Teacher, Coach, and Author Douglas Silva

Why do you Coach?  What is your Why?  Once you figure out your coaching philosophy, mission and vision for your team then you can answer this question.  In this book I hope the tools you will need will give you purpose to develop your coaching philosophy.  This book was written to help you develop athlete relationships, build team culture and ultimately become a successful coach.  I will supply you with tips, tricks and details to launch your program to the next level.  If you do the little things right, the wins will follow. PLEASE READ EXCERPT BELOW

For more information, practice plans, powerpoint for guidance, or a few tips on getting started what works and what does not please email me at parsilva73@gmail.com

Coach Silva is the head wrestling coach at Santa Maria High School in Ca.  Visit the teams website for accomplishments.  

and information.  www.santamariahighschool.org/boyswrestling  This book covers coaching for most sports but has sport specific tips and tricks for Football, Wrestling, Baseball, Soccer and Golf.

Book Snippet:

I don’t know it all, but I have many years of learning experience and have grown as a coach.  I may not have the spotless record or career highlights as most coaches, but I have tasted and developed success.  I spent many years out of the spotlight and have remained humble with my knowledge.  I maintained a journal of my successes and have written about the countless lives I have impacted.  Just as I was called to coach, and also coach in the inner city, I feel like I was called to share my experiences and pass my knowledge on to other coaches that are ready and willing to take the next steps in building a successful program.  This book is designed as a tool to motivate coaches and is a collection of stories that gets to the heart of why coaches should coach; not for their own success but for the growth and development of kids not only in sport, but in life.

If you are a business owner, run a non profit or are in management, you can also use this book in a variety of ways.  Simply go through and replace the word athlete with either employee or client.  Once you have done that you will realize that this guide can be used across all aspects of life.  Developing culture in a company and building relationships (networking) will always build success.  For athletics it is winning, for non-profits it’s giving back and having more participation, for churches it’s bringing more people to be saved, for business it’s making more money and growing your brand.

I was inspired to write this book based on my ambition to help support other coaches (and motivated by colleagues).  I have been keeping an ongoing coaching diary of things that have worked and things that haven’t since I became a head coach and as an assistant coach for various programs over the years.  I really started journaling about athletes I coached my first year of coaching in 1995.  I have notes from the many webinars and training sessions I’ve participated in, but most of this self help book comes from experience.  One coach that I worked for explained that he taught me what not to do.  He ran a successful program and, yes, I stole many ideas from him and his program.  I am always trying to improve as a coach and my goal in writing this is to help others, as that is the ultimate goal as a coach.  Many coaches have found their calling and have made a career out of it. Well, I was called to be a coach and I was called to share my knowledge in this book.  I may not know everything or have an exemplary winning record, but what I do have is years of experience. And what I have learned from success and failures over the years.  From these successes and failures I know that I am invaluable to the community I serve.  

Coaches go into the ‘profession’ because they are needed.  Most often, there are not enough coaches out there and many youth organizations are hungry for coaches. Most coaches/parents are begged by the organization to contribute or volunteer hundreds of hours with very little, if any training. Well, I'll take that back. You must pass the background check, but that proves my point.  As that training has nothing to do with coaching per say and, as a volunteer coach, you probably will be too busy to complete it. Yet, coaching is not something to be taken lightly. It is a skill honed after years and years of trial and error.  Even if you played only one season of a sport as a kid or teenager, after some years of coaching, you gain experience and, with maybe a few winning seasons, everyone agrees that you were a success.  How do I know this, because I’ve been there and done that. This book is set up to offer you coaching training to develop kids into mature adults that benefit from their sport, and ultimately give back to their community and team as a coach, alumni or board member.  

This book is geared towards the high school coach, but there are many quips, stories, and analogies that work for any organization or business, for that matter.  This program can work in a small business, dentist’s office, restaurant, or even a real estate agency.  Small businesses thrive by word of mouth and crafty advertising; they are usually run by a person that is a go-getter and goal oriented.  Many restaurants are run by 20-year olds.  While that is certainly a young age, if they are well-organized and provide great customer service, their restaurants  should thrive.  These employees often learn management skills and move into positions of leadership in the business.  How owners and managers treat these young workers often shapes the culture of the business and ultimately determines its success or demise.  If the employees are being taught and groomed to advance to positions of leadership and grow in their own creative way, that develops a positive culture.  Sports are no different.

Let’s face the facts: it’s the 21st century and most coaches were brought up in the 70’s - 90’s, and still use the same coaching philosophies that won championships when they were players. But they do not work now.  These coaches often complain about millennial athletes being lazy and quit as soon as something bad happens. These are reactive coaches, not proactive coaches. Reactive coaches say, things have changed! Kids are lazy, video games take precedence, and social media tells our athletes how to act.  Kids have more issues than ever before in the history of sport.  Did Mean Joe Green ever take a mental health day?  No, but that is a requirement nowadays.  Athletes are doing terribly in school, both parents are working or divorced, kids' depression levels are at an all-time high, and they do not ‘hustle’ on plays.”  “Playing hard is a prerequisite to playing,” says an anonymous facebook post. But what if a kid did not play hard due to the many variables that affect their performance?  Now some of you might be turned off by the millenial attitudes, but I know that reaching all kids so that they can develop, improve, and be better citizens is a lifetime goal developed in youth and high school sports.  

This is a guide not just for sports or for coaching.  This guide could be used in an academy, a business or even in a family.  I feel that coaching for every sport is a little different. Some are individual sports, some are pure team sports, but coaching and building a program is the same no matter what sport you are in.  I have developed these ideas and systems based on experience; both what works and does not work from what I have seen myself and learned from other coaches.  Many coaches start the season with big expectations, but soon those expectations begin to change as coaches adapt to a daily routine (daily grind) of getting things done and just coaching on the fly and ‘winging it’ at practice or games.

Being 5’4” and 130 pounds on the varsity football field did not bring much notoriety nor did it on the playing field.  In all my years of coaching, people still think that I am an assistant, especially parents and officials.  Being short doesn’t have very many perks but it allows the spotlight to be off of me in many situations.  A recent study found that the average height of corporate CEOs is six feet.  Height definitely commands a presence but your stature does not determine your ability.  Neither does your highest level of competition.  Most great coaches were not great athletes; they excelled to a certain degree as players but coaching is different.  It is the same with teaching. Just because a teacher has an abundance of knowledge and skill does not make them a great teacher.  As a former high school and college student I can honestly say that high school teachers most likely do not have the skill or knowledge of a college professor but in the classroom, I would take the high school teacher over the college professor most of the time… Coaching is teaching!  If great athletes made great coaches then professional sports would be full of former pros, but that is not the case.  In basketball, one of the greatest players of all time is Michael Jordan, but his coaching career did go so well.  One of the greatest coaches of all time was John Wooden.  He was a college All-American but his legacy is in coaching.

Most of this guide is about preparing athletes to be their best,  and if you can implement a few of my suggestions into your program, I believe that you will see the benefits.  I speak about wrestling quite a bit because that is the sport I am currently coaching and because that’s the sport that I most identify with.  Still, these principles can be applied to any individual or team sports.  I often refer to the fundamentals of sports as technique (what we call it in wrestling) or  the Xs and Os (what we call fundamentals in football).

Also, most of my ideas and program building has taken place in an inner city school of over 3000 students in which a majority are low income and have very little sports background.  The majority of students did not grow up watching sports on television and do not watch sports on weekends (except soccer).  I am not coaching at a powerhouse program in any sport (well, maybe soccer).  There are two other affluent schools in our city that attract and retain the top athletes in our area.  One of the schools is private and it attracts coaches and athletes from throughout California and nationwide.  The other high school is my alma mater and a school where I taught and coached for twelve years.  I transferred to the inner city school in 2009 to become a head varsity coach and make a bigger impact in the lives of kids in a struggling sports program.  

In my first year in 2009, I coached football and wrestling.  I did not make much of an impact on the playing field that year but I did make an impact in the lives of students.  When I went into teaching and coaching (and not engineering), I decided that my philosophy would be to change lives.  My goal: to flip students.  Much as contractors, and television personalities flip houses, I like to say that I flip students.  Supporting a student that is failing all of their classes and low self esteem and changing in academics, personality and citizenship.  Getting them to do work and improve in school has given me extra motivation as a teacher.  As I have worked at this school for 12 years, I have seen the flipping of students many times over and I share some of those stories in this book. Although some of the principles that I mention may not apply to your specific coaching experiences,  I guarantee that you will find something useful that will help take your program to the next level of performance.  

This is the goal of writing this book. I will explain how to build a culture and a sustainable program with tips and tricks that you can implement right away and in the future.  Program building takes time and effort; if it was easy then everyone would be doing it.  I also understand that you get out of a program whatever you put into it.  Return on Investment is a very important consideration in coaching.  Investing more time and getting better results is usually the case unless the athletes are not invested in your program.  I also talk alot about academics and young people who went on to college.  (Disclaimer: not every athlete is capable or needs to go to college to be a success.  I have pushed kids to pursue careers in the military, retail, higher education, police force, fire fighting, and construction.  Most young people who made it to college were not on that path to begin with.  But hard work, dedication, and participating in a successful program helped direct their mindsets to success.  Coaching at this school is a real underdog story and most of the stories I tell of athletes going on to finding success or giving back to the program or the community they came from.  Many students put family first and go on to work to support their family.

Also, speaking of family, coaches should always put their families first and find balance in their lives.  I can personally say that I spent a season without balance and struggled mightily both mentally and personally as a result.  Many of our students have suffered through COVID which has resulted in a lack of interest in school and in their own lives.  Creating these systems come from personal experience, and balance is possible when you establish an effective program.  One last thing.  The divorce rate for coaches is higher than the national average. This means that if coaches are investing time and energy into a sports program but are failing and ruining their families in the process, they should re-evaluate their philosophy, system, and goals.  I will attempt to explain how you can prioritize these elements so as to balance family, work and successful coaching. The motto is: work smarter not harder.

For more information, practice plans, powerpoint for guidance, or a few tips on getting started what works and what does not please email me at parsilva73@gmail.com