Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog

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“Top Ten Articles- Performance”

This is a group of articles I have compiled from the last few years on StrengthCoach.com.  I put it into one PDF to make it easy to ramp up with some of the must-know concepts in Strength & Conditioning.

Click here to grab your Free pdf!

Former MBSC athlete Lexi Poyant has started a blog for young soccer players thinking about playing in college.

Check out her post on Playing Injury Free

My son is pretty good at lacrosse. This year I had to force him to play ( I know, I shouldn’t do that). The number one reason he didn’t want to play? Practice wasn’t fun. Practice was boring.

Take a look at how USA Lacrosse is following USA Hockey in keeping more kids in the sport by making it more fun.

MBSC client Bob Bigelow ( father of MBSC coach Steve Bigelow) wrote a book called Just Let the Kids Play. That’s the key, play.

Small Sided Games for Lacrosse

Mike Smith  ( former Falcons head coach) and Jon Gordon ( Hard Hat, Energy Bus) have written one of my new favorite books. Not only will this be our next MBSC Book Club read for April but, I’ve already bought copies for friends in the coaching field.

Gordon is obviously a great writer but, Mike Smith is what really makes this book. Smith’s honesty about what brought down the Falcons is invaluable for anyone who coaches at any level.

Here are just a few of my notes:

Pg 17 Coach Smith on the first season after being one play away from the Superbowl –

“ instead of starting over from the beginning and continuing to focus on the process… we focused only on the outcome… I allowed the pressure to steer us away from the very things that had made us successful… I let outside forces and pressure weaken our culture.”

Pg 33 Jon Gordon- on negative coaches and teammates “ a negative coach can sabotage the entire teams performance… we also know that one negative teammate can sabotage a team”

Pg 35 Mike Smith- on complaining “ I gave the guy bracelets with “No Complaining” on them and told them they weren’t allowed to complain. If they had a complaint they could bring it to me but, only if they also had a suggested solution to the complaint”.

Pg 54 Jon Gordon on communication and negativity “Most teams break down because of poor communication…if there is a void in communication negativity will fill it. ”

Pg 63- Jon Gordon on the power of an outside voice “ never underestimate the power of an outside voice… when it ( info) comes from an outside voice, it’s new fresh exciting…”

Pg 67 “team beats talent when talent isn’t a team”…

Pg 69 Jon Gordon on connection:

“ one of the biggest complaints I get from coaches is that their teams aren’t connected. They have a bunch of young men or women who usually focus on themselves, their personal goals, their social media followings and their egos. They usually have family and friends telling them they should be playing more, scoring more, or getting more recognition. The message they get from the world is that it’s all about the individual, not the team. It’s about me, not we.

Pg 78- Jon Gordon Three Great Team Building Exercises

Hero, Hardship, Highlight- each team members describes their hero, a hardship they had to overcome and the highlight of their career

Defining Moment- everyone shares their defining moment

If You Really Knew Me, You Would Know This About Me

Pg 83 Chapter 6 Commitment- “It’s not about you. It’s about committing yourself to the team.”

Pg 98- “Humility doesn’t mean think less of yourself, it means thinking of yourself less”

Pg 121- “True leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders”

Pg 125- Character matters. You need talent but talent without character is like a car with no gas. “Character drives talent toward greatness”

Pg 131- Mike Smith ‘ passion involves a belief in something. Emotions involve feelings about something…. Emotions are hard to control and usually self serving and illogical…. Passion on the other hand is the engine that drives you to be a great leader and to build a great team.”

Pg 135- Jon Gordon- “ when people ask me how long it takes to be an overnight success I say at least 10 years. .. Starbucks did not reach store number 5 until 13 years into it’s history…Sam Walton did not oen his second store until 7 years after stating his company.”

If you are a coach or a business owner, read You Win in the Locker Room First, you’ll thank me.

Here is a free article on StrengthCoach written by Strength Coach Podcast host Anthony Renna.  It’s a good counter point, one that goes back to the old “Once you actually know the rules, you can break a few.”

Don’t Look Into My Window (until you talk to me first)

“I often ask coaches or trainers to visualize a prospective athlete or client simply watching a workout through a window.  No sound, just the visual.  Are they impressed?  This is the mirror and the window.  Coach like people are always watching and like it’s a direct reflection of your skills.”  Michael Boyle– Designing Strength Training Programs and Facilities   

This is certainly great advice from Coach Boyle.  I always have it in the back of my head as I train and coach my clients.  One of the core values at Five Iron Fitness is “Complete Focus” and this is perfectly in line with the idea of “Coach like people are always watching and like it’s a direct reflection of your skills.”

But I also have a little bit of a problem with this idea.  I have a few clients who I would not want you to be watching…unless we spoke first.

Why?

Because they don’t always have the best form, even after training with me for 11 years

Because without truly understanding a person’s background, you can’t really understand their program.

Because if you don’t know that person’s injury history, you won’t understand why they aren’t doing certain exercises.

Because if you don’t know their personality, then you won’t understand why they can’t chew gum and foam roll at the same time. (literally)

Because if you don’t know that person’s goals, you can’t make a judgment about their “skinny fat” belly and say the program is not working.  Maybe they’re not here to get rid of it.

Because if you don’t know what is going on in their personal life, you can’t always understand their focus or effort.

Case Study

I train Stan Golden (76) with his wife 2-3x a week for the last 11 years.

Here is what an hour with Stan looks like:

Click here to read the rest of the article. You do not have to be a StrengthCoach.com member to read it, it’s in our Free Articles section.