Happy New Year!

A podcast I was listening to referenced how the new year was a great time to pause on what seems urgent and focus on what’s important. If your life is like ours, “urgent” things seem to pop up all the time. The next email or call that needs to be made.

We’ve been trying to take some intentional time over the last two weeks to focus on what’s important in our lives and business. It’s a helpful reminder that urgent isn’t always important, and if you don’t create space for what’s important, urgent will always creep in.

Today’s note is brief, but covers some great points from our podcast with Coach Kevin Corrigan in early December. We hope you enjoy and look forward to a great year ahead.

Let’s get into it. Happy Friday ☕️,
Matt & Deemer

Forwarded this email? You can subscribe here to stay in the loop 👍.

Coach Class and Coach Dunn are running a 2-day camp in Dallas this Winter! This camp is for men’s and women’s middle school players. We also have high school training sessions. You can find more details in the link below.

Just before the holiday season began, we sat down with Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Kevin Corrigan on the FCL Podcast. Coach Corrigan is known for being demanding, the type of coach who sets a high bar and expects players to meet it.

While his intensity is well known, we were curious as to how he has managed to coach in that style while creating a culture of buy-in from his players. We see many coaches either go overboard with intensity or they fear being too demanding and losing the locker room. Coach Corrigan showed how intentional he is about earning the right to coach that way.

As Coach Corrigan put it simply:

Trust is what gives a coach the ability to demand more. Coach Corrigan doesn’t sugarcoat it. He is very transparent with his team about his own coaching style. He makes sure that the team understands the purpose of being tough on them, or holding them accountable. He does it in the spirit of personal development and team growth.

However, being tough on players is not the only piece of the puzzle. A crucial aspect of maintaining positive relationships with your players is that your players must buy into your vision. When you are being tough on players, they need to understand that you just want what is best for them.

And finally, he builds a safeguard into the whole thing: communication. Coach Corrigan draws a clear line between demanding and disrespectful, and gives players permission to tell him if they feel that line being crossed. That’s the balance, coaching hard and coaching with care.

Ultimately, great players and teams are built when someone pushes you beyond what you thought was possible.

Wrapping Up - FCL Thoughts

It’s not lost on us how cool it is to get to sit down with Coach Corrigan on a podcast for an hour and talk to him about this stuff. These conversations are what make what we do so much fun — we are always learning from people we look up to and respect.

As coaches ourselves, we always find it hard to strike the balance of being demanding, while connecting with players and building great relationships that extend beyond the field. When we reflect on the best coaches in our lives, two themes stick out: they held us accountable AND they genuinely cared about us.

While the formula might be simple, executing it well is not easy. Being intentional and working on ourselves as coaches is critical to delivering the best we can to our players. We are cheating them if we don’t hold them accountable, but that doesn’t mean we can’t build great relationships with them. In fact, the truth appears to be opposite. At a deep level, I believe we all crave to be held accountable to a higher standard. Finding the right person that can do that with us, and show us they care, is really special.

Coach Class and Coach Dunn

Reach parents, players, and coaches at every level—from youth to pro—with a single Friday email.

The Weekly Thought is one of lacrosse’s most-read newsletters, delivering insights, tips, and stories to a rapidly growing global audience.

If you’re interested in reaching this highly engaged community, reply to this email or contact us at [email protected] for sponsorship opportunities