Most players don’t need more drills.

They need something deeper. We default to skill development.
Shooting reps. Ball handling. Conditioning.
But we often neglect the foundation underneath it all.
And when players struggle, it’s rarely because they don’t know enough.
Every player needs three things:
1. Stability
📖 Hebrews 13:8
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Players thrive when their coach is steady.
If your mood rises and falls with the scoreboard, your team feels unsafe.
Beloved coaches are anchored.
2. Truth 📖 Ephesians 4:15 “Speaking the truth in love.”
Truth without love humiliates. Love without truth weakens.
Growth happens where honesty and care coexist.
3. Belief Jesus called fishermen “fishers of men.”
He saw beyond current performance.
Beloved identity means you see players not just as they are but as they’re becoming.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

Somewhere along the way, many coaches learned to carry everything quietly.
The pressure. The expectations.The weight of leadership.
But carrying it alone was never part of the calling.
Coaching trains you to be strong for others.
But strength, when isolated, eventually becomes heavy.
Beloved identity reminds us
that we are sons and daughters before we are leaders.
And beloved sons and daughters were never designed to walk alone.
I’ve learned that isolation doesn’t mean absence of people it means absence of shared formation.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

As a coach, you’re expected to be strong. Confident. Certain.
There aren’t many places where uncertainty feels safe.
Over time, isolation doesn’t come from distance —
it comes from carrying things alone.
Loneliness isn’t a leadership failure.
It’s a signal —a reminder that formation happens in community.
Secure leaders don’t hide their humanity. They steward it.
Beloved identity reminds us that we were never designed to lead in isolation.
Strength is not independence.
Strength is knowing where you can be honest.
If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

No coach ever plans to neglect their family.
It doesn’t happen in one decision —it happens in small compromises
that slowly become normal. I told myself it was temporary.Just this season.
Just this push.But seasons stack.
And what we don’t protect eventually pays the price.
You are a beloved son or daughter before you are a coach.
And your family does not exist to support your calling —
they are part of it.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
if you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

Somewhere along the way, availability became the standard for care.
If you weren’t answering every call, every text, every late-night concern —it felt like you weren’t doing enough.
But constant availability has a cost. I believed being available made me a better coach.
And for a while, it did. But slowly, availability turned into expectation, and expectation turned into exhaustion.
I didn’t lose my passion —I lost my margin.

Pressure doesn’t change who we are —it reveals what we’re leaning on.
The game has a way of exposingwhat’s been holding us together all along.
I’ve coached in moments where pressure made me sharper…and moments where it made me smaller.
Short-tempered.Reactive.Tight.
That’s when I realized pressure wasn’t the problem.
It was showing me where my identity was anchored.
👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

What in your leadership feels urgent
but isn’t actually important?

And what is your urgency communicating
to your players, your staff, and your family?
Beloved coaches lead from rest —
not from scramble.
Urgency says, “If I don’t act now, I lose.”
Beloved leadership says,
“I can wait — because I’m not trying to prove anything.”
Calm is not complacency.
It’s confidence rooted in identity.

Practice reveals what you truly value. This episode breaks down how to design practices that shape decision-makers, competitors, and men—without burning out your team or yourself.