While the kids are back in school, our staff is taking advantage of some great learning opportunities too. Our sports continually evolve and research is shedding new light into how kids learn and develop physically, emotionally, cognitively and socially. It only makes sense then as a coaching staff that just like the kids we coach, we must continually strive to improve and learn more.

In June, I joined five of our coaches in Boulder for what was a transformational three-day coaching conference. Learning from world and national collegiate championship coaches and the highly talented group of coaches in attendance from the U.S. and around the globe, we came away with many ways to work on the connections we make with the kids to help them be inspired, confident and excited to give their best. No other club had the presence that we did at this conference and I was proud of how our coaches engaged with the work sessions and activities. That didn’t go unnoticed with the conference leaders.

Now in the fall, our staff training ramps up. We just completed three 2-hour training sessions for our sport directors with consultant, research scientist and author Dr. Wendy Lynch to improve our communication and listening skills. The goal was to help us improve our ability to work together and with our coaching staffs, as well as improving our communication with parents and athletes. The skills learned were directly applicable to coaching as well. The directors are excited to pass this information down to their staff and to share Dr. Lynch’s great book Get to What Matters.

Coming up in October, we are thrilled to be welcoming Dr. Nicole LaVoi to work with our coaching staff. Dr. LaVoi is the co-director for the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport and is a senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota in the areas of social and behavioral sciences in the school of kinesiology. Dr. LaVoi is an internationally-sought after speaker in coaching, and in particular in coaching girls in sport. In addition to her work with our coaches, she will be doing a presentation for SSWSC parents on Thursday, October 11, in the evening, at Olympian Hall. Specific times will be sent out soon, but keep your calendars open as you won’t want to miss this!

In addition to these and other in-person training sessions, our coaches complete online training in concussion awareness and SafeSport with the aim to keep our kids safe from abuse.

This training and education for our coaches is one of the most important things that we do at the club. We are very thankful for the grants and generous donations that have helped us offer some of the highest quality training that’s available. I’m confident that these efforts lead to a better experience for your children in the club.

Each week Athletic Director Jon Nolting will share his insight about happenings inside the club and around youth sport through the View From the Summit blog post.