Jeff Johnson's

January 9, 2023

"Every innovation has resulted from someone pursuing an unaccepted or unexplored idea, and consequently is often counted by criticism and derision. Bill Bowerman's 'hard/easy' training for runners was deemed un-American, a betrayal of the Protestant work ethic. Dick Fosbury's 'flop' high jump was thought unworkable, a nonsensical outgrowth of the antiquated 'scissors' technique. But actual results required a second look."

December 26, 2022

"Coach your athletes when they want and need your coaching. The rest of the time, let them think for themselves."

December 12, 2022

"To calcify an athlete's negative self-image, express low expectations. To liberate the athlete's potential, express high expectations and unlimited optimism."

November 28, 2022

"Confidence without performance is difficult to acquire and impossible to sustain. Be sure to put your athletes in competetive situations that will build their confidence. Don't let them be overwhelmed and humiliated. The development of their confidence should parallel the development of their capacities."

November 14, 2022

"Work without expectations results in mediocrity. Expectations without the work yields the same. It is the combination of work and expectations that results in winning performances."

October 31, 2022

"Kids want to succeed today, they wanted to succeed yesterday, they will want to succeed tomorrow. Kids are hungry for character, purpose and achievement. That's the business coaches are in."

October 17, 2022

"To win a championship, miracles are seldom required. Athletes need only perform to their normal level of talent and preparedness - boosted somewhat by the competitive atmosphere - while their fellow competitors, intent on heroic efforts, are 'over-trying', usually to disastrous effect."

October 3, 2022

"Quicker, shorter strides are more energy efficient than slower, longer strides. Coach higher turnover rates - more stride cycles per minute - for athletes who lope or bounce. Higher turnover rates learned at slower training paces, even jogging, will translate to higher turnover rates at racing speeds."

September 19, 2022

"Muscle tension is an oft-overlooked factor in preparing an athlete to race. To have your runners 'feeling good' on race day, be sure that their last session consists of a few faster-than-race-pace strides or reps. To ensure that their athletes are also properly rested for their race, some coaches will plan their rest day two days before, then have their athletes do some short, but sharp efforts one day before."

September 5, 2022

"Impossibilities surrender in the face of effort, enthusiasm, and perseverance."

August 22, 2022

"Do not be a task-master. Be an enthusiasm-master. Speak not of discipline, work and sacrifice. Speak instead of excellence, improvement and fun."

August 8, 2022

In the presence of meticulous preparation, extreme confidence, courage, positive energy, and a powerful will to win, seemingly miraculous performances may occur."

August 1, 2022

"The limitations of a team reflect the limitations of a coach's vision."

July 11, 2022

"In training, there is virtue in moderation yet occasional profit in excess. But - and this will frustrate the crazies among us - only in well-planned, carefully controlled, and thoughtfully executed excess."

June 27, 2022

"The ultimate value of training for, and competing in sports is to prepare our athletes for the ups and downs, the wins and losses, the satisfactions and disappointments of life."

June 20, 2022

Beyond talent and preparation there is luck, and beyond luck there is magic, the role of which in human affairs should never be underestimated."

June 6, 2022

"Coaches who have high expectations for their athletes, coaches who demand commitment, effort, discipline, and individual responsibility, invariably have the highest performing individuals and teams. People thrive when they are challenged."

May 23, 2022

"We train so that we might win more easily. But there is no satisfaction in easy wins. The wins that thrill and satisfy us the most are those claimed on our last jump, or our last throw, or at the finish lean of a come-from-behind last lap. In rising to the challenge we find our greatest joy."

May 9, 2022

"Treat your athletes as champions, awaken in them a respect for process, a love of training and of being part of a team, then hold them to the highest expectations, and it won't be long before they are hoisting trophies overhead."

April 25, 2022

"When your athletes graduate, they should have learned as many lessons from their coaches as they learned in their classrooms, and their and their coaches' lessons should stay with them longer."

April 11, 2022

"If we view competition as a contest against our opponents where, in order for us to succeed, we must impose defeat upon them, then we have created a negative environment. We are relieved if we win (because we, ourselves, have avoided defeat), disappointed if we lose. If, instead, we view competition as a contest with our opponents where, in order to succeed, we - all of us - must marshall our resources to perform at our absolute best, then we have created a positive environment. We - all of us - are uplifted and inspired to our best result independent of 'winning' or 'losing.' The positive environment yields the greatest satisfaction and enjoyment, sparking a love for healthy competition that we can sustain for a lifetime."

March 28, 2022

"Unrelenting sanity is uncalled for. Every so often, a healthy mind needs to pull out all the stops."

March 14, 2022

"Too much training is far more costly

than too little. Too much may not be fixable until next season. Too little can be remedied tomorrow."

February 28, 2022

"Your athletes are your customers. If you don't deliver on your product or your service, your athletes will shop another sport and be someone else's customers."

February 14, 2022

"Know what you are doing, treat everyone fairly, praise the behavior you want repeated, celebrate every accomplishment, and everything else is just tenacity and paperwork."

January 31, 2022

"Difficulties are like hot sauce with eggs, to add interest to the normal state of affairs."

January 17, 2022

"The great difference in success between coaches is not between those who know more than others, but between those who care more than others."

January 3, 2022

"A coach's greatest joy is that every year brings a new supply of athletes, eager to develop and contribute to their team, each in their own distinct way, some by example, some with leadership, some with ability."

December 20, 2021

"Keep your speeches and pronouncements short lest your knowledge run out before you have finished."

December 6, 2021

"If you want to run like the Kenyans, you should start by selling your car."

November 22, 2021

"For athletes, constancy of training is an unequivocal virtue. For coaches, constancy of training, if it means never altering workouts from season to season, or from athlete to athlete, exhibits a shameful lack of effort and insight."

November 8, 2021

"Training is the fuel for the engine of development. But motivation is the spark that ignites the fuel. Without the spark, the fuel is inert in the tank."

October 25, 2021

There are athletes who, with no discernable physical talent but world-class desire, have willed themselves to be great, or at least, exceptionally good. But never the other way round: never world-class talents becoming great with no discernible desire."

October 11, 2021

"Coaching is not a job; it's a calling. Coaches are called to improve their athletes physically, emotionally, and psychologically through education and training that will never leave them."

September 27, 2021

"Coaching is madness in service to others.

September 13, 2021

"The main challenge in training elite athletes is that they are already so finely honed that they court disaster in every workout. Their tolerance for coaching error is the thinnest of all your athletes. Communication between coach and athlete on every matter - physical, mental, emotional - that might affect performance is critical. The challenge is to maintain the athlete's fine edge, not exceed it. 'Hard' workouts' take on a whole new meaning."

August 30, 2021

"It is essential that coaches distinguish between low-value exercise and productive training. You only have so much practice time, and there is only so much that you can expect the athlete to do. Determine what you believe are the most important activities for each athlete, and focus your efforts there."

August 16, 2021

"To say 'I don't know' is far better than to spout answers that you can't intellectually support. If you have had a conventional education, you will be saying 'I don't know' often, and in so doing will have the opportunity to gain an unconventional education."

August 2, 2021

"Athletes may think they can win. But they need a coach to tell them he believes they can win before they are fully prepared to compete. The coach can't be faking it. He must have assessed the field, know that his athlete can win, and communicate his unwavering conviction."

July 19, 2021

"If you want to coach, learn the sport. If you want to be a good coach, learn to communicate. If you want to be an exceptional coach, learn to listen."

July 5, 2021

"Give them love and caring. Ask in return effort and discipline."

June 21, 2021

"Everyone has limitations, but few have the motivation and determination to even approach them."

June 7, 2021

"People's lives tend to be great or small depending upon what they or others expect of them. Expect from athletes their potential greatness."

May 31, 2021

"Ignorance is a blank page, waiting to be filled. Ignorance, then, is vastly preferable to stupidity, the option of nonsense and foolishness."

May 17, 2021

"Hope is not blue collar. Hope doesn't go to work for you. Hope is not committed. Hope has no energy or enthusiasm. Hope is not productive. When you need something done, enlist not hope, but a workforce. "

May 3, 2021

"It is not what you do for your athletes that makes you a good coach or makes them good athletes. It is what you teach them to do for themselves. If you make yourself increasingly unnecessary to your athletes - and especially so at competitions - you will have given them their best chance for success. Just as children are raised to be independent of their parents, so should athletes be prepared to be independent of their coaches."

April 19, 2021

"Some people believe in themselves as if by divine right. For most people, however, belief in themselves is earned by success at small things building one upon another in increasingly larger successes until the realization dawns that, 'Yes, I can do this.' Coaches have the opportunity to provide young people with that ascension of success, then the responsibility to keep them focused and progressing."

April 5, 2021

"In attempting to assess talent, you can see biomechanics, measure oxygen uptake, time speed. What you cannot account for is heart."

March 22, 2021

"We love our heroes precisely because they extend our horizons. Those men and women who break molds or set records stand as living proof that we need not consent to be ordinary, that we can be exceptional."

March 8, 2021

"I was never especially good at anything, but I was having fun, and consequently I stayed with it. Staying with it made the difference. The argument could be made that the better athletes are the ones having the most fun, which is why they are the better athletes."

February 22, 2021

"Treat people not as you find them, but as you expect them to be. They will respond to your perception of them and become what they can."

February 8, 2021

"You must work for the future you want. If your future is handed to you, or forced upon you, you are not likely to want it. Neither will it be yours."

January 18, 2021

"Happiness is the consequence of a life of purposeful effort. Commit yourself to a purpose that you judge to be important, then knock yourself out. That's the key to happiness."

January 4, 2021

"Your education, your experience, your lessons, stories, and values should be shared so that others might leverage them to their own successes. Our blessings gain immortality when we pass them on."

December 21, 2020

"To teach a receptive student that which once enthused and propelled yourself is one of life's greatest happinesses."

December 7, 2020

"Greatness is the enemy of good if the pursuit of greatness leads to impatience and overtraining. You must, first, put in the time and effort to be good, then progress to getting better before you even think of becoming great."

November 23, 2020

"If you have an athlete who seems to have no focus, my advice is don't worry about it. Certainly do not pressure the athlete, or hold other athletes up as examples. Kids are all different, and they need to come to commitment and focus in their own way and time. Instead, continue to encourage and provide opportunity, and continue to make your sport more satisfying and worth doing."

~ Jeff Johnson

November 9, 2020

"Coaching is the only teaching job outside of trade school where teaching to the test is not only acceptable, but essential."

October 19, 2020

"Coaching is 50% encouragement, 50% praise, 50% celebration, and 100% confidence in the success of your athletes. Add 100% of your effort to make the math work, and you can create your own reality."

October 5, 2020

"Talent knows limits that courage knows not."

September 21, 2020

September 7, 2020

"Never give up on a kid. Kids need you to be on their team, just as you need them to be on yours. Find a way."

August 24, 2020

"No matter how humble the task, excellence ennobles it and inspires others to excellences of their own. Eventually excellence changes the world."

August 10, 2020

"Difficulties are merely the potholes on the road to success. The satisfaction of success is measured by the difficulties that were overcome enroute. Difficulties exist to be overcome."

July 27, 2020

"To dream and then to dedicate yourself to fulfilling that dream is the point of the inner-directed life. It is what makes us human."

July 13, 2020

"Entropy is the natural decay of systems. Every kind of system you have in place requires permanent monitoring, maintenance and repair if it is to remain fully functional."

June 29, 2020

"When something unpleasant needs to be done, sometimes the choice is should you do it, or should you let someone else do it. If you delegate the unpleasant task you will lose the opportunity to grow your experience from having dealt with something that was annoying, difficult, or stressful. You will miss the self-satisfaction of having risen to the challenge. You will lose the self-confidence that would have prepared you for a future task you might be unable to avoid. You will fail in your responsibility and forfeit your right to leadership. So do it yourself."

June 15, 2020

"To encourage is to infuse with the courage to try; to encourage is to inspire the patience to develop. Many is the athlete who achieved greatness because a coach he believed in encouraged him."

June 1, 2020

"What is coaching? It is getting athletes to believe that what today is impossible for them, will one day be possible. That's what coaching is, and that's what coaches do."

May 18, 2020

"Expect your athletes to be as successful off the track as well as on. Expect them to be good learners as well as good sportsmen. Expect them to be humble, respectful, and of good character. Expect them to make their teammates, coaches, parents, school and town proud of them."

May 4, 2020

Respect effort. The true value of competitive sport is measured in effort, not in numbers on a watch or tape measure, or medals in a draw.

April 20, 2020

"Adversity is the greatest teacher. She demonstrates your courage and your toughness. She shows you what you can endure and come back from."

April 6, 2020

"I hang a 'squirrel-proof' bird feeder on a tree, scatter seed on the ground to benefit the squirrels, then watch in wonder as the squirrels prefer to match themselves against the feeder rather than accept the seed freely available on the ground. If squirrels embrace challenge so easily should not we?"

March 23, 2020

"The tougher the challenge, the more likely we are to question our abilities, when what we should be doing instead is focusing on doing the very best we can."

March 9, 2020

"The athlete and the sport meet at the coach. The coach determines whether the athlete's experience was enlightening, enjoyable, fulfilling, worthwhile, and whether the athlete will want to repeat the experience next season and maybe beyond."

February 24, 2020

"Character reveals itself in patiently submitting to the rigors of training, in enduring the suffering and sacrifices required to improve, and in overcoming the inevitable setbacks and adversity along the way."

February 10, 2020

"The more you celebrate your athletes' successes, the more athlete's successes you will have to celebrate."

January 27, 2020

"Fiercely believe in your athletes. You can give them no greater gift and no greater competitive advantage."

January 13, 2020

"Never doubt that athletes train and compete for their own reasons, not yours; that they work with you, not for you. And that is as it should be."

December 30, 2019

"Set standards for excellence, opportunity and fairness, for athlete-ownership, participation, recognition and satisfaction that will make every kid in school want to be a member of your team. If you like your teams large and deep with talent, consider yourself in the customer service business. Give your customers more than they expected."

December 16, 2019

"When your athletes are doing well, emphasize improvement; don't let them ease up. Keep them focused on their progress. When your athletes are doing poorly, emphasize encouragement; don't let them give up. Keep them passionate and confident."

December 2, 2019

"It is important for a coach to identify what our sport is all about and what it takes to be successful. It's always been my notion that it takes just as much time to train and race half-assed and without discipline as it does to do it right. Spell this out for kids at the outset of each season and get them to commit to doing the job right. Because it is just that little extra effort - that extra concentration and focus - that separates winners from losers. It's such a small thing, really, but it has such huge positive consequences."

November 18, 2019

"Many coaches yell at their athletes during competition, but I've had my own athletes warn me, 'If you ever yelled at us like that.....' I think we need to make the distinction between calling encouragement to the athlete and yelling at the athlete. Also if a coach offers mid-race advice, it should always be something the athlete can actually do, like, 'Move outside' to a runner in danger of being boxed, as opposed to 'Pick up your pace' to a runner who has already exceeded their ability and is just hanging on. If coaches are going to yell into the heart of a race, we need to be offering something positive. When we address our athletes at full volume, we need to choose our words carefully."

November 4, 2019

"Compete fairly and honestly. Adhere to the unwritten laws of sportsmanship and fair play when you lead your athletes into competition. Otherwise, your attitude and behavior may result in a common, but rarely considered athletic injury, namely, an injury to their character, honor, or integrity."

October 21, 2019

"It is important for coaches to regard the future more than the past, to attend to what still needs to be done, more than what has already been achieved."

October 7, 2019

"There is only so much reverence to go around, and when we waste it on celebrities rather than achievers, society and civilization are in peril."

September 23, 2019

"Fallacy #2: What doesn't kill them makes them stronger.

Certainly not in the training of athletes. There is an optimal training stimulus and an optimal recovery period that will achieve the maximum improvement for each individual athlete within each training phase, within each stage of the athlete's development."

September 9, 2019

"Do not expect your athletes to be exceptional performers. Expect them to be exceptional strivers and exceptional teammates. Expect them to be of exceptional character, courage and accountability. If athletes meet those expectations of exceptionalism, performance will take care of itself."

August 26, 2019

"When coaches expect little from their athletes, invariably their athletes live down to those expectations. It is essential for coaches to verbalize high expectations as well as the means by which those high expectations will be achieved."

August 12, 2019

"As much as young people seek discipline and boundaries, so too do they seek someone who will expect something from them."

July 29, 2019

"Any athlete who strives for excellence, regardless of talent, is an athlete you want on your team. Ironically, the less the talent of your dedicated striver, often the greater inspiration to others."

July 15, 2019

"Coaching is not as much about gaining victories as it is about inspiring excellence. But if you inspire excellence, victories are sure to follow."

July 1, 2019

" Your example sets the tone, justifies your leadership and clarifies your expectations. You have to work as hard or harder, and be as attentive to detail as you ask your athletes to be."

June 17, 2019

"Upon arriving for a competition at an unfamiliar track, acquaint your athletes with how they might move about the facility without passing in front of photo-timers, crossing jump runways or aprons, or entering dangerous throwing areas. Athlete awareness of all that is going on around them is not just good manners that insure the orderly conduct of the meet, but also a potentially life-saving safety measure."

June 3, 2019

"Our gains in knowledge and experience, the pleasures of the practice field, the thrill of our athletes in competition, our joy in their success, the brotherhood of coaches, the opportunity to influence young lives, these are the enthusiasms of our maturity and the lasting memories of our dotage."

May 20, 2019

"Coaches have every right to expect and demand effort from their athletes. They came to you. They knew what they were getting into. They understood it would not be all fun and games. Competitive sport is that, too, but the first requirement of sport is effort from all its participants, not just in their preparation for competition, but in the contest itself. Effort is part of it, and some suffering, too."

May 6, 2019

"Discipline elevates a team, uniting its members, bolstering the weak, and instilling pride and confidence in the uniform and each other."

April 22, 2019

"To yield to conformity is the province of the meek. To stand tall with confidence in yourself and the rightness of your values is the posture of the courageous. Be an original not a copy."

April 8, 2019

"In sport, athletes mimic nature's primordial principle: compete. In nature's competitions, however, first prize is frequently life; for the also-rans, often death. In sport, the consequences of competition are not so grim."

March 25, 2019

"If we view competition as a contest against our opponents where, in order for us to succeed, we must impose defeat upon them, then we have created a negative environment. We are relieved if we win (because we, ourselves, have avoided defeat), disappointed if we lose. If, instead, we view competition as a contest with our opponents where, in order to succeed, we - all of us - must marshall our resources to perform at our absolute best, then we have created a positive environment. We - all of us - are uplifted and inspired to our best result independent of 'winning' or 'losing'. The positive environment yields the greatest satisfaction and enjoyment, sparking a love for competition that we can sustain for a lifetime."

March 11, 2019

Coaching Goals, a few ideas:

1. To see every athlete improve over the course of the season;

2. To see every athlete reach his or her potential;

3. To see the team reach its full potential;

4. To make the processes of goal setting, training and competing as instructive and as enjoyable as possible;

5. To stay injury-free;

6. To aid in the development of character and personal values in your students;

7. To create life-long athletes."

February 25, 2019

"Coaching is about teaching young people to compete and to believe in themselves. It is about giving them an identity - athlete - that they can build on. It is about growing their self-confidence for the next stage of their lives. It is about helping athletes to be the best they can be."

February 11, 2019

"Authority is best earned by competence, best exercised with affection, and best employed to bring out the best in those over whom you have authority."

January 28, 2019

"Every athlete deserves respect, acceptance, and a listening ear. But every athlete must come to understand that success doesn't come easily, that it must be earned."

January 14, 2019

"You are not here merely to win. You are here to influence an athlete's lifestyle, to teach your students to be better animals. You are here to teach your students the value and rewards of effort of perseverance, of patience and achievement. You are acquainting your students with their bodies, with their need for physical work and recovery. You are teaching them the rules of health and fitness that will raise the quality of their lives. You will never realize the true satisfaction of coaching if you fail to grasp those truths."

December 31, 2018

"Beware of transitions in your training plan, those necessary changes of emphasis: low mileage to high mileage, slow training to fast training, flat running to hill running, grass or trails to track or road, training shoes to racing flats to spikes to bare feet. Potential injuries lurk at transition points. Ease into transitions gradually or avoid them altogether by including a little bit of everything every week. 'Every shoe, every surface, every speed, every week' is a good motto."

December 17, 2018

Coaches are full-time teachers, psychologists, disciplinarians, mentors, role models, cheerleaders, recruiters, story-tellers and organizers.They are part-time parents, babysitters, chauffeurs, health-care providers, fund raisers and public relations flacks. Each of us fills some of these roles better than others, and individual athletes have differing views of our effectiveness in each of those roles. So accept the fact that you are differently abled and differently appreciated and just do the best you can.

December 3, 2018

Coaches of young athletes should aspire to teach a love of effort and competition independent of immediate results. Coaches should aspire to build a habit and cheerful expectation for the daily work that will advance their athletes' goals. Coaches should aspire to teach commitment and persistence as a lifelong strategy for success. They should highlight each 'win' along the way, no matter how small, in terms of a life lesson that will have future application. None of this is easy. It requires of the coach a perspective that extends far beyond the next race.

November 19, 2018

Believe in your athletes. Let them know you believe in them. Good things will result regardless of the results actually achieved.