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055 - Turn Practice into a Leadership Lab
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Here's how to turn every practice into a laboratory for developing the next generation of leaders. In this transformative episode, we explore how intentional practice design becomes the foundation for building authentic leadership that extends far beyond the field of play.
Discover how to systematically create leadership opportunities within every training session - from pre-practice setup to post-drill reflection. This isn't about appointing captains and hoping for the best; it's about architecting experiences that develop leadership skills through purposeful repetition and gradual empowerment.
Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train
Education - Why They're Not Listening: Coaching the Modern Athlete - http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com
#LeadershipDevelopment #AthleticCoaching #PracticeDesign #TeamCaptain #CharacterBuilding #SportsLeadership #CoachingPhilosophy #YouthDevelopment #EmpowermentThroughSports #HolisticTraining #TedLasso
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Action! Welcome to the Captains & Coaches Podcast. We explore the art and science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host Tex McQuilkin and today we're talking about practice. We're going to begin a whole series specifically on practice and unlocking
Understanding the Value of Practice
00:00:17
Speaker
this. As an athlete we spend so much more time at practice than we do competing in games.
00:00:23
Speaker
So we need to have an understanding of the value, especially as a team captain, and then a coach writing your practice plans of getting the nuances out there between the whistles. So talking about practice, not the game you go out and die for, no, practice.
00:00:41
Speaker
Love Ted Lasso, love AI, so excited to explore some nuances of this. So in this series, I wanted to begin leadership.
Veterans in Coaching: Soldiers to Sidelines
00:00:51
Speaker
I had the opportunity to speak at Soldiers to Sidelines. Check it out, nonprofit that places ah soldiers that are returning from home or retiring and helps place them in coaching opportunities, football, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, strength and conditioning, endurance, wonderful organization, soldiers2sidelines.org.
Lacrosse Tactics with Experts
00:01:15
Speaker
Check it out. They brought me in to speak on lacrosse. I was there with Scott Urick, who's at Georgetown Prep in Washington, D.C., And then Ryan Wellner, he's up at the defensive coordinator for Notre Dame.
00:01:27
Speaker
Be sure to to tune in. I'm going to do some podcasts with those guys. Amazing coaches doing amazing things for the sport of lacrosse. What I was set out to do, since they are such specific tacticians for the sport of lacrosse, Scott with offense and Wellner, of course, with defense. Notre Dame's a perennial powerhouse.
00:01:48
Speaker
And I'm Yeah, so what what I did is take, practice, plan, and overview and integrate how I then lead. so I want to hand off leadership.
Leadership in Practice: From Students to Captains
00:02:00
Speaker
i I want to take the true representation of the word empower and hand it off to my guys. So I went through ah full practice and specifically where I give opportunities to kids to lead and then shape that leadership.
00:02:17
Speaker
So what I'm going to do with this series on practice is highlight the the leadership opportunities. Then we'll get into the the nuances and the other stuff at a later date. So specifically with leadership, different blocks, different opportunities, what I can do as a coach, I can show up early.
00:02:37
Speaker
I want to be the the first person there, ideally, flipping on the lights. I love to arrive 30 minutes before practice and then just observe what groups walk out together, who runs onto the field, who walks onto the field.
00:02:53
Speaker
If it's late, we're too late. So just seeing what's going on there and then highlight these little nuances of character ah to the captains that are stepping out or to the the the younger classmen that I see leadership and potential.
00:03:09
Speaker
I have them create some social awareness and connect the dots to to observe of who's walking, who's slacking, who did not bring running shoes, who's walking out in sliders ah to practice, or wearing their cleats to practice, or already come and dressed. All these little things I like to highlight there.
00:03:28
Speaker
From there i get a catch with a kid. So just pick some random kid each time and just have a a catch. A lacrosse coach. So play catch with them. You could throw a football. You could do whatever. I could even bring a football to lacrosse practice just to get out um of the comfort zone. But it's still the mechanics are similar throws and just test out some athleticism.
00:03:52
Speaker
From there I'm throwing catching with a kid and I call out another kid to come over and take my place and start to spread myself around a little bit and mix up the clicks on the team to try to get kids that would not normally throw with each other ah to then have a catch or um Yeah, or classmen, seniors, JV, varsity, just cross-pollinating throughout there.
Teamwork and Responsibility in Pre-practice Setup
00:04:19
Speaker
How can I build trust is to start to instill it with just a simple, no-stress catch. So that that's what I like to do is to to mix and match, but I'm taking the lead there. i'm modeling, asking them to have a throw.
00:04:34
Speaker
And then later on, you start to see them ask others to have a catch instead of just fiddling with their sticks or just talking. I need to be moving before practice, starting to get my chili hot before formal ah preparation.
00:04:48
Speaker
Here's another thing with the pre-practice. It's um on our captains to make sure all the stations are set up. This could be water. This could be specific cones.
00:04:59
Speaker
We've got to move goals. This is never easy. So making sure that our our captains are in charge of moving the goals to the right place. Now that may start in a season with that them moving the goals to specific areas, but then it's a simple leadership technique where I do, we do, you do.
00:05:20
Speaker
And if they take two days to accomplish this, if the first day they go out and lead by example, then on day two, They grab some freshmen to come help them move those goals.
00:05:34
Speaker
Now they exactly know where those goals go, how to do it.
Delegation and Task Management in Practice
00:05:38
Speaker
And then the seniors can trust them to make sure it's it's aligned properly to go from there.
00:05:45
Speaker
And coaches are happy because everything is is getting set up. We don't waste any minutes within our practice plan setting stuff up because our our seniors were slacking or our freshmen were fighting back a little bit.
00:05:59
Speaker
um So simple set up the team. Sometimes within the practice plan, the starting drills change and we need the goals in different places. So then that is on us as coaches to communicate to the seniors what we need before the warmup.
00:06:16
Speaker
So it's this system of we're defining expectations. We as coaches are modeling the captains, the seniors, they're modeling. And then we're trying to shape and make and ensure that the the lower classmen are getting the job done.
00:06:32
Speaker
So whether whether you're coaching lacrosse, you're teaching in the weight room or swimming or whatever, think about the the expectations of the pre-setup before practice that you can start as a coach to delegate downstream.
Maintaining Continuity in Practice Themes
00:06:47
Speaker
All right. Now we get into the pre-warmup warmup. Right about one minute before we're meant to start practice, I blow the whistle and send the guys to the end zone. I want them as far away from the coaching staff as possible for the start of practice.
00:07:04
Speaker
I want it to be the captain's time. I want it to be the senior's time where they're leading. This takes a couple weeks for me to then install and establish an expectation.
00:07:16
Speaker
So in the the first couple weeks of practice, I am down there, not in this huddle, but I'm around it listening. And then after that, shaping the the captain's words and expectations that I have for them for this moment.
00:07:31
Speaker
I love a circle versus a formal huddle. A circle, giant circle, so we get 40 dudes in a big circle. No one is greater than the other guy. And we have the opportunity to really practice the trajectory and the tonality of our voice.
00:07:49
Speaker
Love that circle. What I am looking for ah within that circle is the the message from the previous practice. So coaches always have within their practice plan, here's the theme, here's the quote, here's the word of the day, here's what we're looking for.
00:08:08
Speaker
Well, I don't want that to fall on deaf ears. so I don't want it to go in one ear and out the other. So the expectation is the captains, and we can meet early and try to remember this. If they don't, I have the practice plans from previous days ah ready.
00:08:27
Speaker
I give them that cue so then they can lead this new huddle, new day, new practice, closing the loop from the previous practice. So, yeah, if that that word or sense of urgency was the theme from the previous practice, I want them to take the sense of urgency theme into the next day and whatever head coach has to to deliver on top of that.
00:08:52
Speaker
So we start to build skill on skill, literally within our our sense of lacrosse, but also within our our our character, the culture, the expectations of the team.
00:09:04
Speaker
It's not just saying one thing, one practice, and then forgetting about it. We need them to hold on to each lesson so that way we really start to ah build this this glossary this bank this opportunity for us to call back to stuff because seasons are long in a game you're going to be coaching on the fly coaches we've got great memories so we're going to call back and reference something from game two during game 10 they're going to need that skill of of me remembering this
00:09:36
Speaker
And then it also, it's the time to dig deep. If I talk about urgency, I talk about grit, I talk about these themes and then establish a definition for them. Now when I need them come game time, it's not just some random word I threw away and talked about once at practice two weeks ago.
00:09:54
Speaker
No, it is who we are. So great opportunity for captains to then lead that circle with the word ah from before.
Incorporating Personal Elements into Practice
00:10:05
Speaker
So usually takes a couple weeks to install this expectation. But once it's going, now I'm feeding the captains of what to speak. More often than not, when you're going to from high school kids or seniors that are just stepping into captain role in college, they don't know what to say.
00:10:23
Speaker
They're amazing lead by example people doing everything right. Well, if we tell them what to say, not exactly, hey, say this today, lean into what coaches have said previously. If you don't know what to say, hey, what a coach what was coach's theme yesterday?
00:10:40
Speaker
Let's start there. So then, hey, coach's theme was urgency. That's what I want to see ah going into today as an example. And then ah quotes, I love to, and towards the ah middle of the season, encourage guys to start to bring their own quotes to practice. I am a major ah quote fan. Love quotes, especially everyone that you're going to see on this wall.
00:11:06
Speaker
ah John Wooden especially here. so Favored by him. Don't mistake activity for achievement. Just because we're recording a podcast doesn't mean we're giving value to our listeners.
00:11:18
Speaker
So I think about that often. All right. So that that's an example. They now have autonomy within this huddle. It's not just what the coaches said before. Now they can ah bring and add their own thin candy shell to this this awesome ah nugget that we're bringing to the team every single day.
00:11:39
Speaker
All right. And here's a challenge with kids as well. Kids, high school, college age students. There's a ah negativity bias with them.
00:11:50
Speaker
What I want to highlight is strengths. Things we did well the previous practice or things we were doing well as a defense or an
Focusing on Strengths and Growth in Feedback
00:11:58
Speaker
offense. Things we're doing well as a team. And then opportunities for growth.
00:12:02
Speaker
You may say, ah fix a strength and a weakness. If you say weakness, they're going to grasp onto that and then just pile up the weaknesses and then then other people start to pile on and and call each other out. If one kid gets called out,
00:12:18
Speaker
ah for a mistake, then everybody's going he's going to start to call out other people and it just creates this negativity. So really focus on having them emphasize strengths and speak to that, what they did well in the previous practice, what they're going to focus on as an opportunity for growth versus just staying in the past and in in negative town.
00:12:41
Speaker
All right, now for the warm-up.
Phases of Leadership in Warm-ups
00:12:44
Speaker
From that circle, they start their warm-up lap. For the beginning of the season, I lead that warm-up. i have a specific progression, athletic development model I want to install. That's me leading it.
00:12:57
Speaker
So how I hand off leadership to them during the first phase of this is counting. So we do a simple military count. Push-ups, the best example. We start in an up push-up position.
00:13:10
Speaker
I say, all right, Jeremy, I need five, four count push-ups. Ready, ready, and go. So Jeremy then one push-ups. one and one means drop your chest towards the ground.
00:13:22
Speaker
Two, when Jeremy says two, that's push up. Three, drop towards the ground, and then they finish. Instead of Jeremy saying four, the whole team counts rep one. So we do five.
00:13:34
Speaker
Four count push-ups. Ready, ready, and go. That's 10 total push-ups. I thought it was 20 for a while. Then one of my ah players last year called me out that we were only doing 10 push-ups, not 20.
00:13:48
Speaker
Just math math wasn't mathin' for me. All right. um So handing off the counting. And then we're getting everybody to lead by example. I'm shaping guys that are...
00:13:59
Speaker
ah heads going all different directions, they're thinking about school, they're thinking about whatever, and I get them focused. I am now starting to model the behavior that I'm eventually going to need from our captain.
00:14:14
Speaker
So ah calling people out, keeping everybody in line, and ah effectively running the warm-up. I'm leading the warm-up. Eventually, I have these cards that I then hand off to the captain to lead.
00:14:29
Speaker
The first phase I have of this is they are counting. So I have an athletic development model phase, one, two, three, warm ups that progress throughout the season. Phase one, I'm leading. Two, I'm starting to hand off to the leader to lead everything.
00:14:43
Speaker
Then phase three, this is where things get fun, he starts to call out other people to lead the counts, just like I did earlier, and he's keeping his eye on behavior. As a leader, you're more often not going to get the most focused, quality, intensive warm-up because you've got a team to worry about.
00:15:03
Speaker
So preparing that same expectation that's going to happen during games for him or her during practice is the lead. Then the final phase towards the last two, three weeks of season as we get closer to playoffs, they've got full autonomy. Whatever movements that they want to do,
00:15:21
Speaker
they're getting creative and getting their chili hot and getting the guys engaged. So different phases of leadership, great opportunity. It's that 10 minutes ah before the next skill work that I find invaluable for not only developing our body, preparing us for the demands of practice and games, but also instilling some leadership in our captains and throughout the team.
00:15:47
Speaker
Again, freshmen can count on that. Sophomores, JV, it doesn't matter what team you're on. you get the opportunity to get called out to count and lead your team through those 10 pushups, five, four counts.
00:16:00
Speaker
All right. From our warm-up, naturally we transition into
Maximizing Learning with Practice Drills
00:16:04
Speaker
drills. This could be a specific skill drill. This could be a scheme that's built into it, two-man within lacrosse.
00:16:13
Speaker
So some fun stuff right there. How I break this down, for coaches to lead this in our practices, within each station or each drill, there's a coach and a conductor.
00:16:26
Speaker
So a conductor is keeping the flow going. They have a whistle and therere they're blowing the whistle for the next rep to start. There's also a coach where that coach is providing the corrections and the directions for that athlete that just finished to take into his next rep.
00:16:46
Speaker
It happens fast. My biggest pet peeve, and i've I've hated this, ah when I'm on teams that did not follow this principle is when a coach is that conductor, the coach has the whistle, he blows his whistle for this rep, athlete makes a mistake, he stops the drill to correct the one kid.
00:17:07
Speaker
If we're not moving, we're not learning. Maybe that one kid got the nugget, but he goes the end of the line and we just lost three, four, five reps within eight-minute block of skill work.
00:17:21
Speaker
times that by 45 practices within a season, that's that's a lot of reps that we're missing. So I want a coach there and a conductor.
00:17:33
Speaker
My captains, my leaders, I want you up front. I want you to not be afraid mistakes. You start the drill. That's how we instill leadership. I call my guys to be up first.
00:17:44
Speaker
Over enough time, they're going to know what the names of the drills are and they're going to have confidence, but I want them to have the confidence, the swagger to to know what the drill is.
00:17:55
Speaker
and execute to not be afraid of mistake and and just go 100 miles an hour. Eventually, it gets to the point where they become that coach, right? I have the conductor. I coach ah and in leading the the drills. I'm blowing the next group up, next group up, next group up.
00:18:14
Speaker
And then instead of having assigning two coaches to that drill, my captain's watching. If you're not up, your eyes are up. So he doesn't just finish his drill and go off into la-la land.
00:18:25
Speaker
No, he finishes his drill and he watches the next group. We've modeled that behavior by having a conductor and a coach within the drill. Eventually, coach goes away and it's on leader. One leader, two leader, three.
00:18:40
Speaker
And then i would love to have the whole team self-correcting. That's that's some magic. That's some beautiful stuff. So... That's how I would phase that in. But I need to define the expectations of both roles, model them, and then start to encourage and push said captain or or leaders on the team to start to give that feedback loop for us.
00:19:04
Speaker
um So that's more one-on-one coaching, which is a necessary skill for
Teaching Play Understanding with Bloom's Taxonomy
00:19:09
Speaker
a team captain. It's not just hooting and hollering and and getting everybody psyched up on game day.
00:19:14
Speaker
No, it's it's connecting and delivering skill work. all right now now the next phase of most practices within the field court sports is schemes and and so installation of offense and defense within that how our leadership i i'm modeling the behavior just like with the drills at this point and the uh what i like to bring into this is it's called Bloom's Taxonomy. So this is a ah model of learning.
00:19:47
Speaker
first thing First stage is remember. So having my kids understand here's the players involved, here's the positions on the field, I need you to remember where to go.
00:20:00
Speaker
From there, it's do I understand? Do I understand why all these players go to these specific positions on this play? And then now it's apply. Can i move my body to the different spaces on the field?
00:20:15
Speaker
Remember understand apply that's blooms taxonomy from there. It's getting into analyze and evaluate what I love to do within this is once my Hopefully we have consistency within the coaching staff and we're running the same offense or defense then I have opportunities for my varsity players to go down to the JV side or to the freshman group and they start to teach this. So they're challenging these younger guys to remember and understand.
00:20:48
Speaker
and You're going to have a lot of of discovery teaching and observing how these guys communicate and getting them to understand how to get teammates to understand.
00:21:00
Speaker
it's Some magic happens within that. so Again, we model all this behavior, hopefully over those four years that that senior has with you, they understand their offense or defense and the roles to the point where they're able to go down and start to teach it within the the younger ranks.
00:21:20
Speaker
If you have the opportunity to have them go help out with the youth program and teach it, awesome. What Texas does great with football is the middle schools that lead up to the high school, they're running the exact same offense.
00:21:34
Speaker
So when you're encouraged as a middle school football player to go to the varsity game, Friday Night Lights, you're seeing the exact same plays, more or less, that you're running.
00:21:45
Speaker
ah That's that example. So remember, understand, and apply on the field. there would i What i love to coach, and I see this more often than not, if having high schoolers say, hey, does that make sense?
00:22:02
Speaker
Or, okay.
00:22:05
Speaker
Am I clear? So they're almost bullying these guys into saying, saying, yes, that makes sense. Yes, that's clear. But I need to watch the next rep. I need to watch the next play and teach them to watch the next play. It's just not me getting lost within my words and then saying, does that make sense?
00:22:24
Speaker
Because that I'm bullying the kids that I'm teaching into pretending to understand. They're not going to remember where to go on the field. They're not understanding the play.
00:22:35
Speaker
So if they don't miss those two stages, I can't expect them to apply the play that I just introduced. So hat will observe that seniors, captains that are now teaching these younger groups, they're going to get lost.
00:22:52
Speaker
Their mind's going to go all over and they're just going to stop and say, does that make sense? Watch the next play and show them how it doesn't make sense and then teach them, okay, where did the guys go wrong on the field?
00:23:05
Speaker
Where did the girls mess up this flow and rotation on the court? Okay, well that's where we're going to start. So aim to teach them how to see, observe, analyze, evaluate, and then from that evaluation, change how we're we're teaching so we're more likely to understand, ah remember, understand, and apply.
00:23:27
Speaker
All right.
Game Day Preparation and Consistent Routines
00:23:28
Speaker
um that's That's what I love. this This then leads to competitions within practice and and a lot of fun stuff. We always close with ah intensity in 10 cities. That's six on six for lacrosse, ah some offense versus defense. We're mixing the teams up and having a fun competition.
00:23:47
Speaker
And that's the the leaders helping teach the guys how to match their energy of competition in game day. So that's where I bring in the social awareness. You are charged up as ah as a senior captain.
00:24:01
Speaker
What's Jimmy doing? I see Jimmy down. I need you get Jimmy up right now because we need him for this drill. So bringing some social awareness and some spot leadership calls within that.
00:24:13
Speaker
And that is everything that a captain would need during game day, showing up early, playing catch with the rest of his teammates, making sure the whole field is set up for the parents, the referees, the coaches, game day.
00:24:28
Speaker
From there, it's it's all the magic happens. We have a specific game day warm up that's consistent throughout the season. I hand that off to the seniors to lead. And as a coach, I'm just watching and I'm applying specific manual resisted prep stuff just ah to get certain guys going.
00:24:46
Speaker
Or if they have shin, hamstring, hip stuff throughout the year, that's where I'm reserved during game day is getting guys physically prepped. I need the captains to lead the warm up and really get the the team going from there.
00:25:00
Speaker
Then from our warm-up, it flows into some stick work drills, defensive footwork drills, and some ah and some some physical contact stuff. Again, senior, captain led. That's the beauty. But it was all set up through leadership opportunities and practice, not just saying, hey, it should be done by the captains. The captains should do this.
00:25:22
Speaker
that will then be handed down to them to say, hey, freshman, go do this. The freshmen should have done that.
Instilling Leadership Skills through Repetition
00:25:28
Speaker
Why didn't we have water? Why didn't we have this? And they start the blame game because it started with coach.
00:25:35
Speaker
No, not on my team. So every expectation I have during game day, I've prepared and planned and prepped and given thousands of leadership reps before we show up on game day.
00:25:49
Speaker
Practice, talking about practice. All right, see you next time. All these these drills. Let me know how you're running your
Engagement and Additional Resources
00:25:57
Speaker
practices. Hit me on Instagram. Drop a comment on the Spotify. Like, subscribe, rate, review, all that good stuff. Sign up for our newsletter. I'll be outlining these, putting them into blogs, providing some video examples.
00:26:10
Speaker
So newsletters at captainsandcoaches.com. Thank you again for tuning in to the podcast and helping us raise the game. And you.