Coaches

Disclaimer: This isn’t meant to be a review or ranking of my coaches, but rather the lessons learned and general impact they’ve had on me. Part of the reason I wanted to write this reflection is because I feel that every coach that I’ve encountered in my athletic career has had a distinct style and I’ve gained a lot from each one.

Dan Duclos – Dubuque Senior Swimming (Varsity)

Duclos never really gave me much personal attention because I wasn’t very good. However, the way he ran the team in general was hilarious. Each year he introduced a new dietary restriction which was going to elevate us to a new level of athleticism:

·      2010/11 – No sugar. This means, no soda, no Gatorade, no cookies, no candy, none of it. This was fine and actually improved my diet a lot, considering in middle school I arrived home from school every day and immediately drank a root beer and 2 hot dogs.

·      2011/12 – Whole wheat only, no enriched flours or pasta. This was also pretty sane

·      2012/13 – Protein loading. His recommendation was that we cut down on the carbs, especially before meets, and really up our daily intake of protein. He wanted us to consume at least one protein shake a day & consume as much meat and poultry as possible. We all developed some really bad farts & gastro-intestinal distress. This is also undoubtedly part of how/why I filled out in high school

·      2013/14 – Gluten free! No carbs whatsoever. For the whole season. When almost all of us eat lunch in a high school cafeteria. I don’t think anyone actually took him seriously

·      Rumor has it that the year after I left he got really big into coconut oil.

Despite being a sucker for dieting trends, Duclos was a great coach. He exemplified the idea of changing your game when you’re at the top of your game. We were already a successful program, but he was always looking for ways to turn us into a 2^nd place finish at state into a championship team. Some other quirks:

·      He was really big into mental prep. We would visualize for about 15 minutes about 3 times a week before practice starting 3 weeks before our last meet

·      He tried and succeeded in selling us these all-natural energy shots which we were supposed to take before our races at the end of the season

·      If you cramped during a workout and stopped in the middle of the lane, he would often get a long stick and poke you until you resumed

·      The lifts we did were absurd. The very first workout every year was a set of 8x10 squats

Jesse Huff – Dubuque Senior Swimming (JV)

Jesse is a cool guy. Very sarcastic & cynical. When I asked him what we were doing for a particular practice, he would respond, “swimming.” As a coach, I felt like he didn’t push me hard enough – he’d frequently relax the interval or reduce the number of reps if we requested. But he also made practice bearable.

Jesse also had to sit in the locker room with us after every practice to make sure that we weren’t doing stupid shit to each other. In retrospect that must have been absolutely awful. I hope they paid him overtime. Actually, I have no idea if these high school coaching positions were paid at all or if they were volunteers.

John Hearn – Dubuque Senior Track

Hearn was intimidating. His coaching strategy was pretty simple:

·      Warm up

·      Stretch

·      Running form/block work/exchanges/whatever

·      Stretch again

·      Run fast (some combination of 600s, 400s, 300s, 200s, 100s on an interval)

·      Lift

In my 4 years as a sprinter with Hearn the strategy didn’t change. The practice plans were exactly the same for the each season. I can attest their effectiveness – in 4 years my 400 time dropped from 59 seconds to 53, and in the 400 hurdles I went from a high 62 to a low 58.  But I was never really satisfied with these times and wonder if I could have been better if we tried something new or different. We were never a particularly talented team and occasionally it seemed as if Hearn had accepted that and was just going through the motions.

Looking back, I believe that he was deeply invested in our development as young men, not just as athletes. All of his mantras revolved around the fact that improvement starts with hard work. There is no secret sauce & no easy path to success. “Nothing will ever be handed to you in this conference, men.”

Kevin Yngve – Bolt

My first impressions of Yngve were not strong. Bolt 2015 was a whirlwind for me as my thirst for ultimate quickly expanded and Kevin was exceptionally patient. I was not a confident player and I often turned to Yngve looking for feedback about whether I was making progress, doing the right things, making the right cuts, etc. Looking back on this now and having been on the receiving end of these types of early questions from rookies, Yngve did a great job quietly laying the groundwork for me as a player.

Side note: I think that B team coaches have a much harder job than A team coaches. The A team coach:

·      Is working with the top 21-26 guys who really want to be there

·      Can set significant practice attendance expectations without being overbearing

·      At tournaments, you will have most of your roster there & can have a well defined plan going into the weekend

·      Is usually expected to coach games/tournaments to get the best results (Performance over results baby)

On the other hand, the B team coach:

·      Is working with a wide variety of talent, ranging from guys who were in the last round of cuts from the A team to rookies who have not touched a disc until this evening. You have to figure out how to teach the new guys while keeping the more experienced players entertained.

·      Cannot or should not set a high bar for attendance. You walk a fine line between trying to get more guys to come to practice and seeming overbearing

·      At tournaments, a bunch of people who haven’t been coming to practice will come out of the weeds and show up without knowing any of the stuff you’ve been drilling for the last 4 weeks

·      At tournaments, you have to balance the development of your entire roster to keep everyone engaged, invested, and having fun while also trying to get results, because losing 7 games isn’t great either

·      Is responsible for the molding & development of young players and giving them their first impressions of the sport.

Very heavy stuff! B team coaches are dealt a very difficult hand & are often the least experienced coaches. Kevin did an excellent job balancing all of these concerns. His blog is also a great read & reveals a lot about the amount of careful thought that he puts into all his coaching decisions.

Kevin Bruns

Bruns is very insightful. During a season where I was struggling to find confidence on the field and within the team itself, Bruns got me thinking a lot about how I could maximize every minute that I was putting in, as well as challenging & expanding my ultimate perspective. The Movement is obviously a large inspiration for what I’m doing here.

Jeremy (I think) and I were talking about Bruns once and Jeremy said that he was a “players coach”. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. Jeremy: “He’s the kind of coach who the players really gel with. We were all just pretty good friends with him.”

Yiding Hou

Yiding taught me how to play good matchup defense downfield & developed my footwork. Yiding also represents my aspirations as a player. He is very good at Tetris.

Alex Champe

Champe is one of the most passionate guys I’ve ever met & a model for grit. His enthusiasm on the field is palpable and as a captain I attempted to recreate the intensity that he brought to NUT as a player.

As a coach, Champe shows a good amount of patience that I know he works hard to achieve. His composure at Centex, Regionals, and Nationals was impressive. He also called out Jay, Kyle and I for being babies when we were considering skipping Centex for Midwest Throwdown.

Kevin Yngve – NUT

Getting to know Kevin was one of my absolute favorite parts about being a captain. I loved learning the logic & reasoning behind his coaching decisions and getting to hash out the finer details. At this point I think it’s clear that I admire Kevin for many reasons:

·      He donates a great deal of time to the program. Between GIFs, practice planning, throwing feedback, meetings, tournaments, etc., Kevin is pouring his heart out for NUT.

·      He understands how to motivate players without being overbearing. Yngve has a well thought plan about how to raise expectations without disillusioning the roster.

·      He breeds excellent culture. Kevin makes a significant effort to get to know people on a personal level & others follow suit.

·      He is reserved but brings the energy when the situation calls for it. Kevin’s cool and calm presence on the sideline is quite welcome when your team finds itself in the game to go to Regionals. We also have good footage of Kevin freaking out.

·      He understands the impact that a captain’s or coach’s words and body language can have on the players around them.

I’m very fortunate to have had as many positive coaching as I’ve listed here. Coaches can make or break your experience, yet they are often taken for granted.