What follows are two excerpts from the 82 minute interview Coach Soles did with Jay Johnson. Members can listen to the interview and read the full transcript of the interview. Click here to view Coach Soles’s training summary.
On program success and dealing with doubters and parents:
Doug Soles: I think there’s a lot of basic commonalities: Dealing with parents, just trying to make sure that everybody understands the direction that we’re going. We all deal with that. That’s one of the number one things when I talk with other coaches, it’s funny because they look at me like “oh, you sometimes have issues with parents?” Just because you’re successful doesn’t mean you’re not dealing with people that have questions or decide that they ran a 5k once and so they obviously know more about running then you do. I think the most important thing is to really own your program. This is what we do. This is what we have. And this is what we offer for the kids. And if people don’t like that then they have to go do something else. That’s one of the number one questions that I get from high school coaches when I talk with people through email or in person, is how do you deal with the craziness that sometimes the parents will have? And I think the most important thing is to just be honest, be upfront, and own your program. This is what we do. Don’t shy away from that, don’t start wavering, “okay, now this parent is upset so we’re going to start to change things to this.”
Doug Soles: You have to really look at what the most important thing is for you and your program and what’s the most important thing for the kids. [Read more…]
