Today we’d like to introduce you to Coach Reed Maltbie.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Coach Reed. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The entire journey started when I was 16 and my Mentor/Coach talked me into coaching youth soccer. I worked with an 8-year-old boys team called the Groesbeck Killer Bees. From day one I was hooked on coaching. I coached all through high school and college, doing summer camps, coaching recreation and select teams, doing player training. Any chance I got, I coached. It was a great way to become a better player in the game, it was a great way to give back to the game, and it helped me make ends meet, financially.
I always saw it as my passion project. To support my passion, I got Master’s degrees in sports psychology and Early Childhood Development along the way and stayed on a learning journey to bring my very best to the players. If there was something I did not know or was uncomfortable within my coaching, I would seek out a mentor, find a course, look for a colleague who knew it. I saw it as my duty to be learning and improving alongside my players and through this, I saw a trend: most of our coaches were well-trained in the sport but were lacking the training in areas that were vital to working with human beings (psychology, development, communication, pedagogy, and more). Time and again I would come across well-meaning coaches who just did not know what they did not know, and they were begging to learn more.
I would tell my wife what I was experiencing and my beliefs around what it takes to be a great coach who can create excellence beyond the game. I would rant about how there must be a better way than “the way it’s always been done” or the “way my coach coached me”. That we should be evolving the coaching profession like any other profession. Science-supported, practice-backed, and willing to adapt and change with the needs of the players.
In 2015 my wife urged me to deliver a TEDx Talk to share with the world my thoughts on coaching communication and the neurological impact it has on our children. How we can create echoes beyond the game with the words we use and we must build great people rather than belittle children.
That day was the catalyst. That day changed everything for me. From that moment my life’s purpose was obvious. I was going to help create Better Coaching for a Better World. I wanted to bring the tools, knowledge, and resources to coaches that I had learned from others along my journey to coaches all over the world so we could begin to develop amazing people through the vehicle of sports. So sports was no longer an activity but a way for us to Raise Excellence in every child every day.
That is the gist of what I do today. I work with schools, sports clubs, organizations, and governing bodies all over the world, helping them design and implement coach education programs that train coaches in that all-important social-emotional, psychological, and pedagogical skills that they don’t learn playing the game or through a licensing process. Those skills that must be mastered before any real learning takes place, and if mastered, allow them to deliver the best possible environment for children to succeed in sports and beyond the game.
Most of my work is delivered digitally, through custom-designed e-courses, skype consultations, and accountability programs, but I also deliver live workshops and training for my clients. We work with their coaches and leadership to figure out what pieces of the puzzles the athletes need from the coaches, and what challenges they may face and then build the training around that.
It led to the creation of Positive Discipline Tools for Coaches, which I co-created with Jane Nelsen, founder of Positive Discipline. She has been doing PD in the classroom and parenting spaces for 40 years and it was time to bring this framework to sports coaches. Our first edition of cards was custom branded for Soccer Shots National Franchising. We delivered them last year and I have been training owners, coaches, and franchising around the cards and the process as a consultant since. We have had massive success making Soccer Shots a Positive Discipline for Coaches Organization, seeing our cards and training rolled across over 200+ franchises in North America.
The general cards are applicable across any sport at any level and have been implemented by pockets of USOC Governing Bodies like US Lacrosse, USA Hockey, USA Volleyball, and US Sailing. They have also been translated into Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish and we are working through rolling them out next year across Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America as interest in them has grown. We have a bunch of workshops scheduled and teams and schools interested in becoming PD Coaching Partners. We are also working through the process of certifying trainers who can support and deliver the training.
My two biggest clients now are Soccer Shots and US Sailing, but we are getting ready to launch a digital service for our framework so any team or coach can have access to the training. we will be releasing our Book as an Ebook/Audio Book with a 5-week Positive Discipline Online Masterclass to follow by end of the year.
The other projects I am working on also focus on better coaching and a better world. I will be releasing my first book The Language of Excellence (title holder) this winter and will have a Masterclass on the Wisdom of Winning to support the book. Nearly done are my eCourses on Courageous Influence (which talks about the range, sphere, rate, channels, and types of influence we exert on the world and how we create a legacy of excellence in our lives and the lives of those whom we influence) and A Privilege to Lead which is focused on the secrets, beliefs, traits, habits, and values of the world’s greatest leaders in sport, industry, and more and how we can harness those secrets to leading the most effective and successful teams we can).
In a very large nutshell, that is what I do and what I love to do.
Has it been a smooth road?
The smooth road doesn’t change the world. We can only really have worthwhile impact on the world if we are courageous enough to be uncomfortable. I’ve always thought of my mission like “chasing Everest”. Some people won’t get why you would ever want to “climb that mountain”, some days you ask yourself “why the hell am I doing this?”, and you will take a beating doing it. You cannot explain why you do it, but something deep inside you drives you to climb every day and life seems more fulfilling on the side of that treacherous mountain than standing in the comfortable valley.
So, NO, it has not been smooth. I’ve struggled physically with all the travel and time spent on fields of play beating my body. I’ve struggled financially to advance the dream while still trying to work with the grassroots coaches who need it most, but are mostly volunteers who don’t have expense accounts to pay for the training. I’ve come across my share of “old guard” who don’t want to see change or who feel what I do threatens their role. And of course, in an industry that is generating $15 billion, I have come up against those out to turn a buck who act like it is the wild west.
But I would have it no other way. I would also warn anyone that when you do work that is a reflection of your ethos, you will be your worst enemy. You will question every decision you make. You will think you are an imposter. You will worry no one will benefit, people will ridicule you, or what you are doing is really not worth it.
Look for the little moments to reassure you that you are on the right track. The one coach who “gets it” and texts you to say thanks. The kids who smile at the end of a practice and “cannot wait for next practice”, or the way your own family looks at you. My sons, both teenagers and we know how teenagers feel about their dinosaur dads, look at me like I am still cool. They tell me they want to be like me and that means more than anything. Don’t focus on the one bad comment, the one person who didn’t like your services, or the one time you “got it wrong”. Focus on the way you make people feel, on the little victories, and on the long-term impact you can have on the world.
The road is bumpy as heck but doing work that connects to your passion (ethos), doing work that makes your family proud, doing work that makes the world a better place (any work done well makes the world a better place) is a fantastic seat cushion for the bumps.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
It delivers the tools, knowledge, and resources coaches need to be their very best so they can help raise excellence in every child they coach. Not just excellence in the game but for life. We specialize in tool cards, books, live workshops, training programs, online courses, and one on one mentoring of coaches. I am most proud of the values we have stuck to since I started this journey decades ago – Fun, Integrity, Respect, Excellence. All we do is filtered through that. Will it be fun or promote fun? Is it aligned with what we believe, feel, and do every day and is it in line with our core? Does it respect ourselves, the game, the coaches, the athletes? Is it our very best with what we have been given at this moment.
What sets us apart is it is my voice. Everything I do is from my heart. I do not do it unless I believe in it and I refuse to “market” it when I can live it. The most common comment I get is people see my authenticity, the level of research and practice I have put into my work, and my passion. I have had people say “I did not know it was possible to see passion through a phone, but I can actually “see” your passion right now”. That sets us apart. I am not a marketer. I am a mechanic. The messages in youth sports are about pressing pain points and creating fear of missing out to make a sale. I want to be problem-aware, solution-focused and figure out what we can do to be better when I am done working with you. We know what’s wrong in youth sports. Now we need mechanics to fix it.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
YES! I have been fully embraced by the ethos of our city and by the people. When I talk about what I do here it resonates with people. They get it and they want that kind of training. The personality of San Diego (or ethos) fits my narrative well.
It is also a great city because it is a place people want to visit. Getting people here is not a problem when I need them to come to me, or finding opportunities is not difficult with all that comes to our city. It is also a great airport. My travel is pretty heavy right now and traveling out of San Diego has been so easy.
I was told when I was debating moving here that it would be the changemaker in my career and that was dead on correct. Being here has evolved my company. It helps to be so close to LA and Vegas since I do a lot of conventions and meetings on my speaker circuit. I also do a lot of TV, Video, and Radio which helps to be in this part of the country.
Finally, and most importantly, this has been the best place for my family. Off the top of my head, I only have a few very minor gripes. I wish co-working options were closer to me in East County and more affordable and I wish mass transit was a spot more encompassing, but I know that the latter is getting better each year!
Pricing:
- Ebooks will be in the $7-37 range when complete (depending on level of offering and features)
- Online Masterclasses will be $97-297 depending on length, depth, and breadth
Contact Info:
- Website: www.coachreed.com, www.pdatplay.com
- Phone: 6197720266
- Email: reed@coachreed.com
- Instagram: coach_reed
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/raiseexcellence
- Twitter: coach_reed
Image Credit:
Soccer Shots Franchising
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
