Coaching Culture

Coaching Culture Podcast
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A podcast for leaders and coaches sharing practical strategies and tools to build your team's culture and help you grow as a leader. Co-hosted by J.P. Nerbun and Nate Sanderson of TOC Culture Consulting, and Betsy Butterick. Get the podcast notes and learn more about us at tocculture.com

  1. 3d ago

    The Most Important Thing Every Head Coach Needs to Do | Patrick Lencioni | Episode 479

    Your players learn how to be a team by watching how your coaching staff works together. That staff is the most important team you will ever lead. Patrick Lencioni, founder of The Table Group and author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, joins JP for part one of their conversation. Pat shares how he leads his family with intention, why he drafted youth players for character, and why building a team of coaches is a head coach's most important job. If you keep asking how to get your players to hold each other accountable, start with this one, because the answer begins in your staff room. Chapters(00:00) Leading at work and at home (02:37) Sharing struggles is a gift (04:29) Running your family on purpose (09:42) Choosing your family values (14:56) Culture first in youth sports (21:18) Pick a few things to be great at (22:43) The coach who owned the mistake (25:00) Vulnerability without losing respect (26:06) Your most important team (30:11) On a staff there is no they TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "The most important job of teamwork for any coach, pretty much in any sport, is building a team of coaches." Patrick Lencioni "If my clients ran their companies the way we run our family, they'd all go out of business." Patrick Lencioni "Sins of omission is when you see other people do things wrong and you don't do anything about it." Patrick Lencioni 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: If we could only be great at two or three things this season, what would they be, and what would we say no to because of them? Q2: Where have we seen something go wrong on this team and said nothing, and what would it look like to address it this week? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni Pat's model of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results is the framework Erik Spoelstra has used with the Miami Heat staff for years. Run it on your coaching staff before you ask your players to live it. Explore the model at tablegroup.com Key TakeawaysYour coaching staff is your first team.Players copy what they see at the top.Get clear on the simple things.Draft for character and coach culture first.Pick a few things and stake your season on them.Owning the mistake earns respect.Get the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  2. Oct 25

    Create Your Culture in Practice| Part 2 | Episode 478

    Your practice plan is already shaping your culture, whether you designed it that way or not. The question is what it is teaching. JP Nerbun finishes his two-part solo series on practice, starting with the Jimmy System at the University of Jamestown. You will hear how he runs a competitive cauldron, why practices should get shorter as the season goes on, how to let players speak first, and why celebrating the gain changes a team's energy. If your practices run well but still feel separate from the culture you talk about, this one shows you how to close that gap. Chapters(00:00) The Jimmy System story (03:43) Building a competitive cauldron (08:46) Efficiency and shorter practices (11:22) Teaching through questions (13:43) Let your captains speak first (15:54) Connection rituals (18:12) Thank you for letting me coach you (20:06) Celebrate the gain, not the gap (23:13) Three positives for every negative (24:50) Practice is how you build culture TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "It's so easy to focus on the gap instead of the gain." JP Nerbun "Don't share what you're thinking. Let's hear what they're thinking first before you share your thinking, because you don't want your thinking to influence their thinking." JP Nerbun "I get to do this, I don't have to do this." JP Nerbun 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: What did we do well in practice today, and what is the one thing we most need to get better at tomorrow? Q2: Who on this team deserves a shout out from today, and what exactly did you see them do? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Coach's Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov JP calls it probably the best book on how to teach through your coaching. It is the deeper dive on the open, leading, and closed questions he uses to turn huddles into real learning. Visit coachsguidetoteaching.com Key TakeawaysMake competition the reward, not the punishment.Shorter practices keep players sharper.Ask before you tell.Let players speak first.Build connection on purpose.Celebrate the gain, then pick one thing.Get the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  3. Oct 18

    Create Your Culture in Practice | Part 1 | Episode 477

    Your team culture gets built in practice, every day, starting with how you show up. Everything else depends on it. JP Nerbun goes solo to lay out part one of his practice philosophy, starting with Pete Carroll asking Steve Kerr what he wanted it to feel like to be in his program. You will hear why your example comes first, how to set standards as a floor and a ceiling, how the quick set reset drills work, and why success criteria keep practice focused. If your values look great on paper but practice still feels the way it always has, this one gives you tools you can run this week. Chapters(00:00) Pete Carroll's question for Steve Kerr (02:38) Bringing your values into practice (03:29) Your example comes first (07:23) Standards: the floor and the ceiling (09:26) Standard reviews (12:48) The quick set reset drills (15:43) Enforcing the standard (16:31) Teach your practice philosophy (19:04) Coaching your coaches (21:38) Success criteria and reviews TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "If you value joy, you better be joyful. If you value curiosity, you better be curious." JP Nerbun "The standard isn't the standard until you've enforced the standard." JP Nerbun "Really, you're not coaching, you're just resetting. And so they start to coach each other." JP Nerbun 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: When you walk into practice, what does exceptional look like, what is acceptable, and what is unacceptable? Q2: What was our one focus today, and what is one specific way you got better at it? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Culture System by JP Nerbun JP's book lays out the standard review process he references in this episode, and its bonus chapters cover the before and after action reviews he uses to set success criteria for practice. Get the book on Amazon Key TakeawaysYour example comes before any drill.Your values should be visible inside practice.Set the floor, then raise the ceiling together.Reset instead of coach.Teach players, staff, and parents how you practice.Narrow the focus, then review what you said mattered.Get the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  4. Oct 11

    Building Autonomy On and Off the Sand: Lessons of Shared Ownership | John Mayer | Episode 476

    If the coach writes the team standards on the board, John Mayer says they become wallpaper. When the players write them, they come alive. In part two of JP Nerbun's conversation with John Mayer, head beach volleyball coach at Loyola Marymount and the 2025 AVCA National Coach of the Year, John walks through the systems behind his culture: battle buddies, a competitive cauldron, player-written standards, and culture committees that give every player real responsibility. He also explains why autonomy does not mean anything goes. If your team nods along to the culture but does not own it, this conversation gives you a concrete blueprint for shared ownership. Chapters(00:00) Catching players doing it right (01:40) Curiosity instead of the hammer (04:53) The competitive cauldron (05:49) Intentions and battle buddies (09:44) Standards the players write (12:02) Culture committees (14:51) Autonomy with structure (16:37) Leading the leadership group (21:17) The hardest part of coaching today (23:27) Why coach education matters TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "You don't know till you go." John Mayer "Autonomy doesn't mean anything goes and you can do whatever. The coach is there to organize and cultivate choices." John Mayer "If I just put all that on the board, it becomes wallpaper. But when it's their ideas, when it's their discussion, when it's meaningful to them, it becomes living." John Mayer 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: What is one decision about how our team runs that you think you should have a say in, and why? Q2: Who on this team helps you stay locked in on your intention during practice, and how could you do that for someone else? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Competitive Cauldron by Anson Dorrance John runs a version of the tracked, ranked practice system Dorrance built at North Carolina after watching Dean Smith's practices. It raises intensity through visible standings rather than punishment. See how the Cauldron works Key TakeawaysCatch people doing it right, publicly.Curiosity beats the hammer.Battle buddies put accountability in players' hands.Culture committees turn ownership into structure.Autonomy is a skill the coach cultivates, not a job the coach abandons.Focus on what you can adapt to, not what feels unfair.Get the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  5. Oct 4

    Guru or Guide? Letting Go of Having All the Answers | John Mayer | Episode 475

    John Mayer had just won LMU's first conference championship when he started questioning everything about how he coached. He had a system that worked. He changed it anyway. JP Nerbun sits down with John Mayer, head beach volleyball coach at Loyola Marymount and the 2025 AVCA National Coach of the Year, to unpack the research that pulled him away from being the coach with all the answers. You will hear why a strong learning environment starts with the individual, why his practices open with cartwheels and one-eyed sets, and how handing players problems instead of solutions made them more creative, more independent, and less dependent on him under pressure. If your athletes execute beautifully in practice but look to the sideline the moment things get hard, this conversation will change how you think about your next practice plan. Chapters(00:00) Intro: from elite player to coach (06:09) What a learning environment needs (10:14) Do feel-good drills belong? (14:08) Differential learning and noise (16:22) The 2019 coaching crisis (19:49) Letting go of being the guru (21:37) Earning buy-in with feedback (26:31) Did it work? Results at LMU (29:08) How practice shapes culture (33:41) When new ideas become too many TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "I flipped from before I was the provider of solutions, and then I became the provider of problems." John Mayer "I'm not as worried about what they like. My daughter likes ice cream. That doesn't mean it's gonna help her perform at a high level. I'm concerned in what's effective." John Mayer "These are the sort of people I want to put into the world, not people who follow orders." John Mayer 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: What part of practice feels good but does not actually make you better, and where do you feel the kind of struggle that does? Q2: When something in practice confuses you or is not working, how comfortable are you telling us, and what would make it easier? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Nonlinear Nature of Learning: A Differential Learning Approach by Wolfgang Schöllhorn and colleagues John credits Schöllhorn's differential learning research out of Germany with turning his coaching upside down. This open-access paper explains why adding variation, or noise, to practice can help athletes find their own movement solutions instead of copying one prescribed technique. Read the paper here Key TakeawaysGreat players don't automatically make great coaches.Design for the sweet spot between success and failure.Differential learning turns off the fear of judgment.A coaching crisis can be the doorway to real growth.Being the provider of problems beats being the provider of solutions.Feedback should flow in both directions.Get the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  6. Sep 27

    How Does Practice Shape Your Culture? | Episode 474

    Your team meetings tune the car, but practice is the road. JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson take on a question a coach brought to JP: what do you do when there is almost no time to build culture outside of practice? Their answer is that practice is where athletes experience culture most and where a coach can push hardest on it. You will hear how to move values from the wall into the practice plan, why going hard is a skill you teach, a four step cycle for giving athletes reps at the behaviors you want, and what changes when you start from where your players actually are. If your values live on a wall and you are not sure they live in your gym, this conversation gives you a place to start tomorrow. Chapters(00:00) Intro: practice is culture (04:27) Values in the practice plan (06:32) Where coaches go wrong (09:07) Awareness, opportunity, reinforce (13:10) Purpose, structure, and focus (17:33) Efficient, game-like practice (22:10) Your mindset toward mistakes (26:46) Mental skills in 30 seconds (32:35) Start where players are (38:07) Your own experience of practice TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "A lot of times the way that we've used some of those classroom times or those team meeting times, or those connection times is really like pulling into the pit stop and tuning up the car, but then we're putting it back out on the road. And practice is really the road." Nate Sanderson "The standard isn't a standard until we start actually holding that standard with our players, and the majority of those standards are being held within practice." J.P. Nerbun "It doesn't help them to tell them what they're not doing. It does help them to make them aware of the opportunities they have, to signal an opportunity before they're in it." Betsy Butterick 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: Where in our practice plan do our team values actually show up, and where do they only live on the wall? Q2: What part of practice makes you feel like you are getting better, and what part leaves you wondering why we are doing it? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy JP brought this book into the conversation. It separates measuring yourself against an ideal from measuring against where you started, a useful lens for any coach who catches themselves saying their team should be much further along. Find the book here Key TakeawaysPractice is where culture lives, not where it gets tuned.A standard is not a standard until you hold it in practice.Going hard is a skill, so teach it.Efficient, game-like practice tells athletes you value their time.Intensity is a rhythm. Frustration is a rep.Start where your players are, then check your own reaction.Get the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  7. Sep 20

    Quit More, Become Elite | Billy Armstrong | Episode 473

    Billy Armstrong wants every player he coaches to chase one truly impossible goal. In part two of this conversation, three years after his first appearance on the podcast, Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong digs into the goal-setting philosophy behind his program's vision: making Bergen the best place to play high school basketball in America. Billy explains why he pushes players toward impossible goals instead of realistic ones, why every player builds a quit list before setting any goal, and why becoming elite at anything requires doing fewer things, not more. If you missed part one, start there for the personal transformation behind all of this. Either way, this is a coach thinking seriously about what he's building and why. Chapters(00:00) Intro: The Vision Behind the Program (01:31) The Impossible Goal (07:21) What Every Athlete Should Experience (10:32) Why Over Who (11:59) The Quit List (16:04) Consumption and the Elite Mindset (18:57) Elite Means Doing Fewer Things (21:48) You Can't Coach Mad (26:25) Getting Brutally Honest (31:10) The Backpack Exercise TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "Bigger goals create bigger people." - Billy Armstrong "In order to be elite at anything, you've got to do fewer things in life." - Billy Armstrong "You can't coach mad. Everybody you coach is somebody's pride and joy." - Billy Armstrong 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: What is your one impossible goal, and who do you need to become to get closer to it? Q2: What's one thing on your quit list that would buy you back the most time and energy this week? 1 Resource to Go DeeperSoundtracks by Jon Acuff JP references this book's filter for the thoughts that keep coaches from having hard conversations: is it true, is it kind, is it helpful. Find it on Amazon here Key TakeawaysEveryone Needs One Impossible GoalAsk Who, Not WhyThe Quit List Comes Before the Goal ListElite Means Doing Fewer Things, Not MoreBrutal Self-Honesty Ended the AvoidancePut the Backpack DownGet the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com If you missed part one, catch it at tocculture.com. Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

  8. Sep 13

    High Clarity, High Performance | Billy Armstrong | Episode 472

    Billy Armstrong hasn't just won four state championships in six years. He's become, in his own words, a completely different human being. In part one of a two-part conversation, three years after his first appearance on the podcast, Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong opens up about the personal transformation behind his program's sustained success: trading a hidden self-improvement journey for total openness, moving from standing over his team to standing shoulder to shoulder with them, and learning that avoiding hard truths to protect a player's feelings was its own form of harm. Whether you're three years into coaching or thirty, this conversation is a reminder that the culture you build only grows as far as you do. Part two drops next week. Chapters(00:00) Intro: Three Years Later (00:55) Becoming a Different Human Being (03:28) From Hidden Journey to Open Book (06:12) Coaching Shoulder to Shoulder (07:55) Who Are You Trying to Become (11:01) Keeping the Door Open (12:42) The Locker Room That Changed Him (19:12) Separating the Person from the Choice (21:48) Lessons from Hurley and Wright (24:22) Serious Fun and Letting Go of Control TOC 3-2-13 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas. "We don't have control over outcomes and results in life. We have control in practice. When we get to the games, it's an illusion of control." - Billy Armstrong "There's a difference between important and special. The games are important, practice is important, your schoolwork is important. But the relationships we form within our program, if they're lifelong relationships, that's special." - Billy Armstrong "Because of this, something good will happen." - Billy Armstrong 2 Questions for Your TeamQ1: Where in your coaching have you been standing over your players instead of standing shoulder to shoulder with them? Q2: Is there a hard truth you've been withholding from a player to protect their feelings, and what might it cost both of you if you keep waiting? 1 Resource to Go DeeperThe Culture System by JP Nerbun Billy's TCC values, trust, care, and commitment, mirror the culture system framework JP outlines in this book: clear standards, built and reinforced on purpose. Find it on Amazon here Key TakeawaysThe Real Change Was Internal, Not StrategicFrom Hidden Journey to Open BookCoach Shoulder to Shoulder, Not Standing OverHigh Clarity Equals High PerformanceProtecting Culture Means Separating the Person from the ChoiceSerious Fun Replaced the Pressure to PerformGet the notes and tools: tocculture.com Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching: tocculture.com Part 2, covering goal setting, the quit list, and building a program that outlasts you, drops next week. Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

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4.6
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About

A podcast for leaders and coaches sharing practical strategies and tools to build your team's culture and help you grow as a leader. Co-hosted by J.P. Nerbun and Nate Sanderson of TOC Culture Consulting, and Betsy Butterick. Get the podcast notes and learn more about us at tocculture.com

Information

  • Creator
    Coaching Culture Podcast
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    481
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Coaching Culture Podcast
  • Show Website
    Coaching Culture

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