What I learned from Todd Jesdale

This past weekend I attended the Saratoga Junior Rowing Coaches' Conference.  Todd Jesdale was one of the presenters.  Todd coached and taught my brother at Groton, then went on to build the Cincinnati Juniors Rowing Club into a perennial national powerhouse.  He's coached the Junior Men's National Team to several international medals, and he's won at every level, from high school to college to the international stage.  Here are few tidbits, most of which are easily relevant to the dorm, the classroom, or your particular sport/activity.

On trust and responsibility: Give kids every ounce of responsibility you can, from planning a race strategy in rowing to calling timeouts in basketball.  He had two great anecdotes.  Once he was standing by the boat, ready to launch before the National Championships, and his crew was nowhere in sight.  Sure enough, they'd had a plan, showed up, launched, and were off the dock before he knew what was happening.  They also won.  Todd also coached the 8th and 9th grade boys basketball team at Groton and allowed them to call their own timeouts.  He claims the stands were more crowded than at the varsity games.

On language:  Never say, "Where is Billy?  Is he late/sleeping/skipping/sick?"  He made the point that you should never publicly address behaviors you hope to avoid.  I immediately thought of the dorm/classroom/erg room, as well as the extent to which we discuss stress.  His most noteworthy line was, "A negative statement is a statement on the quality of the team."

On the pain:  Similar to language.  Never mention it.  Call it stress or strain, because it is self-imposed.  You chose to row; therefore, you chose to stress yourself physically and mentally.

On talking to kids:  Avoid talking about rowing or school.  You'll become a parent figure, asking the same questions they get on phone calls home.  Similarly, we all have favorites, so consciously target one child per day and talk about the weather, news, music, movies, but not school or sport to get him or her to open up.