This Week’s Playbook. The through-line this week is the distance between what you already know and what you actually do about it. Nowhere is it wider than the advice you give every overworked director and have never taken yourself. This week is about closing that gap, in your back office, your athletes, and your own week, before the season sets around it.
“98% of the kids we coach are going to go on to do something incredible with their lives that has nothing to do with the sport they played. And the lessons they carried out of it will be a big part of why.”
— Chad Henry, Signature Locker | Read more →
THE GAME PLAN
Why Kids Leave Your Program and the One Thing That Keeps Them
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A thirteen-year-old gets a kind, encouraging email telling her she didn't make the travel roster.
Nothing in it tells her family where she plays this fall, so by October she's playing nowhere.
Most programs promise there are no dead ends, while the dead ends sit at the handoffs nobody designed in advance.
Here is where kids actually leave a multi-team program, and the decision that closes each exit before it opens.
More from The Game Plan:
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Why Parents Keep Comparing You to a Program They'd Never Actually Join
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A parent mentions, casually, that the club two towns over trains five days a week and flies to tournaments in three states.
Her family would never pay that, drive that, or give up their weekends for it, and she'd tell you so herself.
She is using that program as a ruler, checking whether her own family is doing enough.
Here is what she is really measuring, and the one-sentence answer that ends the comparison.
More from The Human Factor:
THE TOOLKIT
Before October Gets Busy, Pick These 5 Things to Watch
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September gave you a clear read on the season, and October is about to bury it.
Tournaments stack up, entry programs hand off, coaches get tired, and everything gets louder at once.
The loudest signals crowd out the useful ones, unless you decided which ones count before the noise arrived.
Here are the five things worth watching through November, and how to set them up in one page this week.
More from The Toolkit:
Have a question or want to share what's working
at your program? We want to hear it.
Have a great sports week,
Chad Henry and the Signature Locker Team
Thought Leaders
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