Read Time: 4 min

📌 What’s in Today’s Newsletter:

🔄 Feedback That Sticks – Why most feedback fails and how to fix it.
💬 The 3 C’s of Effective Feedback – Clarity, Consistency, and Care.
🎯 Tactical Adjustments – How to create a feedback system that players and staff actually respond to.
🚀 Five Takeaways – Practical ways to level up your feedback culture.

Work With BETTER.

• We are booking 5 Voices Sessions (virtual and in-person) for next school year now and have limited spots available.

• Now that our community is launched, we can direct more time to travel to work with a couple more departments or programs than we did in ‘24-’25. If you’re interested in us working with you directly, we have space to add 2-3 programs or schools starting this summer.

• If you’re interested in either offering — just email us.

🏆 The Idea: Building a Culture of Feedback That is Championship-Level

“I’ve told them a hundred times.”

“I made it as clear as I could; I don’t know how they’re not getting it.”

“I listed in the email what I need to improve, and it still isn’t happening.”

Walk around for very long in any athletic department or with the leaders in any program, and you’re bound to hear things like this frequently.

We all know how important feedback is — so why is it rarely done well? Why do so few teams give or receive feedback in a less-than-optimal way?

Part of the reason goes back to what we wrote about a couple weeks ago. No one is natural at all types of feedback. You’re hard-wired to be more natural at support or challenge. No one is born with the ability to do both well. And leaders shape culture.

Feedback isn’t just about fixing mistakes—it’s about unlocking potential. The best teams thrive in environments where feedback isn’t feared but embraced. Yet, most teams get it wrong. It’s either too vague, too inconsistent, or too negative.

So, how do you build a feedback culture where athletes, employees, or team members listen, learn, and improve without feeling torn down? Let’s break it down.

📖 Anecdote: Studying the Best Coach-Athlete Relationships

When you study the coaches considered the masters of feedback, a few things come into focus.

Most know about coaches’ feedback, but they miss some of the intricacies of how they deliver it. In getting to be around dozens of high-level coaches and ADs over the last few years, we’ve noticed a few things from those who are elite:

🔹 Clarity – Their players always know exactly what they expect.
🔹 Consistency – They hold every player accountable, from superstars to role players.
🔹 Care – They build deep relationships so that when they challenge their players, they trust them.

Research any highly successful coach-athlete relationships.

• Tim Duncan and Coach Pop

• Candace Parker and Pat Summitt

• Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman

• David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson

A common theme will come up. It may not use these exact words — but you’ll hear something like this.

"They will tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. But the reason we listen? We know they care.”

That’s the key—great feedback isn’t just about what you say. It’s about who you are to your players.

📊 Research Insight: Why Most Feedback Fails

Studies in sports psychology and organizational behavior highlight three reasons feedback often fails:

1️⃣ Lack of Clarity – If feedback is vague ("You need to be better"), it doesn’t lead to improvement.

2️⃣ Too Infrequent – If feedback only comes when something is wrong, it creates fear instead of growth.

3️⃣ No Trust in the Messenger – If athletes don’t believe you care about them, they won’t receive your message.

The best coaches and teams systematize their feedback to become part of their daily routine—not just a reaction to mistakes. It’s a system.

🚀 Putting It All Together: How to Build a Championship-Level Feedback Culture

Here’s how to ensure your feedback makes an impact:

✅ 1. Be Clear and Specific

• Bad: "We need to hustle more."

• Better: "Sprint back on defense every time. Watch the game film—you slowed down in transition three times in the second half."

✅ 2. Make Feedback a Habit

• Use short, daily feedback moments instead of waiting for big team meetings.

• Example: Have "One-Minute Feedback" sessions at the end of practice.

✅ 3. Balance Challenge with Support

• The "3:1 Rule" – Find three moments to reinforce what’s being done well for every correction.

• Praise effort just as much as results.

✅ 4. Build a Feedback Loop

• Ask athletes: "What do you need from me to get better?"

• When they know feedback is a two-way street, they buy in.

✅ 5. Model It Yourself

• Ask your team for feedback on your coaching.

• Example: “What’s one thing I could do better to help you succeed?”🚀 

🏆 Closing Thought

An excellent feedback culture isn’t built overnight but starts with you. When your athletes trust that your feedback is clear, consistent, and built on care, they won’t just listen—they’ll improve. And that’s how championship teams are built.

Celebrate Good Times, Come on!

We have relationships with several teams that are getting to play on into March and we are proud of them all. But we wanted to celebrate with a couple in particular.

First, congrats to our friends at Robert Morris and, specifically, RMU basketball on winning their first-ever Horizon League Championship and NCAA Tourney Berth.

They play Alabama in the Round of 64 on Friday!

Seth got to be with UGA Golf on Tuesday in the final round of their tournament and battled with #18 Alabama down the stretch to come from behind and win the Linger Longer Invitational.

These athletes and coaches have poured themselves into our performance work; seeing them in action was a blast!

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.