June 30, 2024 • 67 mins
Ever wondered how a girl playing baseball with boys can end up a national champion and hall-of-famer? Morgan Stuart, former softball player turned instructor, shares her remarkable journey from her sports-oriented upbringing to becoming a University of Washington Hall of Famer. Join us to uncover her transition and the intense recruitment process that landed her at the University of Washington. Morgan's story is not just about athletic prowess, but also about balancing the demanding life of a college athlete with academic responsibilities.
We dive into the intricate world of youth sports, focusing on the influence of parents and coaches in shaping young athletes. Understand the crucial role of body awareness, the invaluable lessons learned from failure, and the pressures parents face in their child's sports journey. You'll hear about the triumphs and setbacks of youth hockey tournaments, the significance of patience and resilience, and the careful consideration needed when deciding to move children from recreational to travel sports. These insights are essential for anyone invested in the development of young athletes.
Finally, we explore the art of building confidence in young athletes and the pivotal role parents and coaches play. Discover strategies for effective communication, the balance between building confidence and maintaining discipline, and the importance of treating athletes as whole individuals. Whether you're a coach, parent, or athlete, this episode is packed with practical advice and profound insights on maintaining motivation and overcoming challenges in sports and life. Tune in to learn the characteristics that set successful athletes apart and how to foster a healthy, developmental sports environment for the youth.
ThePodolskiyMethod.com
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube:
@SharpSkateNY
@IlyaPodolskiy
@thepodolskiymethod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We'll be right back.
Good morning everybody andwelcome to another episode of
the Podolsky Method podcast.
It is a beautiful Sundaymorning out here in New York and
I'm joined by Morgan Stewarttoday from all the way out in
California.
But before we start I'd like tointroduce myself myself.
(01:26):
I'm coach oya podolsky, levelfive usa hockey master coach,
creator and host of the podolskymethod podcast, owner and
operator of a skate sharpeningshop called sharp, sharp skate
new york, and I'm a cpa by trade.
I'd like to uh call out oursponsors.
Print only with us, a fullprinting shop in new york city
for any of your printing needs,or Gate Hockey, that protection
(01:50):
for your teeth when you'replaying hockey with an advisor
of your choice.
Get 10% off with the code10PODOLSKIY.
Of course, our friends at HowisHockey, who can get you tape or
anything you need for yourstick and other hockey needs,
with 10% off as well withP-O-D-O-L-S-K-I-Y-1-0.
(02:12):
As usual, please check out theJunior Rangers programming at
nhlcom slash rangers, slashcommunity, slash youth dash
hockey.
For under $300, you get fullgear, 10 lessons, and you can't
beat that in order to break intothe sport of hockey, which
(02:32):
tends to get a little bitexpensive.
So it's a great opportunity foryou to let your child try a new
sport.
We are going to start earlySeptember, so the registration
should be opening up very, veryshortly.
So be on the lookout and, ofcourse, check me out at
thepodolskymethodcom.
If you haven't visited thewebsite, there's a little blog
(02:53):
and you can find all of the talkshows and episodes on there, as
well as all the major platformslike Apple, amazon and that's
it.
So let's let me introduceMorgan Stewart.
She's a software platforms likeApple, amazon and Tetra.
So let me introduce MorganStewart.
She's a softball player whoturned instructor.
(03:14):
She's a national champion andUniversity of Washington Hall of
Famer college coach, co-founderof the Package Deal and an
Eastern ambassador.
I'm sure I didn't captureeverything, morgan, so maybe you
could tell me a little bitabout yourself and where you
come from.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm actually in my childhood room growing up
right now in RiversideCalifornia.
Yes, grew up playing softball.
Now I'm around girls ages 8 to16.
Every single week, we instructand give basically infield
lessons.
We call them defense lessons onInstagram and we see about 250
(03:55):
families a week, as well asthrow clinics, and we've got an
online presence.
It's our platform calledDefense Club, where we put all
the drills and basically try toreach as many softball families
as possible.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Awesome.
So talk a little bit about yougrowing up.
What was it like in yourhousehold and did you play
multiple sports?
Did your parents support that?
Did they not want you to be anathlete?
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, growing up in my house, my dad played football
at Texas, so he was anoffensive lineman and yeah, I
guess it was really easy to saywe're a sports family, but not
because anyone pushed us in thatdirection, it was more so we
just really enjoyed it.
I grew up playing baseball withthe boys.
I was the oldest and I justreally gravitated to the sport
(04:49):
of baseball, probably around 12years old which in today's
timeline is late to kind oftransfer over to softball.
But transfer over to softballbecause of the future
opportunities collegescholarship, that kind of allure
and grew up playing and wasrecruited to play at the
(05:11):
University of Washington.
But yeah, I would say growingup in the sport was very much a
lifestyle kind of choice.
Parents and players that arelistening to this, it's, they
get it.
It's like, yeah, I'm an athleteand it's, it wasn't really a
question and, um, it was fun,awesome well, that's so you know
(05:36):
.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Talk a little bit about your washington state
experience, that college, uh,experience of being an athlete
um, what was that like gettingthere?
And you said you got recruitedand what did it take to stay
there?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So one being from California any West coast people
listening very sunny, verybright, very a lot of sunshine
and going up to Seattle was notso much a culture shock but just
a weather shock.
It was rainy all the time andyou guys in the East Coast are
like that's nothing, you don'teven have snow.
But yeah, it was very differentbecause you're living on your
(06:15):
own, You're responsible for yourtraining, your eating, your
everything, and they help youout a ton.
Right, You've got greatresources as a college athlete.
You've got tutors if you needit.
You've got I was on a full ridescholarship so I had so many
benefits and things that wereprovided for me, but at the end
of the day, you're responsiblefor showing up and taking
(06:39):
advantage of those things andknowing your schedule.
So, to get there was one thingand, like you said, to stay,
there was quite another offiguring out like who you are,
what impact you want to leaveand then how much work you're
willing to put in to be astarter, to excel, to be
(07:00):
mentally healthy and well andable to contribute.
So there's a lot that goes intoit.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean, I myself wrestled Division III.
I was a martial artist for mostof my athletic career, well I
should say my younger athleticcareer.
I switched to hockey kind offull-time about 20 years ago or
so, but before it was always asecondary sport for me, which
was interesting, um, but I was ablack belt in taekwondo.
(07:29):
I used to teach that.
That's where I got my firstteaching experience at the age
of 17, 18, uh, but wrestling incollege.
I just remember that.
You know the demand that took.
You know, three hours a day,practices, six, seven days a
week if you had meets on top ofthat.
And then, um, I remembermoments like we had to um, at
(07:49):
the end of practice we had to dopush-ups on our hands, like
while on a handstand, and youknow somebody's holding your
legs, push-ups, and you know Igot nauseous.
So I ran to the restroom to,you know, get all the bad stuff
out of my system.
And my buddy was holding me up,was standing right there behind
(08:12):
me just waiting for me tofinish.
He's like you ready.
I was like yep, and we wereback on that mat doing that
right back to where we left off.
It was just that kind ofenvironment.
You never wanted to be that guythat didn't go the extra little
mile.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, you know a lot of employers look for former
college athletes to give jobs to, because those people are used
to balancing their prioritiesand they're used to pushing
themselves and competing andhaving that extra fire to get it
done.
And they're used to pushingthemselves and competing and
having that extra fire to get itdone and they're used to
(08:51):
actually doing having kind oftwo full-time jobs.
You have to be a student andyou have to be an athlete.
And yeah, I can't think of abetter way to really prepare for
I guess real life than being anathlete.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's.
That's such a great point rightthat now you sports being so
available to everybody, whetherit's baseball, hockey,
basketball, football you see abig influx of kids getting into
the sport, and I think youmentioned something earlier that
I wanted to kind of go back tothat.
You said you, you know the ageof 12.
(09:28):
Um, speaking of sport, now it'sconsidered late I want to talk a
little bit about that shift inculture, right, because I know
that.
You know, even talking to someprofessional nhl players and
football players, and they allsay, oh, you know, I started at
10 or started at 11, and thenthey meet the nhl or the nfl or,
(09:48):
you know, nba.
That doesn't fly anymore and Ithink that's also a reason why
the skill in these games is somuch greater, right that's.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat experience of what you're
seeing now versus what youexperienced?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Absolutely, and I think there's definitely a trend
in women's sports.
With the immense growth thatwe've seen in the last few years
especially, but just in general, softball has grown like
exponentially, with being upmore on TV, more and more girls
are choosing sport instead ofother things, and I love it
(10:26):
obviously.
I think it's a great thing.
But you're seeing a lot ofgrowth side effects and that
some of it is great, some of itis questionable and, for example
, some of it is great, meaningyou've got more people playing,
you've got more people gettingthose life skills and those
valuable character traits ofbeing an athlete.
(10:49):
But then on the other side,these kids are being forced to
start earlier and earlier, whichmeans parents are being forced
to cart them around earlier andearlier.
That can be a great thing ifit's managed in the right way,
or the expectation is there thathey, when you're five, six,
seven years old, this issupposed to be really fun.
(11:17):
In softball we're starting tosee eight and under travel ball,
which is a very, very big timecommitment, and especially for
kids that are seven and eightyears old, who are just starting
to figure out like, do I likesoftball?
That are seven and eight yearsold, who are just starting to
figure out, like, do I likesoftball?
And of course they love itbecause it's exciting and if
they're really good at it it'sreally fun to do something that
you're good at.
But then you kind of go on andon into 10 and under travel ball
and now it starts to be more ofa chore.
(11:38):
And then 12 and under travelball and all these kids are
well-seasoned veterans in thisweekend that they only are
playing softball.
They're traveling two, threehours a week to get to their
field, two or three hours to getthere.
They're playing all day, 8 amto 8 pm, saturday and Sunday.
Then they got to travel back,then they got to go to school
(11:59):
and this is something that Istarted getting used to at 12.
And then you tack on four yearsof that for some of these kids
and it can be a lot.
So yeah, I guess I'll stopthere because I have so much to
say about it.
But yeah, it's definitely a lotand softball right now,
(12:20):
specifically, is navigating someof that.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Okay, yeah, so do you guys have any breaks throughout
the season, or does it go like,once the season starts, it's
nonstop every weekend?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
It depends on where you live.
So softball in California andTexas and Florida travel ball is
year round and we get a breakfor the holidays.
So some people will take threeweeks off or a month off and
then, right after our nationaltournaments, which is like later
July or beginning of August,people will take a month off,
(12:55):
but some people don't get thatlong because you've got to try
out for the next team.
So all in all, these kids aregetting maybe two months off a
year and they're doing somethingevery single night of the week.
They're doing a pitching lesson, they're doing hitting lesson.
Now, defense lessons are nowmore popular.
Uh, a lot of these kids havemental coaches, strength
training coaches, they've gotteam practices and their
(13:17):
weekends are taken up, so it's alot yeah, no, I no, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You know, I was reading a very interesting
article the other day about howpuberty impacts development, and
so there was a study, and Idon't recall exactly the details
of it, but something to theextent that they said that, you
know, putting a child throughall this rigorous training that
(13:44):
early and, and then they gothrough puberty and their body
completely changes and the waythey move can change, the way
their hips open up or theirshoulders get broader or they
grow, you know, seven inches,and that all impacts all the
development, all the dynamics,like they say, teaching a person
to throw a ball a certain wayor skate have a certain stride,
(14:06):
and all of a sudden that stridedoesn't work anymore, that pitch
doesn't work anymore, and nowyou have to almost reteach it or
readjust it.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
At that point, oh, yeah, I would say that there's a
lot of families that come to methat are like, yeah, she never
used to have problems throwingor fielding a ball.
And then you really you look atit and like, where are you
comparing this to her 10 yearold self, to her 13 year old
self?
Well, yeah, it's complete, it'sgoing to be completely
different.
A lot of throwing is abouttiming.
(14:36):
A lot of sports is about timing, and now her arms are longer
and her legs are longer andeverything moves different.
So course, you're gonna haveissues, um, but yeah, it's, it's
, it's definitely there's somany issues around this that, um
, yeah, we could talk foreverabout about why.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
why don't we call out a couple and you know, a couple
issues that you're seeing inathletes now that they have to
deal with as part of that growthspur, and maybe call out one or
two ways that you help them getover it or get to the next
level?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, I think, with the growth spur, understanding
body awareness and kind of theunlocking mechanisms of the body
, like what is opening first,what should they focus on first?
And that's one of the biggestthings that we do to combat,
like them not understandingwhat's going on with their body
(15:36):
is drills of body awareness,like breaking things down and
having them do it slow andhaving them not regurgitate word
for word what we're talkingabout.
But if they can give someverbal understanding of, okay,
hips open, then our shouldersopen, like at least they've got
(15:57):
kind of a piece by pieceunderstanding of that, they can
self-check at home.
So we do, drill breakdown is areally simple way to put it.
Then we do, honestly, we tacklea big part of the mental piece.
So, understanding that failureis part of it, understanding
that when you fail, there's somany things that you can look at
(16:21):
and be address as, as opposedto just being successful all the
time, and then you're notpushed to make any adjustments
or change or grow.
So, using that as as our tooland our measuring stick of like,
okay, the ball went throughyour legs, what's that mean?
Okay, that means we have to getour chest a little bit lower.
That means we have to get ourglove more in front of our eyes.
(16:43):
So those those big two thingsso body awareness drills and
coaching that failure is part ofsport are probably the two
biggest I love that because Ithink you know you touched on a
topic, that's that.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
you know we tend to explore a lot on the show about
failure, right, and I think, um,you know a lot of guests talk
about that and if you, ifthere's a reference or something
that you could pull out of theconversations, it's always that
failure is a big source offrustration, not just for the
players but for the parents.
Oh yeah, right, and so theykind of start judging, uh, the
(17:23):
child's performance or theirexperience in the club, and if
the team is not winning yet, orthe player is not playing to
their potential yet, theirpatience is so short-fused and
then you get a lot offrustration.
So how do you tend to deal withthat when it comes to the
(17:43):
parents and the families?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
frustration.
So how do you tend to deal withthat?
When it comes to the parentsand the families, parents are
very difficult because I wouldthink a parent's worst nightmare
is their kid not playing.
Second worst nightmare is theirkid being in there and failing
After all the time and energyand money.
It's tough because youth sportsis such a unique culture,
(18:06):
because all this time money,energy, effort is going into is
coming from the parents and it'sgoing into the kid.
And so when parents are payingfor something like travel or
tournament fees you know monthlydues, these kinds of things
they are expecting some return.
(18:26):
And if in the end, their kidisn't getting playing time, so
they're not even gettingexperience, that's really hard
to deal with.
In the end.
If they're paying for lessonsand they're paying for extra
instruction and their kid's notthen performing, that's really
hard to deal with.
So I feel like my job assomebody on social media or
somebody that's talking to theseparents really regularly during
(18:48):
the week, is to talk about therole of failure, and I'll even
go further into the parent'sexperience.
It's really tough to seeanother kid failing that might
be playing in front of your kidfail and then perpetuating this
(19:09):
negative energy about thatfailure when it doesn't do
anybody any good.
Doesn't do anyone any good tohear, especially the kid on the
ride home hearing about oh andso-and-so little Susie didn't
make that play and you couldhave made that play.
It just perpetuates this ideathat her not making the play or
(19:32):
making a mistake is such aterrible thing that mom or dad
is talking about it and it'saffecting me.
Even this other person that'sfailing.
That failure is affecting myexperience as well.
So it can be very toxic to,depending on how a parent is
approaching this whole topic offailure, and definitely affect a
(19:56):
kid's want to play and continueon in sport and also affect
their perspective or version ofwhat sport actually is.
So, as much as we can, I feellike it's our job and our duty
as instructors or as people thathave been around the sport in a
(20:18):
healthy way and we've seen allthe cool benefits of it to
really perpetuate the narrativethat this is part of the game.
In order to play, you have tobe head and shoulders better
than the person above you, andthis is athletic.
So there is somebody that'sbetter or somebody that's worse,
and the people that are bestare going to play on the field.
But it's definitely tough whenyouth sports doesn't have the
(20:39):
resources that maybe aprofessional club does, and the
head coach is somebody's mom ordad.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So I'm like I'm touching on a ton of different
things here, but uh, but yeah,it's a lot no, you're absolutely
right, because you know themost committed coaches and the
coaches that show up every weekare usually the coaches who
played the game at some point,but they have kids in the field,
because it is hard to be socommitted when you, let's say,
you're having a full-time joband then every night or every
(21:10):
weekend you have to show up andcoach.
And you know, most of the mostof the youth coaches are not,
you know, making millions ofdollars, like, like people in
the professional realm, and soyou end up having the situations
where you do need to investhelp of, hopefully, people who
are aware of the game, who canteach the game.
And you know there's somethingto be said about that, because I
(21:31):
think that there's somephenomenal parent coaches who
get to coach because they'rekids and then they stay there
because they love it and theyenjoy it and they really get to
uh, participating and be like,yeah, this is what I want to do.
It really brings me a lot ofjoy and I'm one of those people.
You know, when I startedcoaching, I kind of started a
couple years before my kids werecoming up to see if I would
(21:53):
even like it.
You know, I kind of fell inlove with it and I think that's
kind of my retirement plan, youknow, because that's not
something you need to stop, youcould coach forever.
And so it's Because that's notsomething you need to stop, you
don't need a retirement, youcould coach forever.
And so it's amazing.
(22:17):
But I think you touched on acouple of points, as you
mentioned, when it comes toaccepting the failure or blaming
somebody, I talk a lot about onthe show, something called
kitchen talk, where parents kindof talk between themselves and
say the coach is this or theorganization is this, the
administration is this and thenegative, and they're kind of
talking about other kids andsaying that Susie made a mistake
.
If it wasn't for her, we wouldhave won that tournament, we
(22:38):
would have won that game, youknow, and we explore that topic
a lot because your kids listenwhen you least expect them to
and I think that impacts the waythey react when they are with
their coach.
Or mom or dad said the coach isnot good.
Mom or dad said that thedirector of the administration
is not good.
So I want to go to a differentteam, I want to be with a
(23:00):
different coach, a differentcoach.
I don't, I no longer can acceptcriticism or guidance about my
game from this person becauseall that value was taken away.
So what do you get?
Do you do anything with the,with parents, education or
anything on the side to try toget them out of that habit and
kind of be mindful of theconversation?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
yeah, I would say most of my social media content
or my courses inside defenseclub are geared towards coaches
and parents, cause, in reality,um, it's not going to be the
eight, nine, 10 year olds thatare scrolling Instagram and
looking for, like softballknowledge right, it's, it's the
parents and the coaches that areare really watching my stuff
and, um, are the content iscreated around mostly mindset.
(23:47):
And, in reality, when thatkitchen talk happens and it's
happening in front of kids, orthe kitchen talk happens and it
kind of seeps into how theparents are treating the coaches
or the parents are treating theother kids, um, it's very, very
detrimental to the overallmindset of your athlete, very,
very detrimental to the overallmindset of your athlete.
And the reasoning is because,when we blame other people and
(24:09):
when parents are doing this,it's very easy right To just go
oh it's this, oh it's this.
It's not an internal look ofwhat extra work can I be doing?
What's most going to help me?
Is it blaming somebody else?
Or looking at the actions thatI'm doing and seeing how I'm
going to either react to thenegative things outside me or
(24:31):
rise to the occasion or whateverthe case might be?
So when that happens, you'regiving your child kind of a
victim mindset.
It's not about what I can do.
It's everything is happening tome.
Everything is what I can do.
It's everything is happening tome.
Everything is you know.
And if when you it's hard tohave that conversation directly
(24:55):
to parents, when it's happeningright, there's tact involved.
But yeah, a lot of the thingsthat we talk about are how to
elevate that mindset and havekids be in charge of their
journey, take ownership andresponsibility of their
experience.
And if you were to ask a parentyou know how they go about
(25:16):
their like, what they areresponsible for, say, their job,
the childcare, you know thingsthat they go about in their
normal day and ask them, do youthink it would be helpful if
somebody outside, maybe yourparents were talking about your
life in a way of like, oh yeah,well, I don't know, your husband
(25:37):
should do this for you or yourboss should do this for you and
all these things?
Is that going to make yourmindset more clear and help you
thrive, or is that going to makeyou a little bitter and
resentful and unhappy?
It's a very obvious situation.
So why would we do that andturn to our kid, just so we are
(26:00):
able to feel better emotionallyabout what's happening.
It's unfair really and it'sirresponsible.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah, I agree 100%, it's.
You know.
It's so interesting how weforget those things, that that
somebody did to us or some, youknow, when we were growing up,
if we really didn't like or westill remember as being
something really bad, and we getto this parenting experience, a
coaching experience, and wecompletely repeat it, you know,
(26:28):
without even you know, and thenultimately you don't recognize
that you're doing it.
But there's sources like us andin the you know shows like this
and in your content, whereyou're trying to help people
really take a step back and belike okay, get out of that
defensive mindset, you can dobetter, let's find something
better.
(26:48):
I think a lot about empathy andhaving that as a tool before
you speak to a child or anothercoach or a parent, rather than
this, I guess, reverting tonegative comments that come out
(27:13):
of ignorance because you don'thave context.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, yeah, I just I think that the parents and
coaches have, I think, thetoughest role in this, because
the kids go out there and, yes,it's difficult to be an athlete,
but when you're there, our jobis to play and we don't need to
really focus on a ton else, orwe shouldn't be.
And if we are, there's an issue.
(27:37):
But the parents and coaches,they don't have a ton of time to
devote to thinking about allthese things because their job
is to fund it.
Their job is to get you there.
They've got a full-time job, sotaking care of the kid and then
being super involved in thesport, they don't have a lot of
(27:57):
like ability to pause and go.
Is this the right way to thinkabout it?
Because in reality, there's somuch going on and then this is
like oh my God, am I kids notplaying and she's not doing?
Well, you know, and it's thefirst reaction that a lot of
times happens.
And if the parent had the timeto sit and reflect, instead of
(28:19):
having that first impulsiveinstinct, which ever it's human
nature, this is this is what isreally really difficult about
youth sports.
Is that because the mostimportant interaction is
probably that kitchen talk, themost important interaction or
experience is what is said orthe perspective that impacts the
experience?
(28:41):
Um, but it is the.
It's the thing that isforgotten about.
It's the thing that doesn't getthe time or energy or space it
needs to really go.
Huh, how do I want to thinkabout this?
Would thinking about this adifferent way lead to a better
result for my athlete?
A hundred percent, but because,because it's what happens when
(29:03):
nobody's watching, because it'slike when we're about to go to
sleep or on the drive home.
It's not in the pressure of theof practice or lessons or games
, but it's what happens when,again, we're like winding down
and we need to emotional release.
It gets forgotten.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Right, no, that's such a great point.
You know about just the factthat we don't have the time to
take a minute and just to likereflect.
And I think reflecting onyourself as much as reflecting
on your child is so importantbecause you have to think about
are you helping your studentathlete or your child or are you
(29:50):
actually just kind of ventingonto them, right?
And then you know, for mepersonally, I think it took me a
minute to get to a point of thepower of kind of silence and
not responding to some of thenegative feedback, especially
with social media.
Now, right, like, I'll give youa perfect example.
We were in a tournament where Ihad actually younger kids
(30:12):
playing up into an age group.
That's full contact for hockeyand we ended up winning the
tournament.
We were down by two goals, cameback to tie, it won a shootout.
It was phenomenal.
The parents, it was ecstatic,it was exciting, it was such a
great moment.
And then we had a couple ofkids who were, you know, I had
(30:34):
like three different age groupson the team, so we had most of
them.
Nine out of 13 kids wereyounger or first year at that
age group, and we had a couplethat were second and a couple
that were moving up to the nextlevel.
And you see some of thenegativity coming out of some of
the parents who weren't a partof the experience, whether they
(30:54):
weren't invited or whether theycouldn't make it whatever it is,
and you're seeing that onsocial media and you'll you
realize that they are talkingwithout context.
They weren't there, theyobviously don't know the other
members of the team.
They have no idea how we gotthere or what that experience
felt like in the moment.
And it's almost like whattalking because you're bitter,
(31:17):
because you're upset over asituation where you, you know
you wanted to insert yourselfinto and instead of doing it in
a positive way and say, hey, Iwant to do this next time, how
do I get onto a team like that?
How do I put my kid into moreof those experiences so they can
get to experience it?
(31:37):
You're looking for ways to justbring down everybody else.
And I talk to the kids a lotabout this in the locker room
because I say that it's mucheasier to bring somebody down
than to bring yourself up.
And you know, I know youmentioned something earlier as
well.
You know, you know, probablyseen this all the time when you
have a kid who is not playing,who is a little bit behind the
(31:59):
eight ball or a year or two, andthen all of a sudden that kid
becomes a stud and they just youknow, they're your go-to player
.
It just took them a littlelonger to develop than other
kids.
So, you know, I think patienceis extremely important.
So how do you challenge that infolks and just getting them to
think about you know thepatience and hey, look at this
(32:22):
person.
This is where they were twoyears ago.
Your kid can be there in two,three years as well.
You just got to give it alittle time.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, patience is so difficult because in our society
we get instant gratification inso many things, and so now I
see this the most in the youthnow is everyone expects things
to be a little bit easier thanthey actually are, and if you
get the easy option, majority ofthe time it's not a quality
(32:53):
option, it's just fast.
So I was speaking with adifferent company and they kind
of broke it down in three ways.
You can either have fast andcheap right, like you've got
that option.
You've got your McDonald's andit's not going to be great, but
it's something right, it'ssomething you're going to have
(33:15):
fast and quality.
That's going to be like allright, the athlete that adjusts
the fastest is going to winright Fast, but it's going to
cost a lot.
You've got to invest.
You've got your time, yourenergy, your focus, or you've
got slow and quality right.
Those are the kids that are.
Maybe they don't, they're notgreat at 12 years old or in high
(33:42):
school, but they keep workingat it, they're diligent and
they're putting in their workand eventually their hard work
is going to pay off, no matterwhat.
And uh, you look at this fromthe lens of our population in
general.
Right, there's people thatexcel, there's people that are
winners.
They're successful.
Uh, and in in whatevermeasuring stick you have, in, uh
(34:07):
, you know, okay, there's peoplewith a ton of money, there's
people that are great atbusiness, there's people that
are great at communicating, atrelationships, at whatever span
right, and there's people thataren't.
And that's that's when wedevelop, and we put time and
energy into something we'regoing to get better at it, and
we put time and energy intosomething we're going to get
(34:27):
better at it.
It's just a matter of when youcompare sport to life which I
like to do in every singlesession that we teach because
it's so applicable it's that thepeople that devote time, energy
, work, a great mindset, thoseare the people that are
successful.
And there's people that just aregoing to choose not to be and
(34:49):
to choose that they don't havethat responsibility to get
better, and those are the peoplethat are kind of left behind.
And that's why there's greatperformers and there's MVPs, and
there's people that move on tocollege or professional because
they were diligent in all ofthese things, and there's MVPs
and there's people that move onto college or professional
because they were diligent inall of these things, and there's
people that aren't, and and thehardest thing for people to do
(35:14):
is accept the responsibility ofthat right it's it's to know
that this was always in mycontrol.
And maybe, maybe softballyou're not the most talented and
skilled softball player, butonce you start to do the
internal work and understandlike what you want to be great
(35:35):
at, maybe it's a softball player, maybe it's a writer, maybe
it's uh, you get your businessdegree and you start a business.
Whatever the case might be,it's you putting in the work,
it's not these other outsideforces not allowing you to play.
It's, it's you.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Right and you know to your point, I think that you
know the fear of that.
You know that failure, thatthat trickles through to your
professional life all the time,like you know if you didn't
learn it through sport when youget to a regular job and you
made a mistake, there's anxiety,there's fear, there's, you know
, there's just all theseelements that impact your
(36:15):
personal life and, obviously,your professional life.
You know that impactsconfidence.
You know I always tell kids andto own their mistakes.
So don't let somebody else takecredit for your mistake,
because that's the only wayyou're going to grow and get
better.
You know, and even if somebodyelse messed up, what could you
(36:38):
have done differently toanticipate that error?
Could you have moved into adifferent position?
Could you have opened yourselfup a little differently?
Maybe, you know, spot them like, cover them, like you knew they
were going to make a move andthere's a risk of them failing.
You could have been right therebehind them in case they missed
(37:01):
right.
And so thinking about, um,taking those uh opportunities to
own more of these mistakes andtaking that on yourself and
thinking through it improves you, not just when you have the
ball or the puck or whatever, uh, but actually when you don't,
and it improves your mindset ina game.
(37:22):
So you know, I I think that youknow, talking about using, you
know, sports as your kind oflike avenue to teach for life,
right, and being, uh, gettingpeople ready for that experience
and dealing with anxiety is so,so difficult.
Um, so do you have athletesthat come to you with you know,
(37:46):
as they train with youthroughout the years and kind of
share those personal challengesthrough at school, or you know
even relationships and thingslike that, and and what do you
usually, how do you usuallyhandle that?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
uh, yes.
So coaching girls you hearabout a lot of different things,
right, um?
And there's a definite linebetween a coach and a player.
You don't want to get so likeinvolved in their life that,
like you're like their friend.
I've gotten to a point, likeI'm 35 years old.
I definitely want that line oflike coach versus athlete.
(38:24):
I want to be able to relate andgive good guidance, but I don't
want to like get in the weedsand like know everything.
Um, but as far as advice andguidance, I I always fall back
to, um, I guess, one being proudof, like, the person that
(38:46):
you're becoming.
So what is going to make you,in 10 years, proud of what
you're doing or proud of howyou've handled this situation?
Always kind of a reflectiveperspective piece, cause I feel
like that's what I'm doing allthe time when I think about how
I'm going to coach these kids,like how would I have wanted to
be coached, um, or how wouldthis have helped me if I was 12,
(39:08):
13, 14 years old?
Um, and I think the the biggestpiece is knowing that whatever
issues that they're dealing withis going to feel like such a
small thing in the long run, andthey don't know that yet,
because they don't have thatperspective.
And just any failure?
(39:31):
Yes, we want to learn from it.
And because why wouldn't we beprepared for how we could take
ownership when we know that mostof the games that we're going
to be playing, there's going tobe at least one mistake?
So why wouldn't we be ready andmore able to adjust to those?
So that's a big one is like hey, let's be ready to be better.
(39:55):
And another one is knowing howto move on quickly when a
problem seems like really big inthe moment.
Just knowing that life's goingto go on, the game's going to go
on, there's going to be a nextgame, there's going to be a next
at bat.
So what's important now?
Right, that acronym, or I don'teven know what you call it WIN.
(40:19):
What's important now?
It's the next play, it's thenext thing that's going to
happen to you.
So, whether they're goingthrough relationship issues or
something's going on at school,or they're not playing or
they're not, x, y, z, what canyou do?
What can we actually do besidesvent about it and, yes, that
(40:42):
can be healthy in some waybesides complain about it or
make excuses about it, what elsecan we do?
That's going to be a healthyhabit for us to develop right.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
And then you know, speaking of that, I wanted to
talk a little bit about playingat the appropriate levels.
So I know you and I talked alot about um, you know being in
a situation where your child isnot playing right or your child
is not competitive at thatspecific level.
Uh, going back to this springteam that I just had, my goal
(41:13):
was to put together a teamthat's very, very even.
I didn't want superstars, Ididn't want um kids who are
still developing.
I wanted them to be even, sothat they can all have a part in
the game.
I wanted them all to be in thatexperience, in that moment, and
any one of them could succeedor fail the same way.
(41:35):
Essentially, maybe somebody isa little bit better skater, but
somebody is a little bit bettershooter, and that really it
worked out.
It worked out in the way that Iwanted it to.
But I was very mindful of nottrying to bring in players who
were too good and then everybodyelse trying to rely on that
player to win the game.
(41:56):
And so I feel like when we getinto the youth sports sometimes
we get into this Obviously wehave to manage the cost and the
expectation for the organization, because sometimes you just
don't have enough kids.
But how do you in Solveball,how do you usually try to manage
it, and do you have differentlevels of play or competition
(42:19):
that are more appropriate?
And if you do, how would youhave that conversation with a
parent?
Speaker 2 (42:24):
Gosh, that is very difficult and I think how you
put your team together is socool.
Nobody thinks of it like that.
Everybody wants the best playerbecause they're the best player
, right?
They don't think of it that way.
In softball, you've gotrecreational ball and you've got
travel ball.
Same with a lot of sports.
(42:45):
And then in the different agegroups it's say 14 and under, 12
and under.
So you've got the opportunityto have a nine year old play 12
and under.
But is that really what sheneeds?
Probably not.
Parent comes to me and says,hey, my daughter's not playing.
(43:08):
Sometimes they'll ask me toevaluate her, and it's really
tough, because at what level amI evaluating it?
Are they asking me to say isshe good enough to play 12 and
under travel?
At this point in the game ofsoftball there's so many
different levels of 12 and undertravel.
So it's all relative to theother people on our team.
Levels of 12-minute travel.
So it's all relative to theother people on our team.
To your point.
That's exactly the storyline.
(43:33):
She could play on this team,but she wouldn't play on this
team based on the relative skilllevel of the position that she
plays too.
So there's a lot of layers toit and it's something that a lot
of parents don't consider andit comes down to the travel ball
.
Coaches have a lot of power inthis.
They control a lot of people'sexperiences and in terms of
(44:05):
getting into an organization,that's, I think, is a big key.
A lot of parents that want tolevel their kids up, go from
recreational ball to travel ball, because that's in itself a big
step.
A lot of parents will go okay,it's time for us to go to travel
, and that time they don'treally realize that that's a
huge decision.
It's a decision in saying mydaughter is skilled enough to
(44:27):
play travel ball, my daughter iscommitted enough to play travel
ball, and a lot of times thatchoice is made by oh, all of her
friends are going, so let's go.
It's not an individual decision.
So that decision in itself ishuge.
And then I think there's adecision with the organization
that you choose.
(44:47):
And is that organizationcommitted to development?
Are they going to the or arethey mostly like, hey, you're
going to play a lot of games, oris it an organization that said
, hey, your daughter wasn'tplaying on this travel ball team
, but she will play on thistravel ball team?
So definitely, when makingdecisions, first one is
(45:10):
individually where is your childat, and that's mostly can she
play catch, can she do thefundamental things?
And then does she want to playevery day, because that's what
travel ball is right now?
So lots of decisions that Ithink I don't think a lot of
families truly give thought to,but they should because it's.
(45:33):
It's a big financial burden iftheir daughter isn't playing and
all those parents are stillpaying the exact same as kids
that would be playing.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, I actually.
I was listening um one of thenhl coaches and he said I can
guarantee you that you know hewas talking in terms of hockey.
That hockey, uh, is not a fairsport and he was talking about
youth coaching and he was sayingthat I can guarantee you that
there's no fairness in how muchice time or game time your child
(46:09):
will get.
Coaches don't stand there withstopwatch and switching out,
unless it's a rec league, ofcourse, right.
When it's an in-house they gorecreational.
Then you could press a buzzerand the next guys go and you
kind of just roll them and havea good time.
But if you're getting intocompetitive sports, he's like.
The one thing I can guaranteeyou is respect.
Every player on the team getsrespected.
(46:31):
Every team player on the teamgets coached.
Um, but if you are willing toput yourself into a situation
where it's a little bit aboveyour skill level or above your
group, you have to anticipatethe fact that you're going to
experience less participationtime in games, right?
(46:52):
So I always try to focusparents on the practice.
Is it focus on practice time?
Because practice time iseverybody's practicing,
everybody's involved,everybody's doing it.
But game time, if it'sobviously like a one-sided game,
again you're probably rollingthe whole team.
There's nothing really to worryabout.
But when it's a close game, atight game, a win or loss
(47:16):
matters and you know, and sothat's when you kind of have to
start deciding on you know whichplayers get, to go out there
for the last minute or two totry to win it, or the last pitch
of the game and trying to closeit out.
And to your point, I think thatat some point, when you
mentioned about making thatdecision and really thinking
(47:38):
through why you want to do it,why put your child in a
situation where they aresomewhat set up to fail in a
competitive level where they,let's say, are not ready for why
not let them practice foranother year?
Not why not let them grow foranother year and actually enjoy
the game?
You know, because nobody wantsto be that guy you know that or
(48:01):
the girl that gets picked last,you know yeah, and I think
parents will.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Parents need to know that the most power that they're
going to have is in thatdecision of what level to put
their child at or what teamthey're going to play on,
because after that, I love thatthat coach set the expectation,
because that's a big form ofcommunication by itself.
If that's the only thing that hesaid to the parents the entire
year, it would be hey, referback to what I said, remember
(48:36):
you remember this?
Like I said it, and maybe putthat speech in writing and have
the parents sign like hey, Iremember this.
But but I think a big issuewith parents and, um, what
happens during the season isthat a lot of them don't feel
communicated to and they have,they feel like they don't have
any power, like, oh my God, mykid is upset because she's not
(48:57):
playing.
Or oh my gosh, my kid is upsetand the coaches are not helping
her, and they feel powerless andthat's not a good feeling.
I know that.
But also we should have reallyunderstood that our power as
parents truly was in what wedecided to engage our kid in and
(49:18):
what thought was put into thatdecision.
Like that is it.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Right, I love that and I know we kind of coming up
on the hour here, but I wantedto talk a little bit about um.
You know, as we roll off thisexperience and and being uh, in
these situations where you'replaying different teams, maybe,
uh, you're not playing as muchor you're the opposite, you have
to continuously be the topplayer on the team.
(49:45):
And you know you have all theseother forces from your parents,
from social media, from othercoaches, the athletes coming in
from all different directions.
It's very difficult, I find,these days to stay confident,
especially as a young athlete,or to help.
And for coaches, obviously it'sa challenge because when the
child is constantly hearing yourvoice and they almost kind of
(50:10):
become a little bit immune to it, just like you know when, as a
parent, you say something seventimes and they still don't hear
you right, so it's similar onthe bench sometimes.
And so I wanted to ask you totalk a little bit about
developing that confidence andthen helping these kids keep it,
because I know that you talk alittle bit about developing that
confidence and then helpingthese kids keep it, because I
know that you talk a lot aboutthat in your content on social
(50:30):
media.
Maybe you could talk a littlebit about that.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Yes, I love this topic because I think it's so
critical to know differenttactics at doing this, because
different things are going towork for different kids.
Um, if a kid doesn't have theconfidence to go all out and try
or, uh, to try again afterfailing it's, it's difficult to
(51:01):
enjoy the experience and, interms of what we do, defense to
me in softball is much easierthan hitting.
Hitting you have to besuccessful three out of 10 times
and you're an all-star right.
It's very difficult.
The skill is, if you put themside by side, the actual skills
(51:22):
involved in hitting are muchmore difficult than defense.
So what I teach in general ismade to build, to build kids'
confidence.
So learning little skills andperfecting it and also being
around kids that are doing thislike trying to do the same thing
as you and all of you guys aresucceeding.
It's a really cool thing andenvironment to be a part of,
(51:46):
because when kids have thoselittle wins and they're
understanding the process ofgetting those little wins, that
translates and it might nottranslate directly to hitting,
but it translates to theirpresence, their ability to
intake information andunderstand how to apply it.
So we're teaching the kids,they're learning how to learn
(52:08):
essentially, and in seeing thatprocess it will build their
confidence.
So little wins is huge, um, interms of the language that is
used when built, when gettingthem those little wins, uh, you
want to kind of sandwichpositives together like, hey,
(52:29):
great, try right.
Or I love how you dove for thatball, let's.
And then it's the adjustment,let's try this.
And then hey, you got this.
I believe in you, right.
That kind of language is reallyreally important, especially
with kids.
I think it's important foreverybody, like that's how you
would want to be spoken to, um,and then just knowing that, like
(52:54):
constantly talking about theprocess and including failure in
that process, you don't justget the result, it's.
There's no easy button in sport, it's just the process.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
That's the the whole story right, no, and and you
brought up some great practicalpoints.
I love that and, you know, forthe folks listening, I think
it's so important to be able toapply some of that uh to real
life.
I actually have a question here, oh, thank you.
Thank you, christine.
How do you balance buildingconfidence and not pushing a
(53:27):
player so it looks like you'renot being too soft?
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Great question.
Um, and this is probably aquestion between, like, old
school coaching and new schoolcoaching.
Right, Old school, you'd hearit a lot, uh, like the yelling
and, and kids would look likethey're being just I don't know
like abused to a certain extent.
And then new school coachingcoaches are kind of fearful of
(53:53):
what they're going to say tokids, cause they don't want to
get fired or, like you know,reprimanded by parents or
something.
And uh, I think I balance it byI'm not a yeller anyways, I'm
just not.
But the type of language thatyou use, the timing of your
(54:14):
corrections is really critical.
So you can, and if you are ayeller, I would say it's the
language that you use and, again, the timing of the correction.
Because if you say in a big,huge game, big, huge moment, kid
makes a mistake, obviouslythey're upset about it.
If you have a coach that'sgoing to yell at the kid in
(54:37):
front of parents, in front ofthe other team, in front of
everybody, that's probably notgoing to build their confidence.
That's probably not going tobuild their confidence.
But like they make a mistake,they come into the dugout and
you've got a one-on-oneconversation just going.
Hey, that can happen.
(54:59):
They like what are we going todo to fix it?
You're probably going to get alot more trust in that athlete,
which, in turn, is going toallow them to have a better
experience, which is going tobuild their confidence.
Um, but yeah, uh, I think thebiggest thing is upholding your
standards, no matter what.
If something happens that thatyou've already set expectations
(55:19):
for the player didn't perform ormake an effort to uphold those
standards, it has to beaddressed and in that way,
you're not being soft, you'reapproaching it in terms of the
standard, the expectation, justlike we talked about with the
coach that set the expectationfor the parents.
If the standard is not upheld,then something has to be done
(55:43):
about it.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Right.
I love that.
I think it's so important to gothrough that experience as well
, because I think, you know,when I started my coaching
career, I was a very much, veryloud, obnoxious yeller and
getting it to you, um, verydemanding, and I saw a lot of
(56:05):
success with that approach, uh,but a couple years into it I
realized that, um, you know thatthat there's a better way, um,
and so I started listening to alot of other coaches great
mentors, mentors director of myorganization has helped me
develop as well throughout theyears, and I think that I got to
(56:28):
a point where I, as a coach,would help me is realizing that
my performance, or the theperformance wins or losses, is
not the measurement that I holdmyself accountable to.
It's really the experience ofthe athlete and how they come
away from the game, right, it'sthe relationship, it's the
(56:53):
locker room vibe, the feelingsyou have almost like a community
, right, like the culture, theculture of the room.
That is the measurement that Iwant to hold myself accountable
to.
And so when we were, you know,going down by two goals in the
(57:15):
third period, going against ateam that was very good team,
maybe even a little better thanus, it was all about plenty of
time left.
Let's keep going.
Who wants it, who wants to beout there, who wants to go for
it?
And no matter how much theseguys got pushed around or hit,
they just kept getting up andplaying, you know, and some of
(57:38):
them were crying and they keptplaying, you know, and I was
like you know, that's thedefinition of character,
resilience, right there.
And at that point, winning orlosing, we ended up winning,
which was icing on the cake,right, it's wonderful, but at
that point it's so much beyondit.
And so there's no need to yell,there's no need to freak out.
(57:58):
It's quite the opposite.
It's keeping your level head.
Don't panic, get the panic outof the way, right, as you say,
you know, if you're drowning,don't panic like.
Come down, try to find a way tofind a solution, uh, and so I
feel like that works so muchbetter than um, just reacting
agree.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
Yeah, if you're a coach or a parent, I just think
that those measurements are soimportant, deciding what you
want the athlete's experience tobe.
I mean, in my lessons we've gotthree rules I contact, hustle,
make adjustments and if my kidsare satisfying those rules,
maybe I'm not super happy ifballs are going underneath our
(58:42):
legs, but I have no reason to bedisappointed in their effort
and that's what we're, that'swhat we're looking at.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
Right and and you know some of those, you know I
think as coaches, we always lovethe moments where the game is
on the line and it's a tightgame or a one go, one point game
, and that's really when, ascoaches, really get to.
You know, experience thecoaching world.
Right, if you need to blow outone way or the other, you kind
of.
You know you got to go throughthe motions at some point.
(59:12):
But when you got those tightgames, it's really when the
character comes out and as acoach, you can coach through the
nerves, you could coach throughthe fear and all that stuff,
and that's I think you and Iboth touched on this earlier.
Uh, and how important that isfor athletes I have, yeah, just
(59:35):
high pressure situations likethat.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
That is the most emotionally charged part of the
game and it's where that's whatkids are going to remember.
So, as a coach, you have toknow that what you do in that
moment is very, very important.
That's exactly when coachinghappens.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
Yeah, love it.
I have another one morequestion from Christine about
describing coaching boys versusgirls.
Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
I coach 99% girls.
So my experience with boys isI'm the oldest sibling, I've got
two younger brothers who alsoplayed sports, and then we also
coach some little baseballplayers that come into the
facility.
So my experience in just how Iwould train them differently is
(01:00:25):
not really differently at all.
Girls want structure.
Girls want to be heldaccountable.
All kids do.
They just they just do.
And as far as like baseball play, or former baseball players
that are turned dads that arelike, well, I don't know how to
coach my daughter, I just I haveno idea.
I'm like, coach her like you'dcoach your son, the only thing
(01:00:48):
that I would say is a lot ofgirls want to be perfect at a
skill before they go and competeand a lot of boys want to play
the game, they want to competeand they don't care as much
about skill, they just want togo fast and they want to go hard
.
So the only the only differencein like in my head as a
reminder is that, uh, boyssometimes need help slowing down
(01:01:13):
to break down a mechanic, andgirls need a little bit more
boosting or like uh, I don'tknow help getting up to that
competition or fire mode.
So boys are already there.
Girls need some help getting tocompete.
Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I love that analogy you just made, because I didn't
think about it that way, butit's so, so true when you think
about the boys yeah, they justwant to play.
They may not be able to skateyet.
Boys, yeah, they just want toplay.
They may not be able to skateyet, but they just want to play.
Like what, if you play hockey?
Yeah, you know, it's so greatbecause I'll do like junior
rangers, like learn to play, andthe kids just learn how to get
(01:01:54):
up and walk across the ice.
And then they come to me at theend of practice and go can you
play hockey now?
and I'm like well, you can play,buddy, you're moving across the
ice, look at you.
You're so great, but can youplay hockey?
All right, you know, and thenyou have.
Yeah, you're totally right.
Then I do have a couple offemale athletes.
I have a great girl that was onmy spring team.
(01:02:15):
Now she's phenomenal.
Uh, such a powerhouse.
I think she's going to be anamazing hockey player, but she's
just so self-conscious.
You know, it just takes.
You know it's like.
You know she makes a mistake.
She comes to the bench.
I'm gonna stop, I made amistake.
I mean like you're so on pointwith that.
It's funny, I love it.
Um, thank you, christine, foryour questions.
(01:02:36):
Really appreciate it.
I have a comment from Evgeniahere.
The word soft makes it soundnegative, but in reality you're
treating the player as a fullhuman and developing them in
full capacity.
So appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
I think we could agree with that yeah, I don't
have any disagreement with that.
I think the issue is holdingthe standard and that's it.
Like, the standard is thestandard and whether you're a
new school coach or an oldschool coach, that is always the
role of a coach is for thatguidance to the ultimate
(01:03:16):
standard, which is to developfully functioning, well-adjusted
and balanced human human beings.
That is a really cool sideeffect of sport, and we get to
compete and we get to have thatfire, uh.
But yeah, definitely don't.
Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Don't disagree with that comment well, morgan, thank
you so much for jumping on theshow with me.
I do like to close out with afew rapid rapid fire questions,
so'm going to fire off a few ofthese three of them.
We'll start with the first one,about what motivates athletes
in your opinion.
Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Success.
I can go one word Successmotivates them.
Positive reinforcement.
Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Awesome, all right, if there's three characteristics
that you notice in successfulathletes, what would they be?
Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Consistency or self-discipline.
So they're doing the littlethings a lot, so they're doing
those things every day.
Let's see, oh gosh,adaptability, so the ability to
(01:04:41):
go in any situation and figureit out.
And then the last one, greatGosh, presence.
I'll say that Presence.
They are aware of how they arearound their teammates.
They bring energy, they don'tsuck energy.
Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Love it, love it.
And then the last one is kindof the opposite.
If there's three things thatyou think hold an athlete back,
what are they?
Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Victim mentality, so not taking ownership or
responsibility for your actions.
Jeez, fear of failure, that'san easy one.
We were talking about that thisentire hour and then, let's see
, holds her back.
(01:05:24):
I mean, be caring too muchabout what other people think.
I think is is something that isrelated to confidence, because
it's like, oh shoot, like I justlooked really dumb in front of
other people, but in reality,reality.
Talking about youth sports,everybody messes up.
(01:05:46):
And talking about professionalsports, everybody messes up.
You got to own it and move on.
Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Right, love that, awesome.
Well, thank you so much again.
I think this was a wonderfulhour.
I know you and I can probablytalk for hours, so maybe you'll
set up another one, a littlefollow-up, with more questions
For those folks who arelistening.
Please send in your questionsif you'd like.
You can send in your questionson Facebook, instagram, using
(01:06:13):
social media or email atthepodolskymethod at gmailcom,
and I'm happy to share them withMorgan and get you some answers
.
So feel free.
Please follow Morgan onInstagram and Facebook.
She's available.
She has a lot of great contentfor a lot of you folks out there
.
She's also has her own website.
(01:06:34):
It's Morgan-Stewartcom, socheck that out.
Right, did I get that right?
Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
right, exactly right awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
So there's a ton of content.
So if you haven't um seenMorgan's uh pages yet,
definitely recommend youchecking it out.
Uh, again, thank you everybodyfor joining.
Don't forget to check out thepodolsky method dot com.
The sound will be up uh for youto listen on your morning
commute tomorrow.
So appreciate everybodylistening and tuning in and
(01:07:06):
thank you for everyone whocommented live on the show.
Be on the lookout for moreepisodes, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
Thank you, we'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
Good morning everybody andwelcome to another episode of
the Podolsky Method podcast.
It is a beautiful Sundaymorning out here in New York and
I'm joined by Morgan Stewarttoday from all the way out in
California.
But before we start I'd like tointroduce myself myself.
(01:26):
I'm coach oya podolsky, levelfive usa hockey master coach,
creator and host of the podolskymethod podcast, owner and
operator of a skate sharpeningshop called sharp, sharp skate
new york, and I'm a cpa by trade.
I'd like to uh call out oursponsors.
Print only with us, a fullprinting shop in new york city
for any of your printing needs,or Gate Hockey, that protection
(01:50):
for your teeth when you'replaying hockey with an advisor
of your choice.
Get 10% off with the code10PODOLSKIY.
Of course, our friends at HowisHockey, who can get you tape or
anything you need for yourstick and other hockey needs,
with 10% off as well withP-O-D-O-L-S-K-I-Y-1-0.
(02:12):
As usual, please check out theJunior Rangers programming at
nhlcom slash rangers, slashcommunity, slash youth dash
hockey.
For under $300, you get fullgear, 10 lessons, and you can't
beat that in order to break intothe sport of hockey, which
(02:32):
tends to get a little bitexpensive.
So it's a great opportunity foryou to let your child try a new
sport.
We are going to start earlySeptember, so the registration
should be opening up very, veryshortly.
So be on the lookout and, ofcourse, check me out at
thepodolskymethodcom.
If you haven't visited thewebsite, there's a little blog
(02:53):
and you can find all of the talkshows and episodes on there, as
well as all the major platformslike Apple, amazon and that's
it.
So let's let me introduceMorgan Stewart.
She's a software platforms likeApple, amazon and Tetra.
So let me introduce MorganStewart.
She's a softball player whoturned instructor.
(03:14):
She's a national champion andUniversity of Washington Hall of
Famer college coach, co-founderof the Package Deal and an
Eastern ambassador.
I'm sure I didn't captureeverything, morgan, so maybe you
could tell me a little bitabout yourself and where you
come from.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm actually in my childhood room growing up
right now in RiversideCalifornia.
Yes, grew up playing softball.
Now I'm around girls ages 8 to16.
Every single week, we instructand give basically infield
lessons.
We call them defense lessons onInstagram and we see about 250
(03:55):
families a week, as well asthrow clinics, and we've got an
online presence.
It's our platform calledDefense Club, where we put all
the drills and basically try toreach as many softball families
as possible.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Awesome.
So talk a little bit about yougrowing up.
What was it like in yourhousehold and did you play
multiple sports?
Did your parents support that?
Did they not want you to be anathlete?
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, growing up in my house, my dad played football
at Texas, so he was anoffensive lineman and yeah, I
guess it was really easy to saywe're a sports family, but not
because anyone pushed us in thatdirection, it was more so we
just really enjoyed it.
I grew up playing baseball withthe boys.
I was the oldest and I justreally gravitated to the sport
(04:49):
of baseball, probably around 12years old which in today's
timeline is late to kind oftransfer over to softball.
But transfer over to softballbecause of the future
opportunities collegescholarship, that kind of allure
and grew up playing and wasrecruited to play at the
(05:11):
University of Washington.
But yeah, I would say growingup in the sport was very much a
lifestyle kind of choice.
Parents and players that arelistening to this, it's, they
get it.
It's like, yeah, I'm an athleteand it's, it wasn't really a
question and, um, it was fun,awesome well, that's so you know
(05:36):
.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Talk a little bit about your washington state
experience, that college, uh,experience of being an athlete
um, what was that like gettingthere?
And you said you got recruitedand what did it take to stay
there?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So one being from California any West coast people
listening very sunny, verybright, very a lot of sunshine
and going up to Seattle was notso much a culture shock but just
a weather shock.
It was rainy all the time andyou guys in the East Coast are
like that's nothing, you don'teven have snow.
But yeah, it was very differentbecause you're living on your
(06:15):
own, You're responsible for yourtraining, your eating, your
everything, and they help youout a ton.
Right, You've got greatresources as a college athlete.
You've got tutors if you needit.
You've got I was on a full ridescholarship so I had so many
benefits and things that wereprovided for me, but at the end
of the day, you're responsiblefor showing up and taking
(06:39):
advantage of those things andknowing your schedule.
So, to get there was one thingand, like you said, to stay,
there was quite another offiguring out like who you are,
what impact you want to leaveand then how much work you're
willing to put in to be astarter, to excel, to be
(07:00):
mentally healthy and well andable to contribute.
So there's a lot that goes intoit.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean, I myself wrestled Division III.
I was a martial artist for mostof my athletic career, well I
should say my younger athleticcareer.
I switched to hockey kind offull-time about 20 years ago or
so, but before it was always asecondary sport for me, which
was interesting, um, but I was ablack belt in taekwondo.
(07:29):
I used to teach that.
That's where I got my firstteaching experience at the age
of 17, 18, uh, but wrestling incollege.
I just remember that.
You know the demand that took.
You know, three hours a day,practices, six, seven days a
week if you had meets on top ofthat.
And then, um, I remembermoments like we had to um, at
(07:49):
the end of practice we had to dopush-ups on our hands, like
while on a handstand, and youknow somebody's holding your
legs, push-ups, and you know Igot nauseous.
So I ran to the restroom to,you know, get all the bad stuff
out of my system.
And my buddy was holding me up,was standing right there behind
(08:12):
me just waiting for me tofinish.
He's like you ready.
I was like yep, and we wereback on that mat doing that
right back to where we left off.
It was just that kind ofenvironment.
You never wanted to be that guythat didn't go the extra little
mile.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, you know a lot of employers look for former
college athletes to give jobs to, because those people are used
to balancing their prioritiesand they're used to pushing
themselves and competing andhaving that extra fire to get it
done.
And they're used to pushingthemselves and competing and
having that extra fire to get itdone and they're used to
(08:51):
actually doing having kind oftwo full-time jobs.
You have to be a student andyou have to be an athlete.
And yeah, I can't think of abetter way to really prepare for
I guess real life than being anathlete.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's.
That's such a great point rightthat now you sports being so
available to everybody, whetherit's baseball, hockey,
basketball, football you see abig influx of kids getting into
the sport, and I think youmentioned something earlier that
I wanted to kind of go back tothat.
You said you, you know the ageof 12.
(09:28):
Um, speaking of sport, now it'sconsidered late I want to talk a
little bit about that shift inculture, right, because I know
that.
You know, even talking to someprofessional nhl players and
football players, and they allsay, oh, you know, I started at
10 or started at 11, and thenthey meet the nhl or the nfl or,
(09:48):
you know, nba.
That doesn't fly anymore and Ithink that's also a reason why
the skill in these games is somuch greater, right that's.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat experience of what you're
seeing now versus what youexperienced?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Absolutely, and I think there's definitely a trend
in women's sports.
With the immense growth thatwe've seen in the last few years
especially, but just in general, softball has grown like
exponentially, with being upmore on TV, more and more girls
are choosing sport instead ofother things, and I love it
(10:26):
obviously.
I think it's a great thing.
But you're seeing a lot ofgrowth side effects and that
some of it is great, some of itis questionable and, for example
, some of it is great, meaningyou've got more people playing,
you've got more people gettingthose life skills and those
valuable character traits ofbeing an athlete.
(10:49):
But then on the other side,these kids are being forced to
start earlier and earlier, whichmeans parents are being forced
to cart them around earlier andearlier.
That can be a great thing ifit's managed in the right way,
or the expectation is there thathey, when you're five, six,
seven years old, this issupposed to be really fun.
(11:17):
In softball we're starting tosee eight and under travel ball,
which is a very, very big timecommitment, and especially for
kids that are seven and eightyears old, who are just starting
to figure out like, do I likesoftball?
That are seven and eight yearsold, who are just starting to
figure out, like, do I likesoftball?
And of course they love itbecause it's exciting and if
they're really good at it it'sreally fun to do something that
you're good at.
But then you kind of go on andon into 10 and under travel ball
and now it starts to be more ofa chore.
(11:38):
And then 12 and under travelball and all these kids are
well-seasoned veterans in thisweekend that they only are
playing softball.
They're traveling two, threehours a week to get to their
field, two or three hours to getthere.
They're playing all day, 8 amto 8 pm, saturday and Sunday.
Then they got to travel back,then they got to go to school
(11:59):
and this is something that Istarted getting used to at 12.
And then you tack on four yearsof that for some of these kids
and it can be a lot.
So yeah, I guess I'll stopthere because I have so much to
say about it.
But yeah, it's definitely a lotand softball right now,
(12:20):
specifically, is navigating someof that.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Okay, yeah, so do you guys have any breaks throughout
the season, or does it go like,once the season starts, it's
nonstop every weekend?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
It depends on where you live.
So softball in California andTexas and Florida travel ball is
year round and we get a breakfor the holidays.
So some people will take threeweeks off or a month off and
then, right after our nationaltournaments, which is like later
July or beginning of August,people will take a month off,
(12:55):
but some people don't get thatlong because you've got to try
out for the next team.
So all in all, these kids aregetting maybe two months off a
year and they're doing somethingevery single night of the week.
They're doing a pitching lesson, they're doing hitting lesson.
Now, defense lessons are nowmore popular.
Uh, a lot of these kids havemental coaches, strength
training coaches, they've gotteam practices and their
(13:17):
weekends are taken up, so it's alot yeah, no, I no, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You know, I was reading a very interesting
article the other day about howpuberty impacts development, and
so there was a study, and Idon't recall exactly the details
of it, but something to theextent that they said that, you
know, putting a child throughall this rigorous training that
(13:44):
early and, and then they gothrough puberty and their body
completely changes and the waythey move can change, the way
their hips open up or theirshoulders get broader or they
grow, you know, seven inches,and that all impacts all the
development, all the dynamics,like they say, teaching a person
to throw a ball a certain wayor skate have a certain stride,
(14:06):
and all of a sudden that stridedoesn't work anymore, that pitch
doesn't work anymore, and nowyou have to almost reteach it or
readjust it.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
At that point, oh, yeah, I would say that there's a
lot of families that come to methat are like, yeah, she never
used to have problems throwingor fielding a ball.
And then you really you look atit and like, where are you
comparing this to her 10 yearold self, to her 13 year old
self?
Well, yeah, it's complete, it'sgoing to be completely
different.
A lot of throwing is abouttiming.
(14:36):
A lot of sports is about timing, and now her arms are longer
and her legs are longer andeverything moves different.
So course, you're gonna haveissues, um, but yeah, it's, it's
, it's definitely there's somany issues around this that, um
, yeah, we could talk foreverabout about why.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
why don't we call out a couple and you know, a couple
issues that you're seeing inathletes now that they have to
deal with as part of that growthspur, and maybe call out one or
two ways that you help them getover it or get to the next
level?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, I think, with the growth spur, understanding
body awareness and kind of theunlocking mechanisms of the body
, like what is opening first,what should they focus on first?
And that's one of the biggestthings that we do to combat,
like them not understandingwhat's going on with their body
(15:36):
is drills of body awareness,like breaking things down and
having them do it slow andhaving them not regurgitate word
for word what we're talkingabout.
But if they can give someverbal understanding of, okay,
hips open, then our shouldersopen, like at least they've got
(15:57):
kind of a piece by pieceunderstanding of that, they can
self-check at home.
So we do, drill breakdown is areally simple way to put it.
Then we do, honestly, we tacklea big part of the mental piece.
So, understanding that failureis part of it, understanding
that when you fail, there's somany things that you can look at
(16:21):
and be address as, as opposedto just being successful all the
time, and then you're notpushed to make any adjustments
or change or grow.
So, using that as as our tooland our measuring stick of like,
okay, the ball went throughyour legs, what's that mean?
Okay, that means we have to getour chest a little bit lower.
That means we have to get ourglove more in front of our eyes.
(16:43):
So those those big two thingsso body awareness drills and
coaching that failure is part ofsport are probably the two
biggest I love that because Ithink you know you touched on a
topic, that's that.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
you know we tend to explore a lot on the show about
failure, right, and I think, um,you know a lot of guests talk
about that and if you, ifthere's a reference or something
that you could pull out of theconversations, it's always that
failure is a big source offrustration, not just for the
players but for the parents.
Oh yeah, right, and so theykind of start judging, uh, the
(17:23):
child's performance or theirexperience in the club, and if
the team is not winning yet, orthe player is not playing to
their potential yet, theirpatience is so short-fused and
then you get a lot offrustration.
So how do you tend to deal withthat when it comes to the
(17:43):
parents and the families?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
frustration.
So how do you tend to deal withthat?
When it comes to the parentsand the families, parents are
very difficult because I wouldthink a parent's worst nightmare
is their kid not playing.
Second worst nightmare is theirkid being in there and failing
After all the time and energyand money.
It's tough because youth sportsis such a unique culture,
(18:06):
because all this time money,energy, effort is going into is
coming from the parents and it'sgoing into the kid.
And so when parents are payingfor something like travel or
tournament fees you know monthlydues, these kinds of things
they are expecting some return.
(18:26):
And if in the end, their kidisn't getting playing time, so
they're not even gettingexperience, that's really hard
to deal with.
In the end.
If they're paying for lessonsand they're paying for extra
instruction and their kid's notthen performing, that's really
hard to deal with.
So I feel like my job assomebody on social media or
somebody that's talking to theseparents really regularly during
(18:48):
the week, is to talk about therole of failure, and I'll even
go further into the parent'sexperience.
It's really tough to seeanother kid failing that might
be playing in front of your kidfail and then perpetuating this
(19:09):
negative energy about thatfailure when it doesn't do
anybody any good.
Doesn't do anyone any good tohear, especially the kid on the
ride home hearing about oh andso-and-so little Susie didn't
make that play and you couldhave made that play.
It just perpetuates this ideathat her not making the play or
(19:32):
making a mistake is such aterrible thing that mom or dad
is talking about it and it'saffecting me.
Even this other person that'sfailing.
That failure is affecting myexperience as well.
So it can be very toxic to,depending on how a parent is
approaching this whole topic offailure, and definitely affect a
(19:56):
kid's want to play and continueon in sport and also affect
their perspective or version ofwhat sport actually is.
So, as much as we can, I feellike it's our job and our duty
as instructors or as people thathave been around the sport in a
(20:18):
healthy way and we've seen allthe cool benefits of it to
really perpetuate the narrativethat this is part of the game.
In order to play, you have tobe head and shoulders better
than the person above you, andthis is athletic.
So there is somebody that'sbetter or somebody that's worse,
and the people that are bestare going to play on the field.
But it's definitely tough whenyouth sports doesn't have the
(20:39):
resources that maybe aprofessional club does, and the
head coach is somebody's mom ordad.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So I'm like I'm touching on a ton of different
things here, but uh, but yeah,it's a lot no, you're absolutely
right, because you know themost committed coaches and the
coaches that show up every weekare usually the coaches who
played the game at some point,but they have kids in the field,
because it is hard to be socommitted when you, let's say,
you're having a full-time joband then every night or every
(21:10):
weekend you have to show up andcoach.
And you know, most of the mostof the youth coaches are not,
you know, making millions ofdollars, like, like people in
the professional realm, and soyou end up having the situations
where you do need to investhelp of, hopefully, people who
are aware of the game, who canteach the game.
And you know there's somethingto be said about that, because I
(21:31):
think that there's somephenomenal parent coaches who
get to coach because they'rekids and then they stay there
because they love it and theyenjoy it and they really get to
uh, participating and be like,yeah, this is what I want to do.
It really brings me a lot ofjoy and I'm one of those people.
You know, when I startedcoaching, I kind of started a
couple years before my kids werecoming up to see if I would
(21:53):
even like it.
You know, I kind of fell inlove with it and I think that's
kind of my retirement plan, youknow, because that's not
something you need to stop, youcould coach forever.
And so it's Because that's notsomething you need to stop, you
don't need a retirement, youcould coach forever.
And so it's amazing.
(22:17):
But I think you touched on acouple of points, as you
mentioned, when it comes toaccepting the failure or blaming
somebody, I talk a lot about onthe show, something called
kitchen talk, where parents kindof talk between themselves and
say the coach is this or theorganization is this, the
administration is this and thenegative, and they're kind of
talking about other kids andsaying that Susie made a mistake
.
If it wasn't for her, we wouldhave won that tournament, we
(22:38):
would have won that game, youknow, and we explore that topic
a lot because your kids listenwhen you least expect them to
and I think that impacts the waythey react when they are with
their coach.
Or mom or dad said the coach isnot good.
Mom or dad said that thedirector of the administration
is not good.
So I want to go to a differentteam, I want to be with a
(23:00):
different coach, a differentcoach.
I don't, I no longer can acceptcriticism or guidance about my
game from this person becauseall that value was taken away.
So what do you get?
Do you do anything with the,with parents, education or
anything on the side to try toget them out of that habit and
kind of be mindful of theconversation?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
yeah, I would say most of my social media content
or my courses inside defenseclub are geared towards coaches
and parents, cause, in reality,um, it's not going to be the
eight, nine, 10 year olds thatare scrolling Instagram and
looking for, like softballknowledge right, it's, it's the
parents and the coaches that areare really watching my stuff
and, um, are the content iscreated around mostly mindset.
(23:47):
And, in reality, when thatkitchen talk happens and it's
happening in front of kids, orthe kitchen talk happens and it
kind of seeps into how theparents are treating the coaches
or the parents are treating theother kids, um, it's very, very
detrimental to the overallmindset of your athlete, very,
very detrimental to the overallmindset of your athlete.
And the reasoning is because,when we blame other people and
(24:09):
when parents are doing this,it's very easy right To just go
oh it's this, oh it's this.
It's not an internal look ofwhat extra work can I be doing?
What's most going to help me?
Is it blaming somebody else?
Or looking at the actions thatI'm doing and seeing how I'm
going to either react to thenegative things outside me or
(24:31):
rise to the occasion or whateverthe case might be?
So when that happens, you'regiving your child kind of a
victim mindset.
It's not about what I can do.
It's everything is happening tome.
Everything is what I can do.
It's everything is happening tome.
Everything is you know.
And if when you it's hard tohave that conversation directly
(24:55):
to parents, when it's happeningright, there's tact involved.
But yeah, a lot of the thingsthat we talk about are how to
elevate that mindset and havekids be in charge of their
journey, take ownership andresponsibility of their
experience.
And if you were to ask a parentyou know how they go about
(25:16):
their like, what they areresponsible for, say, their job,
the childcare, you know thingsthat they go about in their
normal day and ask them, do youthink it would be helpful if
somebody outside, maybe yourparents were talking about your
life in a way of like, oh yeah,well, I don't know, your husband
(25:37):
should do this for you or yourboss should do this for you and
all these things?
Is that going to make yourmindset more clear and help you
thrive, or is that going to makeyou a little bitter and
resentful and unhappy?
It's a very obvious situation.
So why would we do that andturn to our kid, just so we are
(26:00):
able to feel better emotionallyabout what's happening.
It's unfair really and it'sirresponsible.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah, I agree 100%, it's.
You know.
It's so interesting how weforget those things, that that
somebody did to us or some, youknow, when we were growing up,
if we really didn't like or westill remember as being
something really bad, and we getto this parenting experience, a
coaching experience, and wecompletely repeat it, you know,
(26:28):
without even you know, and thenultimately you don't recognize
that you're doing it.
But there's sources like us andin the you know shows like this
and in your content, whereyou're trying to help people
really take a step back and belike okay, get out of that
defensive mindset, you can dobetter, let's find something
better.
(26:48):
I think a lot about empathy andhaving that as a tool before
you speak to a child or anothercoach or a parent, rather than
this, I guess, reverting tonegative comments that come out
(27:13):
of ignorance because you don'thave context.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, yeah, I just I think that the parents and
coaches have, I think, thetoughest role in this, because
the kids go out there and, yes,it's difficult to be an athlete,
but when you're there, our jobis to play and we don't need to
really focus on a ton else, orwe shouldn't be.
And if we are, there's an issue.
(27:37):
But the parents and coaches,they don't have a ton of time to
devote to thinking about allthese things because their job
is to fund it.
Their job is to get you there.
They've got a full-time job, sotaking care of the kid and then
being super involved in thesport, they don't have a lot of
(27:57):
like ability to pause and go.
Is this the right way to thinkabout it?
Because in reality, there's somuch going on and then this is
like oh my God, am I kids notplaying and she's not doing?
Well, you know, and it's thefirst reaction that a lot of
times happens.
And if the parent had the timeto sit and reflect, instead of
(28:19):
having that first impulsiveinstinct, which ever it's human
nature, this is this is what isreally really difficult about
youth sports.
Is that because the mostimportant interaction is
probably that kitchen talk, themost important interaction or
experience is what is said orthe perspective that impacts the
experience?
(28:41):
Um, but it is the.
It's the thing that isforgotten about.
It's the thing that doesn't getthe time or energy or space it
needs to really go.
Huh, how do I want to thinkabout this?
Would thinking about this adifferent way lead to a better
result for my athlete?
A hundred percent, but because,because it's what happens when
(29:03):
nobody's watching, because it'slike when we're about to go to
sleep or on the drive home.
It's not in the pressure of theof practice or lessons or games
, but it's what happens when,again, we're like winding down
and we need to emotional release.
It gets forgotten.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Right, no, that's such a great point.
You know about just the factthat we don't have the time to
take a minute and just to likereflect.
And I think reflecting onyourself as much as reflecting
on your child is so importantbecause you have to think about
are you helping your studentathlete or your child or are you
(29:50):
actually just kind of ventingonto them, right?
And then you know, for mepersonally, I think it took me a
minute to get to a point of thepower of kind of silence and
not responding to some of thenegative feedback, especially
with social media.
Now, right, like, I'll give youa perfect example.
We were in a tournament where Ihad actually younger kids
(30:12):
playing up into an age group.
That's full contact for hockeyand we ended up winning the
tournament.
We were down by two goals, cameback to tie, it won a shootout.
It was phenomenal.
The parents, it was ecstatic,it was exciting, it was such a
great moment.
And then we had a couple ofkids who were, you know, I had
(30:34):
like three different age groupson the team, so we had most of
them.
Nine out of 13 kids wereyounger or first year at that
age group, and we had a couplethat were second and a couple
that were moving up to the nextlevel.
And you see some of thenegativity coming out of some of
the parents who weren't a partof the experience, whether they
(30:54):
weren't invited or whether theycouldn't make it whatever it is,
and you're seeing that onsocial media and you'll you
realize that they are talkingwithout context.
They weren't there, theyobviously don't know the other
members of the team.
They have no idea how we gotthere or what that experience
felt like in the moment.
And it's almost like whattalking because you're bitter,
(31:17):
because you're upset over asituation where you, you know
you wanted to insert yourselfinto and instead of doing it in
a positive way and say, hey, Iwant to do this next time, how
do I get onto a team like that?
How do I put my kid into moreof those experiences so they can
get to experience it?
(31:37):
You're looking for ways to justbring down everybody else.
And I talk to the kids a lotabout this in the locker room
because I say that it's mucheasier to bring somebody down
than to bring yourself up.
And you know, I know youmentioned something earlier as
well.
You know, you know, probablyseen this all the time when you
have a kid who is not playing,who is a little bit behind the
(31:59):
eight ball or a year or two, andthen all of a sudden that kid
becomes a stud and they just youknow, they're your go-to player
.
It just took them a littlelonger to develop than other
kids.
So, you know, I think patienceis extremely important.
So how do you challenge that infolks and just getting them to
think about you know thepatience and hey, look at this
(32:22):
person.
This is where they were twoyears ago.
Your kid can be there in two,three years as well.
You just got to give it alittle time.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, patience is so difficult because in our society
we get instant gratification inso many things, and so now I
see this the most in the youthnow is everyone expects things
to be a little bit easier thanthey actually are, and if you
get the easy option, majority ofthe time it's not a quality
(32:53):
option, it's just fast.
So I was speaking with adifferent company and they kind
of broke it down in three ways.
You can either have fast andcheap right, like you've got
that option.
You've got your McDonald's andit's not going to be great, but
it's something right, it'ssomething you're going to have
(33:15):
fast and quality.
That's going to be like allright, the athlete that adjusts
the fastest is going to winright Fast, but it's going to
cost a lot.
You've got to invest.
You've got your time, yourenergy, your focus, or you've
got slow and quality right.
Those are the kids that are.
Maybe they don't, they're notgreat at 12 years old or in high
(33:42):
school, but they keep workingat it, they're diligent and
they're putting in their workand eventually their hard work
is going to pay off, no matterwhat.
And uh, you look at this fromthe lens of our population in
general.
Right, there's people thatexcel, there's people that are
winners.
They're successful.
Uh, and in in whatevermeasuring stick you have, in, uh
(34:07):
, you know, okay, there's peoplewith a ton of money, there's
people that are great atbusiness, there's people that
are great at communicating, atrelationships, at whatever span
right, and there's people thataren't.
And that's that's when wedevelop, and we put time and
energy into something we'regoing to get better at it, and
we put time and energy intosomething we're going to get
(34:27):
better at it.
It's just a matter of when youcompare sport to life which I
like to do in every singlesession that we teach because
it's so applicable it's that thepeople that devote time, energy
, work, a great mindset, thoseare the people that are
successful.
And there's people that just aregoing to choose not to be and
(34:49):
to choose that they don't havethat responsibility to get
better, and those are the peoplethat are kind of left behind.
And that's why there's greatperformers and there's MVPs, and
there's people that move on tocollege or professional because
they were diligent in all ofthese things, and there's MVPs
and there's people that move onto college or professional
because they were diligent inall of these things, and there's
people that aren't, and and thehardest thing for people to do
(35:14):
is accept the responsibility ofthat right it's it's to know
that this was always in mycontrol.
And maybe, maybe softballyou're not the most talented and
skilled softball player, butonce you start to do the
internal work and understandlike what you want to be great
(35:35):
at, maybe it's a softball player, maybe it's a writer, maybe
it's uh, you get your businessdegree and you start a business.
Whatever the case might be,it's you putting in the work,
it's not these other outsideforces not allowing you to play.
It's, it's you.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Right and you know to your point, I think that you
know the fear of that.
You know that failure, thatthat trickles through to your
professional life all the time,like you know if you didn't
learn it through sport when youget to a regular job and you
made a mistake, there's anxiety,there's fear, there's, you know
, there's just all theseelements that impact your
(36:15):
personal life and, obviously,your professional life.
You know that impactsconfidence.
You know I always tell kids andto own their mistakes.
So don't let somebody else takecredit for your mistake,
because that's the only wayyou're going to grow and get
better.
You know, and even if somebodyelse messed up, what could you
(36:38):
have done differently toanticipate that error?
Could you have moved into adifferent position?
Could you have opened yourselfup a little differently?
Maybe, you know, spot them like, cover them, like you knew they
were going to make a move andthere's a risk of them failing.
You could have been right therebehind them in case they missed
(37:01):
right.
And so thinking about, um,taking those uh opportunities to
own more of these mistakes andtaking that on yourself and
thinking through it improves you, not just when you have the
ball or the puck or whatever, uh, but actually when you don't,
and it improves your mindset ina game.
(37:22):
So you know, I I think that youknow, talking about using, you
know, sports as your kind oflike avenue to teach for life,
right, and being, uh, gettingpeople ready for that experience
and dealing with anxiety is so,so difficult.
Um, so do you have athletesthat come to you with you know,
(37:46):
as they train with youthroughout the years and kind of
share those personal challengesthrough at school, or you know
even relationships and thingslike that, and and what do you
usually, how do you usuallyhandle that?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
uh, yes.
So coaching girls you hearabout a lot of different things,
right, um?
And there's a definite linebetween a coach and a player.
You don't want to get so likeinvolved in their life that,
like you're like their friend.
I've gotten to a point, likeI'm 35 years old.
I definitely want that line oflike coach versus athlete.
(38:24):
I want to be able to relate andgive good guidance, but I don't
want to like get in the weedsand like know everything.
Um, but as far as advice andguidance, I I always fall back
to, um, I guess, one being proudof, like, the person that
(38:46):
you're becoming.
So what is going to make you,in 10 years, proud of what
you're doing or proud of howyou've handled this situation?
Always kind of a reflectiveperspective piece, cause I feel
like that's what I'm doing allthe time when I think about how
I'm going to coach these kids,like how would I have wanted to
be coached, um, or how wouldthis have helped me if I was 12,
(39:08):
13, 14 years old?
Um, and I think the the biggestpiece is knowing that whatever
issues that they're dealing withis going to feel like such a
small thing in the long run, andthey don't know that yet,
because they don't have thatperspective.
And just any failure?
(39:31):
Yes, we want to learn from it.
And because why wouldn't we beprepared for how we could take
ownership when we know that mostof the games that we're going
to be playing, there's going tobe at least one mistake?
So why wouldn't we be ready andmore able to adjust to those?
So that's a big one is like hey, let's be ready to be better.
(39:55):
And another one is knowing howto move on quickly when a
problem seems like really big inthe moment.
Just knowing that life's goingto go on, the game's going to go
on, there's going to be a nextgame, there's going to be a next
at bat.
So what's important now?
Right, that acronym, or I don'teven know what you call it WIN.
(40:19):
What's important now?
It's the next play, it's thenext thing that's going to
happen to you.
So, whether they're goingthrough relationship issues or
something's going on at school,or they're not playing or
they're not, x, y, z, what canyou do?
What can we actually do besidesvent about it and, yes, that
(40:42):
can be healthy in some waybesides complain about it or
make excuses about it, what elsecan we do?
That's going to be a healthyhabit for us to develop right.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
And then you know, speaking of that, I wanted to
talk a little bit about playingat the appropriate levels.
So I know you and I talked alot about um, you know being in
a situation where your child isnot playing right or your child
is not competitive at thatspecific level.
Uh, going back to this springteam that I just had, my goal
(41:13):
was to put together a teamthat's very, very even.
I didn't want superstars, Ididn't want um kids who are
still developing.
I wanted them to be even, sothat they can all have a part in
the game.
I wanted them all to be in thatexperience, in that moment, and
any one of them could succeedor fail the same way.
(41:35):
Essentially, maybe somebody isa little bit better skater, but
somebody is a little bit bettershooter, and that really it
worked out.
It worked out in the way that Iwanted it to.
But I was very mindful of nottrying to bring in players who
were too good and then everybodyelse trying to rely on that
player to win the game.
(41:56):
And so I feel like when we getinto the youth sports sometimes
we get into this Obviously wehave to manage the cost and the
expectation for the organization, because sometimes you just
don't have enough kids.
But how do you in Solveball,how do you usually try to manage
it, and do you have differentlevels of play or competition
(42:19):
that are more appropriate?
And if you do, how would youhave that conversation with a
parent?
Speaker 2 (42:24):
Gosh, that is very difficult and I think how you
put your team together is socool.
Nobody thinks of it like that.
Everybody wants the best playerbecause they're the best player
, right?
They don't think of it that way.
In softball, you've gotrecreational ball and you've got
travel ball.
Same with a lot of sports.
(42:45):
And then in the different agegroups it's say 14 and under, 12
and under.
So you've got the opportunityto have a nine year old play 12
and under.
But is that really what sheneeds?
Probably not.
Parent comes to me and says,hey, my daughter's not playing.
(43:08):
Sometimes they'll ask me toevaluate her, and it's really
tough, because at what level amI evaluating it?
Are they asking me to say isshe good enough to play 12 and
under travel?
At this point in the game ofsoftball there's so many
different levels of 12 and undertravel.
So it's all relative to theother people on our team.
Levels of 12-minute travel.
So it's all relative to theother people on our team.
To your point.
That's exactly the storyline.
(43:33):
She could play on this team,but she wouldn't play on this
team based on the relative skilllevel of the position that she
plays too.
So there's a lot of layers toit and it's something that a lot
of parents don't consider andit comes down to the travel ball
.
Coaches have a lot of power inthis.
They control a lot of people'sexperiences and in terms of
(44:05):
getting into an organization,that's, I think, is a big key.
A lot of parents that want tolevel their kids up, go from
recreational ball to travel ball, because that's in itself a big
step.
A lot of parents will go okay,it's time for us to go to travel
, and that time they don'treally realize that that's a
huge decision.
It's a decision in saying mydaughter is skilled enough to
(44:27):
play travel ball, my daughter iscommitted enough to play travel
ball, and a lot of times thatchoice is made by oh, all of her
friends are going, so let's go.
It's not an individual decision.
So that decision in itself ishuge.
And then I think there's adecision with the organization
that you choose.
(44:47):
And is that organizationcommitted to development?
Are they going to the or arethey mostly like, hey, you're
going to play a lot of games, oris it an organization that said
, hey, your daughter wasn'tplaying on this travel ball team
, but she will play on thistravel ball team?
So definitely, when makingdecisions, first one is
(45:10):
individually where is your childat, and that's mostly can she
play catch, can she do thefundamental things?
And then does she want to playevery day, because that's what
travel ball is right now?
So lots of decisions that Ithink I don't think a lot of
families truly give thought to,but they should because it's.
(45:33):
It's a big financial burden iftheir daughter isn't playing and
all those parents are stillpaying the exact same as kids
that would be playing.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, I actually.
I was listening um one of thenhl coaches and he said I can
guarantee you that you know hewas talking in terms of hockey.
That hockey, uh, is not a fairsport and he was talking about
youth coaching and he was sayingthat I can guarantee you that
there's no fairness in how muchice time or game time your child
(46:09):
will get.
Coaches don't stand there withstopwatch and switching out,
unless it's a rec league, ofcourse, right.
When it's an in-house they gorecreational.
Then you could press a buzzerand the next guys go and you
kind of just roll them and havea good time.
But if you're getting intocompetitive sports, he's like.
The one thing I can guaranteeyou is respect.
Every player on the team getsrespected.
(46:31):
Every team player on the teamgets coached.
Um, but if you are willing toput yourself into a situation
where it's a little bit aboveyour skill level or above your
group, you have to anticipatethe fact that you're going to
experience less participationtime in games, right?
(46:52):
So I always try to focusparents on the practice.
Is it focus on practice time?
Because practice time iseverybody's practicing,
everybody's involved,everybody's doing it.
But game time, if it'sobviously like a one-sided game,
again you're probably rollingthe whole team.
There's nothing really to worryabout.
But when it's a close game, atight game, a win or loss
(47:16):
matters and you know, and sothat's when you kind of have to
start deciding on you know whichplayers get, to go out there
for the last minute or two totry to win it, or the last pitch
of the game and trying to closeit out.
And to your point, I think thatat some point, when you
mentioned about making thatdecision and really thinking
(47:38):
through why you want to do it,why put your child in a
situation where they aresomewhat set up to fail in a
competitive level where they,let's say, are not ready for why
not let them practice foranother year?
Not why not let them grow foranother year and actually enjoy
the game?
You know, because nobody wantsto be that guy you know that or
(48:01):
the girl that gets picked last,you know yeah, and I think
parents will.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Parents need to know that the most power that they're
going to have is in thatdecision of what level to put
their child at or what teamthey're going to play on,
because after that, I love thatthat coach set the expectation,
because that's a big form ofcommunication by itself.
If that's the only thing that hesaid to the parents the entire
year, it would be hey, referback to what I said, remember
(48:36):
you remember this?
Like I said it, and maybe putthat speech in writing and have
the parents sign like hey, Iremember this.
But but I think a big issuewith parents and, um, what
happens during the season isthat a lot of them don't feel
communicated to and they have,they feel like they don't have
any power, like, oh my God, mykid is upset because she's not
(48:57):
playing.
Or oh my gosh, my kid is upsetand the coaches are not helping
her, and they feel powerless andthat's not a good feeling.
I know that.
But also we should have reallyunderstood that our power as
parents truly was in what wedecided to engage our kid in and
(49:18):
what thought was put into thatdecision.
Like that is it.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Right, I love that and I know we kind of coming up
on the hour here, but I wantedto talk a little bit about um.
You know, as we roll off thisexperience and and being uh, in
these situations where you'replaying different teams, maybe,
uh, you're not playing as muchor you're the opposite, you have
to continuously be the topplayer on the team.
(49:45):
And you know you have all theseother forces from your parents,
from social media, from othercoaches, the athletes coming in
from all different directions.
It's very difficult, I find,these days to stay confident,
especially as a young athlete,or to help.
And for coaches, obviously it'sa challenge because when the
child is constantly hearing yourvoice and they almost kind of
(50:10):
become a little bit immune to it, just like you know when, as a
parent, you say something seventimes and they still don't hear
you right, so it's similar onthe bench sometimes.
And so I wanted to ask you totalk a little bit about
developing that confidence andthen helping these kids keep it,
because I know that you talk alittle bit about developing that
confidence and then helpingthese kids keep it, because I
know that you talk a lot aboutthat in your content on social
(50:30):
media.
Maybe you could talk a littlebit about that.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Yes, I love this topic because I think it's so
critical to know differenttactics at doing this, because
different things are going towork for different kids.
Um, if a kid doesn't have theconfidence to go all out and try
or, uh, to try again afterfailing it's, it's difficult to
(51:01):
enjoy the experience and, interms of what we do, defense to
me in softball is much easierthan hitting.
Hitting you have to besuccessful three out of 10 times
and you're an all-star right.
It's very difficult.
The skill is, if you put themside by side, the actual skills
(51:22):
involved in hitting are muchmore difficult than defense.
So what I teach in general ismade to build, to build kids'
confidence.
So learning little skills andperfecting it and also being
around kids that are doing thislike trying to do the same thing
as you and all of you guys aresucceeding.
It's a really cool thing andenvironment to be a part of,
(51:46):
because when kids have thoselittle wins and they're
understanding the process ofgetting those little wins, that
translates and it might nottranslate directly to hitting,
but it translates to theirpresence, their ability to
intake information andunderstand how to apply it.
So we're teaching the kids,they're learning how to learn
(52:08):
essentially, and in seeing thatprocess it will build their
confidence.
So little wins is huge, um, interms of the language that is
used when built, when gettingthem those little wins, uh, you
want to kind of sandwichpositives together like, hey,
(52:29):
great, try right.
Or I love how you dove for thatball, let's.
And then it's the adjustment,let's try this.
And then hey, you got this.
I believe in you, right.
That kind of language is reallyreally important, especially
with kids.
I think it's important foreverybody, like that's how you
would want to be spoken to, um,and then just knowing that, like
(52:54):
constantly talking about theprocess and including failure in
that process, you don't justget the result, it's.
There's no easy button in sport, it's just the process.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
That's the the whole story right, no, and and you
brought up some great practicalpoints.
I love that and, you know, forthe folks listening, I think
it's so important to be able toapply some of that uh to real
life.
I actually have a question here, oh, thank you.
Thank you, christine.
How do you balance buildingconfidence and not pushing a
(53:27):
player so it looks like you'renot being too soft?
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Great question.
Um, and this is probably aquestion between, like, old
school coaching and new schoolcoaching.
Right, Old school, you'd hearit a lot, uh, like the yelling
and, and kids would look likethey're being just I don't know
like abused to a certain extent.
And then new school coachingcoaches are kind of fearful of
(53:53):
what they're going to say tokids, cause they don't want to
get fired or, like you know,reprimanded by parents or
something.
And uh, I think I balance it byI'm not a yeller anyways, I'm
just not.
But the type of language thatyou use, the timing of your
(54:14):
corrections is really critical.
So you can, and if you are ayeller, I would say it's the
language that you use and, again, the timing of the correction.
Because if you say in a big,huge game, big, huge moment, kid
makes a mistake, obviouslythey're upset about it.
If you have a coach that'sgoing to yell at the kid in
(54:37):
front of parents, in front ofthe other team, in front of
everybody, that's probably notgoing to build their confidence.
That's probably not going tobuild their confidence.
But like they make a mistake,they come into the dugout and
you've got a one-on-oneconversation just going.
Hey, that can happen.
(54:59):
They like what are we going todo to fix it?
You're probably going to get alot more trust in that athlete,
which, in turn, is going toallow them to have a better
experience, which is going tobuild their confidence.
Um, but yeah, uh, I think thebiggest thing is upholding your
standards, no matter what.
If something happens that thatyou've already set expectations
(55:19):
for the player didn't perform ormake an effort to uphold those
standards, it has to beaddressed and in that way,
you're not being soft, you'reapproaching it in terms of the
standard, the expectation, justlike we talked about with the
coach that set the expectationfor the parents.
If the standard is not upheld,then something has to be done
(55:43):
about it.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Right.
I love that.
I think it's so important to gothrough that experience as well
, because I think, you know,when I started my coaching
career, I was a very much, veryloud, obnoxious yeller and
getting it to you, um, verydemanding, and I saw a lot of
(56:05):
success with that approach, uh,but a couple years into it I
realized that, um, you know thatthat there's a better way, um,
and so I started listening to alot of other coaches great
mentors, mentors director of myorganization has helped me
develop as well throughout theyears, and I think that I got to
(56:28):
a point where I, as a coach,would help me is realizing that
my performance, or the theperformance wins or losses, is
not the measurement that I holdmyself accountable to.
It's really the experience ofthe athlete and how they come
away from the game, right, it'sthe relationship, it's the
(56:53):
locker room vibe, the feelingsyou have almost like a community
, right, like the culture, theculture of the room.
That is the measurement that Iwant to hold myself accountable
to.
And so when we were, you know,going down by two goals in the
(57:15):
third period, going against ateam that was very good team,
maybe even a little better thanus, it was all about plenty of
time left.
Let's keep going.
Who wants it, who wants to beout there, who wants to go for
it?
And no matter how much theseguys got pushed around or hit,
they just kept getting up andplaying, you know, and some of
(57:38):
them were crying and they keptplaying, you know, and I was
like you know, that's thedefinition of character,
resilience, right there.
And at that point, winning orlosing, we ended up winning,
which was icing on the cake,right, it's wonderful, but at
that point it's so much beyondit.
And so there's no need to yell,there's no need to freak out.
(57:58):
It's quite the opposite.
It's keeping your level head.
Don't panic, get the panic outof the way, right, as you say,
you know, if you're drowning,don't panic like.
Come down, try to find a way tofind a solution, uh, and so I
feel like that works so muchbetter than um, just reacting
agree.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
Yeah, if you're a coach or a parent, I just think
that those measurements are soimportant, deciding what you
want the athlete's experience tobe.
I mean, in my lessons we've gotthree rules I contact, hustle,
make adjustments and if my kidsare satisfying those rules,
maybe I'm not super happy ifballs are going underneath our
(58:42):
legs, but I have no reason to bedisappointed in their effort
and that's what we're, that'swhat we're looking at.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
Right and and you know some of those, you know I
think as coaches, we always lovethe moments where the game is
on the line and it's a tightgame or a one go, one point game
, and that's really when, ascoaches, really get to.
You know, experience thecoaching world.
Right, if you need to blow outone way or the other, you kind
of.
You know you got to go throughthe motions at some point.
(59:12):
But when you got those tightgames, it's really when the
character comes out and as acoach, you can coach through the
nerves, you could coach throughthe fear and all that stuff,
and that's I think you and Iboth touched on this earlier.
Uh, and how important that isfor athletes I have, yeah, just
(59:35):
high pressure situations likethat.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
That is the most emotionally charged part of the
game and it's where that's whatkids are going to remember.
So, as a coach, you have toknow that what you do in that
moment is very, very important.
That's exactly when coachinghappens.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
Yeah, love it.
I have another one morequestion from Christine about
describing coaching boys versusgirls.
Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
I coach 99% girls.
So my experience with boys isI'm the oldest sibling, I've got
two younger brothers who alsoplayed sports, and then we also
coach some little baseballplayers that come into the
facility.
So my experience in just how Iwould train them differently is
(01:00:25):
not really differently at all.
Girls want structure.
Girls want to be heldaccountable.
All kids do.
They just they just do.
And as far as like baseball play, or former baseball players
that are turned dads that arelike, well, I don't know how to
coach my daughter, I just I haveno idea.
I'm like, coach her like you'dcoach your son, the only thing
(01:00:48):
that I would say is a lot ofgirls want to be perfect at a
skill before they go and competeand a lot of boys want to play
the game, they want to competeand they don't care as much
about skill, they just want togo fast and they want to go hard
.
So the only the only differencein like in my head as a
reminder is that, uh, boyssometimes need help slowing down
(01:01:13):
to break down a mechanic, andgirls need a little bit more
boosting or like uh, I don'tknow help getting up to that
competition or fire mode.
So boys are already there.
Girls need some help getting tocompete.
Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I love that analogy you just made, because I didn't
think about it that way, butit's so, so true when you think
about the boys yeah, they justwant to play.
They may not be able to skateyet.
Boys, yeah, they just want toplay.
They may not be able to skateyet, but they just want to play.
Like what, if you play hockey?
Yeah, you know, it's so greatbecause I'll do like junior
rangers, like learn to play, andthe kids just learn how to get
(01:01:54):
up and walk across the ice.
And then they come to me at theend of practice and go can you
play hockey now?
and I'm like well, you can play,buddy, you're moving across the
ice, look at you.
You're so great, but can youplay hockey?
All right, you know, and thenyou have.
Yeah, you're totally right.
Then I do have a couple offemale athletes.
I have a great girl that was onmy spring team.
(01:02:15):
Now she's phenomenal.
Uh, such a powerhouse.
I think she's going to be anamazing hockey player, but she's
just so self-conscious.
You know, it just takes.
You know it's like.
You know she makes a mistake.
She comes to the bench.
I'm gonna stop, I made amistake.
I mean like you're so on pointwith that.
It's funny, I love it.
Um, thank you, christine, foryour questions.
(01:02:36):
Really appreciate it.
I have a comment from Evgeniahere.
The word soft makes it soundnegative, but in reality you're
treating the player as a fullhuman and developing them in
full capacity.
So appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
I think we could agree with that yeah, I don't
have any disagreement with that.
I think the issue is holdingthe standard and that's it.
Like, the standard is thestandard and whether you're a
new school coach or an oldschool coach, that is always the
role of a coach is for thatguidance to the ultimate
(01:03:16):
standard, which is to developfully functioning, well-adjusted
and balanced human human beings.
That is a really cool sideeffect of sport, and we get to
compete and we get to have thatfire, uh.
But yeah, definitely don't.
Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Don't disagree with that comment well, morgan, thank
you so much for jumping on theshow with me.
I do like to close out with afew rapid rapid fire questions,
so'm going to fire off a few ofthese three of them.
We'll start with the first one,about what motivates athletes
in your opinion.
Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Success.
I can go one word Successmotivates them.
Positive reinforcement.
Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Awesome, all right, if there's three characteristics
that you notice in successfulathletes, what would they be?
Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Consistency or self-discipline.
So they're doing the littlethings a lot, so they're doing
those things every day.
Let's see, oh gosh,adaptability, so the ability to
(01:04:41):
go in any situation and figureit out.
And then the last one, greatGosh, presence.
I'll say that Presence.
They are aware of how they arearound their teammates.
They bring energy, they don'tsuck energy.
Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Love it, love it.
And then the last one is kindof the opposite.
If there's three things thatyou think hold an athlete back,
what are they?
Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Victim mentality, so not taking ownership or
responsibility for your actions.
Jeez, fear of failure, that'san easy one.
We were talking about that thisentire hour and then, let's see
, holds her back.
(01:05:24):
I mean, be caring too muchabout what other people think.
I think is is something that isrelated to confidence, because
it's like, oh shoot, like I justlooked really dumb in front of
other people, but in reality,reality.
Talking about youth sports,everybody messes up.
(01:05:46):
And talking about professionalsports, everybody messes up.
You got to own it and move on.
Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Right, love that, awesome.
Well, thank you so much again.
I think this was a wonderfulhour.
I know you and I can probablytalk for hours, so maybe you'll
set up another one, a littlefollow-up, with more questions
For those folks who arelistening.
Please send in your questionsif you'd like.
You can send in your questionson Facebook, instagram, using
(01:06:13):
social media or email atthepodolskymethod at gmailcom,
and I'm happy to share them withMorgan and get you some answers
.
So feel free.
Please follow Morgan onInstagram and Facebook.
She's available.
She has a lot of great contentfor a lot of you folks out there
.
She's also has her own website.
(01:06:34):
It's Morgan-Stewartcom, socheck that out.
Right, did I get that right?
Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
right, exactly right awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
So there's a ton of content.
So if you haven't um seenMorgan's uh pages yet,
definitely recommend youchecking it out.
Uh, again, thank you everybodyfor joining.
Don't forget to check out thepodolsky method dot com.
The sound will be up uh for youto listen on your morning
commute tomorrow.
So appreciate everybodylistening and tuning in and
(01:07:06):
thank you for everyone whocommented live on the show.
Be on the lookout for moreepisodes, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
Thank you, we'll be right back.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.