Coaches

Video Intentional Coaching 2 - Building Leaders From Rob Miller in the intentional coaching series (the four avenues: athletes making great choices, building leaders, creating support through parents… Watch now Podcast Why Would I Need Anything Else? Skip Lord spent a career as a coach and athletic director at Houghton College — on mentors, turning points, and why he never needed anywhere else. Listen now Podcast The Kids Used to Pick the Teams GPAC commissioner Corey Westra on the biggest change in youth sports — it’s gone from peer control to adult control — and what parents hear in The Role of Parents in Athletics. Listen now Podcast The First Female Commissioner in NAIA History Lori Thomas, who hosts this series, on 30 years in sports administration — ten of them leading the Heart of America Athletic Conference, and building a pro volleyball club from the ground up. Listen now Podcast Twenty Years, Four Sports, Three States Scott Rosberg, athletic director at Park High School in Livingston, Montana, on two decades coaching basketball, football and soccer across Illinois, Montana and Washington. Listen now Podcast A Program That Had Never Won — Then 36 Straight Jon Frazier, head boys basketball coach at Summit High School in Bend, Oregon from 2011 to 2024, who inherited a program with no winning seasons and left it a state champion with an Oregon record. Listen now Video Feedback Is the Norm On building a program where feedback is expected rather than resented — the growth-minded standard Bruce sums up as “expect it, accept it, embrace it.” Watch now Video What Is Your Track Record Reframing what a coach's track record really is. Topics covered: how a track record creates credibility, trust, confidence, and hireability; why wins and… Watch now Video What Drives Your Team Drawn from 20 years of watching thousands of high school and college teams — on the six things that drive teams, presented as an ascending ladder with the… Watch now Video Walk Away Drill On practicing — not just preaching — composure under provocation. Topics covered: the realization that coaches explain how to behave when tempers flare,… Watch now Video Turning Around Athletic Programs Delivered with a hand-drawn U-shaped curve representing a program's decline and recovery — on a key truth about turnarounds. Topics covered: why most… Watch now Video Trust on Teams Drawing on the presentation and booklet The Impact of Trust. Topics covered: how visible high trust and low trust are — you could watch two teams practice… Watch now Video Thematic Approach to Teaching Character - #1 - Character Traits & Quotes Recorded on a spring day at his Camano Island, Washington home overlooking the bay toward the Cascades, where Proactive hosts its coaching retreats — the… Watch now Video Thematic Approach to Teaching Character #3 - Spotlighting The final segment in his three-part series on teaching character through sport with themes of the week or month (part one: choosing traits and bombarding… Watch now Video Thematic Approach to Teaching Character #2 - Presenters Second in a three-part series on teaching character through sport using a thematic approach (part one covered identifying the character traits your sport… Watch now Video Tale of Two Teams Comparing two teams that do the exact same job in radically different ways — and what that means for any team culture. Topics covered: the flat tire on… Watch now Video Stages of Coaching On the five stages coaches reside in — which we largely get to choose, and which your athletes can identify for you instantly. Topics covered: the… Watch now Video Stages of Athletes On the predictable stages every athlete moves through, and the coach's job to be what each stage needs. Topics covered: the joy stage (pure love of… Watch now Video Shared Joy On the two kinds of pride — drawn from the Life Lessons booklet and the Captains and Coaches workshop. Topics covered: the bad kind of pride (arrogance,… Watch now Video Self-Correct On self-correction as a motivational and teaching technique used by great coaches. Topics covered: the standard model of immediate correction (simple,… Watch now Video Red Shirt Warriors Recorded on a beautiful fall day on Camano Island — telling a story he uses in his presentation The Impact of Trust, about what allows you to be trusted.… Watch now Video Preparing for a Parent Meeting On the pre-season parent meeting — one of only a couple of official parent meetings a coach gets (the other being the end-of-year banquet), and a one-shot… Watch now Video Power of Trust with Rob Miller Power of Trust with Rob Miller (Short Clip) Watch now Video Positive Intent Recorded in January from California's Central Coast, where he escaped the cold to spend time with grandkids — on a communication concept for teams. Topics… Watch now Video Overview of Shaping On shaping — the third stage of teaching a character trait (define, model, shape, reinforce) and the one where coaches start to lose their effectiveness.… Watch now Video Methods for Selecting Team Leaders Surveying the different methods of choosing team leaders — all drawn from his book Proactive Leadership (page 50), written as a semester's worth of lesson… Watch now Video Life Lessons for Athletes Recorded in the Proactive guest house on Camano Island, where coaches, team leaders, and athletes come for retreats — introducing the presentation and… Watch now Video Life Lessons and Trust The closing video of a four-part Proactive Coaching mentoring series for teachers, coaches, and school athletic programs (the speaker is not named in the… Watch now Video Leadership - Leaders Must Be Developed Leadership - Leaders Must Be Developed (Short Promotional Message) Watch now Video Jackass Farm Built around a memorable line from a crusty old baseball coach at a multi-sport clinic early in Bruce's career: "If you keep 24 great kids, you can keep… Watch now Video Intentional Coaching 1 From Rob Miller, the first in a series on intentional coaching — the process of developing intentional teams through athletes' choices, leader… Watch now Video Improve Your Team Covering two sides of the same coin. Topics covered: the only six ways to improve any team — athletic, school, youth organization, NFL, or business… Watch now Video First Rate People Hire First Rate People Recorded in his favorite reading spot in the guest house — drawn from the Impact of Trust presentation and booklet. Topics covered: the three things that… Watch now Video Faceless Opponents On a concept he introduced to a successful Division I football team whose coach assigned him to cut down their personal-foul penalties. Topics covered:… Watch now Video Every Athlete Has a Story Recorded from his home on Camano Island, Washington — on one of Proactive's core beliefs: every athlete you coach has a story, and as coaches we need to… Watch now Video Defining Athletic Attitude Drawn from the booklet Teach Attitude First and the Power of Your Words presentation — on actually defining the word coaches preach most. Topics covered:… Watch now Video Dad's Home On the advice he received in his forties that he wishes he'd had in his twenties: how to transition from coach to family each night. Topics covered: the… Watch now Video Cutting On one of the most difficult parts of coaching: cutting players. Topics covered: seeing tryouts from the player's side — the courage it takes to come out… Watch now Video Culture Traits of Good Teams with Bruce Brown Culture Traits of Good Teams (Short Clip) Watch now Video Culture Feedback with Bruce Brown Culture Feedback (Short Clip) Watch now Video Controlling Your Thermostat On managing the emotional "coaching thermostat." Topics covered: why coaching is an inherently emotional profession and why frustration is normal — the… Watch now Video Commitment - The Five Levels On commitment — answering the question coaches always raise ("we need more commitment from our athletes") with the sharper question: commitment to what?… Watch now Video Coaching Against a Vision On a different way of framing who you're really coaching against. Topics covered: the trap of coaching against opponents — playing up to good teams and… Watch now Video Coach Wooden Telling a story that he says changed his life, especially his life as a coach. Topics covered: young Bruce in his twenties, hungry to grow ("I thought I… Watch now Video Building Confidence – Believe in Them On one strategy for building confidence in athletes: believing in them before they're successful, so they can believe in themselves. Topics covered: why… Watch now Video Building Allegiances On how coaches can build allies — because coaching is a lonely job at times, and anyone who coaches long enough will face attacks, often from parents who… Watch now Video Best Players, Best Workers Best Players, Best Workers (Short Clip) Watch now Video Beliefs on Changing Behavior The companion piece to the five-step Power of Your Words process — laying out the beliefs coaches should hold about changing athlete behavior. Topics… Watch now Video Additional Questions for Challenging Athletes Extending his presentation The Power of Your Words on working with challenging athletes. Topics covered: a recap of the five-step behavior-change process… Watch now Video 7 Ways to Develop Role Players On building teams where every role is understood, embraced, and celebrated. Topics covered: why every great team has multiple roles that must all be… Watch now Video 7 Steps to Resolve Team Problems On resolving team problems — because the only guarantee in any athletic season is that there will be issues (playing time, injuries, behaviors), since you… Watch now Video 5 Steps to Changing Behavior Expanding on his presentation The Power of Your Words — the coach's ability to help kids change behaviors when they don't arrive with the attitudes the… Watch now Video 4 Roles Drawn from The Role of Parents in Athletics — one of Proactive's most-requested presentations, with companion DVD and booklet built almost entirely from… Watch now Video 10 Traits of Successful Athletic Programs Distilling the common traits he sees in great athletic programs from working with teams around the country and the world, offered as a self-assessment for… Watch now Video 10 Thoughts for When Your Team Is Stuck in Average Recorded outdoors by his fireplace on a cool spring day — offering ten thoughts for leaders whose teams are stuck in average: winning what they "should"… Watch now Video 10 Thoughts for When Your Team Is Struggling With ten strategies for leaders whose teams are flat-out struggling — including seasons you know will be hard before they start. The ten: bring tremendous… Watch now Video 10 Thoughts for When Your Team Is Performing Well The companion to his struggling-team and stuck-in-average talks — on what leaders must keep doing in the middle of a great run, rather than sitting back… Watch now Podcast Not a Teacher. Seven State Titles. Wiley Allred, a farmer who coaches football at Royal City High School, on nine championship games in 20 years, recruiting his own hallways, and the home visits that earned a community’s trust. Listen now Podcast I Committed as a Sophomore. I’m Glad the Rules Changed. Whitney Jones, former Husky pitcher now coaching at Washington, on calling her college coach every week at 13, the player-to-coach transition, and “who we are is why we win.” Listen now Podcast Basketball at Its Purest Trice Ham, national champion wheelchair basketball coach and Team USA staff member, on the day his program’s words stopped matching its results, and building a culture where it’s safe to fail. Listen now Podcast Two Rival Schools, One Conversation Tom Bendt, longtime Oregon athletic director, on the ambassador program he built with a rival school’s AD, the summits that followed, and why everybody — including the AD — needs to be coached. Listen now Podcast Building Protectors Tim Corbin, head baseball coach at Vanderbilt and 2014 national champion, on why conversations with his daughters reshaped what he asks of his players, and working a team from the inside out. Listen now Podcast The Players Haven’t Changed. The Parents Have. Sue Doering, 39 years of volleyball and 25 straight top-four state finishes at Colfax, on high but reachable expectations, multi-sport athletes, and never tying success to winning. Listen now Podcast Two of My First Four Wins Came in the Mail Steve Ridder, 30 years and nearly 700 wins at Embry-Riddle, on inheriting an 0–22 team with no scholarships, the faculty vote that saved his job, and the three P’s that kept him in one place. Listen now Podcast Football Isn’t Complicated. People Are. Steve Morton, 40 years as a college and pro football assistant now coaching high school, on the coaching carousel, the toll on family, and why losing his college career turned out to be a blessing. Listen now Podcast Sports Doesn’t Teach Character. People Do. Rob Miller on the research most coaches have never seen — and the four-step model that makes life lessons intentional instead of accidental: define, model, shape, reinforce. Listen now Podcast If All They Learn Is Baseball, We’ve Failed Them Scott Salow, 27 years without a losing season in a Michigan village of 1,800, on the national-record 75-game winning streak, three state titles, and a roster with fifteen captains. Listen now Podcast Winners Get to Run Scott Rosberg on positive conditioning: why punishing kids with sprints contradicts everything you tell them about fitness — and what happens when running becomes the reward. Listen now Podcast We Practiced at 9 P.M. in a Warehouse Scott Dulin, who built Fisher College’s entire athletic department in two months with no uniforms, equipment or field, on dodging pillars at night and the airport conversation that found him a ballpark. Listen now Podcast Accountability Is a Form of Love Scott Centala, former pro player and consultant to Olympic, MLB, NFL and special operations teams, on psychological safety, permission to fail, and “I got your back” versus “I gotcha.” Listen now Podcast Bigger, Stronger, Faster — and They Don’t Know the Game Rob Miller on why young athletes have never been more trained and less taught: speed camps for seven-year-olds, schemes over skills, and the youth coach’s actual job. Listen now Podcast When Cheering Becomes Harassment Rob Miller on the exact line fans cross — from yelling, to using a kid’s name, to something personal — and the officials crisis that follows when nobody names it. Listen now Podcast We Won State. It Was the Worst Experience of My Life. Rob Miller and Lori Thomas on why culture beats talent: core covenants instead of T-shirt slogans, what respect looks like in action, and creating leaders rather than waiting for them. Listen now Podcast Positive Demanding, Never Demeaning Rob Miller on the four keys to a successful season for youth coaches: commitment and planning, teaching real skills, motivating without demeaning, and building a team out of bodies that keep changing. Listen now Podcast You Get What You Allow Nick Brown, head basketball coach and award-winning English teacher at Arlington High School, on banning “we should have won,” radical honesty, and nights for custodians and the band. Listen now Podcast The 0–20 Team They Followed Anyway Mike Lowery, Marysville, Washington basketball coach from a family with three Hall of Famers, on the winless season he loved, the manager named Wheels, and finding out who you are as a coach. Listen now Podcast I Joined the Dark Side Mike Cashman, high school and Division I coach turned basketball official, on the officials shortage, what makes a great one, and the player whose “you’re a liar” changed how he coached. Listen now Podcast We Never Fired a Coach for Losing Mick Hoffman, executive director of the WIAA, on changing the culture of four high schools and eight middle schools at once — covenants with action statements, and hiring aligned to them. Listen now Podcast First I Had to Get Over My Own Ego Michelle Sabourin, head cheer and stunt coach at Alma College, on building a program from nothing, defining passion, unity and tenacity in action, and redefining success before the wins arrived. Listen now Podcast The Three Touches That Changed Columbia Michael Aufrichtig, head fencing coach at Columbia and a three-time NCAA champion who had never coached before, on ending an 18-year drought, Moneyball recruiting, and customizing your communication. Listen now Podcast Permission to Speak Freely Matt Kincaid, Gonzaga walk-on turned professor and leadership consultant, on why leaders stop hearing the truth, what candor does for a team, and the ninth-grade coach who believed in him. Listen now Podcast Married to the Program Maggie Corbin, wife of Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin, on Omaha and Donnie Everett, caring for the staff’s families, and her advice to a young coach’s spouse: celebrate his passion. Listen now Podcast Coaches From Mars, Players From Venus Lori Thomas, former pro volleyball player and NAIA commissioner, on what coaches need to know about the female athlete — the six C’s, professional boundaries, and Anson Dorrance’s senior letter. Listen now Podcast I Coached Out of Fear of Losing Kent Shelley, 1,000-plus wins in 34 years at Johnson County Community College, on the season his best talent lost, recruiting heart instead, and using captains as a lifeline. Listen now Podcast Can’t, Not Won’t Keith Orchard, mental health specialist for the Coeur d’Alene School District, on how chronic stress rewires a kid’s brain, behavior as communication, and teaching poise as a skill of the game. Listen now Podcast What George Washington Taught Me About Hiring Jud Damon, athletic director at Flagler College, on five core covenants across a whole department, the Student Athlete Experience commitment, and hiring for character and competence. Listen now Podcast Their Hardest Day, Our Warm-Up Josh Stewart, head basketball coach at Lodge Grass on the Crow Reservation, tells his own story: Chief Plenty Coups, the name Twice a Leader, his brother’s suicide, and a state title with no timeouts. Listen now Podcast Twelve Words on a Business Card Josh Cordell, boys tennis coach at Summit High School in Bend with seven state titles in nine seasons, on building a program from scratch, grit and grind, and passion paired with compassion. Listen now Podcast The Zone Is a Skill, Not an Accident Jordan Lewis, founder of Headstrong Health and a former college basketball player, on mindfulness as trainable attention, the three keys to living mindfully, and why avoiding hard emotions backfires. Listen now Podcast After Practice, We Were Dad and Son Joe Harris, Hall of Fame Washington high school basketball coach for 31 years at two small schools, on coaching his own son — who went on to the NBA — and teams that outwork people and play together. Listen now Podcast Firm Hands and Open Hugs Jody Sears, head football coach at Sacramento State, on inheriting a talented but rudderless team, building identity through core covenants, and being demanding without coaching through fear. Listen now Podcast One Rule: Do the Right Thing Jim Clem, 1,100-plus wins and six Halls of Fame, on the four areas he trains behind a single rule, why nobody should care who gets the credit, and finding a mentor in a lonely profession. Listen now Podcast Tell Me Who I Am Jerry Gaines, Virginia Tech’s first African American scholarship athlete, on integrating a high school in 1965, his father’s homemade ballpark, and the question every kid is really asking adults. Listen now Podcast Don’t Call Me Coach Jeremy “Sheets” Sheetinger, head baseball coach at Georgia Gwinnett, on dying to your ego daily, the unpaid years that cost him a marriage, and the classroom that meets at 1:30 every day. Listen now Podcast I Thought Winning Would Be the Easy Part Jenny Eustice, head dance team coach at Iowa and a three-time national champion dancer, on learning to coach the person, senior leadership, and the two quiet seniors who became phenomenal leaders. Listen now Podcast More Than Words on a Wall Jason Slater, Montana school superintendent, on taking core values past the poster — defining, modeling and reinforcing them with teachers, aides, administrators and the school board. Listen now Podcast So What? The Next Pitch Is Coming. Heather Tarr, head softball coach at Washington, on losing her starting catcher two weeks before a 23-0 start — and the language that keeps a team playing pitch to pitch. Listen now Podcast Don’t Let This Steal Your Joy Donnie Bostwick, national champion men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma Wesleyan, on the hour after COVID cancelled the tournament, meekness as power under control, and coaching aggressive mistakes. Listen now Podcast Hire Teachers, Not Yellers Don Pellum, 30 years at Oregon and now inside linebackers coach at UCLA, on staff continuity, growing from driver to listener, and what he actually looks for when he hires. Listen now Podcast You Wouldn’t Be Any Good at It Dennis Janzen, six-time NAIA national champion volleyball coach at Fresno Pacific, on the counselor who told him not to coach, a 373–18 final decade, and going captain-less with 14 leaders. Listen now