Kim Jones.

Strength and Conditioning Blog

Last November I interviewed for a Strength & Conditioning position at El Camino College in Torrance, California. After a successful group interview with a hiring committee, I was offered the position and gladly accepted. Now if I were to show you a picture of our weight rooms on campus, you would be astonished, and possibly even appalled. I do not have much to work with, but I get the job done. Outside of my Athletic Performance internship at UCLA, I have not been afforded the opportunity to coach at schools with unlimited resources. Because of this I am able to adapt, think outside of the box and find innovative and efficient ways of holding training sessions.

When Megan asked me to write something for this blog I wondered what I would say. What could I share that we all haven’t heard before? Then I thought back to a comment a strength coach made to me during the last 2012 CSCCa convention. When I told her I was a strength coach at a Junior College her response was, “That’s great, but don’t you want something better?”

My thought was, “this IS better!” Heck, I’m programming for football, baseball, men’s basketball and men’s volleyball! I work 32 hours a week Monday through Thursday, but I get paid the same salary as a 40 hour a week employee. I have great benefits, and an awesome retirement plan. My hours allow me to train private clients before and after work for supplemental income. So when I hear experienced, dedicated and qualified female strength coaches talk about their struggles obtaining top tier teams, (at Division I Universities), I appreciate just how fortunate I am. Would I like more Division I Universities on my resume? Sure. But, does a bigger name signify how skilled I am? Is my experience as an Assistant Strength Coach at California State Northridge, (a Mid Major Division I), less significant than someone’s who has worked in the SEC, Pac 12, or Big 10? That is food for thought.

Now, here is the real scoop on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Strength & Conditioning at the Junior College Level. First, I am considered a classified employee, not a full time faculty member. This is relevant because the conditioning and lifting classes are technically not mine. Students register for classes under the full time, certificated faculty member’s name, not mine. Also, students that are not on a team can take these strength and conditioning classes. Therefore, when I train men’s volleyball, for instance, I train the student athletes, and the faculty member (the head coach or assistant coach) takes the other students. I execute my training philosophy freely, and carry out my own programming. I do not have ANY resistance whatsoever from coaches about how I implement training sessions.

Now, technically, if the teacher is not there I cannot train the team. They can’t step out for 30 minutes because they have a meeting with a studnet, or because a coach from a 4 year wants to meet with them about some of their athletes. The coach must be there, since it is their pre-season/off-season class. Nine times out of ten they are there, but it is a weird reality for me sometimes. I have no problem training the team in front of the coach, but I’m accustomed to doing my thing whether the coaches are there or not. There is definitely a feeling of restriction to a certain sense. Yes, I am the one responsible for training the athletes, but if budget cuts start to eliminate certain Physical Activities classes, I could lose out on the opportunity to train certain teams. There is currently a situation occurring where students will be unable to enroll in a Physical Activities class that they have already taken. Remember, pre-season and off-season trainings are only offered through classes (Physical Activities classes). What will happen to a sophomore who enrolls in a pre-season strength & conditioning class, when they’ve already taken the course as a freshman? Coaches are working around the rule, but you can see how being restricted to a class time can be…well….restricting!

Here is where things get hairy. If a sport is in the off-season, or pre-season the ONLY time they can lift or condition is during the schedule class time. So, if a student fails to register for a class on time and does not get it, he will miss the sessions. I also cannot meet with coaches and schedule lifts based on athletes’ class schedules, and the coaches availability (which is what I was accustomed to coming from a Division I system). Technically, athletes are NOT covered by the school’s insurance (pre and post season), if they are not enrolled in a class. Keep in mind; practices are also classes in which students must enroll. So sometimes students have jobs that conflict with practice or training, or another class takes precedence (because they need it for eligibility), so they aren’t available during my training time etc. Once teams are in-season I have full reign. Right now I train men’s basketball in our main weight room without any of the coaches there. This is legal, because they are in season. We can lift at any time during the day, and we have the freedom to re-schedule lifts on different days and times etc.

Ultimately, what is my goal as a strength coach at a Junior College? It is to become a full time faculty member, who offers strength and conditioning classes for the student athletes. The head strength coach at College of the Canyons, a school in our conference, has this type of position. Full time faculty members become tenured after 3 years, and automatically get a $2000 a year raise each year (despite the fact that California’s budget is in the crapper!) Also, most faculty members at El Camino College are making 6 figures, easy. With my previous teaching and coaching background, I can be earning that six figure salary in no time. Fortunately, Education has legitimate pay scales that can guarantee a specific salary. There is no guess work. There are steps that can be reached based on upper level degrees and years of experience. They won’t offer an arbitrary number, for a salary. There is a carefully calculated scale that dictates exactly what a teacher will make. What a novel idea. Our profession seriously needs to adopt a similar system. Faculty members at El Camino College are compensated handsomely for their schooling background and valid work experience. I don’t know about any of you coaches, but I want to get paid what I’m worth. I’m at a place that will afford me that opportunity. Hell, what is “better” than that?


Kimberly Jones
Notre Dame Academy: Assistant Women’s Varsity Basketball Coach ’03 – ‘04
Notre Dame Academy: Head Women’s Varsity Basketball Coach ‘04 – ‘08
Notre Dame Academy: Strength and Conditioning Coach:’06 – ’08 (basketball, volleyball)
UCLA: Athletic Performance Intern 2008
California State University, Northridge: Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach ’08 – ‘10
United States Tennis Association: Strength & Conditioning Specialist, 2011
El Camino College: Head Strength & Conditioning Coach/Exercise Fitness Specialst
​Teams: Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Men’s and Women’s Volleyball, Softball, Men’s and Women’s Soccer, Men’s Golf, Water Polo, and Swim

Week 6 of Prep Steps ™

Week 6 of Prep Steps ™
Days 27-BONUS

Day 27—As coaches, we definitely know that effective relaxation and breathing are valuable skills for everyone, especially high level athletes. Has anyone incorporated breathing exercises or yoga in your teams’ routines? If so, what results have you seen/experienced?

Day 28—In the “boiling waters” of stressful schedules, high expectations and pressure toward positive results, how are you changing those around you for the better? Are you coffee-like... exuding a rich aroma that makes others smile? (Maybe this one is a little more rhetorical, but hopefully is challenges us all to examine ourselves!)

Day 29-30—Will you make it a point to convey these Intangible extremes to your teams and to help them understand the character of a true TEAM player? Speaking for myself, many times I was selfish as player and did not even realize it! Maybe some of your athletes fight the same battles?

Day 31—None of us are born automatic winners, and none of us are born automatic losers. We are all born CHOOSERS! We all have choices, and our choices matter. Are your small, penny-sized choices moving you closer to where you would like to be, or further from your goals, dreams and aspirations? We are always moving in one direction or the other :)

BONUS—One of the biggest distractions for college athletes? Relationships… love! Love is more than feeling or emotion, but a choice. Our feelings and emotions are very strong and quite real, but they are not reliable… REAL but not RELIABLE. Can we find ways to validate our students’ feelings while challenging them to make choices based on something more reliable than emotion?

Thank you for following along on this Prep Steps™ journey. Hopefully many of you have benefitted, even if you have not had the time to post on this blog. Thank you for everything you do each day to instill positive work ethic and character in the athletes you train. There is no more honorable title than that of a “Coach”. From one coach to another, thank you for all you do!
--CB
@CharityButler (Twitter)
www.exceed-sports.com

Week 5 of Prep Steps™

Week 5 of Prep Steps™
Days 21-26

Day 21—We live in a culture of instant gratification. Honestly, I get impatient if my iPhone takes more than three seconds to respond! Likewise, our athletes do not have to wait for much of anything. Information is instant. Coffee is instant. Even microwavable food is instant. What approach do you take to help athletes see the “big picture”… to understand that over time, hard work really does pay huge dividends?

Day 22—What are your observations in the difference between confidence and cockiness?

Day 23—How do you define focus? How do you encourage this type of focus in your athletes?

Day 24—In order to maximize our athletes’ focus and ultimately their resulting performance, in what ways can we practically apply the mental light switch?

Day 25—Even as an adult, I find myself struggling to keep a positive attitude 100% of the time. We all face challenges. How can implementing the “Replacing” strategy make a difference for you personally?

Day 26—The foundation for effective refocusing is laid well before major mistakes or obstacles occur. So often, our athletes feel the weight of the world on their shoulders during competition because they feel their value and worth as people are directly linked to their performance. With this approach, when athletes perform well, they feel valuable/successful. If they perform poorly, they feel like worthless failures. How can we help our athletes see their intrinsic value as people? How do we help them see they have value because of who they are… period? When their value and self-worth do not hang in the balance with every play or every game, mistakes are less earth-shattering and much easier to overcome.

Prep Steps™ Week 4

Prep Steps™ Week 4

Days 17-20

Day 17

When your athletes do experience injury, how do you approach working with the team coaches, athletic trainers and doctors?  Determining what is best for the athlete and balancing various agendas can be a challenge!  Please share your experiences, so we can all learn.

Day 18-19

Startling Statistics:  The mortality rate of anorexia is twelve times higher than that of all other causes of death for females ages 15-24.  Surprising?  One of the reasons this issue is so dangerous:  Only 1 in 10 receives treatment. 

Body image, disordered eating and ultimately eating disorders are fragile topics, but addressing them is absolutely necessary.  Our female athletes need advocates for their health physically, mentally and emotionally.  How can we foster awareness and be the support some of our girls desperately need?

Day 20

Do you have any secrets for rest and recovery?  Has anyone studied Glutathione, the “Super Hero of antioxidants”?  This enzyme plays a huge role in recovery.  These short videos are fascinating!  http://abcliveit.com/site/Glutathione.html

Cori Dayton's Prep Steps Part 2 at Xavier

Nearing the last few weeks of our Women’s group that has seeded from the Prep Step concept we wanted to figure out what are the possibilities from here and ultimately if the group was a success.  We need to know how the girls find their experience and how we could improve it if we were to have a second group.  We took a lot of factors into account when deciding how to promote this group, but we also had variables we did not anticipate.

 The idea of meeting once a week to discuss bettering yourself seems great, but we need to take into account other views.  One of those views could be the student athlete’s feeling of it as “another obligation”.  We planned to eliminate this feeling by making the group participation on a volunteer basis, include food and other enticements. We also thought this would encourage high interest and participation during group meetings since they volunteered to be present.   Despite our plan, we were sad to be informed we still had some people who were inconsistent with their effort, participation and interest in the group during the meetings. This could be for a multitude of reasons including person issues that student athlete was experiencing.

 Lack of personal contrinbution and other issues can easily cause a lack of trust within the group. These and more could be factors that significantly impacted that individual’s experience and the group as a whole’s ability to move forward through sharing.   The amount of time (10 weeks) that the group met could not have been enough to develop a trusting environment for group sharing.   We realized this dynamic balance exhibited our Musketeer values “All for one and one for all”.  The group is there to help the individual, but the individual contributes to the group.  And on the negative component the one individual can hold back the group’s ability to build trusting foundations that encourage opening up to deeper matters.  A significant factor to success of our group is their ability to create a confident trust circle.  We will focus on that if we repeat the group with new individuals.

At the conclusion of the sessions we will meet with the counselor, those involved in the planning process and get input from the student athletes.  This will give us a better idea of whether we reached our goals and what kind of experience the student athletes received. After we deem the project a success, or handle necessary changes the question is… what’s next?  We could have another small group of sophomores for the second semester and repeat the entire process in hopes of improved group dynamics. 

There is the option of applying for the class to become academic credit.  While this is not per say hard or impossible, it involves a long process with a lot of red tape.  It would take 1-2 years minimum to achieve. Applying to be a course in the university requires providing syllabus and class concepts.  This is slightly against our original intent to cater to the individual, as well as promote dependent group thought and leadership.  We have concepts to discuss, but no concrete syllabus in which there are chapters and tests correlating to a schedule.  Being a University course brings us back to our original concern of the obligation of the student athlete to be there. The last thing we want is a begrudged athlete sitting in a “class” feeling forced to talk about their feelings.  We want them to be in control of their actions and make decisions and what they choose to participate in. We need to empower our young women to make their own decision and take actions they believe in. 

A quote from our original stated goals:  “develop the skills and confidence to overcome challenges and become successful women in the community”.    This implies that the individual develops the skill, not that we teach them how to be successful, or tell them how they should handle their lives.  These are experiences they will face.  Hopefully, no matter where this concept goes from here (class, second pilot group, or otherwise), we will continue to be a confident resource for these young women as THEY discover their path through life.

Now the ball is in your court…

Do your athletes see you as a resource if they face adversity?

What type of impression are you making as a role model representing women in athletics?

What can you do in your institution, with your teams, to promote development of young women?

-Cori Dayton

Xavier University

UWV's Beth Bryon Shares Implementation of Prep Steps

After receiving a copy of Charity Butler’s “PrepSteps” book during the Women’s Strength Coaches Breakfast at the CSCCa National Conference in May I was intrigued to read it but out of skepticism. I have to be honest. I don’t buy into a lot of self-help books with the concern that the values that they hold and advice that they offer are not practical or are full of watered down ideas about the reality of what hard work and perseverance can bring. Honestly I had my doubts about this apparent ‘self-help’ workbook that I was holding in my hand. However after hearing Charity share with us from her personal experiences as a student-athlete and going through many of the same things my athletes do I felt encouraged to keep an open mind and give it a chance. There is no stronger testimony than personal experience.
I started reading through the book during my flight back to Pittsburgh later that weekend. I was pleasantly surprised with how much honest and valid advice was being given in this book! I thought the pages on helping the reader understand what their roles and values are- requiring you to honestly examine yourself- was a great start and thus enabling the reader to better understand their priorities and how they manage their time. When I got to the pages on nutrition and strength training my guard went up. As I read through those pages I was relieved to see true facts and practical advice being given. To be sure that I was being consistent I asked our dietitian to read through those pages and make sure that she approved.
Next I shared the book with some of our sport coaches to get their opinion on the book. To me it is very important to receive honest feedback from those that I trust and respect, this helps me check myself and what I’m doing. They all had positive things to say about the book and were supportive of anyways we could implement it with our student-athletes.
Here is how I have used the PrepSteps book:
I’ve chosen to focus on using the book with just the Gymnastics team for right now. Since we cannot require the girls to do the workbook we knew that some would not utilize it to its full value and therefore cause us to spend money that is not properly used. After discussing some ideas with Charity over the phone and receiving her permission I have selected 8 days from the book to introduce to the girls. Each week, on Thursday I present a new day from the book to the team and they each receive a photo copy of that day’s pages. We have done this for the last 7 weeks now and will be doing one last week next week! Here are the weeks we have discussed:
Day 1: Roles & Values- I felt it was so important for them to understand these two concepts and to really examine themselves and what they value. This also sets them up to better understand their priorities.
Day 4: Priority Wheel- We all know how important it is for our student-athletes to manage their time well; to do so they must recognize which of our daily activities are a priority.
Days 12 &13: Nutrition Myths- Talking about these myths and bringing to light the true facts is something our female athletes can’t hear enough of. They are so bombarded with information about diets their friends or family have tried, supplement claims thru the media, etc.
Day 18: “Girls Only” Female Athlete Triad- This was a must! I’m so glad Charity did such a great job at including all areas of this disorder. These young women need to understand how their hormones affect their entire physical make-up: body composition, bone health, recovery time, metabolism, etc. Unless they are in sports nutrition or human physiology class they may not get all this information. No doubt the female athlete triad is an issue for any women’s sports program regardless of what your training gear or uniform looks like!
Day 20: “Rest & Recovery”- I don’t think our athlete understand how valuable sleep is to their training and performance. Many have a “work hard, play hard” mentality. These pages really brought this into perspective for them.
Day 31: “Choices to Exceed”- It was funny to see the reaction of some of the girls when I revealed to them that choice “B” would yield them over $5million in 40 days! This caught their attention on the idea that we need to carefully consider consequences for our choices and to persevere through hard work to reach our goals.
Bonus Day: “Love”- This is my absolute favorite day in the entire book. So many of our young women have a false sense of what love really is- and some many never hear it and are crushed by the lies! No matter what the relationship is we need to remember that love is not how we feel about someone (or say we feel about someone), it’s about how we behave towards them.

Prep Steps™ Week 3 Days 12-16 of Prep Steps™

This is YOUR week! Strength and Conditioning Coaches, it is your turn to enlighten me… and each other :)

Days 12-13
What are the biggest challenges you face concerning nutrition for your athletes? What techniques, activities or approaches do you find most beneficial in overcoming these challenges? Be practical here… share the knowledge and help each other discover new and better ways to train and communicate!

Day 14
You all are a WEALTH of knowledge in this area! Again, share practically, please. How do you help your athletes overcome these workout downfalls? Let’ learn from each other.
Poorly Focused
Unrealistic
Borrrrring!
Trendy
Vein
Too Careful


Day 15
If you are anything like me, at some point or another you have challenged yourself or other athletes to give more than 100%. How does the statement “There is no such thing as 110%...” affect your perspective?


Day 16
Have you seen athletes who “bucked” the Prehab system and ended up suffering injury as a result? How do you encourage your athletes to buy-in to this all-important aspect of training before they get hurt?

Thank you for your continued input! What an incredible opportunity for so many to come together from different places and programs. If you have not been participating so far, no worries! You can start now. Feel free to post on some of the older articles, as well. Continued input and discussion is the goal.

Have a great week.
-CB

Prep steps week 2

Week 2 Days 6-11 of Prep Steps™

Week 2!  Welcome back and thank you for all the incredible discussion so far.  If you have not had time to read through the comments from Week 1 or if you still desire to contribute to Week 1, go for it!  This blog is very flexible and meant to fit you, so make it yours at whatever pace works best.

Please have the courage to post your thoughts.  We can all learn from and challenge one another, even with one liner comments.  Also, encourage your friends to work through the process and post with us.  The process is rich and deep due to the peoplewho participate :)

For those of you who have completed days 6-11, feel free toshare your thoughts:

Day 6

First of all, did anyone actually try the 10 Minute Strategy?  Did you make progress on anything important to you as a result?  Are there any of you out there who did not try the strategy but will publically commit to trying it this week?  You have plenty of coaching sisters to hold you accountable here!

Day 7

How can we help our athletes grasp that “activity does not equal achievement”?  How can we encourage them to “work smart” (both in their training and in life)?

Day 8

Do you find that your athletes enjoy setting goals, or do they seem to fear the process?  Do you use any specific goal setting strategies that help them better execute the process?

Days 9-10

Which study tips do you see as most beneficial for your athletes?  In what academic areas do they need to improve the most?

Day 11

When setting goals for performance, compare a focus on process thinking with an obsession over results.  What are your thoughts?

Cori Dayton and Xavier's Use of Prep Steps

Monday Evening:  All of your classes are done, your team had a great lift, and you’ve made it through practice. Now you’re heading to the women’s center on campus for a group meeting in which you will have food to replenish your body and a group of fellow female student athletes to nourish your soul.  This is a real Monday for 10 of our sophomore female student athletes thanks to an idea which was inspired by Charity Butler’s book Prep Steps: 31 day guide to success for female Student-Athletes. So…How did we go from a book purchased from a speaker in a women’s breakfast to a weekly empowerment group to benefit our female student athletes?  Let’s start from the beginning.

After getting the book at the Cscca conference I decided to give it a try personally and see how it would apply to my life now, as well as maintain a reflective view from when I was a student athlete.  I found the book to be extremely flexible and applicable to my life as well as helpful for when I was a student athlete.  I felt this had potential to benefit our young ladies; we just had to figure out how to implement the idea.  After discussing with our strength staff, we met with the Academic Department.  They were excited and supportive and together we were able to come up with some ideas.  But first, we had questions….

1.       Who would this most benefit?

Freshmen have seminar classes and are almost overwhelmed with resources to help them be successful as a student athlete. Juniors have leadership and next step resources and groups to help them as they are gearing up for their next step in life.  Seniors have many resources from resume, interviews, internships, job connections and more.  We identified the sophomore year as the most beneficial for this program.

2.       Are there any NCAA complications?

As long as it is an optional group, there are no NCAA complications.  The group has no relationship to countable athletic activities (purely volunteer basis by the individual athlete).  No information including attendance will be shared with anyone outside of the group including coaches.  If you are getting sponsors for the meals, supplies, or books; make sure they are cleared through the compliance department.  We utilized the NCAA athlete opportunity fund to purchase the books for the group.

3.       What information are we going to present and discuss?

This is where the Prep Step book played its biggest role.  We discussed a few different approaches.

-Follow the book 1 day at a time and every Monday discuss the last 7 days.  (4-5 weeks)

-Break the book up into sections that contain similar information (10-12 weeks)

We decided second option would be the best fit. 7 days is a lot of material to cover, as well as separated some similar topics.  For example: Day 1-5 is about you, and your goals.  Day 6-10 deal with you/time management, and then 11 moves back into goal setting. If we discussed by week,  the first week would stop mid management discussions, then pick up the next week with that while moving on to other topics beyond goal setting up to day 14. Using the second strategy we clumped together days in the book that had similar concepts and found natural sections in which a new topic is introduced. 

                As we were breaking it down we had a lot of discussions regarding the individual style of the book.  It is really great for personal reflection, but we were unsure of how successful it would be in a small group.  That is when our original concept took its biggest change.  There was a GA in the Academic department who had counseling/psychology background, who was a student athlete, and had a special interest in female populations.  Her experience and unique view inspired the idea of a Socratic style group in which the girls become leaders themselves and decide what the group will discuss.  The counselor took ideas, topics and concepts from Prep Steps, and then added more psychological and social issues.  She developed concepts to discuss with the group but no strict syllabus or timeline to follow.  The girls were truly empowered to discuss issues that were relevant to these 10 individuals.

                Our final product became a small group able to talk about hard situations or issues that our female student athletes may be facing. We also were able to incorporate more material specific to the females because we were not repeating information from Prep Steps that was already covered in the freshman seminar the year prior.  The group is a guided introduction to working through and understanding yourself and your actions.  After the group is done meeting, we will give them Prep Steps so they can continue their journey individually, but with some help.  Ultimately we hope they develop the skills and confidence to overcome challenges and become successful women in the community.

Week 1 Days 1-5 of Prep Steps™

Welcome to week 1 of the Women’s Strength and Conditioning Book Club.  This week we will discuss days 1-5 of Prep Steps™, so join the conversation.  Feel free to answer one question or all questions below, but you have a voice here.  Use it!

Day 1:

For those of you who are up for a challenge, you can take the “Values” exercise from Day 1 to another level.  Print the list of 400+ Values found here:  http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/list-of-values.htm.  Then narrow the list to 20 words that represent your most important values.  From the 20 words, narrow to 10.  From the 10 remaining words, choose 5 values that matter most to you right now.  The third round is challenging since there are no wrong answers and many beneficial options available.  You can do it, though; be decisive!  This exercise is all about you.  Once you have determined your top 5 words, write them in a place that is visible to you daily.  Take several days to process how well your ideal values and your current reality align.  This is a very personal exercise, so feel free to share as much or as little as you wish about your insights.  Did anything surprise you?  What stands out to you from the challenge?

Day 2:

Determining our 3 P’s will hopefully inspire big dreams and aspirations.  Dreaming big, however, can be surprisingly painful and disappointing because we will inevitably encounter failure.  If we reach every goal we ever set and never experience a letdown, then we are not dreaming big enough!  We are not pushing hard enough.

What do your athletes fear?  What boundaries are they timidly approaching, rather than fearlessly attacking?  What is standing between them and greatness?  How do we, as coaches, help them squash their doubts and exceed even their own expectations?

Day 3:

According to ESPN the magazine (referring to high profile athletes), “The more unusual the skill and the harder it is to replace, the higher its price will be.”  High profile athletes are paid mega money because they are experts in one area.  They are not pretty good at many different skills or sports; they are the best in a very specific-niche area. 

In the world of athletics, why then, do we tend to spend more time improving our weaknesses than building upon our strengths? Would it be more efficient to spend greater energy developing strengths rather than correcting weaknesses?  Strengths produce the expert-type niches, those that are unusual and hard to replace.  On the other hand, you are all thinking that balanced strength is crucial for training purposes, and the quote from Michael Jordan (maybe the most high profile athlete of all time) seems to fly in the face of the above argument.

So, as a strength and conditioning coach, what is your opinion?  Should coaches focus more on athletes’ strengths or weaknesses? 

Day 4:

True success requires discipline and balance across all aspects of life.  We see “successful,” but miserable, athletes in headlines almost daily.  All the accolades and money in the world are empty without depth in other areas.  How can we help our athletes find or maintain a balance in all areas of school, sports and life? 

Day 5:

We will revisit goals next week, but are there any other ideas or elements not discussed in days 1-4 that would help your athletes in setting good goals?  Do you have any goal setting exercises or tips that you use with them?

Prep Steps™

The Women’s Strength and Conditioning Blog Book Club is officially underway!
For the next 7 weeks, all of you have the opportunity to work through your own copy of, Prep Steps™ 31 day guide to success for female Student-Athletes. The approach is simple, but the process holds profound potential.
Based on the various topics in Prep Steps™, the book is divided into 6 sections. Each week we will review four to six days from the book, and every Friday, a short article relating to the days read will be posted. Feel free to write in your copy of the book and make this process personal. The weekly articles are meant to spark discussion, encourage collaboration and generate new ideas together, so please join the conversation!
You can jump right in by reviewing days 1-5 between now and Friday, October 12, then check back here and share your thoughts. Looking forward to this group growing and learning together!
--Charity Butler
Author Prep Steps™


Prep Steps™ Book Club Calendar
October 6-12: Read Days 1-5 (Article 1 posted 10/12)
October 13-19: Comment on previous article; Read Days 6-11 (Article 2 posted 10/19)
October 20-26: Comment on previous articles; Read Days 12-16 (Article 3 posted 10/26)
October 27-November 2: Comment on previous articles; Read Days 17-20 (Article 4 posted 11/2)
November 3-9: Comment on previous articles; Read Days 21-26 (Article 5 posted 11/9)
November 10-16: Comment on previous articles; Read Days 27-BONUS (Article 6 posted 11/16)
November 17-23: Comment on previous articles

Book Club- Prep Steps™

Women’s Strength Book Club

Over the next few days, you should be receiving a copy of the following book, thanks to author for the donation of her work and the CSCCa for providing shipping.  Read the following post from Charity Butler, which explains her book and look for a new post on how we will go about sharing our knowledge gained from following this month long process.  

The opportunity to share with so many influential women is absolutely an honor!  You are an incredible group, and you embody true strength:  physical, mental and emotional. 

Now is the time to build on your strengths and empower each other, to create unimaginable synergy among yourselves.  The Medical Dictionary defines synergy as:

synergy  syn·er·gy (sĭn'ər-jē)
n.
 The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

You women are the agents and the forces that can propel true synergistic progress.  There are nearly 100 of you on the email list and many more who have yet to be invited.  Your combined effect is much greater together!

In an effort to make the Book Club both manageable and affordable, Exceed Sports and CSCCa joined forces to supply a Prep Steps™ book for each female member.  Each coach can participate in the Book Club at no cost.  In addition, it only takes 15 minutes a day of quiet, self-reflection to keep up with the material.  You can do this, and you will actually enjoy it! 

If you have not received a book and would like to participate in the Women’s Strength Book Club, please contact Megan Young at 919.308.3236.

Prep Steps™ is a 31 day guide to success for female student-athletes.  It is a tool created for girls who are in school and competing in a sport.  The goal of Prep Steps™ is preparing female athletes for school, sports and life.  (Learn more here:  http://exceed-sports.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=7&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=141.) Beth Byron of West Virginia University won a Prep Steps™ book at the 2012 CSCCa Convention, and she says, “I would love to see all of the female student-athletes at WVU work through their own personal copy of ‘Prep Steps’.”

In addition, with inspiration from Prep Steps™ Cori Dayton of Xavier University has started her own pilot program for sophomore female student-athletes.  She hopes this experimental group will develop into a full credit hour course in future years.  Cori shares, “We are excited and honored to launch this program for the Fall 2012 year, on the 40^th Anniversary of Title IX.  Like this significant law that expanded opportunities for female athletes, we are proud to continue offering our young female athletes opportunities for success.”

Xavier and other universities interested in providing copies of Prep Steps™ are making use of the Athletic Department’s Opportunity Fund to launch their Prep Steps™ programs.  Exceed Sports is also working to develop a group curriculum for Prep Steps™.  We are learning from these pilot efforts to create the final program.  Exciting days are ahead.

Just imagine the contributions and impact we could all have working together and learning from one another while taking the 31 day journey with Prep Steps™!  Although this book is designed for athletes, I have worked through Prep Steps™ myself several times.  It continues to challenge and encourage me.  I am confident it will do the same for all of you.  The book will also prompt you to connect with your athletes from a new, fresh perspective.  Commit 15 minutes each day for 31 days to complete the process.  I dare you!  In fact, think of it this way:

“A designed beauty of synergy is that it serves only to add, never subtract.”
—Barb Rententbach, Synergy (2009)

When it comes to synergy and collaboration, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, both as an individual and as a group.  Grow together.  Challenge each other.  Share ideas.  Become better for yourself and for your athletes.  Let Prep Steps™ be the inception of something incredible:  the synergistic effect of powerful, determined female coaches. 

Keep dreaming big and training others to do the same,

Charity Butler

Author Prep Steps™

charity@exceed-sports.com

www.exceed-sports.com

@CharityButler 

(Please follow me on Twitter, so I can #followback and keep up with the latest and greatest in the world of Strength & Conditioning!)

 

Anne Tamporello's 5 Point List

We each have our own unique experiences as Athletic Performance coaches.  Some of our experiences are etched in our minds as the most exciting and memorable of moments, while others are used as lessons learned for the future.  Over the years I have catalogued the advice of veteran coaches combined with proven business methods to formulate a five point list of some of the most important concepts commonly encountered in our field.

1.       Do a great job where you are.

                During the summer of 2011, planning strategies for a looming Big XII conference realignment had Baylor University bracing for what would be a major financial setback within our athletic department.  While formulating plans for a drastic shift in resources for athletic performance, I consulted the advice of a former mentor, Coach Mike Clark.  The first piece of advice Coach Clark shared was to “continue to do a great job with your current responsibilities.”  He mentioned that universities will always be apprehensive of letting go employees that have great rapport and a direct impact on its students.

                It is vital that individual coaches understand their title, role, and responsibilities within a staff.  People rarely get promoted to higher level positions without first demonstrating the ability to be a great steward of the resources currently entrusted to them.

2.       Be flexible with sport coaches.

                Because of NCAA time constraints, it is likely that over the course of a year no other coach spends as much hands-on time with student-athletes as the Athletic Performance coach.  Despite the inevitable athlete to coach bond that formulates over hours of hard work and sacrifice, we must always remember the sport teams we work with are not ours.  The bottom line always begins and ends with the head coach; your agreement or disagreement with their philosophies is irrelevant.  As a supporting branch of a team, it is your duty and responsibility to echo the message of your head coach to their athletes. 

                Most sport coaches will present a workout or exercise to the athletic performance coach that they believe will help their team compete.  It is also likely that this request is against everything you would prescribe as a professional in this field.  Perform this request with energy and belief to gain the trust of your sport coach, and then get your money exercises in another training session.  Trust is a two way street and in order to receive you must first give.

3.       You are always interviewing.

                Many coaches believe they are only being interviewed when they are flown to campus with resume in hand.  This is a dangerous mindset that could stunt your professional growth almost immediately.  To call a spade a spade, Athletic Performance is a “who you know” profession.  The moment you accept any position on a staff, you are interviewing for a future position.  Sport coaches and Athletic Performance directors understand how quickly moves are made in this field; therefore they consistently observe other strength coaches, formulating a hypothetical “dream team” in the case they ever need to quickly put together a crew. 

                Your conduct with all athletes, how you support or do not support the message of the head coach, your conduct at meetings and conferences, the ability to be loyal to the mission of the department, your reputation in social settings, the ability to be proactive on the job, and a score of other scenarios all affect your own professional perception.  Any time you are in the presence of other Athletic Performance directors you are being interviewed, and seasoned directors know within thirty seconds of laying eyes on you if you are on their short list.        

4.       B.L.U.F. first.

                In a profession dominated by male mindsets, it is important for females to learn effective communication skills that can help get our points across to coworkers and supervisors.  One of the worst, although natural, tendencies for females is to unnecessarily over communicate thoughts and feelings to a group of men.  The single most effective skill I have learned and utilize on a daily basis when speaking with men is Bottom Line Up Front.  If a man asks a question, answer in as few words as possible, typically “yes sir” or “no sir.”  Then, if asked to elaborate, we can explain outside circumstances or thought patterns.  All too often, men ask a simple question only to get an over detailed and emotional explanation.  If you do not want to be ignored amongst a group of men, answer directly and firmly, remembering to elaborate only when prompted.

Note: When asking a number of coaches to proofread this article, 100% of our male colleagues indicated mastering this point would solve the majority of miscommunications between men and women.

5.       Be Positive.           

                This might be the most overlooked and underrated characteristic for those looking to advance within our profession.  As coaches, we must develop the mental resiliency to consistently respond productively to negative situations.  An unwritten truth lies within each of our job descriptions demanding us to solve the inevitable problems that arise on a daily basis and not point fingers or pass the blame.  When choosing to keep a positive mindset despite a potentially negative environment, one may be surprised that what seemed like the worst possible situation was really not so bad after all.   

                I often recall the following “Doomsday Report” from a former colleague when utilizing this mindset before speaking with sport coaches… 

The head coach from a major university was asking the strength coach about one of his star athletes.  Fresh off a disappointing training session, the strength coach let his emotions get the best of him and began telling the head coach the athlete had a terrible day, would not listen, and did not have any passion or energy during the session.  The head coach then looked the strength coach directly in the eye, let a few seconds pass, and sarcastically stated in front of the whole staff, “Well I guess we just did a terrible job recruiting, didn’t we?  We should all pack our bags right now and turn in our keys because our strength coach can’t get our top recruits to do what he says.  Why do they even call us ‘Coach’ anyway?”   

                To help avoid embarrassing learning lessons such as this, remember to always speak to sport coaches about their team in a positive light.    

Impressions....from Master Strength Coach Raychelle Ellsworth

1^st impressions……..making LASTING impressions

As I enter my 19^th year of coaching, I find myself STILL excited about another Fall semester rolling around and the challenges it will present.  Looking back I have to smile to think how far I have come both professionally and personally and what a journey it has been.  Recently I was asked to share some thoughts about women in our field.  What I’m going to talk about is basically 2 things that I think are vital in our profession….making good 1^st impressions and making lasting impressions.

I think that when we chose to get into this profession we also signed ourselves up for being role models to athletes (both our own athletes, and other athletes at our school).  I think we have an obligation to model what we expect our athletes to be….strong, powerful and fit.  When I 1^st starting coaching, I coached football as well as my teams.  Football was a great motivation to me to truly gain the respect of those athletes.  They were “respectful” of me because I was a coach, but I think most of them thought they knew more about lifting than I did and therefore didn’t really respect my coaching ability.  As silly as it sounds my thought process to fix this was “I am going to getting bigger and stronger so they are confident in my ability to give a solid lift out or a spot”.  The harder I worked out, the more muscle I built, the “smarter” I became in their eyes.  Soon they were asking me for technical advice on lifts or asking me about supplements.  They were no longer viewing me as a female, but simply as a coach who loved the iron and who was bringing it day in and day out…the same that I was asking of them.   All I am trying to illustrate is that your physical stature can impact how your athletes view you.  Take a long look in the mirror and honestly answer the question “if I was an athlete, would I trust this person to lead me down the path of greatness?” 

The other thing I want to touch on is making lasting impressions with your athletes.  I am a “tough love” kind of coach.  I want things done a certain way, if they aren’t, then we keep doing it til it is right.  If an athlete or a team messes up, we deal with it immediately and sometimes harshly, but then it is forgiven and we move on.  I hold my athletes accountable for working hard, having a good attitude, being respectful of all coaches and each other regardless of the whether they like the workout or not, what kind of day they have had, etc.  I am also their number one fan…..no one is more excited when they hit a PR in the weight room or do something spectacular on the field/court or even if it’s just getting some well-earned playing time.  I treat all my athletes the same, whether they are a returning all-american or a walk-on that is a practice player.  There have been times that I have jumped on kids and in hind sight maybe it was either too harsh or unwarranted…..and I have always brought them into my office and looked them in the eye and apologized.  I follow that up by also apologizing to the team and let them know that I messed up and “owned” it publically.  Bottom line, if you have structure and discipline along with respect and enthusiasm for your athletes, I think you are setting them up a great college experience….and I guarantee that when they look back, YOU will have made a lasting impression.

Unrelenting……ray

Letter from Master Strength Coach Teena Murray

They say we don’t start thinking about giving back until we’re in our 50’s and on the downhill side of the slope.  Well, I’m not 50, and I’d like to think I’m still climbing, but I have started to think more about giving back.  Specifically, I’ve been thinking about ways I can give back and provide support to the young(er) female professionals in our industry.   I hate to admit it, but it is still a man’s world, and collegiate athletics (strength and conditioning in particular) is no exception.  Our numbers have grown (at last check there were about 125 of us in Division I ranks – 38% of full-time positions) but the quality of the positions we fill and related salaries are unimpressive.  In addition, opportunities for advancement are often very limited.   So what are good women (passionate about the field) to do?  For starters, I think we need to come together in our vision, agenda, and support for one another.   I recently visited Seneca Falls, NY – site of the First Women’s Rights Convention, out of which came equal rights legislation granting women the right to vote- and it gave me an appreciation for the power of a unified front and voice.  The ability to impact change is certainly greater when we are unified and speaking the same language.  Perhaps sharing our stories and struggles and creative ideas with each other (over email and phone calls and visits with people in your area, and this blog) can help us?  Perhaps it can even lead to similar great (and overdue) outcomes?     If I can offer any immediate advice, it is that we begin to act more like our male counterparts in ‘taking care of each other.’  For whatever reason, males do this instinctively.   We are all too familiar with the ‘good old boys’ mentality.  Well, let’s work on a establishing a ‘good old girls’ mentality.  Let’s promote each other, support each other, challenge and stretch each other.  Whether we agree or disagree with each others’ training philosophy and periodization strategies let’s do more to make each other better, and help each other be successful.  After all, we are in this together!   As with our female athletes, the greatest barrier we often face is our own lack of confidence.   Too often this is the reason we fail to take risks and/or push for what we deserve.  We work longer and harder, and take on more projects and responsibilities for no change in compensation.  Meanwhile, we are often as educated, knowledgeable and experienced (or more) as the males who are aggressively promoting themselves- and pursuing and obtaining.     OK, so here is my challenge to all of us women in strength- contact, visit, call, or email one female strength coach every month (for a total of 10-12) this school year.  Get to know each other.  Share ideas.  Share your challenges and frustrations.  Offer support.  Nudge each other to get uncomfortable!  By the end of the year (at CSCCa in May) let’s see if we can’t create a forum for discussing and sharing our experiences and brainstorming ideas for future success. You in?

Talking about Stress

Whether we admit it or not, we are all stressed.  It could be from mental fatigue, physical exertion, or emotional drama.  Whatever the reason, stress has an affect on the body, on the mind, and on the heart.  In some cases, stress can save our life, get us back on the right path, or even prepare us to be successful in life's crazy events.  However, stress can also be dangerous.  With too much stress, we can expose ourselves to the negative effects of anxiety - high blood pressure, restless sleep patterns, depression, irritability, etc.  Therefore, overexposure to stress will ultimately lead to sickness, disease, and an overall lower quality of daily life.  So, let me pose this question - how stressed are you?

As strength and conditioning coaches, we all deal with certain levels of stress.  Long hours, hectic travel schedules, losing seasons, winning seasons, spoiled athletes, pleasing our coaches, work/life balance, does any of this sound familiar?  For many of you, I am sure it hits close to home.  We are supposed to be "strong" coaches, the epitome of mental toughness, the ones who never show weakness, however we all have our own issues.  How we handle those "issues" or that stress, is how we are going to be successful as coaches as well as better leaders for our athletes and peers.

Through the previous introduction, you can hopefully foreshadow that this blog has to do with stress and the cumulative affects it has on the body and mind.  Currently, the four contributors of this blog are reading "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert Zapolsky.  Each week we have agreed to read one chapter and then share and discuss our thoughts and findings.  Through this blog and through our reading, we will propose strategies to help balance the stress in our daily lives.  Also, we want to challenge other coaches to read along with us, comment on the blog, and provoke discussions that will benefit all of us in the strength and conditioning community.

Within chapter one, Zapolsky provided an insightful overview of the stress-response and how it affects our body - on an acute level and on a long term level.  In the following section, I will discuss the highlights of chapter one, and pose a few questions to brainstorm over and discuss. 

- Our knowledge of the body and its physiological components as well as our advances in medicine have given way to an entire new array of potential harmful diseases: stress-related illnesses.  Rather than worry about malaria, tuberculosis, etc.; we now worry about anxiety, depression, and psychological disorders.

- Certain types of stress promote a response: acute physical crisis (think - zebra getting chased by a lion), chronic physical challenges (think - a plague of locusts descending on crops), and psychological/social disruptions (think - the frustration of an athlete being late to workouts).

- When we worry or stress, we turn on the same response a zebra does when being chased by a lion.  Do this chronically, and we are setting ourselves up for a potential psychological and physical disaster.

- Homeostasis vs. Allostasis: there is no one ultimate and perfect level that one can reach because what is ideal in basal conditions, will not be ideal in stressful conditions.  Instead, allostasis looks to make body-wide changes in anticipation of an event rather than change one component.

-  A stressor is anything that knocks you out of allostatic balance or the ANTICIPATION of knocking you out of that same balance.

- Hallmarks of the stress-response include: increased heart rate, high blood pressure, increased breathing rate and rapid mobilization of energy in preparation of the upcoming event.  In addition, inhibited digestion, curtailment of growth and tissue repair, lowered immune system, decrease in overall sex drive, and blunted pain perception represent stress-response trademarks as well.

- Fight or Flight - all of these previous symbols of stress help you "fight" if called upon, but in reality - the stress-response becomes more damaging than the stressor itself.

Questions:

1. What things in your life qualify as stressors?
2. Do you find yourself anticipating stress more than actually being stressed?
3. How often do you succumb to the stress response?
4. What are ways in which you combat the stress response (i.e. hobbies, travel, etc.)
5. What is your definition of allostasis?

I hope this review as well the questions posed above promote some interesting discussion, and in turn help us all become more pro-active in how we handle stress - perhaps not avoiding it altogether, but understanding its role on our physiological and psychological state and finding ways to combat its negative affects.

Helping to prevent ulcers - one coach at a time,

Callye

7 More Highly Effective Leadership Styles

In one of my previous posts, I outlined the first six leadership styles outlined in Inc. Magazine's, " 13 Ways of Looking at a Leader."  This latest post will highlight the remaining seven characteristics, thus wrapping up this two part series on effective leadership qualities as defined by Inc.  In my opinion, the last seven qualities resonated more with specific attributes found in highly influential and successful coaches and military leaders.  Characteristics such as servitude, honor, and story-telling were all outlined in the last seven traits.  Each of these qualities, as well as others that I will soon define not only make for a highly effective leader, but constitute a person who leaves a lasting impression on those they work and serve with, as well as epitomize someone who others hope to emulate.

• Narcissistic - great visionary with the ability to attract followers.  These leaders can set their sights on a vision and have the capability of inspiring others to work hard and move towards their goal.

•  No excuse - a leader with endless vision and sources of life lessons and metaphors.  You have a great deal of mental toughness and inspire others through accountability and swift, yet sound decision-making skills.  

•  Resonant - hopeful, enthusiastic and infectious.  This type of leader has the ability to inspire others by stimulating a positive, emotional response. 

•  Servant - serve first, lead second.  You desire to serve others first, and then chose to lead so as to serve better.  This quality actually epitomizes the strengths of a highly effective military leader and complements the aforementioned styles.

•  Storytelling - leaders must tell stories: about themselves, about their companies, about what employees do now, and about what they will do in the future.  Stories paint a real picture that people can feel, touch, see and taste - emotions and feelings typically have more resounding effects than facts, figures and data.

•  Strengths based - Strengths-based leaders identify and invest in their own—and their individual employees'—talents. Are you an excellent executor, an incomparable person of influence, or a superb strategic thinker? Pick one and run with it.

•  Tribal - The leader's job is to understand those tribes' shared values and beliefs and unite them under a common culture.  Without a common vision or mission, tribes could just as easily make war rather than peace.

Whether you are a authentic leader, a mindful motivator, or a strengths-based servant, we are all in positions of leadership.  In order to know ourselves better and motivate our athletes more strategically, we must be able to define our strengths and outline our weaknesses.  Then and only then can we work towards creating a more competitive, focused, results-based, and enjoyable training environment.  Hopefully, you were able to identify certain attributes that you already possess as well as new characteristics that you might want to develop.  Regardless of what information you took away, there is no right or wrong way to lead.  We are all leaders, but we can always work at being more affective and improving our own skill set.   

Happy Leading,
Callye

Day One with the Interns

In a calendar year, we go through 3 sets of interns; Fall, Spring and Summer internships.  We will accept 3 interns per time frame.  As a strength and conditioning staff, we utilize 3 different weight rooms.  We have chosen to accept only 3 interns per time frame in order to keep one intern in each training facility. She/he will get plenty of exposure to all of our student-athletes as well as our staff members.  The interns will be assigned to one weight room for a two week period before being re-assigned to the next facility.

An internship program can either be a great addition or a huge inconvenience to your staff.  I believe your first day/week will play an intricate role in how the rest of the semester will develop.

First things first… We have a meeting to set the tone of the internship.  This meeting normally takes about 45 minutes.  The interns are each given a binder containing a syllabus, ground rules, expectations, daily & weekly “to do list”, their performance evaluation, campus map, suggested training websites, local points of interest and a blank note notepad.  Of those handouts, I feel that our ground rules are the most important.  The ground rules are to help the interns understand what is and is not acceptable behavior.  What is common knowledge for us may seem like a foreign concept to others…particularly the younger ones. 

I know many people many think I’m babying the interns for putting this together for them.  However, a great leader (professor) did this for me while I was in grad school and I found it very helpful.  I believe that, by starting them off in an organized manner it will increase their chances for success throughout their time with us.  If nothing else, I’m “paying it forward” from the Doc that set me off on the right foot many years ago.

The blank notepad is to be used for any notes that need to be taken about information they’ve been given.  On the first day of every week they are also to create their own short and long term goals and record them in their notepad.  This is helpful to get them thinking about what they want to do as opposed to what we want them to do.  Finally and most importantly, the interns are required to use that notepad to journal/reflect multiple times throughout the week. I ask them to keep a constant journal to help with comprehension of “classroom” topics as well as training/coaching situations. The metacognition (thinking about what you think) and ability to see ones’ thought process will reveal great insight to personal tendencies. Being able to understand how one best works will help to make decisions on how to put oneself in a place to succeed.  For example, through journaling you can easily see what things come easily to you (strengths), what things you struggle with (weaknesses), how you reacted to certain situations and how productive the outcomes were or were not.  From then on, when issues come up in the future you are more prepared to make actions or decisions that will create the most favorable outcome.  Again, I know it seems a bit childish to keep a journal.  However, I believe it’s one of your strongest tools to learn about yourself and accelerate your own progress on whatever it is you want to get better at.

The 3 interns we have this summer seem to be off to a good start.  I have the feeling that they’ve already developed a healthy competition between themselves to earn the title of being our best intern.  (It was stated by one of them as a long term goal.)   I’ll post updates about the trials and tribulations of the Summer 2012 Notre Dame intern class.  I welcome any comments or suggestions to help further develop our program.

Link up

I read a John Maxwell daily devotional titled "365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You."  This is just how I choose to focus myself before whatever that day my hold, I highly recommend you do something similar for yourself.  Making time for yourself before the organized chaos we often step into can help you to remember "big picture" and not get caught up in emotional moments.  What I mean by emotional moments would be; the coaches that may constantly question your programs or change schedules, having things come up during your own training time, getting rejected for a job you thought you would get, having an athlete get injured, not agreeing with sports medicine, or just having "one of those days." 

A few months ago one of the days has continued to echo in my mind, so I want to share one of the points with you. 

"Link up with Others"

"If you do everything alone and never partner with other people, you create a huge barrier to your own potential.  It takes a team to do anything of lasting value, as you face challenges, think about who you can enlist to come along side you." - John Maxwell

My point in all of this is to continue to motivate you all as females, as strength coaches, to push on...strive for more...dig your heels in and keep your head up.  I have had a few of you talk to me about the struggle of being the only female in your strength and conditioning department.  I challenge you solo females to reach out to the next closest school with a female and create a connection that develops to a relationship. with that female strength coach.  Make plans to train together one weekend a month, share training ideas once a week, and then add another to your team.  Link up, learn, and motivate each other.  If you do this over the next few weeks write a comment on who, what, when, and how it is going. 

What Type of Leader Are You?

In a recent trip to get my oil and filter changed, I stumbled upon a very interesting article in Inc. Magazine.  The title, "13 Ways of Looking at a Leader," really made me begin to examine my leadership styles and characteristics.  Not only did it make me embark on a self-examination session right in the middle of the auto shop, but I began to think about other coaches, teachers, and management professionals who have influenced and affected my coaching style and abilities.  Before I get started, realize that if you are reading this blog post, you most likely are in a position of leadership.  I imagine that you are a female strength and conditioning coach such as myself, and whether you want to admit it or not, you are in a position of leadership.  You and I have the amazing and gratifying ability to influence young people, to expose them to certain types of leadership characteristics and situations through strength training, off-seaon conditioning and mental toughness exercises.  Because we are in this position as coaches, we have a responsibility to maximize our development as leaders so we can serve as positive mentors and effective role models to our student athletes.  By taking advantage of opportunities to become better leaders and harnessing those leadership skills, we can show our athletes through practical application what it means to motivate our peers, set positive examples, and influence others to succeed. 

The following post will look at those 6 out of the 13 Leadership Characteristics as mentioned in the title, and I challenge you to take a moment and really examine your coaching style.  Look at your strengths.  Investigate your areas of improvement.  Do you fit any of these traits or do you fit outside the box?  Either way, by knowing more of who you are and understanding how you lead others, you can best equip yourself moving forward to become a better leader. 

• Adaptive Leaders - rise above, adapt, help.  You always surge above the noise and distractions, make adjustments and then assist others in tackling issues and problems without sacrificing trust or values.

• Emotionally Intelligent Leaders - awareness and influence.  You are very aware of others, their communication styles, and emotional states; therefore you are highly influential.

• Charismatic - character.  You are a rare breed and often seen as heroic and highly motivational.  Being a charismatic leader is tough to teach because your leadership style is derived from your own personality and make up.

• Authentic - consistent and disciplined.  Your integrity and character give you the opportunity to have longevity as a leader.

• Level 5 - gives credit, takes the blame, and is selfless.  You are very driven, pursue goals with passion and put others and your cause above your own success.

• Mindful - notice, analyze and listen.  You do not assume or accept things as they are because that is the way they have always been. Instead you question and pay close attention to what is happening around you.

I hope that through this post, you were able to identify certain characteristics that make you a great leader.  Perhaps you also discovered other traits that could help you in your quest to improve your leadership skills.  Or even still, identified qualities that your student athletes possess and began to think about how you can help them use their strengths to become better leaders. In the next installment, I will identify the other 7 leadership styles. 

Lead on,

Callye

I'm Up For My Annual Review...Now What?

After every year, we have an opportunity as coaches to set aside time with our direct supervisors and talk about our past year's performance. This is an excellent time to look back at our successes, problems, areas of concern, areas of growth, and challenges, and take a moment to plan for the next year and the opportunities that lie ahead. For some young coaches, rather than see a performance review as a chance to learn and grow, this meeting brings feelings of uneasiness and uncertainty. Speaking for myself, I haven't always felt confident going into these meetings. I have often wondered, does my boss support what I've done this year? Has my administration been pleased with my performance? Are my coaches on board with my philosophy and training style? How can I get better? The thought of a performance review can send any young coach's mind into a tailspin. However, just as you have a plan and a goal in mind for each training session - you also must have a plan for your annual review. Approaching the meeting with a purpose will help you take advantage of this time, learn from the past season's challenges and problems, and prepare to have a very successful upcoming year.

So, exactly what type of plan should you have? Well, according to Dr. Marie G. McIntyre, a career coach and author of "Secrets to Winning at Office Politics," McIntyre suggests using your performance review as a chance to have an in-depth discussion about your work and career with your direct supervisor.

“I think the biggest mistake people make with performance reviews is going into it as a passive participant,” McIntyre said. “With a performance review, your boss is running the show but that doesn’t mean that you have to sit there and listen to whatever your boss may have to say and then go ‘OK, whatever,’” says McIntyre. “That’s the one time that’s structured for you to sit down with your manager and talk about your job — You want to take advantage of that."

The following steps have outlined key areas that Dr. McIntyre suggests will help you make the most out of your performance review.

1. Be sure that you have a review - make sure you designate a specific time and location to have an annual review with your boss. Don't assume it will happen.

2. Honestly evaluate the past year - consider all the successes, problems and challenges that occurred within the last 12 months. Be objective!

3. Think about next year's objectives - once the assessment is over, shift your focus to the upcoming year. Before the review, consider new goals, opportunities and obstacles.

4. Consider your career - reflect on your career goals. What new certifications, courses, speaking engagements or presentations would benefit you? Is there a way to make yourself more lucrative?

5. Anticipate your supervisor's point of view - think like a director of strength and conditioning. Consider his/her point of view.

6. Set goals for the discussion with your boss - if you've done the first 5 steps, then you are ready to develop a discussion plan. Your supervisor will control the appraisal conversation at first, but you can initiate topics.

7. Prepare for known disagreements - acknowledge these differences and have an action plan read to know how to handle certain situations.

8. Complete your self appraisal form - use this form to remind your supervisor of the past year's accomplishments (i.e. lower injury rate, new individual p.r.'s, post-season play, etc.) Also, make sure you turn your form in as soon as possible.

9. Consider whether to discuss pay concerns - if you feel you deserve a salary increase, do the necessary research. Look into what other coaches make at your level, check in with human resources to see if your department implements annual raises to match cost of living increases. Be proactive!

Hopefully, these 9 steps will help you successfully prepare for your annual peformance review. Just as with any meeting, training plan, or workout, you must have certain goals in mind in order to get the most out of your session. If not, it's possible you will just spin your wheels and wish for a productive outcome, rather than willing it to happen.

During the next blog, I will outline a list of questions to consider asking during your performance review. These questions will help initiate certain discussion topics and show your supervisor you are serious and committmed to your athletes, the staff and the athletic department.

Effort wins!

Callye

Are We Stopping Ourselves? An Interesting Perspective on Success

Tonight I had the opportunity to watch a TED talk, and the topic really struck me.  The speaker, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, explains very simply “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders.”  Her talk doesn’t make me want to become a self-righteous feminist or shout from the roof tops that women don’t have the same rights or opportunities as men.  Instead, her 15 minute TED talk gave me a new perspective on how and why women do not advance in their careers as quickly as men.   And by listening and really tuning into what Sandberg had to say, it’s amazing that I, a young female strength and conditioning coach, working in a largely male-dominated industry, could be the one who is stopping myself from moving up the ladder to success. See, it’s not the man in front of me or the man behind me or beside me that is to blame – in fact it’s me.  I’m the one who, rather than willingly took the next step up the ladder and grabbed that success with no remorse; I faltered, possibly tripped, or even waited to put my foot on the next rung.  Call it hesitation, call it doubt, perhaps even fear of negative perception – whatever the case may be, I have wavered. 

And due to my indecisiveness, I create an illusion that I don't want the pressure of success, that perhaps I might even pass on the ability to move forward.  And it's not just me, its more a large majority of women in the workforce. Studies have shown that as a society, we put more pressure on our male counterparts to succeed rather than ourselves.  We push for our brothers, our fathers, our sons, our uncles to advance up the ladder of success.  And what’s more, when given the opportunity for advancement – we pass.  Instead, we assume other roles – caregiver, mother, homemaker, wife, etc.  Before I say much more, I firmly believe these are the most significant roles in our society; there is certainly nothing wrong, in my opinion, to assume such a role.  What I’m simply saying is WE CAN HAVE BOTH.  We can have a career, a very successful career, and also be a mother, a wife, a partner, etc. and not sacrifice our personal aspirations and goals. 

So where do you ask am I going?  What is the reasoning behind this blog entry?  Simply, to start a series of blogs that answers the HOW.  If too few women are in leadership positions – then how can we get them there?  In my next entry, I’ll discuss annual performance reviews and I’ll examine what questions you should be asking, what steps you should be taking, and how you can move yourself into a position for advancement and success.

Effort Wins,

Callye