Intro to Module 3
These books will be referenced often in Module 3 of the Coaching With Purpose developmental
program. InSideOut Coaching is available at Coachforamerica.org and Amazon.com. The Sandlot Strategy is available at
KeepersoftheSandlot.com.
As you prepare to continue your journey through the Coaching With Purpose
program, please be aware that there are two versions of these lessons. There is
a general form of this module, which you are now reading, and there is another
that we call Coaching With Purpose Plus. The Plus version of CWP covers the
same topics as the general version, and includes faith-based elements.
Anyone interested in accessing the Plus version of Module 3 can request the file
by sending an email to ryan@communityforcoaches.org.
Lesson One – Where Are We?
At this point in the Coaching With Purpose journey you hopefully have a few things figured
out:
– You have a well-developed Coaching Purpose Statement, an answer to the question “Why
do I coach?”
– You have embraced your unique opportunity to use sports as a tool to change lives.
– You have done some important thinking about the purpose of sports and competition.
– You are working to build meaningful community in your program, providing players, parents and coaches with a place to connect and belong.
– You understand the power that spoken words have to positively affect the trajectory of a person’s life, and have implemented
some version of the “Put-Up Game” into your program.
As you prepare to work through Module 3 of Coaching With Purpose, you can expect to continue to develop your thinking on the importance of coaching, and the opportunity you have to build community and change lives. Also, we will drill deeper into your Coaching Purpose Statement, helping you to create a means of intentionally building the core values from your purpose statement into the lives of the athletes you serve. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of coaches are wonderful, generous people with the best of intentions. And yet, very few of us have a well-developed plan to meaningfully build into the lives of our athletes. Imagine what it will look like as an increasing number of coaches in your community, school or league are intentional about building into young lives in a way that lasts.
One of the tools we will utilize in Module 3 is a book called The Sandlot Strategy by Bill Severns. Hopefully you’ve got a copy of that book available to you. This is actually the second book written by Coach Severns (the first is called Keepers of the Sandlot), and Bill writes primarily to an audience of parents who are coaching the teams their own children play on. Also, Bill is a “baseball guy” and the stories and language he uses in the book are all related to baseball. However, the selections from The Sandlot Strategy that we’ll be reading in Coaching With Purpose make points that can be applied very broadly to coaches at any level who are working with athletes in any sport.
Let’s take a look: Read pages 4-8 from chapter 1 of The Sandlot Strategy.
For discussion/reflection:
1. What are significant things you have learned or realized about yourself and your calling
as a coach in the past year?
2. Where do you see opportunities for you to continue to grow as a coach?
3. Coach Severns writes on page 5, “You are handling diamonds.” How does considering
the incredible value of each one of your athletes inspire you to handle them? Does that
responsibility ever intimidate you?
4. How well do you communicate with athletes and their families? How might the 3-step
communication process outlined on pages 6-8 help you be more effective as a
communicator?
5. What is your Coaching Purpose Statement and how well are you doing at living it out?
