Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #154: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 1) "Teaching Across Generations" with David Mitchell hosted by Kyle Jones

Transcript

#154: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 1) "Teaching Across Generations" with David Mitchell hosted by Kyle Jones · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
• 0:03
  coaches, for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
• 0:06
  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
• 0:09
  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
• 0:12
  you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year
• 0:15
  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
• 0:17
  Interested in creating your own episode?
• 0:19
  Everyone's welcome to participate.
• 0:21
  Check out the show notes below For more information.
• 0:23
  Now let's get into today's topic.
• 0:27
  All righty y'all welcome back to another edition of the track
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  Tribe live. We are going to be digging in
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  with our resident expert here. I'm going to call it the the
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  guru of 1/2, the guru of track and field and the voice of track
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  and field, right. David Mitchell was going to be
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  talking about what it's like to coach across generations.
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  So I hope that you are excited as I am.
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  I'm really excited to learn and hear.
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  I'm really like kind of what do you call it?
• 1:02
  Like really wanting to dig into some of your stories too, right?
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  So be prepared for that. And if you have questions, as
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  always, please, by all means throw them in the live chat
• 1:13
  here. We'll get to them as soon as we
• 1:15
  can. And if you are joining us from
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  Twitter, give us a holler. If you're joining us from the
• 1:22
  Track Tribe on the school app, give us a holler.
• 1:25
  And if you don't know what the Track Tribe is, go ahead and
• 1:27
  search that on the school app. That's S kool.com.
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  Look up the track Tribe. It's a community of people who
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  just love track and field. Coaches, parents, athletes and
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  the such. And even fans can join us.
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  And then we talk track and field.
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  Not just the noises out there, but the real nitty gritty stuff
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  that gets results. So that's what the Track Tribe
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  is all about. And don't forget, you can join
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  us at any time. It's 100% free, will always be
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  100% free. And that's the way I built it
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  and that's the way I like it because I don't think
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  information should ever have a paywall.
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  So with that being said, again, thank you for joining us.
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  David, what's up, my man? How are you?
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  Hey, I'm doing well. Thank you for getting this all
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  together. Thank you for starting the track
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  tribe. It's I think meeting a need and
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  I, I, I look forward to seeing it really grow in, in the coming
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  months and and hopefully years as well.
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  I appreciate that kind words. I'll pay you later.
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  We appreciate that 100 percent, 100% free, just like, just like
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  the track drive. Right.
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  So hey, won't you tell us how the audience who who may not
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  know who you are, a little bit about yourself and what it is
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  about you That's kind of totally awesome when it comes to track
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  and field. Well, totally awesome.
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  I don't know, but the fact that I've been around for a long
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  while doing a lot of things has has been the best part for me.
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  I owe a lot. It's a track and field.
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  I started out almost 50 years ago when I was a 12 year old 7th
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  grader coming off of finishing a a 10 year old baseball season
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  where at the end of a long practice my coaches had a race
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  to see who was the slowest on the team and I lost or won
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  depending on how you go. And the guy that beat me in that
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  race was playing catcher the entire practice so they even
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  made sure to point that out to me.
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  But by 7th grade I was doing some things OK on the track team
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  and by 8th grade I was a team captain and, and was on a record
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  setting school record setting relay.
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  And things really changed for me and, and I tried to never lose
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  sight of that as as I've gone through, I, I got into coaching
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  young. I was still in college when I
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  started out as a middle school assistant.
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  And then I got a high school head coaching job, also still in
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  college and then came and was able to land a student teaching
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  position at that same school. So that that's just been a path
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  for me into so many things and that led me later on and maybe
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  we can explore the house and wherefores of all that about
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  into becoming an announcer. Now I'm at about 26 years, I
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  guess, so almost 27 years into being an announcer and gotten to
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  go wonderful places, meet the most incredible people and get
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  some of the best seats in the house for great track and field
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  meets, which you can't beat, right?
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  So that's something that I absolutely love to do still.
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  And I'm getting now to do some things with Charles Kocho,
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  Oliver kocho.com. If you're not familiar with it,
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  you can look and see affiliated with over 100 meets a year.
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  And we're putting on a youth series right now in North
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  Carolina and South Carolina just had the Clemson High School
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  Invitational yesterday. And then we'll be back at Tryon
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  International with the brand new Mondo Oval there for the next
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  couple of weekends and and then back and forth a little bit as
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  we go. So a lot of neat things I'm
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  getting to do with Coach O that I haven't gotten to do,
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  including recruiting for the Gill 1918 Project Youth Series
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  powered by Coach O podcast. So I'm getting to interact with
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  a lot of neat people doing that and I love it.
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  It's it's also 100% free. We try to do some promotion for
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  the people who decide to speak because they're offering great
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  content to youth, coaches, parents and athletes.
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  And in turn, we try to publicize whatever they've got going on a
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  book or a, A cause or a camp or a clinic.
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  We, we try to get people get, get something back to them that
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  way. And and that's really where my
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  heart is for, for everything in the sport.
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  So I'm enjoying that tremendously.
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  Awesome. Well, that's an amazing intro.
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  I appreciate that. And I'm sure people are going to
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  be like, OK, wait, where we at now?
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  And I know a lot of people are very familiar with Coachelle.
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  As a matter of fact, I think I just registered one of our kids
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  through Coachelle. We've got the, the Birmingham
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  meet coming up on the 25th and he'll be running the 400 and 800
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  this week, that week. So very familiar with it as
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  well. It's a former youth, very, very
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  youth. I used to train the four to 14
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  year olds and I'm at the high school level.
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  So extremely familiar with Coachelle.
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  You guys do a great job getting that stuff out there and making
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  sure that people can see the the entire list up there that I
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  appreciate that as a planner. So you've been in the sport for
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  nearly 50 years, right? And I think that's just kind of
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  just awesome in itself because people you either stick around
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  or you don't. Let's think.
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  So when you look back over some of the things that you believe
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  when you first started earlier in your career, what do you
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  think you would have changed or what changed and what refined
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  over that time period where you know through your experiences or
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  through your lens? Well, I would say one thing that
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  changed in me as as the years went by and in my perspective on
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  things is I think when I was a young coach, and I think this is
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  probably true for a lot of young coaches, there's a great drive
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  to prove yourself. You want to be accepted by the
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  older coaches, you want to be recognized, you want to compete
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  and all those things are good and, and should be a part of a
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  coach's make up, I think. But sometimes for me as a really
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  young first starting out coach, it was it was a little bit more
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  about me than it should have been in my own mind.
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  And I really think that as the years have gone on for from my
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  perspective, it, it really became clear that it it's really
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  all about the athletes. It's really all about helping
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  the families. It's all about getting to do
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  cool things like this where you can help support the sport.
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  I recorded an episode for the Guild 1918 Youth Series podcast
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  that's going to be on tomorrow morning.
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  In fact, that is it's called the joy of being simple minded.
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  And it's about helping young coaches simplify things for
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  beginning athletes. So they're just trying to make a
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  little pun with the the, the title of it.
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  But you know, so those, those things for for me, you know,
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  it's all about, there's still probably a little bit about me
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  otherwise I wouldn't care to do it.
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  But it's really about helping the other people.
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  So what what changed the the circumstances around the sport,
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  the circumstances around kids, lives around our society is
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  certainly very different than when I first got my first
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  coaching job in 1984. But people are essentially the
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  same. And it is a people oriented
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  profession being a coach and, and, and people need love,
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  people need support. People need a nudge in the right
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  direction. People need clear communication.
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  People need to know that they can trust you.
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  And those things have not changed, did not change when I
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  coached other sports. Those things did not change, you
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  know, along the way. That's that's sort of a constant
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  in a in a that would be something that I would encourage
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  anybody who's early in their coaching career to to focus on
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  and remember is that relationship part and being
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  trustworthy and communicating clearly goes a really long way
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  to overall success for you to end in the athletes you coach.
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  Yeah, absolutely. So it's crazy as you kind of
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  answered my next question, which is kind of who was like, what
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  are those things that those fundamentals that you think
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  should stay or must stay, right? Because I, I actually put posted
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  earlier that there's a lot of noise out there and it comes all
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  these theories and all this science and all this data and
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  it's great, right? It, it does give us more
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  information, but more information is, doesn't always
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  result in the outcome that we're looking for.
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  Especially when you're new and people go, they get so
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  overwhelmed with all these things that are happening and
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  all the, the, the theories, right, raise the ceiling versus,
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  you know, raise the floor or you know, it though that whole
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  conversation, it's a debate in itself, right?
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  And I think that there's a balance between both of them.
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  So with that and you know, if you've you've got challenges out
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  there with all the noise, what are some of those principles
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  that you know, definitely stand outside of what you just
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  mentioned, which I think are really, really important?
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  What are some of those principles that you think have
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  to stick around generation to generation outside of the the
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  relationship connection pieces? I think one of the things for me
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  was just developing a basic understanding of bio mechanics,
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  not going too deep. It was Tom Ecker, I believe.
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  I don't even know if the book's still in in publication, but I
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  think it was called basic track and field bio mechanics.
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  And for me, getting that under my belt about the second or
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  third year that I was coaching really helped open my eyes and
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  and see things in a different perspective and understand how
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  things worked. And it and it, and I mentioned
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  that of course, a bunch of other sports too along the way and,
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  and it helped me there too. I, I think a, a good track coach
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  can probably coach just about anything once they learn the
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  nuances of, of that sport, because a good track coach is
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  going to know enough about the basic bio mechanics and movement
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  patterns and things like that. And, and those things, those
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  things need to be the basics. Those things need to be the
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  foundation, I think, more so than the noise that you're
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  talking about, because there's a lot and and it's awesome and you
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  can't know it all and and if you know it all, and that's that's
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  what my joy, joy of being simple minded is about tomorrow morning
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  when that comes out on the podcast, you know, if you can't
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  communicate at all, it's worthless, right, right.
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  I mean, you, you can study all you want.
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  You can dig in, you can go deep and, and if you haven't figured
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  out a way to present that to your athletes and to other
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  coaches that work with you in a way that you can replicate and
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  they can understand and use, what good is it?
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  So basics, real basic stuff and communicating that clearly are
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  are really important as far as I'm concerned.
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  Yeah, I love it that the if you cannot communicate that right,
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  what do you know? And I and I have a saying,
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  right? If you don't know how to say
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  what you know, you do not know what you think you know, right?
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  I love it. It's great.
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  So I mean, we have technology now and there's all kind of
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  obviously AI, there's all kind of access to information and to
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  relay that information in a simple way has seemingly tied up
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  a lot of coaches, right. So what is it that you think
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  would help maybe even newer coaches to be able to teach
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  athletes in a simplistic way based on maybe your own
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  experience? Well-being able to to break it
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  down and knowing exactly the core of what you want.
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  And, and then I kind of alluded to having it in such a way that
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  you can work with your other coaches.
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  Most of my career I was a high school head coach, so I had
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  assistants, some paid, some people who were alum of the
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  program and that was great because they had a pretty good
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  idea of how we did things and why we did things.
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  So it was easier. But being able to communicate
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  with the adults that are working with you and then the leaders on
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  your team in such a way that then they are able to share
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  that. Because me, I can only be with
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  so many people and explain something so many times.
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  But if I've got multiple people doing it and the athletes then
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  start talking to each other to do it, then I've I've found some
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  success because that that message, whatever it happens to
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  be, is, is getting spread throughout the team and then
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  throughout a program. And I think that's the other
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  thing that maybe might be straying from your, your
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  question, but just keeping in mind that you're, you're there
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  for a program. Hopefully you're there for a
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  long term, you're trying to build into something.
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  And I always kind of believe that the, the season kind of
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  belonged to the seniors and, and the athletes, but the program
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  belonged to me. It was my responsibility to make
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  sure that the program was moving forward.
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  But I really wanted ownership from my athletes for what
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  happened that season because that was, that was their
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  experience, that was their, their time that they were going
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  to look back on. So we had to, you know, be able
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  to balance that and, and work with it.
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  So, you know, little things that, that you can teach about
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  how you want things done. Like I was very particular about
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  warmups. Warmups needed to be done well.
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  Otherwise you're just wasting your time.
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  In fact, you're probably worse than wasting your time because
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  you're programming your muscle memory and your brain to do
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  something the wrong way. If if you're doing a drill, do
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  it well or don't do it and, and those things come into play and
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  then, and then when you hear kids talking to each other about
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  that, it's like, no, you really need to do it this way because
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  you're not helping yourself. It's not going to help you in
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  your event. Then you know you're on to
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  something. Comments after my own heart and
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  I honestly just had this conversation with our team last
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  week. I said, you guys think that the
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  warm up is preparation for the workout and I said that's not
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  right. It's incorrect.
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  The warm up is your first Rep of the of the workout and it
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  dictates how that thing is going to go.
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  And so you should have seen it. Look on their friends.
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  They were puzzled at first. They got nobody's ever said that
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  to us, but they'll I can sell you after I made that comment,
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  after I made that statement, the kids did a 180 when it came to
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  warm up. 100% serious about it now because they want their
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  workouts to go well. So how do you how do you
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  communicate your vision? Because I love what you said
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  there that it's the athletes season, but it's my program
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  because I have to move it forward, right?
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  So this is temporary ownership on your side, but I am
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  accountable for the sustainability of this.
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  So how do you communicate that to the leaders on your team and
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  the support staff who do you know, the other leaders on your
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  team so that that vision stays through and through?
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  Well, I think having some some very open conversations, doing
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  some listening to hear what you know, what it is you, what do
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  you want to get out of this athletes, What are you, what are
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  you hoping to do? Sometimes you might be very
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  surprised to hear that they're only there because there's a
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  girl on the team that they're interested in or a guy on the
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  team that they're interested in and they wanted to be around or
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  their parents made them. And other people are like, I
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  want to win A state championship.
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  I want to go to nationals. I want to be all American.
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  I, I want, I want that record. I want my name on that record
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  board in the gym for as long as I can possibly have it there for
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  as many events as I can have it for.
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  So you get all of those kinds of answers from the athletes, but I
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  think it's about creating the the culture.
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  And what we talked about was a tradition of excellence.
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  I had it on documents, I had it on shirts.
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  I had it in a lot of different places.
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  It was a pirate men's track and field, whether we were the
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  Pinckney High School pirates. And I called him men because I
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  wanted him to act more like men, not like little boys.
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  And they like that. They thought that was pretty
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  cool. And and then we had a tradition
• 18:15
  of excellence. And so when somebody would start
• 18:16
  to stray from things like that, one of the most powerful phrases
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  is simply we don't do things that way.
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  This is what we do and it's not condemning and it's not anything
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  other than no, that doesn't fit, you know, that that's not our
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  culture, that's not our tradition.
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  And culture really then was not a word that was used a lot.
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  And, you know, it's more more about traditions and atmosphere
• 18:45
  and stuff that culture's more of a recent phenomenon in terms of
• 18:49
  being thrown around about building a team culture, but
• 18:54
  that that kind of stuff. And then, and then again, when
• 18:57
  you get the buy in from your athletes and they, they say
• 18:59
  those things to each other. You know what?
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  We had a way that we did things and, and doing those things in
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  the right way is what mattered you.
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  You may win, you may lose, you may make mistakes, but you need
• 19:13
  to try to do things in the right way.
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  One of those simple little things is we, we left every area
• 19:18
  we came to as clean or cleaner than when we arrived.
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  And, and they bought into it. Captains checked it.
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  I didn't check it anymore. I was usually busy at the end of
• 19:28
  the meet getting results, talking to coaches, doing
• 19:30
  something and, and then there was responsibility from the
• 19:35
  other athletes and, and that's just part of setting some
• 19:39
  standards for yourself and, and holding, holding high standards
• 19:42
  and, and trying to move forward from there.
• 19:45
  Man, did you drop us some Nuggets?
• 19:47
  But I hope some coaches are listening to this one because
• 19:49
  we've got a lot of young coaches that are asking, well, I'm brand
• 19:53
  new. I don't know what to do.
• 19:54
  How do we set this thing up? What do I say?
• 19:56
  What do I do? And they're reading and reading
• 19:59
  and researching all these things.
• 20:01
  And, and honestly, you know, we, we try to tell them, Hey,
• 20:04
  listen, be authentic and, and, and represent who you are
• 20:09
  because that's what the kids are going to see and that's what the
• 20:12
  kids are going to do. They're going to listen to every
• 20:14
  single thing that you do. And I'm going to say that again.
• 20:17
  Kids listen to every single thing that you do.
• 20:19
  They don't listen to a word you say.
• 20:21
  They listen to everything you do.
• 20:23
  And if you've got teenagers, you know I'm telling the truth,
• 20:25
  right? So they don't listen at all.
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  Very, very much, very little anyway.
• 20:29
  Or they watch, they watch everything you do when they
• 20:31
  listen to that thing. And so the young coaches out
• 20:34
  here asking so many questions, what do we do?
• 20:36
  How do we establish this quote UN quote culture?
• 20:39
  How do we set our standards, right?
• 20:42
  And what bit of advice could you give them?
• 20:45
  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
• 20:48
  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
• 20:51
  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
• 20:55
  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
• 20:58
  The Guilt 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
• 21:03
  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 21:06
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
• 21:10
  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 21:12
  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
• 21:17
  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
• 21:20
  Project. Hope you enjoy today, they will
• 21:22
  see you tomorrow.