Texas High School Coaches Association President Rodney Webb

Being a coach now is very different from being a coach back in the day. Even just 10, 15, or 20 years ago saw a different style of coaching working well for kids. Today, young athletes are presented with lots of options, so coaches need to tailor their styles a bit to ensure they’re connecting …

Being a coach now is very different from being a coach back in the day. Even just 10, 15, or 20 years ago saw a different style of coaching working well for kids. Today, young athletes are presented with lots of options, so coaches need to tailor their styles a bit to ensure they’re connecting with this generation in a way that’s positive and fulfilling.

Rodney Webb is the head football coach at Rockwall High School in Texas and president of the Texas High School Coaches Association. This week, he shares tips from his nearly 30 years in coaching.

It comes
down to finding a balance between pushing kids and demanding discipline and
focus and making sports fun for them and rewarding in different ways. Coaches
tend to follow the model of how they were coached as kids when they develop
their own methods. That can be problematic when the game has changed as much as
it has, so coaches need to adapt so they can keep kids stimulated and engaged.

What You’ll Learn

Manage players and the pressures of social mediaSeek mentorship from other coachesEstablish relationships with players and parentsPlay and practice smarter, not harderKeep it real with kids

Quotes

“This is
my passion. It’s my calling. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do and it’s all I’ve
ever done.” -Rodney Webb

“As a
coach, I’m not one of those guys that really coached in a program under anybody
that was really legendary. I coached several places and coached with a lot of
good guys, but honestly, it’s a few guys that I coached with along the way that
a lot of people have never heard of that really had the biggest impact on me.”
-Rodney Webb

“You’ve
got to find that balance. Football is a tough sport and the discipline it
requires — you’ve got to demand those things. But you also, as a coach, have to
make it fun for them. There’s got to be some redeeming value that the kids see
or they’re going to go do something different.” -Rodney Webb

“Trying
to manage social media and just keeping things real with our kids is a bigger
challenge than it’s ever been before.” -Rodney Webb

“We tend
to coach the way we were coached and the game has changed so much that if you
haven’t been around the game in the past 15 or 20 years, it’s a lot different
now.” -Rodney Webb

Contact

You can follow Rodney Webb on Twitter @jacket4life.

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