31:14):
approach, everything.
Yeah.
Then I went to Iowa and I tookthe job and I wasn't the first,
there was somebody else that wasoffered the job, that had a lot
less experience than me.
I was second choice.
Now I'm almost like, okay, I'vebeen in the, top final four,
twice I've been on the nationalteam, three stars on the Olympic
team.
I'm going back in my head withAri, with Jim Pullman.
(31:35):
And I'm being picked second, sothat's humbling.
It is.
I think everybody in their lifeshould be fired one time because
you have to readjust everythingabout what you think about
everything.
So I went to Iowa.
I agree.
I went to Iowa and I had, one ofmy assistant coaches was one of
my former players that playedfor me at LSU.
I said, okay.
(31:55):
I just want you to know, I'vebeen in the pros now and I'm, I
do things completely different.
And everybody at Iowa on thescore benches, they would argue
to who could sit next to mebecause they said they were
entertained.
'cause that was a completedifferent man.
I was a cheerleader.
And even when I played StephSchluter from Minnesota, who
(32:17):
developed the Minnesota programby the way, and developed the
Alabama program.
I'd say I'd do like this, totell her she needed to sub the
person out.
We had fun.
We, that's great.
Were competitive in that.
And you know what, I now see howimportant that is.
And when I came back and startedmentoring coaches, I said, you
(32:41):
gotta quit breaking thatclipboard.
You just can't do that.
And this is before Gen Z.
You're talking, nineties, earlynineties.
I think that what happens if youhad the question is how do you
mold yourself and still be open?
And most people think I'm notopen about ideas.
(33:01):
Oh, yes I am.
I'm open about ideas, but you'renot gonna convince me on a
5-year-old what they can do.
You're not gonna convince me.
Okay.
You got a kid in college andthey're goofy footed, they're
jumping 28 inches.
Do you change'em?
You think in your mind?
First thing I think is itbiomechanically sound?
Is it anatomically correct?
(33:21):
Does it make sense?
If it does, then probably youneed to do it like, but
everybody always says they gotno time to change.
But what happens if you'reteaching this?
I've never in Rose Majors whostarted for the 84 Olympic team,
played three years at Houston asa setter, transferred to LSU,
played her last year, went tothe national team, and two years
(33:42):
on the national team and at theOlympics, she was the best
blocker.
She could play right side, she'dplay middle, she'd play left,
she could set, and she playeddefense.
She wasn't taken out.
So we talk about this all thetime, about what is it that
really should be doing?
Why is it that basketball, andthis is a big thing I've been
watching since you think ofKaitlyn Clark and Barbie.
(34:06):
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I started watching then becauseof Kim Mulkey and Staley,
because it's obvious they don'tlike each other.
But when it comes to supportingbasketball, they do everything
to make sure women's basketballgets what they have.
Yep.
I look at Terry Petit started inNebraska, but before him, pat
Sullivan.
Then John Cook came on, they didthe event on the football.
(34:28):
That wasn't the first one thatwas done.
There was others done in theseventies, but that's okay.
90 some thousand people.
Why isn't all the volleyballcoaches just completely flooding
and supporting?
More about the sport because thesport is at a level.
You look at, I give a friend ofmine, he, Nike is their sponsor,
(34:50):
and I said, when are you gonnastart dressing up and coaching?
He goes Nike's my sponsor andthey tell me what to wear.
I go, oh, they wouldn't tell mewhat to wear.
Nope, me neither.
No.
See in.
In reality, COVID caused thatprofessionalism in all sports to
drop.
And volley volleyball becausethe beach, it's always had that
(35:13):
flavor.
I listened to somebody the otherday, the coach at Arizona State,
he was in this and he says, Hey,I'm in club.
I'm doing khakis.
I'm doing a nice polo shirt.
I'm not gonna wear my flipflops.
Somebody, when you think of thisrole models, where do we look
for our role models?
On podcasts?
On tv.
Tv, yeah.
And our president.
(35:33):
Okay.
So you have to decide.
I, my first role model was CoachTom Landry, 1972.
He was my role model.
Pretty good one.
Classy.
Yep.
Christian.
Good.
(35:54):
Supportive.
Yes, of course.
That means that you're good too,because you got a hat, not just
like his, but all those things.
In 1972, he was my role model.
Now, Billy Jean King was,'causeI played tennis, but yeah, other
role models.
And I followed him all the waythrough of the values.
And dressing up and all this.
(36:14):
It's like some of the people inthe stand says, Ruth, we just
come to see what you're gonnawear.
And I'm thinking of Kim Mokey,yeah.
Now I did it for a differentreason.
Kim was doing it to supportsomeone who makes her clothes.
But to me, you have to have, youhave to decide what your role
model's so coach to Landry, hewas my role model.
Okay.
Then I told you I'd got inbusiness with him and his son.
(36:38):
I walked in the office all thetime.
We're in the telecom business.
We're the official telecomcommunication system of the Nike
World Masters games.
Okay.
They were never in prepaid phonecards before, but I have a whole
complete, I have over a thousandcards autographed by Coach Tom
Landry from the prepaid phonecard business.
'cause I went into that after Igot out of coaching in special
and also with Special Olympics.
(36:59):
And so I walked in and I goCoach Landry.
He go, yes, coach.
How many cards are we gonna signtoday?
He signed all of his frickingautographs.
Nobody signed for him.
He signed everything all thoseyears.
So he always would ask me, okay,how many are we gonna sign
today?
I says, no, I gotta importantquestion.
I really would like to know.
(37:21):
And I said, I want you to knowyou're my first role model.
I followed you since 1972.
This is, and I said, I'm not somuch a Dallas Cowboys fan now,
yeah.
But what is it that was the mostbeneficial thing that happened
to you in your coaching careerthat made an effect on the
(37:43):
outcome of you as a coach oryour players?
He says, when I was a coachplayer for New York, and I can
make all the decisions.
Right Then think of that.
Yeah.
Here's a statement.
Daniel Scott, five time Olympianin my junior program in Baton
Rouge.
She says, just because I'veplayed five Olympic games does
(38:05):
not mean I know how to teach allthe skills and know all the
knowledge about coaching.
And I said, but you have onething that many coaches will
never have, and that is youexperienced playing at a high
level, right?
When you coach, it's, I alwayssay, you've got trainers and
(38:27):
you've got game coaches.
There aren't a lot of gametrainers that are, that do both
really well.
And I think when you reallythink about how do you know at
certain decisions to makecertain decisions, a player that
played that level learned that.
A coach, it takes'em five to 10years to do it by trial and
(38:49):
error, right?
'cause Jody Conrad, one of themost successful basketball
coaches at Texas, she alsocoached volleyball.
She always said, Ruth, tell methis.
How long do you think it willtake to get in the final four?
I said, if you have all thethings that are necessary now,
this is in the seventies, rightbefore NCA took over volleyball
in 1981.
(39:09):
I said, I think it takes you 10years.
That's if you're exposingyourself to good competition,
you get the recruits and all ofthose things, right?
So my question always is, ifyou've never been there, then
you need to get around somebodywho's been there, because you
need to learn what they learnedwhen they moved into that arena.
(39:33):
Because so many players now arecoaching college, but they've
never coached.
They've only played and theircoaching style will probably
more than likely be an extensionof who's coached them.
Agreed.
So if you have somebody likeAri, who is a, innovator that a
(39:54):
teaching or myself, you aregonna think about skills and
fundamentals and how that makesyou much more effective.
So think of it this way, Matt.
We're gonna play cross courtpepper, which a lot of colleges
do.
Left back to, left back.
You might put a setter in, youmight put one hitter in.
I'm gonna play cross court pep.
What if I can't even get it toyou because my feet aren't, is
(40:17):
are like this instead of likethis.
So what makes people think thatyou shouldn't be teaching some
type of body mechanics to atleast initiate something so you
don't get injured?
Yeah.
How long does a baseballplayer's arm last when they
start going way outside?
Not long.
(40:37):
Now that's not saying that oncein a while you might have to be.
Now, if I'm on a run and I doit, I might take a little bit
more, a little less pressure offmy shoulder.
Yeah.
But I think that what happens iswhen you think of the sport of
anything, if if you ask Brian,Jim Aero 15 years ago, he says,
60% of my freshmen coming inwere seriously injured before
they even got to my college.
(40:58):
That was 15 years ago.
So if a kid's come in andthey're already, you look at
this.
Why is it that, that so many ofthe women's top basketball
players are injured this season?
Yep.
Every one of them.
Yep.
Why?
They changed the schedule fortv.
They play twice.
They travel, so you think ofthis, okay, you come in August,
(41:20):
if you come in further now yougotta come in.
Now you gotta come in more to bea no.
Why don't you just move thecompetition later?
Yeah.
Why you need to, and then,you've got off season, then
you've got summer.
Who's monitoring those people?
So if someone thinks I gotta goget in the gym and I gotta get
more what happens?
Your body might need rest withyour arm, but you can do stuff
(41:43):
with your feet and everything,right?
There's, I looked, I rememberwhen they first started allowing
returning service with theirhands.
I counted at a facility, whichwas the largest facility in
Dallas.
12 courts was built by myfriend.
Castro kept his dad,'cause hisdad was a doctor and he let him
and his mom come to the country.
He built a$42 million facilityin Dallas.
(42:05):
It was Eastern European.
Wasn't great for volleyball'cause it was noisy, but
basketball did their Adidas mainevent there.
And we always talked about thisis what is it that you need to
be doing so that you caneliminate the injuries?
Okay, so everybody's gonnareturn service.
I counted in 16 months, 32 wristhand.
(42:27):
Fingers.
Fingers.
Yeah.
So you're not thinking about,and why would I think that I
need six subs at junior clublevel to just to play on the
national team.
But how many people are gonnaever play the national team?
I can tell you I was fortunatebecause I had Flo, Rita, rose,
Cheryl, I had some great player,but they also left, they didn't
(42:51):
come back to college.
They left and they just.
Stayed on the national team.
Oh, would I loved to have hadthose four together when we had
beaten UCLA the year before andfinished third, yep.
Yeah.
So I just think the injury, theoveruse, and for people to
think, I can tell you this, someof the kids that I train once a
week, and I do it based on whatthey're doing.
If they're doing a lot ofjumping this week in jump
(43:11):
setting, then I keep'em down.
Have they practiced their lefthand for hitting, maybe they
gotta work a little bit on, ondefense, but what happens is.
That kid is practicing twice aweek in club right now, and
they're in high school.
So why aren't we as parents?
They're afraid to get behind.
But if one in every 100 get ascholarship, you know this with
(43:34):
your recruiting service.
Yeah, that's, I put this upbehind me because this is what
people are really I put, I madethis, think of this 15 years
ago.
These, all these four year olds.
Yeah.
And I was already thinkingalready before name, image, and
(43:54):
likeness because my backgroundis marketing.
Yeah.
And it's like anything else.
And somebody says, Ruth, what doyou think kids should be doing
right now?
'cause all these, eight,9-year-old parents are asking me
I said, I'm gonna tell you this.
I know a ninth grader inLouisiana.
That has 50,000 followers onInstagram and all she does is do
nail penny, 15,000 followers.
(44:16):
50,009.
Yeah, she's in high school.
She's a follow, oh my gosh.
She does makeup and all thatkind.
It's so to answer that, if youwanna monitor, okay.
I have coming on my show onWednesday, Rita Crockett's
daughter, Marita, her daughter.
She just came from New Yorkstyle show.
She's six years old.
(44:39):
That's great.
I think there's something if youallow a kid to explore.
Yeah.
And I would say the majoritykids you see there, they did,
most of'em did gymnasticssometime soccer, basketball, got
one's doing softball and thenvolleyball.
My first group of BYOP playersof the eight six were
(45:04):
cheerleaders.
They practice three times a weekand they were all eight years
old.
Cheerleaders.
Love it.
Six times a week.
That's right up your alley.
Oh my God.
I don't want, you know what,lemme just tell you this.
I have, somebody said, Ruth,what would you do if you had my
daughter?
And I said, I have her once aweek.
That's enough.
No, because it's like.
(45:25):
There's a difference, and I'llsay this, there's a difference
between being a parent and afriend.
And I think right now, even withcoaches and parents, there's
gotta be something that has somekind of line.
(45:46):
Because one parent said to me Iwon't say one parent.
Oh, I have a lot of parents say,Ruth, my kid is so much better
at home of doing chores anddoing the things I say, since
they've been in your BYOPprogram.
And I said you know what?
If you would do more at home, Iwouldn't have to do as much, but
no, exactly.
It's, and you know what youthink of this, Matt?
It's not easy.
(46:08):
To say the same thing orreinforce structure.
Yeah.
See everybody, even if you askplayers, and I always, I mentor
quite a few high school coachesand I said, you know what?
There's certain things you'renot gonna compromise.
Like Russ said, I'm not gonnacompromise on certain things.
But if there's certain thingsthat if they're late to practice
(46:29):
or that tell'em they gotta comeup with the rules.
Yeah, they come up with therules now guess what?
They gotta reinforce'em, not me.
So everybody wants some type ofguidelines, but nobody wants to
be the bad guy.
Yeah.
I love it.
And it's you, if I go back andcoach again, you've got my brain
(46:50):
working in so many differentways today.
It's gosh, why did I do that 25years ago?
All right.
I could talk to you about thisall day.
I want to talk about one morething in this segment, and then
I want to get into recruitingwith you because you are dealing
with these little ones.
You have seen what they'vebecome.
Yeah.
12, 15 years later.
So I want to get into that inthe next segment.
But I would beat myself up if Ididn't ask.
(47:11):
You better ask this question.
Yes.
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'mgonna shape it very personally.
Okay.
I remember growing up, I grew upin the seventies and eighties,
Uhhuh, and I remember just beingenamored with the Olympics.
The 84 Olympics were my wake upcall to sports and what I could
be and the role models that cameout of that 84 Olympics were
(47:32):
just.
Amazing.
I remember how important JackieJoyner, EY Cheryl Miller and Flo
Hyman were to my young brain.
Because I was seeing my, my, mysister was a college basketball
player.
My, all my brothers and sisterswere athletes, Uhhuh.
But to see what they were doingand the, not just the
(47:54):
athleticism, but the composureand how they handled themselves
it shaped me.
Maybe more than anything elsethat summer Uhhuh, talk a little
bit about Flo and what thatgeneration of athletes did and
what she meant to you and whatshe meant to the community down
(48:15):
there.
I think everyone has to realizethat things happen for a reason.
Yeah.
I am always, God has a plan.
Agreed.
And I always say, my sister saysyou know he has a plan.
I said, yeah, but I need to beon his A-list.
She goes he might be on hisA-list, but he doesn't say,
(48:37):
think the same thing you do.
So my plan is this, myundergraduate degree.
'cause it all started there.
I had a supervising teacher inDA of Dallas, sorry, in Denver
and.
Her name was Virginia Mc Criminand she was black and she taught
(48:58):
me so much about, I come from asmall town that they didn't keep
black people in our town norHispanics.
They went to the town next doorto it not, and my mom always
said, doesn't matter race,religion, pre you treat
everybody the same.
That's right.
So I learned from her and shemade one statement to me one
time.
She says, when you're, when youare playing with your dolls,
(49:21):
we're outside running.
We're outside playing games.
And it was like, is that becauseshe thought we could afford
dolls and they couldn't?
I never quite really understoodthat, but I knew that the
opportunities for the black.
We're not there, right?
So when I went to GeorgeWilliams, I had three or four
(49:42):
black athletes on there.
I learned a little bit more whenI got to Houston.
Flo was recruited to EPU withMary Jo and Maryland 64 and 68
Olympians, and I was recruitedfrom D and Chicago because to
come down to set, and Flo was 17years old, and Marilyn actually
was her guardian because you hadto, 17, you gotta have somebody.
(50:03):
And we were playing together onthe same team, the EPLs Unum.
We became the USA national teamin Pasadena, and Pat Zortman was
our coach and we double dated.
Harold and I, we double datedand went everywhere and Flo and
I would sneak in the movies andbring our McDonald's hamburger
(50:25):
and french fries and everybodybehind us would say somebody's
been to McDonald's.
So we were friends and we, Itaught her how to water ski.
She almost killed me in surfingin Hawaii.
And then I became the coach atHouston by name, whereas my
first year I couldn't because ofthe amateur rules.
They couldn't pay me and name mebecause I was still playing on
(50:47):
the national team.
That's when Ari came in 1975 toPasadena, Texas, which a lot of
people didn't realize.
That's the first full-timetraining center for volleyball.
Really.
Then the next year was the menin Ohio, but the women, yes,
mayor Harrison in Pasadena andBilly Fi, they and Al Stokes
Volkswagen, they all puttogether.
(51:09):
We got apartments andeverything.
So now I'm coaching.
I'm playing.
So we train four hours and wedid it and I, it Flo and I say,
Flo, what do you think aboutgoing back to college?
Alright, so she goes and shegoes back to college, she's in
my classes and all that.
And so we came that kind of, soit's not just she was a player
of mine.
She was a friend.
And then she would, when shewould get mad at me in training
(51:31):
at Houston, she'd go, okay, Ms.
Nelson, what's next?
I could just, it's okay.
So then the national team, I wasassistant coach National, he
moved to Colorado.
I decided to stay at Houston andwork full time.
Okay, so now she goes toCalifornia, Colorado, back and
forth, national team, Ari'straining.
These we're, we're doing sevendays a week training.
Ari.
It's too bad.
(51:51):
Most people have never read hisbook because he was the biggest,
okay.
Val Keller was first, then JimColeman's system, and then Ari
took part of that.
And then I took a part of allthree of their system and Mopar
and I did my own offensivesystem.
But Flo, she would always say,oh, I can't see.
Da, can you come?
And so I would fly to ColoradoSprings, we would work out.
(52:15):
That was part of my speech.
I'd run outside in the snow andmy feet were frozen.
That's a true story.
I didn't make that up.
We'd come back in and I'd getballs at her in the racquetball
court.
So back to the barracks.
And shower.
And then we'd be at breakfast.
We never told anybody becauseshe wanted to be an all around
player, but she did not want Arito know she was working on it.
(52:37):
Okay.
So then what happens is shegoes.
California, she ends up passingaway.
In 1986, we had, we werestarting Louisiana Volleyball
Club, which is a nonprofit tohelp low income minority
athletes.
She passes away right awayMarvin Syndrome.
They find it's, Marvin Syndrome.
So the Marvin Foundation startthat.
She's on the front cover ofSports Illustrated.
(52:59):
All of a sudden Maren Syndromeis now famous all over the world
because of Paul Hyman.
In Japan.
They were on every billboard.
They had songs, they hadeverything on the, so then I
said to myself, I'm not lettingFlo Hyman's name not keep on
everybody's head.
So I've continued her website,all her social media, since
(53:22):
1986, and I said, it's sofantastic.
It's important.
Think of this, if you playtennis, Billy Jen King, Arthur
Ashe?
Yeah.
Why don't you know Phil Hyman?
Why don't you, I mean you, whydon't you know the 64 and 68?
Okay.
Yeah.
But because the women won thefirst several, if the women won
gold in 84, I think thingswould've changed.
(53:44):
I agree.
Yeah.
Because all the emphasis, inthis country, in, in Texas, you
know that too.
It's a man's world.
Seriously, all my mentors aremen.
Yeah.
Except Eunice Kennedy Shriverwas my mentor too.
Pretty good one.
So she gets inducted?
Yeah.
Okay.
Your friend Sue, I call her, Isaid, you wanna, you know that I
need someone who's gonna carryon her legacy.
(54:05):
She goes, oh my God, Ruth.
Yes.
I wanna be there.
So to think of this, out of 210athletes that have been selected
for the United States ParalympicCommittee Hall of Fame, there
are only four.
Cart was first, then misty, sowe now we got two beach, but
indoor, then Carrie and Flo, nowfour out of 210.
(54:32):
Okay.
Now what can be the differencebetween volleyball and other
sports?
I sat there and I looked okay.
Serena was being inducted.
Gabby Douglas is being inducted.
Alex Flex, Anita de France, whois the most influential woman in
this country in women's sports.
The first vice president of theUIOC, and now her mentor is now
(54:53):
the president from Africa.
She was a swimmer at Auburn.
So all of this red carpet thing.
I'm not an in, in, in frontperson.
I'm a behind the scenes, i, younotice I don't put so much of my
pictures.
You see all my emojis online.
That's my way of saying, okay,that's me, but you're not gonna
get me And to go there, I did.
(55:14):
I didn't feel comfortable atall.
Yeah.
Because I wasn't the Olympian.
But I had a chance to expose FloHyman to the world.
The guy from the Washington Postwrote the article and he says,
Ruth, we've never, he says, I'mshocked we had this much
exposure for the article aboutflow, because, now women's
(55:35):
sports is becoming more popular.
It's like anything else whoshould be supporting those
pioneers Starts from the topdown.
Yeah, it does.
And if it's not being done.
Guess what you have theresponsibility of as a person, a
coach, a leader, a recruiter,all of that.
(55:56):
You have the responsibility tostart telling about the history.
And the history is this swingblocking just didn't come into
effect.
I gotta tell you one quickstory.
A friend of mine coaching GenZ's doing this, he's gonna get
ready, he's watching his matchand he's pretty vocal and I've
been mentoring him for quite afew years.
And kid comes to the frontcourt.
(56:19):
Okay, so she goes in, okay, getsready to go back to serving.
She comes to the attack line,says, coach, I'm coming out.
He goes, what do you mean you'recoming out?
I don't play back court.
He says, okay, because he didn'tknow what to say and he said to
me, Ruth, what would you havesaid?
I go, you're gonna be playingfront court and back court on
the bench from now on.
(56:40):
You think you listen to TaraRossi's?
What?
What Gino did to her when shewas a freshman boy?
Yeah.
Hey.
No, I mean you, you have to becareful, but my point is Flo
Hyman read a Crockett is thehighest jumper in the World at
42 inches.
(57:00):
Don't forget that.
People don't realize justbecause outta sight outta mind.
Now she started to read aCrockett Sports Beach Academy.
She doing all sports now.
She's in a brook major.
She has her own facility.
She's the first Olympic playerto pay for it with her own
money.
Indoor volleyball facility,three courts in Huntsville,
(57:22):
Alabama.
But anyhow, history, I, great.
I love the history because youknow what?
Me too.
How do you know where you'regoing?
Unless you know where youstarted?
That's right.
And too much of our history isbeing forgotten and too much of
it is being ignored and too muchof it is being brushed under the
rug.
And I will always promote it.
(57:42):
I want more of you no matterwhat you say.
I want more of you and I'm gonnahave more of you if you'll have
me.
Yeah.
Thank you for doing this.
You're welcome.
Can't wait to talk aboutrecruiting with you because
you're really being a big partof raising these young people.
You're doing a great job ofcertifying coaches and
certifying parents to keep thisthis sport we love.
And sports in general, we lovegrowing.
(58:04):
So thanks for doing this.
They can't wait to haveeverybody come back and listen
to your thoughts on recruitingin a bit.
Thank you and it's my pleasurebecause Sue speaks so highly of
you.
I love you both I can't haveenough of you and Sue, and I'm
so thankful you did this.
But we'll be back in a littlebit and we'll talk some more.
All.
What a great conversation RuthNelson has lived at the
(58:26):
intersection of history andinnovation from the earliest
days of Title IX to coachinglegends at Houston, LSU, and
Iowa to pioneering new ways forkids and parents to learn the
game together.
Her story reminds us of why weplay the game and why we love
these games so much.
She has motivated me to keepfeeding my passion for coaching,
(58:47):
leading, and mentoring.
She's a role model for all of uscoaches.
I.
If you're a coach, a parent, oranyone who cares about the
future of athletics, I hopeRuth's passion and persistence
inspired you as much as it didme.
She's proof that one person'svision can influence
generations.
As always, you can find moreconversations like this along
(59:10):
with resources for your coachingand recruiting
journey@coachmattrogers.com.
Until next time, stay focused,stay humble, and keep chasing
significance.
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