I've been coaching my kids for about 5 years now in t-ball, baseball, soccer, flag football and basketball.  When I started out, I used to think it was about me coaching them.  I would coach them on what seemed so intuitive to me...and they wouldn't get it.  I suppose I was giving them too much information or maybe too much at the same time...like drinking water from a fire hose!  Hmmm...I cut their food into small pieces so they don't choke, so why wasn't I coaching them that way?!?  Being trained as a physical therapist, I learned how to take a physical skill and break it down into components, work on the components and then put them back together into a functional movement.  Over the years, I must have started taking shortcuts.  It wasn't until my young teams re-taught me this lesson that it hit me...it's all about the basics.  If you can't get the blocking and tackling right, you'll never get the flee flicker play.

Once I realized I had to let my players teach me first, I was then able to be a better coach and structure practice in a way that delivered greater successes by setting smaller goals.  The irony is that I have been doing this for my entire career with my patients.  I guess it was just more natural as I was dealing with injured patients so you have to slow down your progression to allow the injured tissue to heal.  With healthy young kids, I was distracted with trying to keep their attention and make it fun.

In Rehab or Prehab, there is an end goal.  If you shoot for that goal at the outset, you will most likely get discouraged and feel as though you have failed.  If you set that as your end goal and then work backwards to set intermediate and then short term goals, you will be able to achieve success more easily and in a shorter time frame.  This will help encourage you and keep you focused on your end goal.

Your success in developing goals that are appropriate, attainable and build up to your end objective will ultimately determine whether or not you achieve your goal.  But, that doesn't give you a license to cheat yourself or others around you.  Give it your best effort, raise the bar on your goals, stretch yourself to get better.  Don't set easy goals for yourself just so you can achieve them.  Just make sure you give yourself plenty of short term targets, or milestones, along the way to your ultimate goal!

Dream Big.  Work Hard.  Find Success.  Leave it all on the field.