Wednesday Coach Report - The Last 5 Minutes

Coach,

Welcome to Week 2 of The Wednesday Coach Report.

Each Wednesday this summer, I'll share something from my 33-year coaching career—or from a coach I've learned from—that you can implement immediately to improve your program's culture, accountability, and team engagement.

The goal isn't to give you one more thing to read.

The goal is to give you one practical idea you can use with your team tomorrow.

This week's idea is simple.

It takes five minutes.

And it became one of the most anticipated parts of our summer program.

MAKE THE LAST 5 MINUTES MATTER

One of the simplest things we ever did to improve summer workouts was divide the team into squads and dedicate the final five minutes of every workout to competition.

The workout was over. The heavy lifting was done. Now it was time to compete.

Each day featured a different challenge:

• Relay races

• Tug-of-war

• Obstacle courses

• Medicine ball relays

• Tire flips

• Partner challenges

Anything that got athletes competing together.

We kept both individual and squad standings throughout the week. Every competition mattered because points were on the line.

Consider ending each week by rewarding the winning squad.

Keep it simple.

Some of our best rewards were nothing more than a cooler full of popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, brownies, or cookies donated by a couple of team moms.

The reward wasn't what made it work.

The magic was in the anticipation.

By Wednesday, athletes were talking about the standings. By Thursday, teammates were encouraging each other to show up, compete, and earn points. By Friday, everybody wanted to know who was going to win.

The bragging rights lasted much longer than the dessert.

And don't miss another opportunity: capture the competitions.

Take pictures of the tug-of-war.

The relay races.

The tire flips.

The celebrations.

Then share them with your parent text group, social media accounts, and team communication channels.

Parents love seeing their kids compete, laugh, and connect with teammates. Those pictures become visible proof that your summer program is about more than strength and conditioning.

It's about relationships.

It's about accountability.

It's about competition.

It's about culture.

The reward was never really the point.

The point was that athletes started looking forward to the end of every workout. Attendance improved. Competition increased. Teammates encouraged one another. Energy stayed high all summer.

The final five minutes became one of the most anticipated parts of the day.

If you're looking for a simple way to increase engagement this summer, put athletes into squads and make the last five minutes matter.

Five minutes can have a bigger impact on your culture than you think.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The Wednesday Coach Report isn't just about ideas from my coaching career. I want it to address the challenges coaches are dealing with right now.

Is there a coaching, culture, leadership, attendance, accountability, parent, or team-building issue you'd like me to discuss?

Just hit reply and let me know.

If enough coaches are wrestling with the same challenge, I'll tackle it in a future Wednesday Coach Report.

After 33 years of coaching, I've learned that most of us are dealing with many of the same issues. Sometimes the best ideas come from simply sharing what's working.

I'd love to hear from you.

Randy

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Wednesday Coach Report - The Last 5 Minutes