In life we are often told what to do, but not so much why to do it.

I've found the best way to have effective, efficient, and successful teams is to ensure that everyone understands what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how we will define success in doing so.

Continuing the end of practice talks and feedback, I'd like to follow up on what was working and what wasn't from the team's perspective.

As the third coaching staff in three years, the team was experiencing their third different approach to practice and how it ran.

I believe until you achieve a certain level of technical ability the best way to coach a team of twenty plus is to drill on the whistle. This allows the coaches to see everyone at once and mistakes stick out and can be corrected either with the entire group or individually.

Our practice structure was different from what the team was accustomed to. We taught and drilled most of practice in the early part of the season. They wanted live wrestling. 

I explained to them that until they were doing things right, live wrestling would only reinforce bad technique and habits.

Another thing that came up repeatedly was to learn new moves. Wrestling is the oldest sport and the fundamentals have not changed very much throughout its history.

If you are not fundamentally sound, you will not be successful.

We zeroed in on specific moves from neutral, top, and bottom. They were basic moves, not exotic ones. I explained that there is no secret sauce. As the season went on, they saw that other teams were not using moves they had not been taught, but they were executing ones they were taught at a much higher level.

The first couple of weeks were a learning experience for everyone involved.

I forget if it was at the team meeting or the first day of practice, but three female students asked if I was the new coach. I said, "yes." And one looked me in the eye and said, "we are your managers."

I loved their confidence and they became invaluable as the season went on.

I also made it clear that the managers were a part of the team and were to be treated as teammates. Growing up, our managers were called Mat Maids. To this day, they take pride in having been in that role. At my high school we actually had tryouts to become one. They had to take a test on scoring, school wrestling history, and create a promotional poster. Over 20 girls would try-out for the position and the ones that made it were a part of the team.

Only problem was I didn't think in today's environment that a Mat Maid would be politically correct, so I asked the girls what they thought of being called, "The Mama Bears (the school nickname was Bears)", after all they took care of everything for the team. They embraced it.

The few days of practice taught the staff about what we had to work with in terms of the level of technique. I had scripted two weeks worth of practices, but soon realized it was over-aggressive. Speaking with the staff we agreed to simplify and focus on fundamentals.

I began to emphasize to the team, something my father taught me: everyone knows how to do a move, the difference is understanding what makes the move work. This carries over into life. Everyone knows how to do their job, but some execute their work more effectively and efficiently then others do.

During nearly every practice I spoke to the team at the beginning and end of practice. Typically after stretching or even during it, I would give them any updates they needed to be aware of. Bus times, practice times, general information they had to be aware of, and then at the end after our conditioning we pulled together to talk.

The post practice talk was more personal. I'd ask, "what was something good that happened to you today?" or "who can tell me something positive about one of their teammates?" or "what do you admire about how one of your teammates practices?".

I'd also use this time to get their feedback. I'd pass around index cards and pens and ask them on the lined side to write down three things that were working well and three things they would like to change. No names, they'd fill them out and drop them in a duffel bag. 

That night I'd read through them all, summarize them, and present what stood out to me. I spoke to them about what I saw the majority of them thought was working, called out a few items that were outliers, but that I thought were important, good observations and why they were so.

​The main focus was on what wasn't working. They needed to understand why we were and were not doing certain things. 

This past school year I had the opportunity to be the head wrestling coach at Pleasant Valley High School in Pennsylvania's District XI. District XI is arguably the toughest region for wrestling in the country.

It was something I had always wanted to do, but given professional work, it never seemed to be a possibility. My father was a legendary coach. He was the head coach at my high school for 34 years and never had a losing season. My brother went into teaching and coaching and was another local school as head coach for 14 years. He did something I shied away from. I intentionally didn't go into teaching and coaching because I didn't want the comparison between my father and I.

This year was different. A former teammate was coaching football and heard the school might cut their wrestling program if they didn't get a coach. He called another teammate, whose girlfriend suggested I'd be a good candidate. They both agreed with her and after several discussions and their swearing they'd do it with me, I applied and got the job.

We did it to give back to the sport that gave us so much in life. Wrestling is unique. As a young student-athlete you have to train for hours a day to be able to compete for six minutes. You have to keep your grades up, learn good technique, manage your weight, improve your strength and conditioning and then you perform one on one in-front of everyone. There are no excuses.

I was hired very close to the season and only had two days of preseason to even see them. The first time was to introduce myself and my then two assistants. The day before the season started we coordinated a team meeting with a guest speaker via Zoom. The guest speaker was Rob Rohn of Lehigh University. Rob was an NCAA Champion in what is arguably the most amazing comeback in NCAA finals history. I interviewed him so the kids could understand how he balanced having academic and athletic success across multiple sports.

I wanted to set the tone that we were leveraging wrestling to help them be successful in life. This was an ongoing theme throughout the year.

To step back, we knew we had a big challenge in front of us. We were the third coaching staff in three years and there was no Athletic Director when we started the season as he was hired, but had not yet started working. He was also the third person in three years. There was no school budget with the exception of tournament fees and transportation. The kids didn't feel supported by the school administration.

Early goals were simple. I wanted to get 26 kids out for the team (there are 13 weights so that could mean a full JV and Varsity line-up) and I didn't want to have any forfeits on varsity, so we had to have them spread out by weight class.

We ultimately got those numbers, but it was a struggle and we had to prove ourselves to the team in order for them to recruit kids for the team.

Another challenge with those numbers is they hadn't had nearly that many kids out the past several years and as a result we didn't have enough warm-ups and singlets for them to wear. Good problem, kind of.

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