Takeaways from Inside Out Coaching -Topel1

Matthew Topel

Kin 857

Michigan State University

6 October 2017

My Takeaways from Inside Out Coaching

Joe Ehrmann’s book Inside Out Coaching (2011) is a tremendously valuable

piece of writing. He uses anecdotes and personal stories to engage and connect with

the audience, and with each story unveils a little bit more of his journey from a hurting

child through professional sports, and into his life as a husband, father, and a true

mentor of young men and women. While Ehrmann’s personal journey was both

fascinating and emotional in its own right, Inside Out Coaching (2011) is not a

storybook. It is a book with a purpose; “To take back the spiritual and transformative

side of the games our children play” (p. 10), and Ehrmann aims to change the practices,

expectations, and very nature of coaches in America to accomplish this. So...How will I

change, and what can I do to go through my own “inside out” journey and transform my

coaching to impact athletes for good.

Before I examine the ways that I plan on changing my approach as a teacher-

coach,, I should first acknowledge my resistance to this change. While reading Inside

Out Coaching (2011) there were several times when I thought “This part doesn’t apply

to me”. As a classroom teacher, I already focused on child development, and was not

caught up in the toxic “winning is the only thing” mentality. I regularly sought to develop

individual relationships with my players and made sure to address each one individually

at some point before during or after the practice like Ehrmann (2011) suggested on
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page 199. I also defy some masculine stereotypes in my role as the school musical

theatre director, and regularly challenge American masculine identity by talking about

feelings and emotions with my players and students. Finally, I felt that I didn’t fit into any

of the transactional coach archetypes (The Dictator, Bully, Narcissist, Saint, or Misfit)

mentioned on pages 74 through 86. What became clearer while reading however, is

that Ehrmann’s message is not just about changing my default coaching patterns, but

also about recognizing and eliminating negative tendencies. As the author says “There

are coaches whose daily behaviors fit the labels described… but there are far more

coaches who merely have dictatorial, bullying, narcissistic, saintly, or misfit moments.

Because of the power that coaches hold those moments can become lifelong, life-

shaping memories for young athletes” (p. 88) this quote reminds me that as a coact,

director, and teacher my every action can make a difference in the lives of a child, and

because of this tremendous power I must not settle for being good enough, but continue

to strive for excellence.

Central on this journey to becoming an excellent coach is the statement of clear

goals and objectives for my role as a teacher-coach. In order to define my mission more

clearly, I also had to answer the questions Ehrmann(2011) first posed on page 8, and

continued to address throughout the book; “Why do I coach?, Why do I coach the way I

do?, What does it feel like to be coached by me?, and How do I define and measure

success?”. While the answer to each one of these questions has taken a great deal of

reflection (and each question could probably spawn its own multi-page paper) I will

attempt to provide a short summary of these reflections, and to apply each of these
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answers to all of the aspects of my work as a teacher basketball coach, and musical

director.

I coach because I want to foster a love of sports, science, and theatre in my

students, whom I want to develop into competent, responsible, and respectful people in

and outside of my instruction. As a jr. high coach, teacher, and director I focus on

fundamental skills because my students are young, and need to master these basics to

have a firm foundation for future growth. I establish firm boundaries because they need

to know that their actions affect not only their development, but the the ability of others

to learn and grow alongside them. I hope that being coached by me in any of these

disciplines feels challenging but fair. I expect my students, players, and actors to give

their best effort and will let them know when I believe they can do better, but I always

seek to do this in a positive way by using statements such as “I know that you can

memorize this monologue” instead of, “Why didn’t you practice this enough?”. Finally, I

measure success in terms of student growth, and am always reminding my players,

actors, and students that they should not compare themselves to other people, but look

at their own performance to see how much they have learned. To evaluate my own

success as a teacher-coach I will often look at game film, or compare student work from

the beginning and end of the year to see how much of a difference we have made

during the season.

In many ways, my answers to these questions were not affected by reading

Inside Out Coaching (2011). Since the beginning of my work as a teacher and a coach,

I have always sought to hold students accountable while teaching them fundamental

skills, validating their potential, and measuring their success in terms of individual
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growth. What has changed after reading Inside Out Coaching (2011) is the way I plan to

accomplish these goals. As I continue to develop competent actors, students, and

players, I need to communicate my goals effectively to parents, and players, but I also

need to distill my goals into an easy to remember statement which I can use to guide

my own interactions with these various participants. Taking inspiration from Ehrmann’s

(2011) own WHY mission statement on page 110, I wrote out my own statement to keep

me focused on honoring the calling of a coach; “I am a teacher-coach who helps inspire

girls and boys to become knowledgeable men and women of character, who will lead

through service, and change the world through good”. With this clearer personal goal in

mind, I can more easily focus on two other changes in my coaching. Making my goals

more public, and providing explicit instruction on character development.

In order to make my “off the court” goal of character development more

prominent, I plan to steal another idea from Ehrmann, and use a code of conduct for

both players and parents to read and sign before the basketball or theatre season

begins. In addition to containing my personal WHY statement, the parent code of

conduct would contain phrases like “Affirm your son and his teammates when good

character, healthy sportsmanship, and other-centered behavior are displayed. Do not

affirm only his athletic performance or a victory” and many of the others listed on page

195. These statements serve to point parents back to the central goal of my coaching

“to inspire girls and boys to become knowledgeable men and women of character” and

remind them that the greatest benefits from athletics should occur off the court.

Ehrmann’s (2011) player code of conduct (p. 196) can also be used word for word to

express my desire to build character in the players. Each of these documents could be
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modified for use in theatre as well, with parent conduct statements like “I will support the

producers and directors in their casting of the show. I acknowledge that each actor has

a unique set of gifts and talents that make them uniquely qualified for their assigned

role, and remember that every character has an important part in preparing and

presenting the best show possible”. I would also create an actor code of conduct with

statements such as “I will respect the efforts and decisions of my fellow actors, and

recognize the vulnerability that comes with behaving as another character. I will praise

my fellow actors for taking risks, and commit myself to trying new things which will help

me become a better actor and more empathetic human”. It is my hope that beginning

each season with these documents will remind make clear that the true goal of both

youth sports and youth theatre is the development of young people, and remind each

participant of the important role they play in developing that character.

The final aspect I want to focus on at this time is to make character instruction

more explicit. In a previous essay for this course I argued that a coach modeling good

character is enough to help build character in players or students. While I still believe

that modelling is an important part of building character, reading Inside Out Coaching

(2011) has convinced me that more is required. Early in his book, Ehrmann stated “One

of the great myths in America is that sports build character. They can and should… but

sports don’t build character unless a coach possesses character and intentionally

teaches it” (p. 12 emphasis mine). As he elaborated on the virtues and effectiveness of

explicit character instruction, I gradually became convinced that to accomplish my goal

as a teacher-coach, I had to include specific lessons on character. I have already began

to plan 10-15 minute mini lessons and illustrations which would support week long
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conversations and training around specific basketball situations like being content with

your playing time, respect for officials, and supporting teammates while on the bench.

Similar lessons could be made for my students in theatre, where students could learn

how to work with their acting partner, and how to work with criticism or bad reviews.

These specific skills would also be supplemented with more general discussions on

effort, attitude, and other life skills which can apply to any discipline. For example, both

my basketball and theatre students could benefit from a short activity designed by

Michael Pritchard (2012) where students write down examples of disappointing

situations and then provide answers for how they might deal with that hypothetical

situation.

While I am fairly comfortable coming up with activities and lesson plans for some

of these issues, I am still not sure how I would tackle more challenging subjects like

cultural expectations relating to masculinity/femininity, or sexual topics like respectful

dating practices and pornography. Part of me still feels like these discussions are

outside the realm of a coach, but I also realize that discussions about hard topics are

necessary to truly build strong, lasting character in young people. My only real

complaint about Inside Out Coaching (2011) is that the book did not include more

descriptions of Biff Poggi and Joe Ehrmann’s lessons for effectively dealing with these

challenging issues. Fortunately, Ehrmann’s website, coachforamerica.com, contains

several downloadable lessons which help address these difficult yet important topics.

Before reading Inside Out Coaching (2011) I would have said that I was a good

coach, who helped to make my students, into better people. Reading through this book

did not change these thoughts, rather it helped me to understand my reasons for
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coaching, and to more clearly define my mission as a teacher-coach. Through this

process I realized that I still have room to grow, and have decided to change the way I

communicate with both players and parents. I have also decided to make life-skills and

character instruction more prevalent in my coaching by including specific lessons on

how to build character on and off the court. As I continue on this lifelong journey toward

becoming a more transformational coach, some of the techniques, drills, or lessons may

change, but my goal will remain the same. I want to be a coach who will inspire girls and

boys to become knowledgeable men and women of character, who will lead through

service, and change the world through good.

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References

Disappointment - Dealing with Disappointment - Lesson Plans - Elementary - Character

Education. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2017, from

http://www.goodcharacter.com/YCC/Disappointment.html

Ehrmann, J., Ehrmann, P., & Jordan, G. (2011).InSideOut coaching: how sports can

transform lives. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Ehrmann, J. Keynotes, Workshops, Seminars - Coach for America - Winning in Life is

Everything - Free Downloads. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2017, from

http://www.coachforamerica.com/free-downloads