Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #61: Gill1918 presents Sean Foulkes "3 V's to Victory/Success"

Transcript

#61: Gill1918 presents Sean Foulkes "3 V's to Victory/Success" · 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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  Hi everyone, my name is Sean Fox.
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  I've spent nearly 20 years coaching track and field,
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  working with youth clubs, middle schools, high schools,
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  collegiate athletes, and private athletes.
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  Along the way I've been a volunteer, a paid assistant, and
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  a head coach. I've had the privilege of
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  coaching athletes to school records, meet records, and
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  championship titles, and I hold USATF Level 1 and 2 Emerging
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  Elite certifications in the throat.
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  Now, I don't share all that because I think I have
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  everything figured out. You know I'm far from it.
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  Coaching is humbling and every season reminds me how much I
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  still have to learn. Well.
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  My journey has given me though is a 30,000 foot view of what
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  consistently makes programs successful.
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  Whether it's a 12 year old just learning the basics or
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  collegiate athlete chasing All American honors, I've come to
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  believe that the success in athletics through sustainable
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  success comes down to what I call the three VS for victory.
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  Vision, value and vulnerability To begin.
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  Vision is where everything starts.
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  A-Team without vision is like a ship without a compass.
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  You might have talent, you might have effort of that direction.
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  You're going to be adrift. For me, you have to have the
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  vision to see where you're headed.
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  Otherwise how are you going to know that you got there?
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  You know, vision isn't just a set of goals written out on a
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  whiteboard. It's a clear picture of who we
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  want to be and what we stand for and how we're going to get
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  there. When I would coach throwers, we
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  would tell them, you know, we may not break all the records,
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  but we can commit to being the hardest working, most coachable
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  athletes on the team. That was part of our vision.
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  Everything we did every single day was to get 1% better.
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  And if we put the work in every single day, we did the little
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  things right. The only possible outcomes, we
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  were either going to learn or we were going to win.
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  How's it See, the thing about vision is they unite the people.
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  A freshman who just picked up a shot and a senior who's chasing
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  a school record in the disc. They're going to be in very
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  different places, but if they share the same vision as the
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  rest of the group, the entire training group gets better
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  because they're all looking downfield the same way.
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  You know, as coaches, we set the tone.
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  If our vision is short sighted, you know, just chasing the winds
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  and and getting this distance or this mark, we could burn our
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  athletes up. But if our vision is bigger,
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  it's about growth, development and preparing them for life
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  beyond the sport. And we create a culture that
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  lasts. And this leads to our second
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  piece. Because you see, once you have
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  the vision to know where you're going, you've got to be able to
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  show athletes value, All right? Now, when we talk about value,
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  athletes need to know that they matter beyond the points, beyond
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  the PRS, beyond whether they're varsity or not, OK?
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  I've coached everything from middle schoolers who just want
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  to be part of something, college athletes who lived and breathed
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  competition. The common thread.
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  Every single athlete needs to feel valued in today's day and
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  age, more so than ever before, when athletes feel valued, they
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  buy in, all right? They work harder.
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  They push through setbacks. And here's the key.
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  The value has to be genuine, all right?
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  It's not about empty parades. It's not about giving them some
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  oh, hey, great job, that's hollow.
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  It's got to be about showing the athletes they matter as human
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  beings, that their value and worth on this program is more
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  than just the numbers from the statcom.
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  It's got to be about who they are as individuals and what that
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  individualism brings to the program.
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  How does this one specific person make our program better?
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  One of the most meaningful moments of my career wasn't a
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  championship, all right? It was hearing from former
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  athletes years later who said, you know, you made me believe I
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  was more than just an athlete. You gave me a home.
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  You gave me a family. When I didn't have one.
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  I found my place on your program.
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  That kind of value will last far longer than any athletic career
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  ever could, and that's what we want.
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  You know, programs that thrive are programs where every athlete
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  feels they contribute, where their effort and their presence
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  matter. As coaches, we have to model
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  that by valuing not just the stars with the role players, the
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  managers, the kids who show up every day just trying to
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  improve. It's not enough to simply have
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  your top 4 studs be great and then let everyone else kind of
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  founder. You want your bottom 4 to feel
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  just as important as your top 4. Now, we all know stats are
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  stats, right? There's going to be a top 4,
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  there's going to be a bottom 4. But nobody ever has to feel like
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  they're in the bottom. Not when everyone's in this
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  together. So you got to show them value,
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  right? Which leads us to our third
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  piece, vulnerability. And this is the one that
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  surprises most people. When you hear the vulnerable of
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  the word vulnerability, you probably think of weaknesses.
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  And that's for good reason. We open ourselves up when we
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  share these things that we're struggling with, right?
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  When we allow ourselves to let someone else in and connect.
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  It's one of the greatest strengths you can bring to a
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  program. OK, here's what I mean.
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  Athletes know when you're being real.
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  That's just, it's just how it is, right?
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  They are the best barometers because they know if you're
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  feeding them a line or not, so you got to be honest with them,
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  even when that honesty might not be what they want to hear.
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  Be real with them. And when they're struggling,
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  share some of your struggles too.
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  Let them know that they're not alone.
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  Nobody in this should be alone. You know they're going to know
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  when you're pretending to have all the answers, and they know
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  when you're willing to stay. And they know that when you say,
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  hey, I don't know, but let's try and figure this out together
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  that you mean it. Sometimes the hardest thing for
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  us is coach to simply say, I don't know, but I'll find out.
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  The minute you can get over yourself if you have a hard time
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  saying I don't know to something is the minute you begin to grow
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  and show that vulnerable side that in and of itself, hey, I
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  simply don't know. That's big.
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  And that'll resonate with them, too.
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  OK, now here's the deal. In my own coaching career, I've
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  had to admit mistakes, change approaches, tell appetite that
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  one's on me. It's humbling, I get it, but it
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  builds trust. Vulnerability is also what
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  allows athletes to come to us when they're struggling, not
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  just physically, but mentally and emotionally OK, Especially
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  at the collegiate level where kids are far away from home and
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  they don't have that constant support structure that they had
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  way back where they came from. That's hard to manage sometimes,
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  and you've got to be there for them.
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  You know, we create a culture of vulnerability where you feel
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  like you can come in and you can just lay your troubles down and
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  the rest of the group sits there and says, you know what we got
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  you to, where you feel accepted. You know, these athletes take a
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  risk when they do that. So when we as coaches can share
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  some of that as well, that risk doesn't seem as great.
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  You know, I'm, I'm reminded of the the cartoon image where it
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  says, you know, here's what people think a leader is.
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  And it's somebody, you know, cracking a whip while people are
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  trying to pull their big stone chair, right?
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  And then here's another picture right next to it and says what
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  leaders actually are. And the guy is pushing the stone
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  with the other people, right? You got to be willing to meet
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  your athletes where they're at. If you can't, that makes for
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  some really hard conversations down the road.
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  And it really puts driving like divide in what could be a very
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  fast ascent. Building trust.
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  You know, when we create a culture where vulnerability is
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  accepted, athletes, they're just not afraid to fail, you know?
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  Because when they know that failure isn't the result, they
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  know that learning and growing are the result.
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  They know it's a part of the process when athletes and
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  coaches share that space of honesty.
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  And that's when the real magic happens.
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  It really is. Now, here's the cool thing,
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  right? When athletes share their
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  vulnerabilities and what we call the valley of success, right?
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  If you think about Flutter V, you've got this high point way
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  up here, that's your vision and you get a little bit deeper.
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  That's your value. You get down to the bottom, you
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  know, kind of in between two peaks.
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  That's your valley of success where all the vulnerabilities
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  lie. Because we share our
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  vulnerabilities with each other, something really cool happens.
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  You're showing somebody else value by listening to them, by
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  being there for them. And so when you show them value,
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  something even cooler happens. You begin to see the vision for
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  what they could possibly do, and they help you see the vision for
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  what's possible for you. And then everyone begins to see
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  the vision of what's possible for the team.
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  If you want to create success, if you want to chase victories,
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  the big ones, not just the meat ones, not just the trophies, but
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  victories in life, you got to have the three VS All right, so
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  recap those three VS for victory, vision, value, and
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  vulnerability. Look, they're not magic words
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  and they don't replace hard work, training plans, or good
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  technique. By my 20 years of coaching
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  across all the different levels, I've seen these three separate
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  things bring programs together and allow them to do more than
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  just survive, but thrive. Vision gives your team
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  direction. Value gives your athletes
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  purpose. Vulnerability gives your program
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  authenticity. When you combine all three, you
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  don't just build better athletes, you build better
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  people. So that being said, I'm going to
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  get off my soapbox, all right. I want to thank you all for
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  letting me share my perspective with you.
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  I hope it challenges you to reflect on your own coaching and
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  maybe to strengthen one of those V's in your program at the end
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  of the day. But we're all in this together
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  to invest in all of our athletes, to invest in each
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  other as coaches. So do me a favor, if you get a
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  chance, pick someone up right, Show them some value.
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  You'll be amazed what can happen.
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  I have a vision for someone and see what happens.
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  Share your vulnerabilities and see what you get back tenfold.
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  Maybe we can leave a greater legacy that's bigger than one we
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  ever left for future generations.
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  Thanks again for allowing me to be on my soapbox.
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  I'm Sean Fox. We'll talk to you soon.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
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  The Gill 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
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  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
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  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
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  there. So please get a hold of me,
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  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
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  and let's help create your episode of the Gill 1918
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  Project. Hope you enjoy today and we'll
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  see you tomorrow.