Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #46: Gill1918 presents Adam Smith "A Book that Helped Me be a Better Coach"

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#46: Gill1918 presents Adam Smith "A Book that Helped Me be a Better Coach" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Hello there my name is Adam Smith.
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  I am a 7th year teacher and coach in Texas and currently I
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  am in junior high girls basketball and throws coach.
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  Sometimes I help out with the high school and I've also been
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  at the high school level so I have AI have a little bit of
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  experience there. I was invited to come out here
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  and say a little bit about some things that made me a better
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  coach this last offseason, and I'm mostly going to talk about a
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  book that has really helped me out.
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  But a little bit of background into who I am.
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  I take throwing very seriously. I did it in school all the way
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  up to high school until I had a an incident which I could no
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  longer compete. But my dad and my grandfather
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  were both throws coaches and they have both had boys and
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  girls or men and women throw in the one sixties, one seventies,
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  one 80s. They've been to the state meet,
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  they've had kids that come in for one year, their senior year,
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  throw disc and then they go off to college.
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  So not to say I'm an expert or, or piggyback on their successes,
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  but I see that and as a member of the family and growing up
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  around throwing and, and having tons of material from their
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  themselves when they were coaches and the clinics they
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  went to and the the old school coaching championship DVDs that
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  they buy and things like that, that I I learned from and I have
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  spent a lot of time and money at being a very good throws coach.
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  But I'll, I'm always looking on ways to make myself better,
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  spend more time increasing my knowledge or expertise.
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  And this past offseason I started reading books that I
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  haven't read before. And the reason I did that is
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  because this season we saw a lot of successes.
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  Our lowest level throwers increased by 2025 thirty feet.
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  And then our highest level throwers, we had a boy come in,
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  had it thrown over half the year, probably got three weeks
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  of practice and he was breaking 100.
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  And then we had a, he got second in this district.
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  And then we had a girl who won district actually, and she
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  started the year is by far the lowest thrower.
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  Her first throw at the beginning of the year was like 42 feet.
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  Her last throw at the end of the year was 83 feet.
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  So we saw a lot of successes. We saw a lot of good things and
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  some things I'm really proud of. But just like I tell the kids,
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  anything you do that's technical, and I highlight the
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  word technical. When you have all these cues and
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  all these little things that you got to remember and you got to
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  do, such as a baseball swing or a softball swing or a golf swing
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  or shot put or disc, all these technical events, these
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  technical sports, you can do everything right.
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  You can have a great throwing motion, you can have a great
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  release. You can do this, you can do
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  that. But one day you're going to
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  plateau. And when you plateau, you're
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  going to have to break down your throat, breakdown your swing,
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  breakdown everything, and find that one little piece that you
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  got to fix, get back right. Or maybe you've never done it.
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  You just got lucky to not have to beat it up until this point.
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  And then once you fix that one little thing, boom, you're going
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  to, you're going to pop 5101520 feet and you're going to start
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  seeing your growth again. You're going to start feeling
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  better. And just like the kids, I hold
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  myself to that same standard. If you're not always looking to
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  learn, if you're not always looking to improve on something,
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  then you're falling behind and you're getting stale and old.
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  So that's just kind of how I felt on the year.
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  I felt like, hey, this is pretty cool, but I think I could have
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  done better. I don't know what I missed.
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  So I'm going to go try and figure it out.
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  And one of the things I did was I talked to some coaching
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  friends and social media networking with throws coaches
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  and I watched a lot of videos both on YouTube and whatever
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  else. And one of the things or I
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  started reading books and I was going to start talking about
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  about four or five books, but really when it got to writing
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  this list, I decided I really only needed to talk about one
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  book. And the reason why I only need
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  to talk about one book is because I kind of felt like it
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  encompassed everything from all the books, or at least kind of
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  help me out in the same way another book would help me out.
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  And it's written by a psychologist and a basketball
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  coach. So I felt like it was centered
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  around coaching. It was really geared for for me
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  to latch onto it and really understand what it's trying to
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  get across. So that being said that the book
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  I'm talking about is called The Psychology of Coaching by Thomas
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  A Tutko and Jack W Richards. It was written in 1971 and as
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  far as my research will show me, I can only find additions up to
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  1973. But I I didn't say anything
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  really as recent as nowadays or even in the last 10 years from
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  these guys. And even though it's an older
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  book, almost 55 years old, I still think it really had a lot
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  of value and great examples. It had cause and effect
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  strategies that were relevant to the to the day.
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  It was just overall a really solid book with great insight
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  into the athlete coach relationship.
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  As I was reading, I have to go no further than the first page.
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  The opening 2 sentences show how well thought out this book was
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  even for today's coaching. So again, keep in mind this was
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  written in 1971. In that sentence, those two
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  sentences go the stride made. Athletics in the last 20 years
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  have been enormous improvements to techniques, coaching, diet,
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  equipment and superior conditioning methods have led to
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  a highly successful individual and team play.
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  So already the first couple of sentences, it's already showing
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  a relevancy and an awareness that coaching and athletics is
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  constantly evolving and changing.
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  So even though that may have been true back then, it's still
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  true today. And then as the first chapter
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  starts, it immediately starts talking about attitudes and
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  mentalities and personalities that often go into coaching
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  different athletes and how even in a team setting you need to be
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  specific and personal. So I'm going to say this a lot,
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  but I love track and field because I think you can be on a
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  more unique and personable level with your athletes than you are
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  in, say, basketball or football or baseball.
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  You kind of get up close and personal way more often.
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  And I think that's also a coaching point a lot of people
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  miss, especially in the throws where you still have like your
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  unit and you got to coach multiple people at once.
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  So it's real easy to generalize what you're talking about or
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  what you want to get across the athletes.
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  And this chapter is about always be aware.
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  You need to be unique, you need to be personable and you need to
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  be relevant to each individual athlete because but there
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  there's several factors, but one of the big ones that that I
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  myself have not looked at very well.
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  Why are my athletes there? Are they there because this is
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  social hour and they don't want to go home?
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  Are they there because their mother or father or aunt or
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  uncle or somebody was a really good thrower and they want to be
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  a thrower too, or they're being pressured into being throwing?
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  What is their motivation? Because until you know that,
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  you're not able to reach that kid effectively.
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  So it goes on to talk about that stuff, but then it goes into the
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  old mentality of they will weed themselves out or they just
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  don't fit into my standards. And that's really interesting
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  because whether or not that's true, that's up for debate.
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  But you have to acknowledge that as a coach, broken relationships
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  will always fall on you. You're the adult, you're the
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  expert, you're the one in charge and even at the collegiate level
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  or above, you may be on the same tier age wise and experience
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  wise, but still as the coach, as the one who's in charge is
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  trying to provide information, clear communication to the
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  athlete. It's your fault when there's a
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  broken relationship. And that's just easily something
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  that you can forget about, especially at the junior high
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  high school level. You kind of, you might shrug it
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  off and say, oh, well, they just didn't work out because they
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  didn't want to be here. Well, you know, you got to step
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  back and kind of take it apart a little bit more than that.
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  But my take away from that is just that as a coach, everything
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  is your responsibility, whether you acknowledge it, understand
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  it or even why it is. And the number 2 athletes,
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  athletes are still individuals no matter what.
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  I think that is one of the great things about track and field.
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  Like I've said, you can build a personal relationship with your
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  athletes. You could do more.
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  You can get out there and be unique with them in a way that
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  they don't see you in the classroom or when you're
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  coaching basketball or football. So it's still a good point to
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  think about, especially with emphasis as you coach.
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  Remember, like I said, this book is chock full of useful
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  definitions, points of view, and cause and effect relationships.
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  I would love to go over the whole thing, but I only have so
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  much time, so I'm going to skip over some some really good
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  stuff. So if you get a chance to get
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  this book, I would highly recommend it.
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  And one of the things that does really well is that it charts
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  and graphs age groups and coaches and athletes and talks
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  about different styles of coaching, obtaining information
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  and clearly communicating that information.
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  My second favorite chapter is Chapter 10.
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  It goes over the outside influences on an athlete.
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  This also stretches to the coach and team as a whole.
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  One of my favorite parts of this chapter is that it goes over fan
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  and teacher influences on an athlete's mind.
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  At the best of times, fans are pivotal in a positive influence
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  of a team, a game, or even a practice of how they act, how
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  supportive they are. Or if they choose to only
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  support one or a small group of players, how do they react to
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  the team 'cause that matters. And that said, it's really
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  sticks out cause a lot of the coaches, a lot of coaches that I
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  know say something along the lines of kind of trite little
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  statements, as the book calls it.
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  You need to come out and support us.
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  I know what I'm doing. You need to just get get along
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  with it. You need to tell your athlete to
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  do what I say. Things like that.
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  It's kind of like a power trip. And this book is just warning
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  how even when you meet it in a positive light, it can still
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  come off poorly and it gives strategies to deal with these
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  situations with a series of questions or steps.
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  First off, don't make trite statements and then secondly,
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  don't be fast to react even if the fans are toxic because
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  that's not necessarily on the player or players and it still
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  might negatively affect the team as a whole.
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  And then the last thing I want to talk about, kind of touching
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  back on something I said earlier.
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  This book is full of definitions, charts, and cause
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  and effect relationships, and that's about the whole book.
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  But towards the back of the book, there's a couple of really
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  good ones under psychological scouting and they give you this
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  chart with high end behavior and low end behavior.
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  And an example for some for a couple of these words is drive
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  high end behavior. Do they clap for teammates?
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  Are they enthusiastic for warm out warmups?
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  And then the low end behavior, do they show little to no
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  enthusiasm during warmups or do they not support another player
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  when they do well? And then another word that I
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  really liked was emotional stability, high end emotional
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  stability. Do they get better throughout
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  the season? Do they handle pressure evenly
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  and calmly? And then low end, do they over
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  dramaticize their injury? Do they complain a lot?
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  Is it the team's fault? Is it the coach's fault?
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  How do they behave? What's their psychology?
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  What do they think is their cause and effect?
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  And then from a psychological aspect, what can you glean from
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  your own team or the other team before a game or during
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  practice? It really does a good job of
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  laying those things out with things they call psychological
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  traits. Oh, just for example, what's
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  your body language as a coach? What's your assistant coach's
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  body language? What's your players body
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  language? What's the body language of your
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  fans? How do you provide correction?
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  Is it positive? Is it in the form of a
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  suggestion? Is it authoritarian?
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  How do you do it? How does your athlete interact
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  with other members of the team? Things like that.
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  It goes on for several pages and that is the book that I wanted
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  to highlight that that is the Psychology of Coaching by Tuco
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  and Richards from 1971. I cannot stop talking about how
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  great this book is, especially for young and less experienced
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  coaches. Real quick, I just wanted to say
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  I know the book comes up or the examples I gave kind of come off
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  a lot as like a thinking coach or like maybe the cool guy or
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  softer type of coach. And that's not really what I was
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  trying to get across. It goes into authoritarian, it
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  goes into hard nosed, it goes into so many different styles of
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  coaching and it breaks each one down and every chapter.
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  And I just I really think that to get the most out of this
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  book, you need to go out and get it yourself.
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  But to to bring this all to a point, I think it really helped
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  me with my coaching and I'm really excited to go out and see
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  what we can do next year. And then lastly, I just wanted
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  to give you some quotes that kind of encompass everything I
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  read. Number one, to be a good coach
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  or teacher, you must be a lifelong learner #2 it is OK to
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  make a mistake as long as you are aware of it and you work to
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  make sure that mistake never happens again.
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  And then #3 like I tell my kids all the time, and for us coaches
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  too, it's a little things that matter most.
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  Thank you all for listening. And I hope that this resonated
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  with somebody. And then real fast, I just
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  wanted to to to shout out, I had a stroke in high school.
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  That's why I had to quit competing.
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  And one of the things I do every year in the springtime is I do a
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  charity drive for a Children's Hospital, the Children's
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  Hospital I was at. So the only thing I really want
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  to plug in here is if you like more information or think that's
• 16:43
  something you want to learn about, you can go to Facebook
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  and look at Bear Dr. Trauma turned positive.
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  And you can learn more about that.
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  If you want to follow me on TikTok.
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  Coach Smith 2025. I haven't really started doing a
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  whole lot of that, but here soon I'm going to put on a lot of
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  discus and shop put stuff so if anybody's interested in just
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  networking or getting to know something they may not know, I'd
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  love to help out any way I can. Thank you for listening and I
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  hope you have a good day. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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  Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
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  Project series. It's really my mission, my
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  passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
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  one hit the mark. The Gill 1918 Project is really
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  dependent on you if for you to build your own episode, to hear
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  your voice, to have your voice heard you have something to say
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  and teach other coaches out there.
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  So please get a hold of me, E-mail, text message, Twitter,
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  smoke signals, get a hold of me and let's help create your
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project.
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  Hope you enjoy the day, they will see you tomorrow.