Dan Tudor

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

More and more schools are switching to Gmail, so we thought we would provide some cool Gmail tricks that you can use to make your Gmail experience more efficient…

- Undo sent messages

After you click ‘send’, Gmail will give you 5 seconds to ‘undo’ a sent message and stop it from sending. This is huge help for those “oh no!” moments when you realize you sent the wrong thing to the wrong person. You can enable this by:

1) clicking the “gear” icon   on the right hand side and choosing “settings”

2) choose “labs” at the top of the new screen

3) find “undo send” and choose “Enable”

4) click “save changes”

- Drag attachments directly into the body of your message

Instead of having to choose the paperclip icon, then searching your computer to find the file and going through that whole mess…you can literally open up an email in Gmail (compose), and drag whatever picture or file you have directly into the email. Just click and drag and you are good to go. Note: if you are an Internet Explorer user, this might not work.

- Mute conversations

Do you ever get cc’d on conversations and every time someone ‘replies to all’, you get hit with another email that you don’t care about? Then you have to go in and delete it…typically with frustration? Well, go ahead and mute the conversation and you will not have to deal with those frustrating email chains. This is done by:

1) check the checkbox next to the email on the left hand side

2) click the ‘More’ dropdown

3) choose ‘Mute’

- Front Rush plug-in (SHAMELESS PLUG – I AM SORRY!!!)

Front Rush released a Google extension that pulls all of your recruit data directly into Gmail. If you open an email from a recruit, all of their data shows directly next to the email. It then allows you to save the email right in Front Rush. You can grab it at

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/front-rush/knlfajcmongkbojhnodolckgkmfpmcln

- Canned Responses

Do you ever send out the same email over and over again? Or consistently use the same response back to people who email you? The best thing to do is to use canned responses. These are pre-written responses that you choose and send. You can enable these by:

1) clicking the “gear” icon  on the right hand side and choosing “settings”

2) choose “labs” at the top of the new screen

3) find “canned responses” and choose “Enable”

4) click “save changes”

5) type out an email that you want to use as a canned response

6) at the bottom right of the email there is a down arrow…click that

7) choose “canned responses” and “New canned response”

8) type out a name

-Note: you’ll use the same down arrow to choose the canned response the next time you send out an email.

If you’re attending the 2013 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 7-9, you’re going to hear the best collection of speakers and experts we’ve ever assembled.

We’re proud to announce the line-up, and will update it if changes or additional speakers are added!

To attend the conference, click here.

FRIDAY

Dan Tudor – The founder of the NCRC event will kick-off the weekend with the annual “State of Recruiting” talk, setting the agenda for the weekend

Dan Wolken, USA Today – One of the rising stars in college sports reporting will talk about recruiting trends, coaches who are doing it right, and what he forecasts for the evolving world of college recruiting.

Dr. Mike Davenport – A successful rowing coach and expert in the intricacies of successful mentoring, Coach Davenport will talk about how to make sure your coaching career is strong and sustainable for the long haul.  Be ready to be challenged in the way you approach your career!

Jan Stuebbe – Author of “How to Be a Lousy Leader”, Coach Stuebbe will give insights from a unique athletic and coaching life that saw him in a leadership position since he was a Freshman in high school. He’s always been a starter, a head coach, and leading a junior college program as athletic director.  These lessons are unforgettable – you’ll want him to talk to your team about leadership, too!

Rob Jones – Whatever obstacle you’re facing as a coach, be prepared to be humbled and amazed at the story of Rob Jones.  Featured earlier in Sports Illustrated this year, Jones’ life journey – as a soldier and as an athlete – will amaze you.  His session will touch every aspect of your coaching and recruiting life.

SATURDAY

John Brubaker – This former college coach, author and business consultant kicks-off our Saturday with a fascinating recruiting and sales lesson, “The Seeds of Success”.  Coach Bru will tell the true story of a Colonel, a CEO and a minister and the secrets they can teach coaches about effective recruiting.

Paul Biancardi, ESPN – One of the nation’s foremost recruiting experts is back to share his experiences as a former D1 recruiter, and tell coaches what they need to know about this generation of recruits that he follows for ESPN on a daily basis.

Dr. Robyn Odegaard – One of the nation’s foremost experts on effective prospect and team communication, Doc Robyn will reveal what effective coaches are doing to get through to their top recruits, and how to convince them to choose your program!

Stephanie Melish – One of the nation’s rising stars in effective selling techniques, the self proclaimed “Double Tall, Non-Fat, No Whip Sales Barista” will give our attendees the latest effective sales techniques that can be used in recruiting prospects effectively.  This is a can’t-be-missed session at this year’s NCRC!

Luncheon Focus Group, Hosted by NCSA Athletic Recruiting – Take part in a unique focus group session hosted by the premier athletic recruiting resource for college coaches, and enjoy a great lunch courtesy of NCSA!

Charlie Adams – Parents of recruits are often a mystery in the recruiting process. Adams, the father of a recruited college athlete and nationally recognized speaker and recruiting expert, will talk about how coaches often miss the boat when it comes to effectively interacting with parents.

Jan Stuebbe – Coach Stuebbe will be back to talk about what leaders like him look for in rising coaches.  Want an honest look at what you need to do to get that next big job?  This session is for you.  You’ll get straight talk from a leader who has done his share of hiring.

Mandy Green – This nationally recognized organizational expert, and D1 college coach, talks about how she manages two kids, a full-time coaching job, and nails it when it comes to high level recruiting!  Her secret?  (That’s what she’ll share with you!)

Ronnie Arrow – The former head basketball coach at the University of South Alabama joins the discussion to talk about APR requirements, and how it will be affecting coaches when they’re recruiting – and in how they decide whether or not to take that next job.  Learn some valuable lessons from this college coaching veteran!

Aaron Boetcher – A former college coach who now leads an admissions department, Aaron will talk about the strange and often combative relationship between athletics and admissions – and how to make sure it doesn’t sabotage your recruiting efforts.

Sean Devlin – The technical genius behind Front Rush talks recruiting and coaching technology, and what tools and trends coaches need to be aware of heading into the 2013-2014 recruiting year.  Sean is a staple of the NCRC because he’s an expert, and he’s a blast to listen to!

SUNDAY

Charlie Adams – The recent author of the new book “How to Build a Positive Attitude, and Keep the Darn Thing!” will open up the day with lessons you and your athletes need to remember about attitude, and how it’s the building block for anything you do as a college coach and recruiter.

Tyler Brandt – A longtime successful wrestling coach and recruiter, Coach Brandt will share the secrets of his success following the principles of his “7 Second Coach” approach.  You’ll come away with great ideas to take back to your campus.

Dr. Thom Park – One of the most respected football recruiters of all time, Coach Park will share insights on how coaches need to prepare for their career, and what he has seen successful coaches do to build their careers on being great recruiters.

Dan Tudor – In his two-part conference finale, Dan will talk about the increasing role of social media recruiting and how to be successful at it, as well as the new recruiting contact rules and the monumental changes that it will mean for college recruiters.

Join us for the entire conference experience!  Register today…CLICK HERE

by Dr. Mike Davenport

Jack is standing in line at the supermarket, waiting to pay for his bananas. He knows exactly what he is going to do as soon as he gets his change. He has a plan.

Barb, a fifth grader, is watching the calendar slowly move toward summer vacation. She has big plans when school is over.

Both Jack and Barb have what is commonly known as an “exit-plan.” They know what they are going to do after they have finished what they are currently doing. They know “what’s next.”

It amazes me how few coaches do.

Sooner or later every coach leaves their current job. Either holding a pink slip after the first year, with a gold plated wrist watch after 45 years, or somewhere in between — we all leave. Right now, just down the hall, or up the street is a coach who is getting ready to move on.

But to what?

Over the past few years I’ve worked with hundreds of coaches and I’ve had the opportunity to ask many what they would do “next,” if they were to leave their job.

Very few, if any, knew.

LEAVING ON YOUR MIND

It is hard to dwell on that sometimes, especially if you’ve had to fight hard to get the job, but having leaving-on-your-mind, specifically, having an exit-plan — can help you be a better coach.

IT SURE DID ME

Before I left my first coaching job I had an exit-plan. The plan was to travel to New Zealand and work as a white water raft guide. And that is exactly what I did. It was a great experience and one thing that helped make it amazing was that I had my exit-plan in hand two years before I left.

How’d that help? As soon as I knew the plan I starting becoming a better employee and a better coach. An exit-plan can help you, right now, to be a better coach. It did me. Here are three ways how.

1: Building better relationships

You want to leave your job on good terms, right? Sure, most people do. They want to be liked, remembered fondly, and be able to use the employer for a good reference. Okay, there are few folks who don’t care about those, but they are a special, small group. Me, I want to leave on good terms and I bet you do also.

See, that’s one way right there where having an exit-plan makes you a better coach. My plan made me realize that the relationships I had at work were critical to my success, so I became better at my end of the relationship.

Listen, it is commonly thought that a poor win/loss ratio is why most coaches find themselves out of a job. Not so — relationship issues is the number one reason. So build positive relationships. That’s what I did. Help out your co-coaches and peers. Jazz up the place with your positive attitude and great work ethic. Be methodical with random acts of kindness. Doing things now so to build strong relationships could give your career a boost, and you’ll be a better coach because of it.

2: Becoming a student of the game

If you plan to stay in coaching, are you learning as much as you can? Are you developing skills to take you to the next level? Not just sport-specific skills but other critical skills such as problem-solving skills, communicating-skills, recruiting-skills.

Let’s say you are currently a college assistant coach, and you have an exit-plan to become a head coach. There is a lot to learn to make that step to the next level. Your exit-plan (knowing you want to be a head coach) should motivate you to learn as much as you can. Become a student-of-the-game, a sponge that absorbs as much as possible, and then a little bit more.

You learn more, you are a better coach right now. You learn more, you’ll be a better coach tomorrow. You learn more and you’ll be much more likely to keep that next job when you get there.

Two down, one to go …

3: Leaving with grace

How you leave is often remembered more than what you did while you were there. And your legacy, what you leave behind, is an important part of your coaching career. That is the third way an exit-plan can help you be a better coach — grace in leaving.

Remember I told you about leaving my first coaching job? My Dad, who had been in business for years gave me great advice he used when he changed jobs — be thankful. So, when it was time to leave (according to my exit-plan) I made sure that I found everyone at the school who helped me along the way and thanked them. From bus driver to athletic director,  I told them how much I appreciated their help, shook their hand, gave them a card.

How did that make me a better coach? Well, it made be a better person, and thus a better coach. See the connection?

TO TOMORROW AND BEYOND

There are no guarantees in coaching except that one day you will be leaving your job. It happens to every single coach. Your decision, or theirs, that day is coming. Don’t you want to be prepared?

The future is right outside your locker room. That’s why it’s important you have an exit plan.

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

If you and I were at a Starbucks together and you went on Facebook, I could steal your Facebook login information, post very bad things on your behalf and make all kinds of friend requests to all the people that you don’t want me to (ex-girlfrends or bestfriends, etc).

Even though I would really never do that, it doesn’t take someone that savvy to do something similar. On most public wifi networks (like at hotels, coffee shops, gyms, etc), your data is transmitting right in the open and can be intercepted by anyone willing to do a google search and download some malicious software. It seems ridiculous (scare tactic-esc) but it’s true.

So what do you do? Well first off, you are pretty safe with any site that uses https connections (you know when you type in the browser www.something and it changes it to https://www.something). This is in contrast with sites that use just http (or http://www.something. So anytime you are on public wifi and login to a site, make sure that the login page has https and not http otherwise you are asking for dangerous type stuff.  It should also be noted that you should also concern yourself with the fact that often times the home pages of different sites will not have the https, only the login screen will. This is usually ok.

Secondly, I highly recommend using something like Cloak (getcloak.com for Mac users). Cloak is what is known as a VPN service. When you access the internet through a public wifi, you turn on cloak and it re-routes all of your traffic securely so that someone would have to be super-duper savvy to steal your stuff. Whenever I do anything on a public network, I use a VPN (like Cloak). It isn’t because we should be paranoid…..it’s just good practice at this point. Your university or workplace may also have a VPN that you can use and I would recommend asking them about it if they don’t.

by Dr. Mike Davenport

Coaches play games. I don’t mean that in a bad, derogatory sense.

But the truth is we coaches play games. Two games in fact. Two games that make a difference.

James Carse wrote about those two games at length in his book, Finite and Infinite Games, A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. He details how those games are the essence of what every coach does, and has done, since the first coach started hollering. Understanding these two games can have a significant impact on how you coach, how well you coach, how long you coach, and the enjoyment you derive from your coaching.

THE FINITE GAME

The first game is called the Finite Game. It is played for the purpose of winning. Bluntly, the Finite Game IS the sport we coach. The goal of the Finite Game is to win, to score the most points, be the fastest, strongest, toughest. Be the top. Someone wins and everyone else loses.

In the Finite Game there are rules. There is a time limit. It is played out on a defined area, within boundaries. And the people who participate choose to do so. For many coaches playing the Finite Game is what attracts us to coaching.

The second game is different. Quite different.

THE INFINITE GAME

The purpose of the Infinite Game is development. The goal of an Infinite Game is to move people and things forward to a better future. It is plain. It is simple. In an Infinite Game there really are no rules, no time limit. It is played out everywhere, at anytime, any place. Improvement is the name of the game, and this game never stops.

SO WHAT? Why should you care?

Several reasons why, but let’s look at two of the most critical:

First, the goals of the two games, because they are different, can cause great conflict. Finite Games want to win, everything else is secondary. Infinite Games want development — the win may be important but more often than not the win is meaningless. And that’s the conflict so many coaches stumble on — those goals can be at odds.

One of your stars is in your office the day before the big game. “Coach, there is a speaker coming to campus this afternoon. I really want to attend the talk. This could help me get my dream job next year. I need to miss practice today.” A Finite Game playing-coach blows up. “WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT … !!” and it goes from there. An Infinite Game playing-coach says, “What a great opportunity for you!”

I am not suggesting either response is better, but knowing about the two games can help a coach find a way forward while staying true to herself, helping the athlete, being positive.

The second reason you should care is in addition to the internal conflict that can be generated, external conflict also can arise. If you are an Infinite Game playing-coach (development is more important than winning) and you coach for an organization that is Finite Game focused, you are facing a rocky road. One possibly littered with deep and dark potholes.

WHAT TO DO?

The Wild World of Coaching Sports can be a wonderful place yet there are dangers and hazards. Knowing what lurks in the dark corners, what surprises can jump out to scare you, the difficulties that can arise, is critical. Knowing about the two games can make coaching more enjoyable, and help you be a better coach.

Something to think about, and Carse’s book might be a worthwhile read if you plan on staying in coaching any length of time. As you might guess, conflict can arise when coaches play both games. As coaches we are judged by our Finite Game results.

by Dr. Mike Davenport

Stop.

Whatever you’re doing, take a break.

Put your mind in reverse and flashback to all the things you’ve done as a coach. Your accomplishments, your successes. The good and the bad.

Chances are you used the perspective of winning to do this review.

A DIFFERENT LENS

A win/loss record is how most coaches filter their career. It’s not wrong, but that perspective may just miss the true measure of the value of a coach.

Let’s try a different lens, one that might offer you some unique insights into your coaching and who you are. Let’s look back using gut churn.

OFF TO SUCCESS

Jad Abumrad is a huge success. Deservedly so. His show, Radiolab (www.radiolab.org), is considered pure genius by many and Abumrad, the talent behind the show has many awards for what he’s achieved.

Yet during the process of creating Radiolab there were many times when Abumrad had to kick in his fight response. There were times when the show should have been canceled because of lack of funding. There were times when the future wasn’t clear. There were times when he wasn’t quite sure what the heck he was doing.

And during those times he had what he describes as gut churn.

Gut churn is the feeling when the body shuts down the digestive process. It’s an involuntary response to help us get to the next level.

For example, the brain says, “Whoa, we’re being chased by a lion!” Everything not important gets turned off, like digesting that cheeseburger you just ate. Resources are allocated. Digestion is shut off. Churn happens.

HOW’S YOUR CHURN?

Regardless of how long you been coaching, I bet you’ve had churn. For most coaches, it comes with the territory.

When you are deeply engaged in something meaningful the churn can kick in. For the first five years of my coaching I threw up every contest. Every-single-contest. I did not want to, I had to. My gut churn was off the chart.

Yet, when I look back at my career (over 33 years) through the lens of gut churn I notice things much more important than the contests ever were:

• The churn was there during the conversation with the athlete about her dying father.

• While I pitched a new coaching-education program to my school’s administration I had gut churn.

• I remember the churn while telling an extremely talented athlete she could no longer participate due to an addiction.

Here lies the value of gut churn as a filter.

IS GUT CHURN MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE WINS?

I’m not complaining about being evaluated by a win/loss record. I get that. It’s important.

What I am suggesting is that what we do as a coach transcends the contest. I could make a list, a huge list, of what coaches do that doesn’t relate to THE contest. I bet you could also. However, too often we get mired down by that pesky win/loss record. Gut churn can give you insight into what you truly consider important, stressful, valuable.

To help you improve your career it might be invaluable to reflect back through the lens of gut churn. Sometimes we can learn by listening to our stomach.

The author Mike Davenport has been coaching 33 years and has learned to love all aspects of coaching (yes, even the ups, the downs, and the losses.) He writes about professional sustainability for coaches over at  www.coachingsportstoday.com and will be a featured instructor at the upcoming National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

People like to look at other people. More specifically, people like to look at other people’s faces. It’s true…we are drawn to them.

We are drawn to other people’s faces regardless if they are actual pictures or if they are cartoons or simply a circle with a few lines. We are psychologically predisposed to it. Our brain ‘lights up’ when we recognize something as a face or even if something resembles a face. How many times have you seen Abraham Lincoln in a rock formation or in a cloud? It’s true and now you recognize it…and so do marketers. There is a reason that many ads have big pictures of faces. You are more likely to interact with it. Eye tracking studies (which are studies where websites track what part of the page you look at) show that users will focus on the parts of the page that have pictures of faces.

So that’s cool. You know what else is cool? People tend to look where the ‘faces’ are looking. So for example, if you have some content on a web page…let’s say it’s about a big win and you have a picture of a ‘face’ looking at that content…readers are more likely to look at that content. They are following the eye of the ‘face’. Psychology.

So how do you take advantage of this? Well think about your “marketing” materials. Are you using faces to attract the attention of your intended readers? Are your materials going to stand out relative to your competition? Something to think about.

Note: You can provide psychological techniques to get people to look at your stuff, but you need the content to back it up. You can ‘trick’ people to look at your info but if you don’t have quality content, they won’t fall for it twice.

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

We are all adults here. We’ve been on this planet long enough to know that a sincere smile can go a long way. We know the qualities that a good smile can carry. It makes you happy, it relieves stress, it makes you feel good, happy etc. But it also induces these sensations and emotions on others…like when you are face to face with a recruit. Boom! Is your facial expression more often a smile or a frown? Are you embodying all that is positive? Are you showing the best that you’ve got? My assumption is that you are certainly trying to.

So what’s the technology spin? Well what about when you are on the phone? Is your smile coming through the phone or your cell? Are your emails smiling all the way to your recruit’s inbox? What about your text-messages (and I am not referring to smiley face emoticons*)?. *note on emoticons below.

Here’s the tech trick: put a mirror on your desk, yes a mirror. Before you send an email, before you pick up your phone, before anything else, look at yourself in the mirror and smile. That smile will carry through whatever technology you are conversing through. It’s weird, but smiles can defy physics and show up in your emails, and through your phone and every other medium. Face to face smiling is awesome but your mood shows up in so many other places. So give yourself every advantage. Invest in the low-tech and purchase a mirror. Smiling works. Smiling works everywhere!

*Emoticons (like smiley faces) are completely acceptable as a way to express emotion in text-messages. The counter argument is that they make the sender look “less intelligent” or “silly” or “informal”. Text-messages themselves are informal and if the person sending the message is intelligent and the content is not silly then the message will come across the way intended. The smiley face is a common form of expression that is understood and clarity is always good so I am down with it