How are you living and leading by example today? It’s not your day anymore. It’s theirs.
“Kids don’t care about how it was in your day.
They don’t care what you used to be able to do.
As a coach, it’s important to recognize it’s not about you anymore.
It’s changed.
It’s evolved.
It’s about them.
If you can’t get past this, leadership will forever be beyond you.”
-Ray Zingler on X
“Back in my day we walked 5 miles to school in snowstorms, and it was up hill both ways!”
Nobody cares that you had 3-a-days in full pads in the 200-degree heat.
Nobody cares that you struck out that one guy who went on to play in the minors.
Nobody cares how fast you used to be, how much you used to leg press, or how you would have been all-state if you didn’t throw your shoulder out.
The only way your “back in my day” lessons carry any value is if they are evolved to make sense to kids in today’s evolved world.
I used to bench press over 400 pounds.
I ripped a pec off the bone.
I don’t bench 400 pounds anymore.
Do you think I tell the kids I train about how I used to bench 400 pounds?
Of course not.
What value does that provide for them?
How does that help me lead them in performance training and beyond?
“Listen to me because I used to be strong?”
That’s bullshit.
No, the kids I train trust me because though I don’t bench press 400 pounds anymore, I have evolved and continue to bust my ass day in and day out and try to be the very best I can be in today’s day.
I’m trying to show them that I am living the code in their day and not talking about how I used to be in my day.
Many former athletes struggle on the coaching side of things because it’s not about them anymore.
They are so focused on themselves and what they used to be able to do that they don’t have the self-awareness to understand that in coaching, they are no longer the main character of the story.
And if you don’t have the capacity to understand this, coaching will never be for you.
Leadership will forever be beyond you.
Stop telling kids about how it used to be and what you used to do.
It’s not your day anymore.
It’s their day.
What are you doing NOW, in today’s world that’s showing them that you continue to evolve into the best version of your current self?
That’s the only way you’ll ever EARN true buy-in.
