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Post by cowright73 on Jul 16, 2017 13:38:27 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players?
Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership?
Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man".
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Post by rsmith627 on Jul 16, 2017 13:52:51 GMT -6
PM me and I'd be happy to share some stuff with you later that may or may not help.
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Post by cowright73 on Jul 16, 2017 14:01:38 GMT -6
Just looking for some suggestions. Most of our kids come from broken homes and have no male role models. I know that this is not unusual in society anymore, unfortunately. Everywhere that I have been the coaches talking about winning and wanting to win but they do nothing to develop kids of character or leaders. I believe that winning is a process and want to develop the kids from the inside out.
Looking for some programs, books or materials to use.
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Post by wingtol on Jul 16, 2017 15:34:14 GMT -6
coachcharacter.comBeen using this program since it started. Great stuff. Guy who runs it, Wade, comes from a big time football coaching family and is top notch. Well worth it as a program. We brought it with us to our new school and after a year AD adopted it for all programs.
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Post by huddlehut on Jul 16, 2017 16:12:07 GMT -6
Best idea is to simply coach football and let your character show through your words and actions. Lead by example on a daily basis.
All this teaching character and changing the culture stuff is for the birds. Seems like something that staff's do to make people think that they're working!
Note that I never said that character and culture, etc are not important!
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Post by hunhdisciple on Jul 16, 2017 16:24:48 GMT -6
I think too many people use "character" in an attempt to shape kids into what they want them to be.
I know far too many times when the "character" they preach about just ends up being their political and social beliefs. Not actual morals and character, but political. And it ends up causing friction when there are coaches who don't align with said beliefs.
A lot of the stuff on teaching it to them comes from you simply being that way. The amount of stuff they will absorb from you, positive or negative, will be huge.
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Post by huddlehut on Jul 16, 2017 16:33:09 GMT -6
I think too many people use "character" in an attempt to shape kids into what they want them to be. I know far too many times when the "character" they preach about just ends up being their political and social beliefs. Not actual morals and character, but political. And it ends up causing friction when there are coaches who don't align with said beliefs. A lot of the stuff on teaching it to them comes from you simply being that way. The amount of stuff they will absorb from you, positive or negative, will be huge. Amen! |
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Post by coachwoodall on Jul 16, 2017 17:43:12 GMT -6
I disagree with the idea that coaching character is a slanted political construct. If you want to teach morals it is a simple right or wrong approach. Morals aren't some arbitrary guide post.
However, I don't know that you should spend your energy in that. Mostly you should be focusing on the values of YOUR program.
What are your core values?
What do you expect from your kids?
What do you define as 'the right way '?
What do you want to see exhibited by your kids?
If you're trying to change the culture of your program, what is the first benchmark? For us it was simply being there. Before if there was a cloud nearby practice was canceled. Also kids would quit at a drop of a hat. So we started with 'no days off' and 'finish '
Once we got them hemmed in to being part of the program, then we started preaching about loving each other. Once we got that then we got into the character component.
This past off season we used the John Gordon stuff... Energy Bus, Training Camp.
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Post by chi5hi on Jul 17, 2017 9:07:35 GMT -6
I work for a private school, very restricted in its population, and don't see very much of this problem. I am so lucky...
The only kids who come here are the ones who want to be here, and I see lots of dads, uncles and grandfathers coming to practice just to continue to be a part of the kid's lives.
I'll never work at a public school again...
I honor you coaches who have to fight through these problems and I honor your dedication to the youngsters. Best wishes!
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jul 17, 2017 9:26:06 GMT -6
I think you can have all the "character programs" in the world in place but if the coaching staff doesn't have integrity the kids are just going to roll their eyes at it and it will go nowhere. I was in a program last year where the HC was always talking about honest, follow-through, being a man of purpose, etc. but he didn't model those things.
As an example, one of my JV players said some incredibly sexually offensive things to one of our water girls during a practice. When she came to me I stopped practice, asked the girl to leave and then called out the kid in front of the team. We had a long discussion about how to treat a lady, what's acceptable, what is not, etc. I then told them basically, "I don't care who you are, I don't care how good you are, I don't care who your parents are - if any of you behave like that in the future, you're gone, I'm not going to have you on a team I coach." After practice I tried to relay what happened to the HC but he was in too much of a hurry to leave so I didn't get the chance to.
The kid told his parents I picked on him, parents called the HC, and the next day the HC & I had an argument about it on the 50 yard line before practice. HC aggressively came up to me out of the blue, "I got a call from Helman's dad, said you threatened to kick him off the team, you can't do that." I said, "Coach, this isn't the place, we can go into your office if you wanna talk about this." HC exploded and told me, "I decide who is on this team and who isn't" etc. It was loud enough that kids heard the gist of the conversation. I have never been so tempted to quit in all my life but with all those kids watching I didn't want them to see me quit just because things weren't going my way.
All that to say, if you're preaching one thing but living another, you're wasting your time.
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Post by bobgoodman on Jul 17, 2017 10:02:55 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". Why, out of all the adult contacts the players have, is this the job for a football coach, or any athletic coach? Why, out of all the kids, would only the players need this? |
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Post by Coach.A on Jul 17, 2017 11:58:28 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". Why, out of all the adult contacts the players have, is this the job for a football coach, or any athletic coach? Why, out of all the kids, would only the players need this? Bob, I'm not sure if you're just playing devil's advocate or if you're being serious. In a perfect world, parents would be instilling character & leadership in their children along with multiple other people in the child's life. Unfortunately, this is far from the norm at present. Fewer and fewer kids know how to lead these days...there are various factors at play, but that's another discussion. While it isn't necessarily the coaches "job", I do think football provides an excellent vehicle for teaching character and leadership. Also, I believe teaching these traits will help your team be more successful. I think everybody would agree that it isn't just football players who need this training, anybody can benefit from it....but again, I think sports (especially football) provide a great team setting for teaching these skills that is superior to any classroom setting. |
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Post by rsmith627 on Jul 17, 2017 12:22:35 GMT -6
I work for a private school, very restricted in its population, and don't see very much of this problem. I am so lucky... The only kids who come here are the ones who want to be here, and I see lots of dads, uncles and grandfathers coming to practice just to continue to be a part of the kid's lives. I'll never work at a public school again... I honor you coaches who have to fight through these problems and I honor your dedication to the youngsters. Best wishes! I'd love to go private. The lower pay is a concern, as are benefits, but if the state phucs with pension anymore I might take a closer look at it. |
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Post by huddlehut on Jul 17, 2017 13:34:08 GMT -6
Why, out of all the adult contacts the players have, is this the job for a football coach, or any athletic coach? Why, out of all the kids, would only the players need this? Bob, I'm not sure if you're just playing devil's advocate or if you're being serious. In a perfect world, parents would be instilling character & leadership in their children along with multiple other people in the child's life. Unfortunately, this is far from the norm at present. Fewer and fewer kids know how to lead these days...there are various factors at play, but that's another discussion. While it isn't necessarily the coaches "job", I do think football provides an excellent vehicle for teaching character and leadership. Also, I believe teaching these traits will help your team be more successful. I think everybody would agree that it isn't just football players who need this training, anybody can benefit from it....but again, I think sports (especially football) provide a great team setting for teaching these skills that is superior to any classroom setting. I don't think that anyone disagrees that kids can/should learn positive character traits from a coaching staff. The question is why must a coach go into a curriculum to teach this? Why isn't he "teaching" it daily in all that he says and does? As I have argued prior: I believe that the "Twitter warriors" that are now so prevalent in the coaching profession have distorted the job description of the coach. Coaches should teach accountability, respect, sacrifice, courage, etc daily...without having to dig into a curriculam. However, doing so is not as cool and it can't as easily be posted onto Twitter. |
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Post by wingtol on Jul 17, 2017 18:05:13 GMT -6
Bob, I'm not sure if you're just playing devil's advocate or if you're being serious. In a perfect world, parents would be instilling character & leadership in their children along with multiple other people in the child's life. Unfortunately, this is far from the norm at present. Fewer and fewer kids know how to lead these days...there are various factors at play, but that's another discussion. While it isn't necessarily the coaches "job", I do think football provides an excellent vehicle for teaching character and leadership. Also, I believe teaching these traits will help your team be more successful. I think everybody would agree that it isn't just football players who need this training, anybody can benefit from it....but again, I think sports (especially football) provide a great team setting for teaching these skills that is superior to any classroom setting. I don't think that anyone disagrees that kids can/should learn positive character traits from a coaching staff. The question is why must a coach go into a curriculum to teach this? Why isn't he "teaching" it daily in all that he says and does? As I have argued prior: I believe that the "Twitter warriors" that are now so prevalent in the coaching profession have distorted the job description of the coach. Coaches should teach accountability, respect, sacrifice, courage, etc daily...without having to dig into a curriculam. However, doing so is not as cool and it can't as easily be posted onto Twitter. Have you ever looked at a character program? The one we use that I posted uses a word of the week and maybe 5 minutes a day of our time to talk about that word. It's not some intensive immersive time consuming thing. Why not take a few minutes to talk to the players about stuff they probably aren't exposed to, at least in our case with some of the backgrounds our players come from. We model it and live it for the most part, I mean no one is perfect but we have good dudes coaching with us and keep that circle tight to make sure we get those kinds of coaches. We deal with some kids coming from bad situations, parents struggling with addiction, living with older siblings cause mom is dead and dads never been around, kids seeing adults make bad decisions and not having high or any expectations for their kids, violence in the home and streets....a word of the week and less than five minutes a day seems like a good seed to plant in so,er of these kids hoping it grows and they remember it at a critical point in their life. In fact we've had kids come back and tell us about times they remembered and thought about stuff from those programs in the past, seems worth it to me. |
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Post by Chris Clement on Jul 17, 2017 19:00:08 GMT -6
I can see where Bob is coming from. I see those programs and even the best of them come off so corny to me. I get that it resonates with a lot of kids and it even spoke to me a little at a certain age but I can't sell what I don't buy.
Now if Bob will permit me this indiscretion, his brain sees things a little differently than most around here, and he doesn't always succeed in communicating his perspective. I can relate. But I think there's a truth that a lot of football coaches like to play the martyr that they are the last bulwark of civilization in the community and they need to proselytize when often just setting the example in doing things well would do just as well but without the histrionics.
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Post by huddlehut on Jul 17, 2017 20:53:14 GMT -6
I don't think that anyone disagrees that kids can/should learn positive character traits from a coaching staff. The question is why must a coach go into a curriculum to teach this? Why isn't he "teaching" it daily in all that he says and does? As I have argued prior: I believe that the "Twitter warriors" that are now so prevalent in the coaching profession have distorted the job description of the coach. Coaches should teach accountability, respect, sacrifice, courage, etc daily...without having to dig into a curriculam. However, doing so is not as cool and it can't as easily be posted onto Twitter. Have you ever looked at a character program? The one we use that I posted uses a word of the week and maybe 5 minutes a day of our time to talk about that word. It's not some intensive immersive time consuming thing. Why not take a few minutes to talk to the players about stuff they probably aren't exposed to, at least in our case with some of the backgrounds our players come from. We model it and live it for the most part, I mean no one is perfect but we have good dudes coaching with us and keep that circle tight to make sure we get those kinds of coaches. We deal with some kids coming from bad situations, parents struggling with addiction, living with older siblings cause mom is dead and dads never been around, kids seeing adults make bad decisions and not having high or any expectations for their kids, violence in the home and streets....a word of the week and less than five minutes a day seems like a good seed to plant in so,er of these kids hoping it grows and they remember it at a critical point in their life. In fact we've had kids come back and tell us about times they remembered and thought about stuff from those programs in the past, seems worth it to me. Yessir. I have seen character curriculum programs. Question: how did coaches back in the 60's, 70's or even 80' and 90's ever make an impact on their players without a curriculum to follow? I'm an old fart and my coaches helped share and mold a lot of kids and never had a curriculum to teach from. They were leaders. |
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Post by cowright73 on Jul 18, 2017 12:30:10 GMT -6
When growing up, I learned from my coaches. Not all of them because some of the were crappy people. I learned from men of character and discipline. With the said, I model what I expect from my kids. However, They see me for 2 or 3 hours a day. I want to spend more time with them and expose them to the why I became a coach and why I have principles, morals and values.
Was just looking for some ideas that coaches use to share these with the kids. Really was kind of wondering if it was the new norm with good programs. Maybe, I should have asked if anyone does this and why or how.
Many of you have taken a negative approach to this post and it distresses me that many of you assume that these things are not being modeled in practice.
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Post by CS on Jul 18, 2017 12:53:35 GMT -6
I think you can have all the "character programs" in the world in place but if the coaching staff doesn't have integrity the kids are just going to roll their eyes at it and it will go nowhere. I was in a program last year where the HC was always talking about honest, follow-through, being a man of purpose, etc. but he didn't model those things. As an example, one of my JV players said some incredibly sexually offensive things to one of our water girls during a practice. When she came to me I stopped practice, asked the girl to leave and then called out the kid in front of the team. We had a long discussion about how to treat a lady, what's acceptable, what is not, etc. I then told them basically, "I don't care who you are, I don't care how good you are, I don't care who your parents are - if any of you behave like that in the future, you're gone, I'm not going to have you on a team I coach." After practice I tried to relay what happened to the HC but he was in too much of a hurry to leave so I didn't get the chance to. The kid told his parents I picked on him, parents called the HC, and the next day the HC & I had an argument about it on the 50 yard line before practice. HC aggressively came up to me out of the blue, "I got a call from Helman's dad, said you threatened to kick him off the team, you can't do that." I said, "Coach, this isn't the place, we can go into your office if you wanna talk about this." HC exploded and told me, "I decide who is on this team and who isn't" etc. It was loud enough that kids heard the gist of the conversation. I have never been so tempted to quit in all my life but with all those kids watching I didn't want them to see me quit just because things weren't going my way. All that to say, if you're preaching one thing but living another, you're wasting your time. I agree with your message just not your execution. You should have spoken with the kid in private and given him a chance to resolve it on his own. Also you are probably not in a position, as the head jv coach I'm assuming, to be getting rid of players without the consent of the HC. I think he should have spoken with you about this some place other than the practice field in front of the team but I also feel that other than your message you were in the wrong here. |
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Post by cowright73 on Jul 18, 2017 14:18:46 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". Why, out of all the adult contacts the players have, is this the job for a football coach, or any athletic coach? Why, out of all the kids, would only the players need this? Its not only the players that need exposure to these things. They all need it. |
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jul 18, 2017 14:55:56 GMT -6
I agree with your message just not your execution. You should have spoken with the kid in private and given him a chance to resolve it on his own. Also you are probably not in a position, as the head jv coach I'm assuming, to be getting rid of players without the consent of the HC. I think he should have spoken with you about this some place other than the practice field in front of the team but I also feel that other than your message you were in the wrong here. You may be right. My reasoning was that the kid said the things to the water girl in front of most of the team - probably trying to act like a big man. Speaking to him in private would have left the other kids thinking it maybe wasn't that big of a deal. Instead, I wanted to send a message to let them know that it wouldn't be tolerated. BTW, a week later when the HC heard the entire story (not just what the kid's dad told him) he came back to me and told me I was right. It was a private Christian school, if the administration had learned of it the kid would have been gone, no question. I'm no longer coaching for that guy because he says one thing and does another. |
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Post by Coach.A on Jul 18, 2017 16:07:42 GMT -6
Have you ever looked at a character program? The one we use that I posted uses a word of the week and maybe 5 minutes a day of our time to talk about that word. It's not some intensive immersive time consuming thing. Why not take a few minutes to talk to the players about stuff they probably aren't exposed to, at least in our case with some of the backgrounds our players come from. We model it and live it for the most part, I mean no one is perfect but we have good dudes coaching with us and keep that circle tight to make sure we get those kinds of coaches. We deal with some kids coming from bad situations, parents struggling with addiction, living with older siblings cause mom is dead and dads never been around, kids seeing adults make bad decisions and not having high or any expectations for their kids, violence in the home and streets....a word of the week and less than five minutes a day seems like a good seed to plant in so,er of these kids hoping it grows and they remember it at a critical point in their life. In fact we've had kids come back and tell us about times they remembered and thought about stuff from those programs in the past, seems worth it to me. Yessir. I have seen character curriculum programs. Question: how did coaches back in the 60's, 70's or even 80' and 90's ever make an impact on their players without a curriculum to follow? I'm an old fart and my coaches helped share and mold a lot of kids and never had a curriculum to teach from. They were leaders. If there were opportunities/resources for those coaches back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s to improve their ability to teach leadership and character development, don't you think they would take advantage? I can assure you that even coaches back then read books about leadership...it may not have been packaged as "curriculum", nevertheless it was a resource for them to improve their team culture. What if a coach struggles with teaching some of these traits? Why wouldn't this struggling coach seek out resources to help him? Furthermore, what worked with a group of teenage boys in the 60s and 70s won't necessarily work (or be allowed) today. The social and institutional landscape has changed significantly and it has impacted the behaviors and thought processes of players, parents, administrators and coaches. |
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Post by bobgoodman on Jul 18, 2017 22:58:30 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". Would anybody ask the same question of, say, barbers? They have kids sat down in front of them for a certain amount of time that could be used to help turn them into real men or women. So do dentists. How about DJs -- they get the kids up & moving in groups like coaches of team sports. How about driving instructors? Do you think barbers, dentists, DJs, and driving instructors have discussion forums in which any of them say they have a desperate need to do more for their charges? I could imagine them exchanging stories about particular kids in bad straits, but not about any general desire to get into character building with those they serve. I just don't think there's anything special about football coaches that makes them a preferred means of doing this, nor of football players as having particular needs in that regard as a class. If someone were to point to differences in character between people who've played football & people who haven't, I would think that much more likely to be a selection effect rather than a result of the experience -- that those of either elevated or low character are more likely to choose to play the game than is the avg. person. I suspect that any program that's claimed to improve people's character with just some slogans for a few mins. a day in groups is just a feel-good illusion. People do engage in self-improvement programs that work like that, and I put more trust in those because it's the person who's doing it's own idea. They're good for helping overcome fears, depression, & anger; other elements of character bldg. I doubt they'd help with. And self-esteem can be overdone! Religion is known to help...but only until the person stops believing, and then the whole basis goes away. Role modeling I think really does help, but that's because the model isn't trying to do it. As soon as it becomes a conscious thing, it loses force. So the best advice I can give is, be good yourself...& don't think about it. |
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Post by coachd5085 on Jul 18, 2017 23:23:45 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". Would anybody ask the same question of, say, barbers? They have kids sat down in front of them for a certain amount of time that could be used to help turn them into real men or women. So do dentists. How about DJs -- they get the kids up & moving in groups like coaches of team sports. How about driving instructors? Do you think barbers, dentists, DJs, and driving instructors have discussion forums in which any of them say they have a desperate need to do more for their charges? I could imagine them exchanging stories about particular kids in bad straits, but not about any general desire to get into character building with those they serve. I just don't think there's anything special about football coaches that makes them a preferred means of doing this, nor of football players as having particular needs in that regard as a class. If someone were to point to differences in character between people who've played football & people who haven't, I would think that much more likely to be a selection effect rather than a result of the experience -- that those of either elevated or low character are more likely to choose to play the game than is the avg. person. I suspect that any program that's claimed to improve people's character with just some slogans for a few mins. a day in groups is just a feel-good illusion. People do engage in self-improvement programs that work like that, and I put more trust in those because it's the person who's doing it's own idea. They're good for helping overcome fears, depression, & anger; other elements of character bldg. I doubt they'd help with. And self-esteem can be overdone! Religion is known to help...but only until the person stops believing, and then the whole basis goes away. Role modeling I think really does help, but that's because the model isn't trying to do it. As soon as it becomes a conscious thing, it loses force. So the best advice I can give is, be good yourself...& don't think about it. Bob, I would say that the concept of character development/leadership coming from coaches originates from the school extra curricular nature of sports here in the United States. I would be interested to see if such ideals are common in places where athletics for ages 14-19 haven't been fostered through the school systems for the most part. |
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Post by huddlehut on Jul 19, 2017 12:21:01 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". Would anybody ask the same question of, say, barbers? They have kids sat down in front of them for a certain amount of time that could be used to help turn them into real men or women. So do dentists. How about DJs -- they get the kids up & moving in groups like coaches of team sports. How about driving instructors? Do you think barbers, dentists, DJs, and driving instructors have discussion forums in which any of them say they have a desperate need to do more for their charges? I could imagine them exchanging stories about particular kids in bad straits, but not about any general desire to get into character building with those they serve. I just don't think there's anything special about football coaches that makes them a preferred means of doing this, nor of football players as having particular needs in that regard as a class. If someone were to point to differences in character between people who've played football & people who haven't, I would think that much more likely to be a selection effect rather than a result of the experience -- that those of either elevated or low character are more likely to choose to play the game than is the avg. person. I suspect that any program that's claimed to improve people's character with just some slogans for a few mins. a day in groups is just a feel-good illusion. People do engage in self-improvement programs that work like that, and I put more trust in those because it's the person who's doing it's own idea. They're good for helping overcome fears, depression, & anger; other elements of character bldg. I doubt they'd help with. And self-esteem can be overdone! Religion is known to help...but only until the person stops believing, and then the whole basis goes away. Role modeling I think really does help, but that's because the model isn't trying to do it. As soon as it becomes a conscious thing, it loses force. So the best advice I can give is, be good yourself...& don't think about it. Excellent post, Bob Goodman! |
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Post by breakerdog on Jul 19, 2017 13:41:43 GMT -6
What character/ leadership development tools or programs do you use for your players? Does anyone do focused classes for athletes on character/ leadership? Just have a desperate need to do more for the athletes. They need to know what it means to be a "real man". These are the guys from Urban Meyer / Ohio State - Above the Line book. I have used the tools they talk about in football, business and family. Really works for me. |
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Post by coachwoodall on Jul 19, 2017 20:24:50 GMT -6
Uuuumm, if you don't won't to teach it, then don't. If you do, then do. If someone else wants to, then it's none of your business. If someone else doesn't, then it's none of your business.
I don't get the the condemnation for those that want to make their community better.
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Post by Coach.A on Jul 20, 2017 9:09:17 GMT -6
Would anybody ask the same question of, say, barbers? They have kids sat down in front of them for a certain amount of time that could be used to help turn them into real men or women. So do dentists. How about DJs -- they get the kids up & moving in groups like coaches of team sports. How about driving instructors? Do you think barbers, dentists, DJs, and driving instructors have discussion forums in which any of them say they have a desperate need to do more for their charges? I could imagine them exchanging stories about particular kids in bad straits, but not about any general desire to get into character building with those they serve. Bob, obviously there are some self-serving benefits to football coaches focusing on this training...developing character and leadership in their players and programs can translate to wins. You could also argue that it can help translate to success off the field, which would result in greater support from the school, community, and alumni. I'd like to think that most coaches would strive to instill these traits in their players regardless of wins, but I doubt you'd see this recent growth in the "leadership training" market if there wasn't potential for personal/financial gain. A dentist, barber, DJ, etc. will not directly benefit from developing these traits in their customers/patients. Why would a barber or dentist care if their customer had poor leadership skills? The barber, dentist and DJ get paid regardless of their customer/patient's leadership skills. I just don't think there's anything special about football coaches that makes them a preferred means of doing this, nor of football players as having particular needs in that regard as a class. If someone were to point to differences in character between people who've played football & people who haven't, I would think that much more likely to be a selection effect rather than a result of the experience -- that those of either elevated or low character are more likely to choose to play the game than is the avg. person. As I said earlier, I think football coaches have a superior platform for teaching these skills. In my opinion, it's much easier to teach a kid about teamwork, toughness, commitment, discipline, etc. in a football team setting compared to a barber's chair. As for differences in character/leadership between people who played football versus people who haven't...that's aside the point. You'd have to compare athletes who came from programs that prioritized character/leadership vs. athletes who came from programs that do not. Still very difficult to prove, but anecdotally, I played in both types of programs and I experienced a very clear and obvious difference in myself and my team mates. We conduct exit interviews with our players at the end of each season and the overwhelming majority of our players identified our leadership training as the critical component for our success. We've experienced more success on the field since prioritizing this training. We've experienced greater "buy in" from our players as well. Bob, you're correct that you will not "i mprove people's character with just some slogans for a few mins. a day in groups". To quote quote Urban Meyer: "Average leaders have quotes. Good leaders have a plan. Exceptional leaders have a system."
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