You aimed this at the right people,the ones who think they already got out.
I stopped converting years ago. Ecological approach and a Christian life, same lesson. I don’t tell them. I show them.
This year I built CLA at the freshman level. JV and varsity ran the old block approach. Same program, two different worlds. My freshmen got better every day and nobody wanted it to end. JV and varsity finished on fumes.
The gym was the argument.
After the season we agreed to take CLA everywhere. A week before summer ball,back to sets. Gut punch.
Here’s what your piece nailed: I had the strongest proof there is, my own gym, and it still wasn’t enough. Proof was never the thing. You can’t out-evidence somebody’s need to stay in control.
I can’t convert anyone. I can only be the example.
Great article. As a coach developer for USA Hockey and coaching director for a program this is something I have to continually work on. It can be can be counterintuitive as sometimes we think we need to “educate” as opposed to having a dialogue with other coaches!
It is uncomfortable out on your own, away from the herd. You will be judged on your methods and if successful or not. So what do you define as a win at the end of the year?
That’s the hard question, and I don’t think we can dodge accountability.
I still care about winning. I want our teams to be hard to play against. But “did we win enough?” can’t be the only measure.
For me, a win is whether athletes became more capable: seeing more, solving more, communicating more, recovering from mistakes better, and taking more ownership.
Yes, the scoreboard matters. It just can’t be the only witness.
Loren — I read this nodding, then wincing, because you caught me at the stage I'm still climbing out of.
One layer I'd add, learned the hard way: when I stopped trying to convert other coaches, the surprise wasn't that they were less wrong than I thought. It was that I was. I'd built such a clean contrast — environments good, drills bad — that I'd stopped noticing what didn't fit. Players prepare and adapt. Some of what I'd been mocking was doing real work.
That's the deeper escape, I think. Not only "show, don't preach." It's keeping enough humility to take a scalpel to your own approach instead of a sledgehammer to everyone else's. The evangelist and the reformed evangelist make the same mistake — they just stopped dissecting at different points.
Let the gym become the message, yes. And let it keep correcting us, not just the coaches across the net / pitch / mat / field / court.
You aimed this at the right people,the ones who think they already got out.
I stopped converting years ago. Ecological approach and a Christian life, same lesson. I don’t tell them. I show them.
This year I built CLA at the freshman level. JV and varsity ran the old block approach. Same program, two different worlds. My freshmen got better every day and nobody wanted it to end. JV and varsity finished on fumes.
The gym was the argument.
After the season we agreed to take CLA everywhere. A week before summer ball,back to sets. Gut punch.
Here’s what your piece nailed: I had the strongest proof there is, my own gym, and it still wasn’t enough. Proof was never the thing. You can’t out-evidence somebody’s need to stay in control.
I can’t convert anyone. I can only be the example.
I really loved this piece Loren. It landed with a thud and is causing all sorts of reflections which is awesome.
Great article. As a coach developer for USA Hockey and coaching director for a program this is something I have to continually work on. It can be can be counterintuitive as sometimes we think we need to “educate” as opposed to having a dialogue with other coaches!
In my 30 year career I want to say I did a little of all of them.
Thank you Loren. Awesome post.
It is uncomfortable out on your own, away from the herd. You will be judged on your methods and if successful or not. So what do you define as a win at the end of the year?
That’s the hard question, and I don’t think we can dodge accountability.
I still care about winning. I want our teams to be hard to play against. But “did we win enough?” can’t be the only measure.
For me, a win is whether athletes became more capable: seeing more, solving more, communicating more, recovering from mistakes better, and taking more ownership.
Yes, the scoreboard matters. It just can’t be the only witness.
Loren — I read this nodding, then wincing, because you caught me at the stage I'm still climbing out of.
One layer I'd add, learned the hard way: when I stopped trying to convert other coaches, the surprise wasn't that they were less wrong than I thought. It was that I was. I'd built such a clean contrast — environments good, drills bad — that I'd stopped noticing what didn't fit. Players prepare and adapt. Some of what I'd been mocking was doing real work.
That's the deeper escape, I think. Not only "show, don't preach." It's keeping enough humility to take a scalpel to your own approach instead of a sledgehammer to everyone else's. The evangelist and the reformed evangelist make the same mistake — they just stopped dissecting at different points.
Let the gym become the message, yes. And let it keep correcting us, not just the coaches across the net / pitch / mat / field / court.