🏃‍♀️ Coaching kids vs. NFL players, an agent you need to know, + more

What’s up y’all? Cici here.

Welcome back to More Her Speed, a weekly no-BS newsletter all about women in coaching.

Coaching Youth vs. Pros

This week has been a little different from my normal schedule…

I have been working with a youth girls lacrosse team on their summer training regiment. As wild as it sounds.. THIS IS MY HARDEST GROUP TO COACH!

I’ve said it before and I stand on this: pro and elite guys are the easy part of my job..

1. Pros are pros. They know how and when to lock in. Youth athletes need a bit more direction.

2. This is all that the pros do. Their ability to put food on the table relies on the results of their training. Youth athletes have a lot more on their mind. Growing up, building relationships, school, etc.

Trying to grasp the focus and attention of about 50 teenage girls is DIFFERENT! It has been such a fun experience for me and has truly made me a better coach.

The camp is broken up into age groups, and I have anywhere between 10-15 girls in each one. Some of the older high school girls I have worked with before so they were able to go through the session with ease.

I have realized how important it is to DEMO the correct way that we want our athletes to execute the drills. You need to understand the drill to be able to demo well:

1. Why do we do this drill?

2. What are the common mistakes?

3. What are the common cues to fix said mistakes?

I am great with communication so I’m good at explaining all of our drills, but that isn’t going to save me when they’ve never seen the movement before.

So, I am constantly working on becoming better at demonstrating our drills and movements. I do this by completing the drills with the other coaches on our staff, and constantly studying our cues that we use to coach our athletes.

It’s key to practice what you preach and as much as I struggle with this, it's a major factor to success in this field.

AGENT YOU

My educational piece and my female spotlight this week is going to be one in the same because it’s coming from none other than the G.O.A.T. herself.. Agent Nicole Lynn.

Nicole is someone I had the pleasure of meeting during our draft prep in Dallas and she is just as humble as she is inspiring.

Nicole became the FIRST BLACK FEMALE agent to represent a top 3 NFL draft pick and for good reason.. She is constantly working, networking, flying to her player’s games and practices.

I think we can all learn a thing or two from her journey. She released a book last year called “Agent You” where she shares her game plan and blueprints for executing your personal brand and advocating for yourself.

One thing she emphasizes that I have a hard time with is to make self-care important and that working all the time isn’t as glorious as we all make it out to be.

It’s always hard to find a work-life balance and that’s one of my goals for the rest of the year.

Quote of the week

“Your biggest advocate in the room is YOU.”

-Nicole Lynn

In all the conversations you have this week… advocate for yourself. If you don’t, nobody will.

Appreciate y’all,

Cici