Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #18: Gill1918 presents Brian Marshall "Change the Culture, Change the Athlete"

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#18: Gill1918 presents Brian Marshall "Change the Culture, Change the Athlete" · 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're bringing 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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  All right, this is coach Brian Marshall from Del Valley High
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  School. And today we're going to talk
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  about change the culture, change the athlete.
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  One of the things that that we can all agree on is that track
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  is is hard. Track is a a very difficult
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  sport, from the running events to the field events and it takes
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  a lot of discipline, time, hard work.
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  As a matter of fact, I always quote Austin Reagan coach Paul
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  Darby when he said, hey, we don't practice track, we train
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  to win championships. And so it it kind of takes the
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  the look of practicing for track in a whole other light.
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  So when I thought about doing this segment about changing the
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  culture, it had directly to do with my current situation here
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  coming into a new school where they've had some success in the
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  past, not as much lately, but the school and the district and
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  the students, we're ready for a, a push.
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  One thing I can say about the Dell Valley students here is
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  that, you know, they, they want to be coached.
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  They want to be successful and then they're just waiting for
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  somebody to come and help guide them.
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  And so one of the things when I talked about kind of changing
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  the culture here, first thing is belief, your belief system,
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  because culture is a part of that culture is your beliefs,
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  your values, your morals. That's the way that you do
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  things can sometimes even include material objects within
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  your culture. But belief is a huge part of
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  changing anything. You know, my beliefs are
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  different because I'm also FCA Fellowship of Christian Athletes
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  coach and so my beliefs a lot are faith-based and I, you know,
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  I, I talked to my student athletes about that.
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  I don't ever push or force anything on them.
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  Their beliefs are their own. But when it comes to to matters
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  dealing with track and me as a coach, that's just who I am.
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  A lot of my stuff is faith-based because I'm just a vessel.
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  God has just blessed me to put me in a position to where I have
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  impact in young lives, to where I can help the youth and mold
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  them. But if it wasn't me, it'd be
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  somebody else. So it's not anything special
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  that I'm doing other than being obedient to what God called me
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  to do. But you talk about, you know,
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  changing the belief in a culture in a school and the specifically
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  an athletic program. You think about faith because
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  the whole concept of believing in Christ is is faith.
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  You know, several scriptures talk about it, you know, Hebrews
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  11 and one says faith is the substance of things hoped for
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  and the evidence of things not seen.
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  So, so having that faith in the belief of something that you
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  can't tangibly see yet, but you know, it is out there.
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  You know, Isaiah 40 and eight says those who hope in the Lord
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  shall renew their strength, their mountable wing like
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  eagles, they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow
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  faint. Even you think about the, the,
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  the concept of salvation. You know, how do you get saved
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  through Jesus Christ? It's a belief.
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  You believe that he is the son of God.
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  He died on the cross for our sins and and God rose through
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  the dead. So even the gift of salvation
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  comes from that belief. And so one of the things in the
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  athletic program, specifically with my girls track team is just
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  changing the belief, changing the expectations, changing the
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  the, the work ethic, changing how we do things, how we look,
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  you know, not just just talking about it, but actually walking
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  that and doing it, You know, getting them all to look uniform
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  and present, getting them into a routine and practice, getting
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  them to understand why we take so long to warm up, you know,
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  and, and, and having them have the ability to buy into that
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  belief and start believing, Hey, this is the way things should
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  be. And then you translate it onto
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  the track. And when they start to see those
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  times drive for, you know, those distances go up, you see them,
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  you know, start to understand that the work is paying off and
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  why they're doing things, especially when they're they're
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  bought in. You know, that's a concept of
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  sports that we talk about all the time, if we can get buy in
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  from the kids. But once you get that, once you
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  do that, then they see the fruits of their labor and their
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  results. And, you know, you can take it
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  to a whole different place. And that's one of the things
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  that I've noticed here just this past year, you know, coming from
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  where we started to now doing the things that the that that
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  championship teams do, trying to make sure that we have
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  everything that we need. And the kids know what it is
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  that they're trying to do while they're doing it to accomplish
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  those goals. You know, training math is
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  training, training matters. Let's let's get that out there
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  now for, for especially for track training matters.
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  The way that you do, the methods, the things that you do
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  as a coach, going through your cycles and your progressions.
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  And we all know that a lot of the good things in our
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  profession are stolen or derived from other great coaches.
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  Even if you've created workouts or different workout template, a
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  lot of it is you picked and choose ideas from several other
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  great coaches. And I know I'm speaking from
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  experience because I, I was blessed to be under some really,
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  really great coaches throughout my career And I picked their
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  brain, all of them. And then, you know, I pick and
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  choose a lot of the stuff, understanding why they did
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  things and then molded kind of my own format of, you know, hey,
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  this is the way that I'm going to do things as far as training
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  methods, right? But you know, it goes back to
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  the belief because when you, when you believe or your, your
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  kids believe that they're doing something for a purpose, the
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  intensity in those training methods grows up.
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  It goes up, right? So they start running harder at
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  practice, they're working harder at drills.
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  And we as coaches know that leads to improvement.
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  They start believing that they can do things they start
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  believing in and the way that they're competing.
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  And we know as coaches that helps to improve things.
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  The discipline and the focus from your young people is also a
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  part of, you know, that culture and, and, and trying to change,
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  you know what that looks like. You know, and I know for me,
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  like I said, our kids were, were ready to start competing and
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  being on the elite level and, and trying to go out there and,
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  and do their very, very best. And, you know, we're in a
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  pretty, pretty tough district when it comes to things.
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  You know, we have, you know, Westlake, Lake Travis Driven
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  Springs. And so we have some, some very
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  well established programs that we're competing against.
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  And one of the things that tell the girls is that you have to
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  start expecting and believing that you deserve to be here.
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  OK? It's not just going to be, you
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  know, by happenstance. You put in the work, you know,
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  you, you did the things that you need to do.
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  You deserve to be here. And I don't need you to be here.
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  You deserve to be successful. And and you know, that's that's
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  The thing is getting that mindset to switch like, you
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  know, you know what? Yeah, it doesn't matter if
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  that's big time so and so I worked hard.
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  I deserve to be here. And and that's one of the things
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  that I've noticed from our group this year, especially because
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  they they they've shown that they're starting to believe just
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  had district won a four by two. We were district champs in a
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  four by two. And and you know, the girls
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  expected it. You know, it wasn't just, you
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  know, we're just glad to make it and we're glad our times are
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  dropping. You know, they expected to go
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  out there and win that. And and that's kind of been the
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  change as far as this season. And that comes from each
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  individual athlete because, you know, track is considered an
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  individual sport, but it's it's really a team sport.
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  I mean, they on paper, it's individual.
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  So, but it's a team sport and that like any other team sport,
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  is if you change the individual and you strengthen the
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  individual, then the team as a whole gets stronger and changing
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  the culture in each one of those young ladies minds from, you
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  know, your JV kids to your varsity kids to those seniors
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  that have been there for four years and you know, they're on
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  their third coach. You know, it it, it's, it's
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  still about changing that individual mindset to change the
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  collective. And another big thing about
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  about changing the the culture of any program and changing that
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  athlete. And I don't think it's brought
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  up enough, but kids liking and believing in their coaches helps
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  play a huge role. These are all teenage kids.
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  We know that they'll go harder for a coach they like or feel
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  like a coach that relates to them, or if the coach that they
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  believe in that coach, you know, they'll, they'll do that extra.
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  And you know, in an ideal world, they, they wouldn't have to
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  because they'd be going 100% all the time.
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  But when you're dealing with teenagers, we all know that's
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  not the case. So them getting that buy in
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  because they believe in what you're selling them and then buy
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  in because they know that you love them and you care about
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  them and, and they're starting to feel the same way.
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  And the other thing is meeting them where they are right.
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  You know, development is, is crucial.
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  I won't say development over talent, because when you have,
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  you know, raw talent, that's always a good thing.
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  If you got to, you know, if you going back to four by two, if
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  you got 6 girls that are all running 20 fours, now your only
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  problem is to pick which 4 go on, which 2 are alternates.
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  And, and how am I going to, to order my legs and, and how am I
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  going to do these handoffs? You know, but you know, getting
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  the development when you've got 4 girls running 27.
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  OK, now I got to get their speed down.
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  I got to get, I got to get those, those down 1st and, you
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  know, then get them believing in each other, knowing that they
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  can depend on each other. Then, then you go to, you know,
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  ordering your legs or, or working your handoffs or
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  anything like that. So meeting the kids where they
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  are and then developing that, you know that bringing that out
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  of them. And I think when you're talking
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  about just coaching in general, I think that's, that's that's
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  the the greatest measure of, of a coach is seeing what you can
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  bring out of your athletes from the time you have them to the
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  time they leave you. You know, because if we're
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  completely honest with ourselves, a lot of times
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  situations can dictate wins and losses and championships and all
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  that other stuff a lot more than, you know, the coaching
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  ability can. You can have some really, really
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  great coaches that just don't have enough of the firepower to
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  go up against the big guns. And then, you know, you have
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  some of those, you know, Cinderella stories where, you
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  know, the underdog takes it, you know, but that's a few and far
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  between. But, you know, sitting there
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  looking at your individual athletes and saying, OK, where
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  did I get this person? And and when they left me, you
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  know, how much better or how much did they improve or not
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  improve? And then I think that's kind of
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  how you can measure yourself as a coach by the development stage
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  again, But you know it. I think when you establish your
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  belief system, you establish your priorities, how things are
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  going to be done, how you want to, to change your programs, how
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  you want to change what the expectations are.
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  I think that once you get that and you get your athletes to to
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  buy in and to believe in that, I truly believe that can change
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  that athlete for the better. Doesn't matter how good they
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  are, what level they are, where they are as an athlete.
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  We're just talking about improvement and change.
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  I believe that changing that that culture around that athlete
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  can definitely change that athlete for the better.
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  And all of these things, you know, that we're talking about
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  from training, discipline, focus, belief systems,
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  everything else. I mean, you know, they're all
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  things that we're already doing as as coaches, right?
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  But I just don't think that anybody has thought about how
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  much has shift and changing culture can change that
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  individual student athlete. And so I just wanted to get on
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  here and, and, and kind of just share my $0.02.
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  Any questions or concerns? You guys can follow me on X or
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  Twitter, whatever it's called now at Coach B Marshall or our
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  our school track site is DV under score HS under score
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  track. Like I said, my personal 1 is
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  that Coach B Marshall, no spaces capital COACH Capital B and then
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  capital Marshall. But yeah, I would like to thank
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  Mike Cunningham and Guild Athletics for allowing the
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  opportunity to come on here and and speak.
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  You guys have a blessed 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 Gilt 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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  Hope you enjoy today. They will see you tomorrow.