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📌 What’s in Today’s Newsletter:

• ⏳ The Coaching Trap: Why short-term thinking can hold you back.

• 📖 Anecdote: The Staircase Approach: The power of long-term program building.

• 🔬 Research Insight: The psychology of sustainable success.

• 📈Putting it All Together: Five ways to build for sustained success.

🗣️ The Idea: Coaching for More Than This Season

Many coaches unknowingly fall into the same trap: optimizing everything for the current season without a vision beyond it.

I got to hear Tim Tassopoulous, retired President of Chick-Fil-A, speak last week. One of the things he said struck me and resonated deeply with what builds a successful program. He said:

“Thinking with the furthest vision in mind enables you to make better decisions today.”

It struck me because we rarely do that in athletics. We are so focused on today and maximizing this season that we routinely sacrifice the future from the decisions we make today. When, in fact, building a program looks like doing the opposite.

We chase immediate wins at the cost of future growth—whether it’s overworking players, making short-term roster decisions, or avoiding the foundational culture work that leads to sustained success.

But real program builders think beyond one season. They have a three-to-five-year plan, with clear checkpoints along the way.

To quote my friends at MVMT, Alan Keane and Simon Turner:

👉 Have you coached for 10 years? Or have you coached 1 year 10 times?

📖 Anecdote: The Staircase Approach

The best programs aren’t built overnight. We must be very careful when looking for blueprints to follow.

We should be just as wary of short-term success as we are looking to study it. The truth is, it takes quite a bit of luck to be good and fast. The best program builders follow a strategic, step-by-step progression that doesn’t rely on luck to build over time.

Think of it like climbing a staircase.

• Year 1: Establish culture, values, and expectations. Set foundational habits

• Year 2: Strength identity, develop leaders, refine systems, and recruit according to the culture, values, and expectations set in Year 1.

• Year 3: Compete at a championship level with a self-sustaining culture.

This is obviously an example. But, sacrificing the time to do Years 1 or 2 the right way can sacrifice Year 3 ever arriving. Sometimes it’s not 3 years, sometimes it’s 5.

One of the best examples? Jay Wright’s Villanova Basketball.

Wright was at Villanova for 4 seasons before seeing any real success when his first recruiting class was upperclassmen. They didn’t win their first conference title until his 5th year in 2006. They sustained significant periods of success, but for most of Wright’s time at Villanova, many wondered if he had what it took to win it all.

Of course, they won two national championships in three years, in 2016 and 2018. It was a slow, steady progression over time. They didn’t skip steps. They always thought towards the long-term.

They built a machine of sustained excellence. Short-term sacrifices led to long-term dominance.

🔬 Research Insight: The Psychology of Sustainable Success

Research on delayed gratification—like the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment—shows that those who can think long-term and resist short-term temptations tend to achieve greater success over time.

This applies directly to coaching. Programs that focus on long-term development over immediate gains are the ones that create lasting success.

They went back and studied those same people 40 years later and found that delayed gratification is something that you can improve over time. But it has to be practiced. You have to deny all the cues being thrown at you to win now and that your success today matters most.

But it’s like our deep dive into performance. The correct view of your program is that today is never about today. It’s always about who you, your team, and your program are becoming.

📈 Putting It All Together: Five Ways to Build for the Long Term

1️⃣ Define Your Three-Year Plan: Where do you want your program to be in 3 years? Break it down into Year 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints.

2️⃣ Make Decisions with the Future in Mind: Every major decision should answer: Does this help us win now AND build for the future? If not, reconsider.

3️⃣ Develop Leaders, Not Just Players: Invest in mentorship and leadership development to create a self-sustaining culture.

4️⃣ System Over Stars: A great system outlasts any one player. Build offensive/defensive philosophies and team habits that create consistency year over year.

5️⃣ Coach for Growth, Not Just Wins: Prioritize development, both in skills and culture, so each season builds on the last rather than resetting.

🚀 Conclusion: Are You Coaching a Team or Building a Program?

The best programs aren’t built on one great season—they’re built on a series of intentional steps. If you only coach for today, you’ll keep restarting every year. If you build for the future, you’ll create a legacy.

BETTER’s Solution to Coach Development

As a part of our work, we lead cohorts of leaders. It’s just one meeting a month with a topic, some homework, and sharing about how it’s going. But it’s powerful. Many of the coaches and leaders in our cohort express the following sentiment:

“I wish every coach got to experience this on some level.”

So, we thought, why can’t they?

As a part of what’s next for BETTER.

We are launching a community around the Culture Playbook.

Until now, the Culture Playbook has been something you buy and then get. We wanted it to be so good and affordable that every coach in the country could access it.

From now on, leaders will receive the Culture Playbook as part of a guided community led by Kevin and Seth.

If you’ve enjoyed our newsletter, imagine a community where we will take you and others through a deeper level of how to install the systems for yourself, athletes, or other coaches. You can ask us questions directly. We can guide and share discussions, share ideas, and get feedback.

We will host monthly calls, and every coach will have direct access to us. We will lead guided discussions and encourage coaches and ADs to share best practices. We want it to become the absolute best resource for all things Culture Development, both at the program and department levels. Over time, we will continue to add content, resources, and offerings. You’ll get discounts on future products that the public won’t get. And no, the price is not changing.

We’re targeting a public launch in early January, offering newsletter readers early access and a 25% discount. Fill out the form using the link below, and we’ll send you a link to get started.