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Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!
Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!
#118 - The Process of Developing a Culture of Mental Toughness with Josh Miracle
Explore the essential elements of mental toughness in sports with Westfield's head coach, Josh Miracle, in this insightful episode. We delve into the processes and strategies necessary to build a resilient sports program, examining the incremental steps that contribute to a team’s mental fortitude. This discussion not only covers the development of mental training techniques but also highlights their practical application during high-pressure situations and the evolution of team dynamics.
Gain an in-depth understanding of how tailored mental and emotional strategies are implemented for athletes on game days, the role of consistent communication among coaching staff, and the impact of mental discipline when overcoming adversity. This episode provides a comprehensive overview of how mental preparedness shapes not only game performance but also long-term athlete development.
Concluding with a discussion on the continuous importance of mental training, this episode offers valuable insights for coaches and teams looking to enhance their programs with effective mental strategies. We discuss the successes of teams that have integrated these approaches and the resulting shifts in sports culture. Coaches are encouraged to elevate their mental training techniques to foster competitive excellence and holistic athlete growth.
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
So I know we've got a lot of schools that are starting off with the MTP Academy or we've got a lot of schools who they're trying to build up the mental culture of their program. They don't like where the mental toughness is at. They don't like where different aspects of you know not getting tight, not getting tense, just playing loose. How do we play at our best? How do we perform at a high level when the game's on the line? How do we overcome failure? How do we play at our best? How do we perform at a high level when the game's on the line? How do we overcome failure? How do we overcome adversity? And one of the one of the programs that I talk about quite a bit is the, the Westfield football program, the Westfield golf program. You know some of some of the other sports there, just because that's kind of that's where my roots are, that's where I started and you know right now, if you were to take a snapshot of where the high school football team is at and everything that they do with the mental side of the game, I would say they're at a pretty high level and that's why you know they've been able to, they've been able to win some games that on paper, they shouldn't win. It's why they're one of the winningest 6A programs over the last decade in Indiana high school football. And so I want you to hear me say that, if you're just starting off, it's not just instantly and immediately going to be a. You know, hey, I listened to this podcast and poof, now my team is performing at a high level. Or we did this training for a month, for six months, for a year, and now, poof, all my kids are mentally tough and there's no more problems, there's no more issues. This has been something that we've built up over years and years and years just of trial and error. And so you know, now to the point where we can say, all right, if we were to go back and do this again, you know, here's how we would structure this. Here's the mental performance activities that I can say. You know, having worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of individual athletes, and you know, having worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of individual athletes, and you know that number gets into thousands and tens of thousands if you're talking about all the teams that I've worked with. But, like I can say with a good deal of confidence, here's some of the things that you can do that will give you the most bang for your buck, and that's what we've really tried to put together with the MTP Academy.
Speaker 1:But one of the things I'm really excited for you to hear from the conversation with Josh is, like things didn't always used to be that way and it's okay if things aren't perfect when you implement them, and it's okay if there's a little bit of messiness. You know, just like learning any new skill, just like learning how to ride a bike, there's some, there's some falls, there's some bumps, there's some bruises, there's some screwing up, there's some things that you wish you did better. Um, but what I hope you hear is that if you just what's the next right thing, what's the? What's the next way that I can implement one of these tools? What's the? What's the next way that I can get just a small group of guys, a small group of girls, to buy into this, how can I get my leadership you know the, the leaders on my team involved? How can I get one of my coaches to buy in, or two or three of my coaches to buy in? So if that's where you're at and you're just starting off and you're just putting the pieces together.
Speaker 1:I hope that you don't get frustrated that it doesn't happen instantly, because I can tell you it certainly didn't happen instantly for us, and so I think you're really going to enjoy today's episode. But super excited to have Josh Miracle on the show, who has recently just been named the head coach at Westfield, taken over for Jake Gilbert who's leaving to go be the D coordinator at Wabash and then will be the head coach in December. Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the official podcast of Mental Training Plan. We want to empower coaches with the tools and insights needed to develop the mental side of the game so that their athletes can succeed both on and off the field. Tonight we've got a very special guest Josh Miracle. Josh, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 2:Thanks, ben, appreciate you having us.
Speaker 1:Josh was on here a while back and we were talking about success boards and Josh and I have known each other for a long time. Coming out of college, he came and coached at Westfield, joined us on the staff. What year was that?
Speaker 2:Back in 2011.
Speaker 1:So we've been here about 13 years, so that was two years before we went to state the first time, and so you know Josh was. Josh was also around Westfield for when Westfield just wasn't good at football. Now, you weren't necessarily there for, like the, the no win, the one win seasons, but like, I want you to take us back to your memories of when you walked in the building, like what, what stood out to you about the state of the program.
Speaker 2:I think it was a unique perspective because I was just coming out of college, you know, playing at Wabash college and just such a historic tradition there. And then you get to Westfield and all the people are great. I mean, from day one you could just see the passion that people had. But I think the vision for what it could become was maybe lacking. And that's where you know, working for Jake and just playing for him at Wabash, I knew that he would certainly get things turned around.
Speaker 2:But you looked at the stadium and it's nowhere close to where it was today. You know there were definitely just a small group of bleachers there. You know your old grass field, you know the small hometown feel. You could see some of the fast food chains, maybe right across the street, and there wasn't much of a practice facility with it. And I do remember going into the weight room and I just again come back from Wabash and I was kind of like, well, where's the real weight room? This seems like maybe this is just an auxiliary weight room and, sure enough, no, that was it and it was very small, paled in comparison to what we've seen. And I think that was one of the first things that Jake made a huge priority of hey, we've got to get this fixed and we've got to get in this weight room and get a little more space there.
Speaker 1:In 2013,. Obviously we went down to state. I In 2013,. Obviously we went down to state. I've told the story, I feel, like a million times. We went down to state, we walked into the building, we peed down our leg.
Speaker 1:I think you and I both noticed on separate sides of the ball that we had players who had been playing fantastic football all year that just weren't ready for that moment. And I think you and I both identified like this has to get better. And so you know, I kind of I've told the story before about you know, Jake, saying hey, we've got to do this with the whole team, and kind of venturing off into the self-assessment world of how do we help guys figure out what to do. But at the exact same time you were. I think you had identified there's some weakness here, there's something that needs to be better in the mental side of the game, and I remember that we started that mental performance skills camp. I don't know if that was that year or the year after, but you and I kind of both dove in headfirst to this is not good enough. How do we get these guys playing at a higher level?
Speaker 1:And and I know there are a lot of, there are a lot of teams out there right now who want to change the culture of their program when it comes to the mental side of the game. They want there to be just a mental toughness. They want to feel like they can be behind at halftime seven times in one season. I think Jake said you guys were last year but expecting to win, so Westfield's come a long way from, I would say, zero mental training of any kind up to the point where you guys are right now, which we'll get to later. But tonight I really want to dive into kind of the stages of change and how that developed throughout the years. So, you know, going back to those, going back to those 2013 offseason meetings, what stands out to you or what stood out to you kind of the state of the mental side of the game for the team?
Speaker 2:You know, I think, looking back, one phrase that I probably carry with me due to that experience is I never want to lose the same way twice. You know, I'm okay with somebody you know beating us and they, you know, get the best of us on a given night, but I never want to go down the same way because that shows, you know, we didn't really progress as coaches, we didn't grow and put ourselves, um, in a you know a better position, and I feel like in that 2013 it all met well where we were coming from. But I think, looking back, it's easy. You could always put blame on the players, but I always put the blame, you know, back myself. Like maybe there was too much going into it, right, can we simplify things? And I think the art of simplifying and being able to let players still play fast, right, and we were kind of at that point in time where we needed to do some creative things, maybe schematically, just to kind of have a chance to match up with players, just to be honest. And at that point maybe it just became a little bit too much. And I would say, when did it become too much? Probably the day of so really learning how to manage emotions, managing just mental capacity the day of you look at like the Dierksy-Dotson law, trying to be at the optimal level of performance, and I think too many times we've operated, maybe early on, in the opposite effect, where during practices maybe we're not quite amped up to really simulate what it's going to be in the true game feel. Yet in the game you look at all the hoopla that happens beforehand, where people are running out of helmets. You know you got music blaring. It's probably the opposite of what a lot of players need and that's throttling back. So I think that showed me a lot of each player maybe is different too, of how we handle that.
Speaker 2:You maybe can't generalize. Maybe you have one talk for a position group or an entire team, but player to player you might have to have some individual ways to connect. It's been one of my maybe changes or I don't know just kind of specifics that I do personally. I go out there pregame and we have our pregame, you know, kind of walk where guys are hanging out and they're throwing the ball around but I want to go from player to player and just check in with them. You know I've done this for our defensive guys, you know as a coordinator and that tells me you know, do I need to help a guy, maybe throttle down? Do I need to hype a guy back up? Is there maybe one or two things I can give a guy instead of hey, here's a list of 10. That's going to be overwhelming. So I think the one-on-one interaction is maybe a change.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the day of so the one of the things that we've talked about before is the stages of change, and pre-contemplation is kind of that first step where guys don't even acknowledge that there's a problem and they don't even acknowledge that there needs a problem, and they don't even acknowledge that there needs to be a change.
Speaker 1:As you think back to the early days, you know, I remember going into the MPF and everybody's laying on their back and you were taking guys through visualization and I remember, I mean, some of those guys, all they could think about was how fast they were going to get out of there and go hang out with their girlfriend or go grab some McDonald's or whatever. You know, whatever they were doing. Afterwards they they didn't even think there's a possibility that this could potentially help me. What were, what were some of the ways? As you think back, you know, either getting coaching staff, you know, getting the defensive guys to buy into hey, maybe we should teach these guys how to intentionally train the mental side of the game or even the players, like how do we get them to even realize there's a problem here?
Speaker 2:I think first you got to be passionate about what you believe in.
Speaker 2:You know we believe this was an avenue to help us gain success and gain an advantage.
Speaker 2:And sometimes you know it takes time, right, we want everything to happen so quickly in the society we live in, you know, especially, I feel, for our players now. Just everything's so fast and it's a rush process that just the ability to slow down and, I think, just this mentality of we could go back and call on that. It was kind of like deposits, you know, maybe like a confidence account per se, where later on, maybe there was a tense moment in the game, we could say, hey, we've used this breathing before. So even though before the game you know maybe you're getting 10% of guys that it man, it really sticks with and it's good, but during the game now the guys maybe they're like, hey, we really have a need for it in this moment. Well, we've already trained them to know what it's going to be like. So sometimes it was, I think, just the player's recognition of, hey, now I truly need it and I'm going to be more receptive to it at that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know that's one thing in the one-on-one training that I do with athletes. Parents identify it way before the athletes do and they can see in their kid who they know better than anybody else, like they're not playing at their best. They know that something is going on and they suspect, you know, maybe it's this or that. They make some assumptions, they don't really know. But until that kid realizes like, oh shoot, I need to get better in this area, I don't think that you're ever going to get as much out of it.
Speaker 1:Can you think back to the coaching staff? Because one of the things we talked about in the podcast before was like so there's this pre-contemplation where they don't even know there's a problem. Then there's contemplation acknowledging well, there's a problem, but not really sure if we're ready to make the change. Then we've got kind of this preparation determination, like we're getting ready to change. And then we have like this action step where, okay, now we're changing behavior and then you know the maintenance and kind of maintaining this new way of doing things. And I think one of the things we talked about before was it's possible for a couple coaches to get together and go through steps one, two, three and four, maybe pretty quickly. But some of the other staff doesn't even realize that there's a problem. Some of the some of the older staff, just you know, thinks maybe we need to hit them harder, we need to be tougher. You know how do? How do you get everyone on your staff, before they realize there's a problem, to to kind of buy in and to see this for what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think great, great question, right, cause you're bringing sometimes people who are vastly different backgrounds, age groups, you know from a staff, and you're pulling them together. I think the first part is just a clear, you know vision Like it's always been great experience, full potential for us, and if you know our staff truly believes that that this is the way to hit somebody's full potential, we can get more out of our kids then I think they're on board and they're going to buy in. One thing about change that I'll say is that most people view change usually with a little bit of fear, right, because the first question we're all probably going to ask is how is this going to directly affect me? Yeah, you know, and I think that's scary as a coach who maybe has been successful and done some things for a number of years. And then you're saying, hey, we want to divert and we want to go a little bit opposite direction here, and that's scary, you know, but you have to be willing to give them the tools to be able to do that, to get them on board and, I think, showing them success, right, you want to see that there's actually fruit to this labor and I remember kind of a breakthrough moment in 2013.
Speaker 2:You know, we had been in another close game and it felt like for two years there we were in our share of close games and we just couldn't quite break through. Right, we're getting so close. And then we picked off the ball to kind of seal the game against Avon early in the year, kind of a Mitch Turley who you know. He just made that play and I remember that was one of those guys that he was so well prepared. He was a guy who probably bought into every detail of some of that mental training and it was, instead of now seeing some words on a page, we saw mental training through a person and I think when you get to see, you know core values. Things like this mental training component come through in other teammates. Now you've got a greater buy-in between the players and the coaches yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:So the, you know, we, we kind of 2013. We realize we need to train the mental side of the game better. 2016 rolls around. We've now been doing this for a few years. We're getting pretty intentional about this there. We're kind of definitely in this somewhere between stage two and stage three, somewhere between, like, I'm starting to look into this. What would it mean if I was going to change and like the testing the waters kind of the baby steps of buying in Isaac talked about at this step, kind of that idea of just striking the rock over and over and over and eventually it's going to crack through and that there's, you know, all these small, tiny steps. And then at some point, like you see, oh shoot, this actually works. And now, like the, instead of the buy-in being one linebacker over here and one quarterback over there, now the, the entire team, the entire program starts to go oh, this is, this is pretty big. What were some of those moments that you remember from that 2016 season?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we were a little more intentional of generating specific responses. I think sometimes, you know, from a mental standpoint it is helpful to understand it's not going to just be smooth all the time. It's not going to be just this upward trajectory. There's going to be highs and lows, whether it's a given day, a given game, and I think the more you can expect that uncertainty and some of that hardship, the easier it is to react to it.
Speaker 2:And we built in some phrases and I can still remember, even in the state game there where weather the storm, you know, there was a time right before half where we felt sort of in control. We were playing a pretty good game and they just happened to put together a drive and there was just a play that, you know, you couldn't describe it any differently than man. They just found a way where the ball hit the turf about twice and threw it over a guy's shoulder and there was like a reverse pass and they scored and you go into halftime and that's where the response is like hey, where the storm, confidence refocus. Response is like hey, weatherstorm, confidence refocus. We already had the words in place and I think that's very valuable. So you already know this is the response we're going to. You know we've trained it. So you look back at some random summer practice, some, you know, two a day practice that we built in some of those scenarios.
Speaker 1:So now it wasn't overwhelming or fearful because it's like we've already been in this moment before and we have a pretty good idea of what the response needs to be like, or at least what we can control in this moment yeah, and so the you know, after that season, you know whether it's, whether it's you go back and look at the Snyder game where you know, had we lined up and played pickup basketball, we would, we would have gotten destroyed by then, I mean just out-athleted everywhere on the field. Kid going to penn state that we were terrified of him catching punts. Um, the weather ended up being nasty, which you know helped us, but at the end of the day, like we were able to, we were able to play pretty close to our best um and beat a team who was more talented than us. The you know the state championship game, thinking back to the, they have the ball first and goal from what? One yard line. And you know we stop them in four plays, like now, I don't think we had to net.
Speaker 1:We're not trying to get our guys to believe that this mental training stuff is important. Now it's okay, we gotta. We gotta maintain this and we gotta make sure that we don't kind of relapse and go go into some some bad habits. Um, talk to us about some of the ways that you, that you remember kind of continually building in. Here's how, during practice, we're going to train the mental side of the game intentionally, rather than just having it, as like this, separate. Okay, go over here and do mental training. Okay, now let's get back to football. What talk through that integration?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think we just were willing to be creative and try some things. You know, it probably wasn't always perfect, but we built in some halftime scenarios. That was one thing like we kind of talked about at one time. And you know, I think we've probably even progressed in that to where the players now can handle it so we may put the scenario on there. Hey, we're down, you know 17, or we're you know down 17, 14. There's this much time on the clock. You know, here's a scenario, what do we do? And 14, there's this much time on the clock. You know, here's the scenario, what do we do?
Speaker 2:And now the players can show initiative and they can have a conversation within their position group. You know it's going to be a five minute built in water break anyways. But now we're training for certain scenarios and we're building in the capacity for player leadership, because I think when the coaches say something, that's great, you know we're going to be able to step up in those moments. But when the players are taking lead, I think there's a whole other level of confidence with their peers. So we built some of those halftime scenarios in. I've always been a proponent of even in our good-on-good periods really making those scenario-based so that guys have to feel some of the pressure, whether it's hey, we're going to live drive this, we're going to actually put the third down markers out there so we can feel what the pressure is going to be like. I think the more we can put something on the line and make it competitive, the more realism you know you're going to have within the practice and probably the heightened level of focus that we've gotten with our players.
Speaker 1:Fast forward to it's 2023, and Jake was on here, you know, a few episodes back, talking about just the mental toughnessness that you guys showed um and you know I I didn't have any idea at the time that he was going to be leaving and taking the you know the defensive coordinator job at Wabash and then will become the head coach in December. Um, and so you are. You are now stepping into the role of head coach, which, which is a whole new thing, a whole new animal for you. Congratulations, by the way, certainly absolutely qualified for this position. Talk to us now. He's gone. You're now in this. This is now you are leading the charge. This is now you're going to decide what's important. You're now putting your own stamp on this program. Talk to us a little bit about you know. How is this, how is training, the mental side of the game going to? Maybe continue, maybe change Like? What's that going to look like? Moving forward?
Speaker 2:Sure, and I mean I would just start out by, you know, publicly thanking Jake. I mean it's been such a fun ride. We've been together for 17 years when he was my coach at Wabash, prior to this when he was on staff there and I think the biggest compliment hopefully we can give him is that we continue the Rocks tradition, that we continue to see those elements that he worked so hard to build the past 13 years, and I've constantly said this and I really believe it. You know they're not just hiring me. I may get some of the accountability now, you know, when things don't, you know, go as people like, but they're really hiring our staff. I'm so blessed to be in a position where our entire staff is back. That's a testament to how hard those guys have worked over the years and what our you know entire community thinks of them. One of the best strength coaches in the entire nation. He stayed on board, which has really stabilized a lot of things.
Speaker 2:I think some of the change of, maybe from a mental standpoint, how do we continue to develop the whole person? Jake's put such a great foundation in place that it's not coming in here like we were 13 years ago and it's kind of a rebuild in some ways, or we needed to revamp some vision. It's really more about kind of that. You know, james, clear model of atomic habits, of how do we make things in every avenue maybe one to two percent better, you know, and really continue that upward trajectory and fight the. You know the complacency I think sometimes change, like I mentioned, can be scary. But I also think it's an opportunity to kind of shake some things up and for guys to really say, hey, maybe I'll get an opportunity to lead in different capacity. You know we're going to need more out of certain guys and I've loved just our staff's response to it. You know it's made the transition. You know fun and it's made it definitely something that hasn't been overwhelming.
Speaker 2:You know, at first here I think that the mental side building this is maybe even more like a college program. You know this last year we've hired on academic and wellness coach. She's done a phenomenal job. I think that's important of you know, building our players capacity, figuring out where they at from mental health standpoint. Is there something we can do? Is it a one-on-one meeting? Is it a position coach check-in? I think that's another way to help on the mental side we just brought on, you know, our service coordinator, so she's going to also help with some of those activities, and we want guys to be able to have a role and view success in a variety of different ways. Not just am I on the field at this given moment. That's been something that I do think also keeps you sharp mentally is that, you know, hey, I can contribute in a lot of different ways on this. You know, you know program.
Speaker 2:I hope that we also make other people, you know, just continue to feel valued. You know, I've met with our managers or trainers. They've done such a phenomenal job and, I think, that support system that you have and we want them to feel like they're in it with us. So if everybody's moving in the right direction here and we're all still committed to this idea of hey greatest experience you know, of their lifetime in terms of reaching their full potential, that's going to be great. We're continuing to be out, work, out, love.
Speaker 2:I hope that maybe we can continue to use the staff that's been in place for you know, years, along with alumni bringing them back. It's one thing to talk about toughness. It's another thing to bring back guys from 2013, the Jacob Robinsons of the world who literally went out there on a broken foot and put everything on the line for our team. I mean again seeing that mental capacity through players, not just words on a page, is something that we hope to build and that's what's exciting, maybe for me, as we take over, that it's not just, you know, going from Jake to me here it's. You know our staff's continuation and the idea that once a Rock, always a Rock. These guys can come back and they know what the expectation is. Some former player can come in here and they can give them advice of here's what it was like to play in a big moment. You know, here's what I would suggest. Here's what it was like when I played in college, and I think we can continue to build in some of those manners the.
Speaker 1:This off season, um westfield's staff got invited to speak at the ifca clinic about mental health and that was the you know Jake. Jake asked me to come talk with you guys. That I just you know. I just talked for the last 10 minutes about the MTP Academy and kind of you know what that is and how you guys are using it and what it offers, but I was. That was the first time that I had really heard that.
Speaker 1:Number one there was a student-led support system. I would love to hear you explain that and just talk about that. And then, number two that was the first time that I had met Alexa, who's now part of you guys' staff and she's looking at these DOS survey reports and if they get flagged red, she sees, or she sees, okay, something's going on in this student's life and I'm going to need to follow up with them. And she's not. You know you didn't. You didn't bring her onto the staff because of her X's and O's football knowledge. You brought her in because of the kind of person that she is and the relationship that she can build with these kids and the support structure that she provides there. So I would love to hear you just talk about those two things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's been such a blessing. You know you constantly want to bring the right people into your program, get them on the bus and then you see where they fit. You know I've been lucky enough to co-teach with Alexa and Ken who's on our staff, and we just knew that. You know she loves people. She connected with the kids and this was an opportunity. You know Jake and I had talked and we felt like let's make sure that, you know, our young men in our program can also learn how to interact with females and be able to treat them the right way, and bringing somebody in who doesn't necessarily have a say in playing time, maybe a less threatening environment and can really, you know, work to meet the kids where they're at, and so far it's been a great success. You know there's been a lot of one-on-ones, there's been some follow-ups that you know we've had. You know to maybe talk through as coaches and maybe just puts it on our coaching radar that just because a kid isn't executing the plays, there might be something deeper going on and let's make sure we continue to connect with them outside of just the realm of football. So I think Alexa has been a huge piece of the rock support group Just so proud of our kids.
Speaker 2:Our kids, I mean, they were asking to just meet and a couple of guys that know some background with too.
Speaker 2:That's been maybe a little bit of a struggle for them over the course of the last couple of years and they just had the maturity to say, hey, we're going to meet together, we're going to meet together for 20, 30 minutes after practice. Pretty much it's going to be just the players in there. If they need us, they're always welcome to reach out, but they get to dictate the conversation. They set some pretty good ground rules about. You know, hey, we're going to keep things in house, we're going to be real and upfront and you know, if something needs to be shared, you know, to an adult, then they certainly will. But I think just their ability to connect and say, hey, we're going to have intentional conversation in a time where that's not necessarily the norm, you know kids are going to text, but they're not going to have that face-to-face communication that's been so rewarding and it, you know, just sharing their success stories. I feel like it hopefully will be something that will be ongoing in our program.
Speaker 1:Just over a decade ago Westfield had zero mental performance training. The, you know the head coach was the strength and conditioning coordinator. During football season. Guys would lift and whatever the football program was and then they kind of, you know, go off and do their own thing during basketball season or a different program during track or whatever. So the physical training has completely changed at Westfield. I mean there could be just entire podcasts put together about you know what you guys do with rock school. You know, starting off with the elementary age kids all the way up through what you're doing year round with the high school kids, with having one person in Tavio kind of overseeing how are we training the physical side? You know we went from we were not doing any type of mental training in any way to now.
Speaker 1:Here you are, you know, a little over a decade later and you've got during water breaks you've got mental training built in. You've got in the offseason Alexa is taking, you know the team through the MTP Academy. Alexa in season is looking at DOS survey results. I really, year round, is looking at DOS survey results. So you literally have a coach who is who is helping with the mental side of the game. You've got you know. It's on the coach's radar that you know we're now going to be speaking this kind of common language that you guys have built up like.
Speaker 1:If you were to, if you were to look at the complete program and I think maybe what stands out the most to me is is what Jake said about you you can tell that it's a culture change when the sophomore backup left guard can tell you about here's why this in the strength and conditioning program is important. Here's why this in the mental performance training is important. Here's why we're going to focus on this or we're going to say this, or we're going to say this or this is going to be our response if we're down at halftime. We know what to do in this situation. We've got our focus cues, we know how to process things, we know what our routine is before, during, after the game. We've got all these tools in place.
Speaker 1:And then we've got a whole bunch of coaches that are like, well, that's nice, but that seems like that seems almost overwhelming, and like dreamland, like I, I don't have that, I can't do that. Where. Where do I even start? Where do I even begin? How do I get my staff to buy into this? How do I get my players to buy into this? What advice would you have you know, just going through this the last decade what advice would you have for kind of building this up, if you were taking over a job that was starting truly from scratch?
Speaker 2:I think the blessing is, you know we've been here 13 years. I've been in a variety of different roles, you know, from the freshman on up, so you get to see the importance that it has in each level of the program and I think you find the right people that are passionate about it. You know, ben, you did such a great job when you were here. You were passionate about it, so there's got to be somebody on the staff that you know can maybe take that lead within the program. What's really fun is when now you use, you know, maybe, your players. So, like some of the leadership council, they do a phenomenal job, like they'll lead, you know, different parts of the MTP Academy to the entire team, and I'm sure that you know our guys would probably prefer to listen to the players than they would the coaches. Sure, you know they probably get more out of it at this point too. So use the resources that you have.
Speaker 2:You know, something that I think Jake said from day one and it's really, you know, stuck with us too is we can't complain about what we don't have. You know we can't ever be an excuse like that. Every job has its own problems, you know. Small school, small problems, big school, big problems Everybody has those. But you embrace what you do have and if you can only spend, you know, one or two days on mental training, great, make it the best one or two days that you have. If it's something that fits well in pieces of your practice or your culture that you already have, awesome, plug them in. But I think just to say yeah, we're not going to do it. That's probably the easy way. It's probably going to be difficult because there's a lot of things stealing attention. So you got to value it. I do think we certainly have. We've seen the by-product of it. So if it's important enough, then you got to spend that time and put it at the forefront of your program.
Speaker 1:Then you got to spend that time and put it at the forefront of your program. Talk to me. Talk to me about that piece also, because you know, I know that there are, there are coaches who you know and Jake talked about this like they don't want to be in the weight room, they just they want somebody else to be a part of that, they just want to, you know, draw up the X's and O's, put the game plan together. You know that kind of stuff. It's no different with the mental side of the game, like if you're, if you're running backs, coach doesn't have any clue what a go to statement is and, you know, doesn't have any idea what, how diaphragmatic breathing works, then you know you're not, you're not really truly sending the message to the kids that, yes, this is important. So how do you, how do you think from a, from a value and a priority standpoint? How do you communicate that to the coaching staff and also to the players? This is important and we are going to do this well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you you tie it into that program. You know vision I mean for us, again, full potential, but it's not just the full potential as a player, it's full potential in all areas of your life. So at the end of the day, we want our kids to be able to deal with adversity. Our goal is not just, hey, we want to win games, we're competitive and we absolutely want that. But you know we really we're trying to turn, you know, boys into men and you know our young ladies in our program and to women and being able to impact society, whether that's one day, you know, when our you know athletes are going to be dads, one day they're going to be husbands. We got to give them some of those skills and a lot of times the mental training matches up with that.
Speaker 2:You know how do you deal with adversity in life. How do you deal when you know you get something in your life. Maybe it's a diagnosis or it's a death. It's something like we got to prepare these kids for life outside of just football. So I think, connecting it to the deeper vision of we want to impact them, you know, for generations to come. Now most of those coaches can kind of get on board and see that and they may not all take it to the same level, you know the same depth, but giving us words which I really appreciate about you know your program we all can speak the same language and as long as we're speaking the same language and the same vocabulary, that I think it's easy for some coaches that maybe are not as on board with it.
Speaker 1:But they know what to say and as long as you make it, you know, a priority you know whoever's in charge of the program, then I think if you find it valuable, other people, if they're buying into you and your vision, then they're going to carry that as husbands. I know having a screaming baby at three o'clock in the morning put me under more stress and more pressure than any football game ever did. Talk to us a little bit about what you guys do also outside of the football field.
Speaker 2:I think one thing that you know, jake, has certainly been intentional from the get-go of making sure each of us you know, whether it's coaches or players understand our passions, principles, purpose, and I hope that you know, when people come on our staff, that we challenge them. I don't just expect them to be an elite football coach, that's. You know we're hiring. That's great, but we want you to be an elite husband, elite dad, elite friend. If you can't be elite in those areas too, then it's probably going to seep into your coaching and, you know, maybe that isn't the fit for you. So one way that you know I think we've been able to manage some of this on our own is, you know, from our family standpoint, like this is our ministry no-transcript kids, but you know M is just make memories. You know we want to be a family that we make memories together and you know we enjoy these moments and I'd say that in your football program, like, enjoy the moments. You know you only get one year with those seniors, whatever senior class it is, and that's their only senior year. So making it a priority for them is the utmost importance you know we talk about. I just intentionally invest our time, talent and treasures, like as a coach. You get to be intentional about that time. Now don't forget that, yes, you're a coach, but you better be intentional at home. So we talk to our coaches and we try to make that. Hey, it may not be the same quality-quantity ratio in season as opposed to out of season, but we've got to make sure there's still high quality when we still have this workload. R for us is just roadmap. We're going to be a biblical principal family. I think you've got to have some principles that you stand on. That helps you navigate the difficult situations. You know A for us is add value. We want to be a staff that constantly grows. We don't feel like, hey, we got it all figured out, because we certainly don't. I think that's what's allowed us maybe to be successful is we're willing to adapt and try new things. And when we add value, that also means add value to our players. You know we want to make an impact in their life and you know they're better because, hey, we were a part of their life and vice versa. You know we talk a lot about in our family celebrate and cheer like we're going to cheer on everything that we're involved in. You know, and again, if you're a coach, there at least in our program we're allowing coaches to go to any function that involves their kids. You know we have a big enough staff where we can cover each other, but you only get so many moments with your kids. You need to make sure that those coaches if you're a head coach on there that they have that liberty, that freedom to be able to go off and watch them and you cover a practice here or there. We need to.
Speaker 2:We mentioned love and respect and we just feel like in our household that's something we want to portray to our kids If they see how we interact, mom and dad together, and they can, you know, hopefully give us the same back and then our family's version, just elbow grease, you know, just working hard.
Speaker 2:And that's maybe a little bit about where I grew up, maybe my background from Hobart, but I hope that that's carried over. You know I've seen that when we were at Wabash, when we've been here at Westfield. We kind of pride ourselves on this, outwork, out love, mentality, and I think hopefully, if you're a coach, listening, you develop your own, you know, philosophy, vision, what you want to call it, uh, with your family and you make it a part of what you do together, because that's so important. You're going to spend so many hours and times impacting. You know other people's kids. You know those of you that are listening that you know you have a significant other, you're married, you got kids. I mean, make sure that they feel a part of it, because you're in this thing together.
Speaker 1:I love that. It's been. You know I said this, I said this in the podcast with Jake it's. It's brought joy to my heart Just watching my alma mater go from I mean we won two games in my senior year to, you know, hopefully not losing more than two games in a year it's been a blast watching that. And you know, to see Westfield not and not just a flash in the pan either, but you know, one of the one of the programs in 6A that's got, you know it doesn't have the most wins, but it's up there, uh, has just been, has been really great.
Speaker 1:And I'm excited to see what the future holds and excited to see, um, you know, not not to see you carry on the tradition, but for you to elevate things and to continue this trajectory of just getting better. You know there's obviously not as much room for growth as there was a decade ago. Um, just that one or two percent better. I'm excited to see where the program goes from here. One of the last questions I always love to ask guests is knowing what you know. Now. If you were to go back and give yourself advice as that first-year coach, what would you say to yourself? I think maybe.
Speaker 2:I'm reliving that right now in the new position advice as, like that, that first year coach, what would you say to yourself? I think maybe I'm reliving that right now in the new position Um, you're kind of figuring out like, what's your priority, whether you're a first year coach, your first year in that position. It seems like a lot of things are maybe coming at you at one point, um, but I would say that people are still the priority. Whatever you do, people are the priority. Like I've loved the last month or so just getting to meet with people and hear their perspectives and how we can help them and how we can elevate their game and I think hopefully that's something we can do is you know, it doesn't need to be me and some spotlight, it's elevating the great people that we have around us.
Speaker 2:Um, so when you're even a first year, people are priority. Learn from the best people that you have on staff. I mean, that's how you grow as an assistant coach. You just learn from guys who've been doing it for a while too. So if you can keep people of priority, I think you'd be in good shape.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, josh, thank you so much for coming on here, my friend. I really, really appreciate it and wish you nothing but the best, moving forward. Thanks, man, appreciate all you do. Thank you If you got value out of today's episode. The highest compliment that you can pay us is to share this with somebody else, to continue to just grow the show.
Speaker 1:If you've got questions about something that you'd like to hear about on the show, don't hesitate to go to mental training plancom slash podcast. There's a button that you can click on says send us a question podcast. There's a button that you can click on says send us a question. Would love to. Would love to get those answered for you on the show.
Speaker 1:If you are a coach and you're interested in year round mental performance training for your team, we've basically taken all the things that we do with our in person training and we've condensed that into 15 minute modules.
Speaker 1:You can do year round performance training where literally all you have to do is print the worksheet, play the video, we deliver the content and then you come alongside your athletes to help out with implementation.
Speaker 1:The results so far and the feedback so far has been fantastic, just as teams have started to implement the academy, starting off with the foundation program. I'm excited about some of the ways that we're going to be building that and growing that in the future. But if you want to know how this could fit your sport, this could fit your team, how this could be customized around your schedule, whether you've got one day a week, two days a week, whatever that looks like in season, off season, summertime answering questions, how do we do this? How do we fit it to that? You know we can do a mental skills assessment with your team so that you have a concrete idea of here's where we're at, here's where we're starting. Would love to have a conversation with you. Don't hesitate to reach out. There's links in the show notes, my contact information's on the webpage and, as always, until next time, make your plan and put it to work.