Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #155: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 2) "Teaching Across Generations" with David Mitchell hosted by Kyle Jones

Transcript

#155: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 2) "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'll bring in 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.
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  And you said some Nuggets already.
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  What bit of advice could you give maybe the newer coaches,
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  newer coaches or the less experienced or those who are
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  experienced but are still struggling to, to find their way
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  within their own team dynamics, What a good confidence or what
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  excuse? Not confidence, but what advice
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  would you give them going forward to build a better
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  program around their ideas and standards?
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  Well, well, I think one thing is you, you can't hit a target if
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  you don't know what it is. So it's pretty important that
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  you get with people you trust and kind of go over that and,
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  and make sure that you know, you know, what is, what is it that
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  you really want? What is it you're trying to do?
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  You know, how do you can't set that vision if you can't, if you
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  can't share it and and define it.
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  So know where you want to go as a program, know what you want to
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  do season by season. And, and what that really boils
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  down to. And the things that we've
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  already been talking about is the little things on a daily
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  basis is what adds up to the big things.
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  And it's what adds up to the, the great memories of being part
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  of the team that, that the, the athletes that you coach are
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  going to have or not going to have because they're going to
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  feel safe and they're going to feel trusted and they're going
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  to feel important when, when you have those boundaries up for
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  them. Teenagers need those boundaries.
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  They're going to attempt to bounce all over the place.
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  And the boundaries are, are guardrails that just to keep
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  them, keep them in, you know, and keep them in the, the right
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  path, not necessarily to suppress them in any way.
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  But you're, you're totally right about, you know, that your
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  actions speak very loudly. So you need to make sure that
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  your actions are consistent with what you say that you want,
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  because whether you know it or not, whether they say it to you,
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  they're going to call you on it anytime.
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  The kids are, are incredible at picking up on hypocrisy and, and
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  knowing when you're not really living the way you're talking,
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  you know, and that that's going to happen sometimes and, and
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  being open enough to say, Hey, I'm sorry, I was wrong about
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  that. Let's move forward in a positive
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  way. But that's, that's going to,
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  that's going to earn you some respect with a lot of people to
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  be able to do that and then then take them along and, and, and
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  move forward in a positive way. But one of the things you're
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  talking about, it reminded me of a friend who at the time was a,
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  a youth pastor and, and he said, high school kids like you if
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  they think you're cool, middle school kids like you if you
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  think they're cool. So it's kind of fun to keep in
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  mind, you know, that they're coming in from, we have bad
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  days, we have good days. They're coming in from all sorts
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  of stuff. You, you want to make sure that
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  they know that you like them, that you care about them, that
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  you, you want them there. Joe Newton from Illinois was a
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  legendary cross country and track coach, one of the first
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  high school coaches to be an Olympic coach.
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  And, and I had the pleasure of seeing him speak at clinics and,
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  and getting to know him a little bit later on when I was an
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  announcer. And you know, one of the things
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  he did, he'd have a team, a cross country team with 200 boys
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  on it and from from York High School, Elmhurst, IL.
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  And he would shake every kids hand on the way into practice
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  and learn their names and know them by name and shake their
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  hands on the way out of practice.
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  Not that's not practical for everybody, but Mr. Newton did
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  that and Mr. Newton coached for over 50 years at York High
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  School and had incredible success with his athletes.
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  And you know, that's a small or that's an extreme example, I
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  guess, of a small thing that you can do.
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  But somehow, you know, I, I felt it was always important to call
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  roll every day. I wanted every kids name
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  mentioned at least once in in a in a positive way, because a lot
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  of times if you don't mention it and acknowledge them in some
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  way, then probably the first thing that you say to them is
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  knock that off. Hey, stop, you know, get over
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  here and and it's not so positive, right?
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  So I took attendance at called roll every day and, and I had
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  teams in the, in the 80s, eighty 8485 kids on a team.
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  Those were the bigger teams. Most of my team's average
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  probably 60 to 70. So it took a little bit of time,
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  but everybody got the name called, everybody got looked at,
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  everybody made eye contact. And at the time I didn't know
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  how important that was. I was more interested in in
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  making sure that I didn't miss somebody skipping practice.
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  My motivation was a little bit different, but when I look back
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  at it, I think, wow, you know what?
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  That actually accomplished some other things that I didn't even
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  realize I was doing. That's funny because we took
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  role today, right? Yeah, I think we're up.
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  We're on parts like yay, we're in.
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  So now I'm going to transition just a little bit here because I
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  think what you're saying is also indicative of the times as well,
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  right? Because before people would take
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  roll and now you can just kind of visually map out and have
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  technology with you and all people have iPads and they're
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  just like checkbox, checkbox, checkbox, right?
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  So maybe it's not writing, but it's in digital, right?
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  So what are, you know, what are some things that you've seen
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  over the years that have changed dramatically from when you
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  started and then it kind of throughout the years that have
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  progressed And it's just like, wow, I can't believe we're here
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  with XY and Z for example. Well, the simply the
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  performances are off the charts. I mean, there were there were
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  those those rare moments when you heard about somebody from
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  your state that maybe was doing something nationally significant
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  or you'd see them later going on and having great success in the
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  NCAA level because you heard about it.
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  They're a little bit more, you know, the the first year I was a
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  varsity high school coach was the second year that the state
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  of Michigan had the 4 by 800 meter relay.
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  So I was not a particularly good athlete.
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  So I had never been to a state meet and never been as a
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  spectator. I certainly didn't make it as an
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  athlete. My first state meet was as a
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  coach. So I was learning along with
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  them and we had qualified the four by 800 meter relay.
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  Cool. I didn't know what to expect.
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  I didn't know how it was going to go, but we we ended up
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  finishing fifth that year and ran about I think 8 O
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  380-480-3804 doesn't even sniff a a medal in in just about any
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  state anymore. With the, with the larger
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  school, you know that, that that's, that's not even you put,
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  you wouldn't qualify if that's what you were running.
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  But that was the standard at that time, right?
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  And then that, that record. I know in Michigan, I know there
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  have been teams that have run in, in state competition 744 and
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  under and in national competition under 740 since
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  then. And those things don't compare.
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  You know, here I am happy that my, my, my athletes ecstatic
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  that they just won Mellos at the state meet.
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  It's the first state meet I've ever been to and and that that
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  time is light years behind what people are doing now.
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  So that that's one concrete example of of what's out there
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  that that has changed is the performances.
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  And, and one thing I have the perspective of coaching pre
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  Internet and then coaching post Internet or with the Internet
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  and die stat at the beginning did more to change the sport
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  than anything I've ever experienced.
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  And John and Don and I were wonderful people.
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  And again, through announcing, I got to to meet them and got to
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  know them and enjoy their company and, and they had a
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  vision for doing things that they were just starting to do
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  some things because they want to recognition for their two kids,
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  Natalie and Derek were were people that their their their
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  children that were competing and they weren't getting recognized
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  and they didn't know how they compared.
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  And so they just started it and it's blossomed into this whole
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  huge thing. And you know, I, I would hang up
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  record boards, I would hang up standards to qualify for state,
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  I would hang up regional standards.
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  And you know, like additional qualifier, you got to enter 2
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  into regional. But if you had such and such a
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  time or jump or whatever, then you could add more than two.
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  You know, those were things I would hang up in the locker room
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  because I wanted them to know how to define what good is.
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  Because they think because I beat Billy all the time and, and
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  I'm the fastest kid in the 7th grade and then I move on to high
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  school, I'm still going to be the fastest kid around.
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  They don't really know what good is.
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  And, and now with the Internet, the definition of good has
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  changed and it's right there in your face no matter what.
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  You can't escape it even if you wanted to.
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  And, and so I think that in itself just changed
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  expectations. It changed expectations of
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  athletes. It changed expectations of
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  coaches. And I, I've been blessed to work
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  with National Scholastic Athletics Foundation since 1999.
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  And their meets now currently called Nike Indoor Nationals,
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  Nike Outdoor Nationals are, you know, they, they started in the
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  early 90s and they helped do that too.
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  They really helped define what's good and they brought people
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  together from different States and, and they crowned national
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  champions and they gave away rings and, and that really
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  started to change things too. It changed expectations, you
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  know, as, and when I first started coaching, I didn't even
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  have the state meet on my schedule that I printed at the
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  beginning of the year because I didn't quite understand it yet.
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  I, I, it was on my mental radar, but it wasn't printed on my
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  schedule. The latter part of my coaching,
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  I had nationals on the schedule, you know, right from the
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  beginning of the year, Hey, we're going, we're going to have
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  some people go to nationals. We're going to have it here.
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  We're not going to, we're not going to plan our open house on
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  that weekend for graduation because you might have three
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  other people on the relay with you that need you to be there at
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  nationals. So, you know, we, we tried to to
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  get that out there six months in advance and, and make sure that
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  everybody knew. So all those things that the
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  Internet, the the die stats and mouth splits of the world and,
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  and the, the championship meets that are out there really
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  changed expectations in ways that people have just risen to
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  it. Coaches have tried to learn
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  more. Coaches have had access to more
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  information like we talked about sometimes too much, but that
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  that has had a lot to do with it.
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  I think with with the way the sport has accelerated and, and
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  I'm always amazed that we're still setting world records and
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  you know, where, where does human potential end?
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  We haven't found it yet. No, no.
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  And and I, I don't think we, we ever will.
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  You know, you look at the the first guy, whoever runs up for
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  and, and not long after, but you know, everybody said it couldn't
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  be done. It's an impossible human body.
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  And then, you know, he did it. And then what, 10 other people
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  did it within that same month, let's say.
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  What? Yeah, That, that that's a
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  perfect example, right? I mean, that barrier is broken
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  and all of a sudden people rise up and do things that that were
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  once thought to be impossible because now they know it's
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  possible. So I, I think that's part of
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  what coaches we have to do, right?
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  We have to make sure they're aware of of what is actually
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  possible for an athlete to do and then help them make those
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  steps to get toward that. I think that's a lot of coaching
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  is to your point, it's showing, it's exposing them to something
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  different than what they thought.
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  And a lot of the kids ago, well, I see myself this way, but
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  you're telling me I can do this And they don't believe you at
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  1st. And then you start to train them
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  towards that other goal And they go, wait a minute, I'm actually
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  running faster, I'm jumping farther, I'm throwing further.
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  And maybe this thing is possible, right?
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  And so then they start to believe a little bit more and
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  more and then they buy in and they're like, you know what, I'm
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  confident I can actually do this in the the key to coaching is
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  showing them the potential, but also training them to to the
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  point where they could actually get it based on that belief
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  right and, and the work that they do.
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  Right. So I, I used to ask athletes
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  sometimes what, you know, what comes first for you?
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  The what, what, what really has gotten you the hard work, the
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  right we're what comes first, the success first or the work,
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  you know, because a lot of them, they didn't believe in
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  themselves. And so it is our job as coaches
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  to believe in our athletes, to set the vision for our athletes.
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  But they didn't really believe in themselves until all of a
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  sudden they got a performance and then their perspective
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  changed. But I would try to challenge the
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  athletes to and if you've been in in a place long enough and
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  they've had older brothers and sisters or whatever, they start
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  believing you a little sooner because you know, you, you've
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  kind of got credibility with them.
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  When, when, when you say, Hey, this is what I know you can do.
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  They start to believe a little faster.
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  But that that changeover from OK, going through the motions to
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  all right, I'm really going to dedicate myself to this.
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  The sooner we can help the athlete get to that, the the
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  more success they're going to have.
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  Absolutely. So you've been in this thing
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  nearly 50 years, right? And hopefully that doesn't sound
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  weird. That sounds awesome to me.
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  Like anybody who's been around something that long, there's a
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  passion and the love for it, right?
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  How do you, how do you prevent yourself from burning out or
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  losing the love, right? As some people say, how do you,
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  how do you maintain that sustainability and longevity and
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  in such a sport like this where you know it's very taxing
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  sometime from season to season? It, it really isn't it.
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  It's very hard. And right off the top of my
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  head, I don't remember the name of the book, but Rick McGuire
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  was a coach at the University of Missouri and he wrote a book and
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  had a really excellent chapter about coaching burnout and how
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  you know when you're starting to see those signs of burnout.
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  So being aware, you're being, being self aware is, is very
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  big. You know, some, some people may
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  have a spouse, they may not have a spouse with it.
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  They may just have a friend group around them or whatever it
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  is. But having some kind of support,
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  my wife has been a great support to me.
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  My wife Carol, and I've been married now just over 40 years.
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  And yes, exactly. Thank God, he's, he's the one,
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  you know, and, and she's been a great supporter all the way,
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  even when things were were difficult because I was putting
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  a lot of hours into it. You know, I, I think that that
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  self-awareness is huge. And I think we're all going to
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  have those moments or even chunks of time when we're
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  feeling burnout. And then getting some idea of
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  how to pull through that and refocus is, is also pretty
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  crucial. You know, for me, anytime I was
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  coaching in a, in a, in any sport really is when you make a
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  mistake, when things aren't going well, how do you fix it?
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  What do you do? You get back to basics.
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  You know that that's, that was my coaching perspective when I
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  was coaching my own daughters in volleyball, when I was coaching
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  any other sport and in track too.
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  It's like something didn't go well.
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  OK, well, let's let's go right back to the basics.
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  That's how are you sleeping? How are you eating?
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  Are you getting enough to drink? What what kinds of things are
• 17:13
  you pouring into yourself to build yourself up?
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  Are you, are you getting any exercise yourself or are you
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  just supervising all these other people doing all this great
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  stuff? You know, go right back, right
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  back into the to the very basics to start rebuilding that
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  foundation, finding the cracks, if there are any, and and then
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  then building everything back up again.
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  I think is, is one way to be able to do that For me.
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  Another thing has been, you know, I, I've been blessed to
• 17:47
  not always have the same role in the sport.
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  You know, I, I've been able to go from from being a high school
• 17:53
  coach to becoming an announcer and travel in the country and
• 17:58
  other, sometimes other parts of the world even.
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  And, you know, having, having A and now I'm doing this.
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  I just retired after 39 years working in public schools last
• 18:10
  June. And that's, that's when I picked
• 18:13
  up with, with Coach O, the last 23 of those were as a school
• 18:18
  counselor. So saw a lot, a lot more than
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  than I ever cared to of, of how hard life is for people.
• 18:28
  And you know it, it really is. But being able to change roles a
• 18:34
  little bit is nice. Not everybody's always going to
• 18:36
  have that option, but finding a way to do things like that is,
• 18:41
  is very refreshing. I was actually pretty burnt out
• 18:46
  from education when I retired in Michigan in 2015 as a high
• 18:54
  school counselor there. We had 1400 students.
• 18:57
  We had an administration that really believed that counselors
• 19:01
  were not that necessary. They wanted to bring in other
• 19:04
  ways of doing things. And we had gotten down to two
• 19:08
  school counselors, the entire district, both at the high
• 19:11
  school. So when I started working at the
• 19:15
  high school, we had about 1600 students and four counselors, so
• 19:19
  about 400 people on a caseload, which is still a pretty big
• 19:23
  caseload, still higher than the 250 that's recommended
• 19:26
  nationally. That doesn't happen all that
• 19:29
  often, but that's what the standard is, right?
• 19:32
  And so by the end though, you know, I had 700 on my caseload
• 19:37
  in the second year of doing that, the other counselor had
• 19:41
  stress related health issues and missed like the first month of
• 19:45
  school because she needed to take care of herself.
• 19:49
  So here I am doing all of the scheduling, all of the
• 19:53
  everything that school counselors do for 1400 kids and,
• 20:01
  and I and I was in a community where I had lived for 25 years.
• 20:06
  So everybody. Not everybody, but a lot of
• 20:08
  people knew me. I'd go to the store and they'd
• 20:11
  be like, you know, hey, you haven't fixed Kyle's schedule
• 20:15
  yet. You know, what are you going to
• 20:17
  do about that? He really needs that class.
• 20:19
  And it'd be like, you know, I couldn't escape it.
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  And I was getting like, each day I, I'd, I'd be getting about 100
• 20:29
  emails and, and have 30 or 40 voicemails.
• 20:33
  So by the end of that year, I was toast.
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  I really was, I, I, I was hanging on for dear life.
• 20:39
  I was, you know, feeling it in, in my house.
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  I was coming home having just kind of lay down for a while and
• 20:46
  try to relax and, and, you know, it was, it was barely hanging
• 20:49
  on. So I thought at that time I had
• 20:53
  the opportunity. I wasn't really planning to
• 20:55
  retire. I didn't, wasn't sure what I was
• 20:56
  going to do. But they had a, they had a
• 20:58
  buyout because they were trying to get the people with the most
• 21:02
  experience with the higher salaries out and bring lower
• 21:04
  people, lower salary people in to balance the budget.
• 21:08
  And that was great for me. So I took the buyout and sold
• 21:14
  athletic equipment for a year with my friend.
• 21:16
  Anyway, they did that for a year and and then we moved to South
• 21:23
  Carolina. There's a long story about that
• 21:25
  I won't go into now because it's more just about personal life
• 21:27
  than about coaching. But we moved and I was sure that
• 21:32
  I was not going back into public education.
• 21:35
  I was going to do anything trying to apply to to colleges,
• 21:39
  to do things in the admissions or to be an assistant coach to
• 21:43
  do something. And I finally gave up one night
• 21:46
  and applied because it it we've been down here for a while.
• 21:49
  I didn't have the job secured and and applied on a Friday
• 21:53
  night for two jobs in in what's not my hometown in Greenwood,
• 21:56
  SC. Monday morning phone rang twice
• 21:59
  back-to-back. We want to interview you on
• 22:01
  Tuesday to set up the interviews.
• 22:04
  It was an elementary school counselor position and in high
• 22:07
  school English teacher position. Well, I'd have been a high
• 22:09
  school English teacher. I'd never gotten the chance to
• 22:11
  work in an elementary school. So when I interviewed with the
• 22:15
  elementary school first, they said, if we offer you the job,
• 22:18
  will you cancel the other interview?
• 22:20
  And I'm like, yes, I will, I'll be happy to do that.
• 22:23
  And, and that was very refreshing.
• 22:25
  So the point of that story on our topic is about if you get a
• 22:30
  chance to do some things that refresh you a little bit, to do
• 22:34
  something a little bit different, it's going to
• 22:36
  probably help you. You don't have to give up
• 22:40
  everything that you're already doing, but you know, to find
• 22:42
  some different ways to, to do some things can, can help you
• 22:46
  with that. But burn burnout's real.
• 22:49
  You need to develop support before you need it.
• 22:52
  You need to not have shame about going to see a therapist or a
• 22:56
  counselor or talking to a pastor or whoever it is for you in your
• 23:00
  life that that would be of, of some support to you because it,
• 23:05
  it's a high burnout profession. Any, any profession that deals
• 23:07
  with people a lot. I think it's a pretty high
• 23:09
  burnout profession. So, and this is incredibly
• 23:13
  people intensive, so. Absolutely.
• 23:18
  You got to tell me I'm, I think I'm burning both end birth a
• 23:21
  candle at both ends at this point because I do workforce
• 23:24
  development and leadership development.
• 23:25
  So I deal with people and then on the other side I coach young
• 23:28
  kids. So I've got 2 sets of kids, one
• 23:30
  have mortgages and one doesn't. So.
• 23:37
  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
• 23:40
  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
• 23:43
  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
• 23:47
  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
• 23:50
  The Gill 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
• 23:55
  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 23:58
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
• 24:02
  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 24:04
  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
• 24:09
  and let's help create your episode of the Gill 1918
• 24:12
  Project. Hope you enjoy today and we'll
• 24:14
  see you tomorrow.