Coaching Craft

Article What do my athletes actually want from me as their coach? Athletes want a coach who believes in them before they succeed, teaches well, and asks for feedback — Bruce Brown's five commitments show what that means. Read now Article How do I help my team bounce back after a tough loss? Bring the energy yourself, eliminate excuses, and refocus players on behaviors they control — attitude, effort, preparation — then celebrate small wins. Read now Article What should I study in my first year of coaching? Study how coaches grow: learn the five growth stages, avoid the First Years survival traps, and find a mentor — Bruce Brown's first-year plan. Read now Article What are the signs of coaching burnout — and how do I avoid it? Coaching burnout shows up as fatigue, cynicism, irritability, and feeling your full effort is never enough. Bruce Brown's answer: coach for significance. Read now Article What's my job on game day — how much should I actually coach? Your game-day job is to model poise, keep it simple, and teach less — athletes do what you do. Bruce Brown's game-coaching principles, explained. Read now Article How do I plan a practice that doesn't waste anyone's time? Give every drill a purpose, write and post your plan, and sequence new skills early and fundamentals late — Bruce Brown's practice planning principles. Read now Article How do I build trust fast when I'm the new coach? Athletes trust coaches for three reasons: professional preparation, personal caring, and consistent character. How to build all three fast as a new coach. Read now Article Should I take a job at a program that keeps burning through coaches? Usually not — constant coach turnover points to the administration, not the coaches. Bruce Brown's red flags and green flags for evaluating a coaching job. Read now Article How do I prepare for a coaching interview? Prepare two ways: rehearse values-based answers, then bring Bruce Brown's Green, Yellow, and Red Light questions to rate the school's chance of success. Read now Article I just got my first head coaching job — what do I do first? Start with a written plan: philosophy, standards, and the season's critical points. Bruce Brown's Four Keys — plan, teach, motivate, build a team. Read 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Podcast They Think the Fight Is Over Denise Wescott, Hall of Fame lacrosse coach and the first woman to sign a letter of intent at Maryland, on living Title IX, coaching the German national team, and the decline of women coaching women. Listen now Podcast I’ll Never Tell You What You Want to Hear Dean Lockwood, associate head women’s basketball coach at Michigan State and 15 years with Pat Summitt, on the coach who promised him the truth, and reversing the interview to check for alignment. Listen now Podcast The Front Porch of the Community Darin Boysen, executive director of the Nebraska Coaches Association, on the leadership summits reaching 1,500 athletes a year, and why relationships never meant coddling. Listen now Podcast Make Where You Are the Big Time Danny Miles, 45 years and 1,040 wins at Oregon Institute of Technology, on three national titles, what it took to earn the name “Oregon Tech guy,” and protecting your marriage and family. Listen now Podcast Put On Your Humility Hat Corinne Immel, Hall of Fame dance coach who took over her own former team at 21, on the workshop that changed everything, surviving a nine-month season, and why she stopped fighting the January slump. Listen now Podcast I Will Never Forget How Hard This Game Is to Play Blake Hawksworth, former Cardinals and Dodgers pitcher, on the manager’s line that let a clubhouse exhale, rehab one day at a time, and editing your life to stay on the narrow path. Listen now Podcast Capable, Not Comfortable Billie Moore, first coach to win national titles at two schools and head coach of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, on coaching athletes for what they can do — and mentoring Pat Summitt. Listen now Podcast Champions Act a Certain Way Bill Brosseau, who helped bring lacrosse to the Pacific Northwest, on dignity and respect, practicing the way you want to play, and thanking the 91-year-old coach who gave him his first stick. Listen now Podcast Cutting a Player Is an Act of Care Becky Carlson, head rugby coach at Quinnipiac, on the five reasons letting players go got so hard, reframing endings as care, and being curious over furious. Listen now Podcast There Is No Bench Becky Acra, championship cheer coach from a small gym in Great Falls, Montana, on a sport where every size and shape is valuable, knowing each athlete’s story, and leading with love. Listen now Podcast We Will Not Have a Bad Day Andy Affholter, retired girls basketball coach at Granger High School (WA), on the poverty poster in his locker room, winning with undersized teams, and losing the battle to win the war. Listen now Booklet Youth Coaching - 4 Keys to a Successful Season Not long ago after speaking at a coaching clinic, I was asked by a local coach if I would visit basketball practice for his team of eleven-year old boys.… Read now Booklet Positive Conditioning Team Building Through Positive Conditioning" — describing how to transform conditioning from punishment into a privilege that builds teams. Brown lays out… Read now Booklet Assessing and Improving Athletic Programs A roadmap for successful athletic programs and the role of coaches, athletic directors, administrators, and communities. Drawing on visits to hundreds of… Read now Article When Good Coaches Get Attacked This article by Bruce Brown, Mike Morgan and Randy Bates of Proactive Coaching, from the Intentional Coaching collection, examines how upset parents… Read now Article Turning Your Program Around This article from Proactive Coaching, written by Rob Miller and included in the Leadership collection, tells the story of how the McPherson High School… Read now Article Transitioning Athletes What the HS coach owes the feeder coach, and what the feeder coach owes the HS coach. Read now Article There Was This Coach There Was This Coach: 6 Motivational Concepts for Great Coaches Read now Article The Multi Sport Athlete This article from Proactive Coaching, written by guest writer Stephanie Hauser, Athletic Director at Stevens Point Area High School in Wisconsin, examines… Read now Article The Coach This article from Proactive Coaching is a tribute piece reflecting on the true role of a coach. It argues that while any team can lose, a coach never… Read now Article Ten Traits of Successful Programs For over 20 years of traveling and working with teams and coaches, one of the biggest benefits is witnessing greatness when you are around it. One thing… Read now Article Team Crisis Management Team Crisis Management (Proactive Coaching) Read now Article Talent This article from Proactive Coaching, written by Tim Driver of Proactive Coaching LLC, examines how our culture handles talent. It identifies two cultural… Read now Article Take The Job Or Not This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching offers warning signs for young coaches deciding whether to accept a head coaching position. It… Read now Article Surviving A Tough Loss This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching addresses how coaches can recover from devastating losses. Prompted by an email from a young Colorado… Read now Article Strong Program Assessment This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, taken from the booklet "Turning Around Athletic Programs," presents an assessment checklist for… Read now Article Stages of Coaching Stages of Coaching: Critical Points in Coaching Development Read now Article Role Of Coach This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, from the Intentional Coaching #2 collection, is an excerpt from the booklet Youth Coaching, 4 Keys… Read now Article Recruiting Red Flags This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching LLC explains how the most successful coaches look beyond talent when recruiting athletes. It details… Read now Article Questions For The Essence Of Coaching This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, from the Intentional Coaching collection, is a reflection tool subtitled "The Power of Your Words."… Read now Article Protecting Yourself From Problem Parents Coaches - Protecting Yourself From Problem Parents Read now Article Program Is In Trouble Assessment This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, an excerpt from the booklet Turning Around Athletic Programs, is an assessment describing Level 3… Read now Article Planning and Coaching – Coach as a Professional This article by Bruce E. Brown is an excerpt from the Proactive Coaching booklet "Youth Coaching: 4 Keys to a Successful Season." It argues that a coach's… Read now Article Planning For A Parent Meeting This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, an excerpt from the booklet Youth Coaching, 4 Keys to a Successful Season, explains how coaches… Read now Article One Small Change This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching encourages coaches and Athletic Directors, whose schedules often take them away from their own… Read now Article No Good Way To Cut Players This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching addresses one of the worst responsibilities of coaching: cutting players. Drawing on decades of… Read now Article No Excuses This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, taken from the booklet "Turning Around Athletic Programs," argues that eliminating excuses is a… Read now Article Mentor Coaches This article by Bruce E. Brown, from the Proactive Coaching Intentional Coaching collection, makes the case for intentional mentoring programs for… Read now Article Lessons Of The Legends This article from Proactive Coaching, written by John McCarthy and included in the Intentional Coaching #2 collection, shares lessons drawn from an… Read now Article Job Openings This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching presents a satirical job posting for a high school basketball coach to illustrate the demands,… Read now Article Job Career Or Calling This article by Bruce E. Brown, from the Proactive Coaching Intentional Coaching #2 collection, challenges coaches to be the coach they would have liked… Read now Article Growth Stages of Coaching This note describes the stages a coach moves through over a career. The goal is to shorten the first two stages, reach significance, and stay away from… Read now Article Game Coaching Thoughts This article by Bruce E. Brown is an excerpt from the Proactive Coaching booklet "Youth Coaching: 4 Keys to a Successful Season." It presents general… Read now Article Game Coaching This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching LLC, an excerpt from the booklet "Youth Coaching, 4 Keys to a Successful Season," offers general… Read now