Important rules When working with young athletes, coaches should establish some absolutes and never deviate from them. Safety first. Without effort, there are no results. There has never been more information available about how to train or more specialized equipment available to train effectively, but none of this will matter without the effort of the person training.

Quality over quantity. Five good reps are better than 50 bad reps. In addition, sacrificing technique for bragging rights or to over inflate an ego is a recipe for disaster. Your biggest competition is yourself. Sports are about competition and we love competitive athletes, but this can get dangerous in the weight room.

There are dozens of reasons why one athlete is stronger than another body type, muscle fiber proportion, limb length, training age. While we should foster healthy competition under some circumstances, as coaches we should focus more time and energy on making our players better than they were yesterday.

His duties at Seton Hall include all aspects of training and conditioning for baseball, men's and women's soccer, volleyball, swimming and diving, cross country and men's and women's golf, and he also serves as an adjunct professor.

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Case Study , Concussions , Injury Prevention , Player Safety , Sports Medicine. Injury Prevention , Player Safety , Sports Medicine. Shop see all ». Current Issue Program Design. What does safety have to do with taking over a basketball program or athletics department? In every situation where there is a change in leadership — particularly in the world of coaching — there is some emotional trauma.

Often the program has been struggling and a new coach was brought in to turn things around. Despite what people within that program show you outwardly when you first show up, they are all dealing with a lot on the inside. This is particularly so for young student-athletes who do not have experience dealing with such transitions.

This is a lesson I learned the hard way at the University of Maine. We came in and established good relationships with our players right from the start.

We were very clear and honest about who we were going to be and what the standards were. We were transparent with everything and received positive feedback and buy-in from the players.

We had an elite championship culture at Rhode Island College, and we were laying the groundwork for the same thing at the University of Maine. They had been part of a losing program for a long time, they had lost their coaching staff and expectations around them were very low.

They had seen nothing but bad results. Nothing had gone the way they hoped or expected, and now everything was being turned upside down. How could you blame them? You are so focused on establishing new approach, wanting them to see that things are going to be different.

But no matter what process you put in place and how often you talk to your people, if you want them to lay it all on the line for you every day, you have to establish an emotionally safe environment. You do this by showing your own vulnerabilities, by being authentic with them and making genuine connections away from the workplace.

Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea: We are safe and connected. Core values are important to any organization. When you are establishing your expectations for those you are leading, you must be clear from the onset on exactly what your core values will be.

We can put up inspirational pictures in the office or paint words on the locker room wall, but to get your people to live and breathe those values you have to be specific in how you define them, which can only be done through behavior.

Jack Welch famously turned around the culture at General Electric by introducing a culture based on performance and values. But he was also very direct in laying out what those values meant in the day to day operation. The values are extremely important, but only in the way they translate into behavior that can lead to success.

We had an extremely tight culture at Rhode Island College and it translated into sustained excellence — we won six conference championships and went to eight straight NCAA Tournaments. We translated our core values into behaviors for our players so they knew exactly what was expected of them.

Toughness was a core value, and we were constantly celebrating toughness plays on film and in practice. Guys taking charges, first on the floor for loose balls, keeping rebounds alive.

This was the foundation of our culture that led to elite success. Change management is a challenge for any leader, but in world of college athletics, everything moves a lot faster. Understanding the culture of your institution and its specific programs is essential so you can put together the right game plan.

Embrace your people right away, create a safe environment for them to compete in, and define your core values in behavioral terms.