Impactful Coaching Project

08/20/2026

Losing your spot is hard.

But when your identity is tied to being an athlete, you're not just losing playing time. It can feel like you're losing part of who you are.

That's when every slump, lineup change, injury, and failure carries more weight than it should.

Coaches have to help athletes understand the difference between what they do and who they are.

Your sport matters.

But your sport cannot carry the weight of your identity.

From the Beyond Coaching Podcast and the Impactful Coaching Project.

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08/19/2026

Top 9 Leadership Takeaways: Ricky Scruggs on Identity, Perspective & Becoming

What happens when achievement becomes your identity?

In this episode of Beyond Coaching, former professional baseball player and performance coach Ricky Scruggs explores why our best performance often comes when we stop allowing the result to define us.

Here are 9 takeaways for coaches, athletes, and leaders:

1. Your identity has to be bigger than your performance. When your value depends on results, every failure feels personal.

2. Who you're becoming matters more than what you're accomplishing. Don’t just chase the championship—become the kind of team capable of winning one.

3. Relationships are part of the purpose, not a distraction from it. Competition can challenge us while deepening connection with teammates and even opponents.

4. **Perspective is a performance skill.** Sometimes you need to mentally step outside the moment to remember that the pressure isn't as big as it feels.

5. Stop trying to control what every result means. Today's disappointment may become tomorrow's catalyst for growth.

6. Enjoying the challenge makes you more resilient. The ability to recognize the privilege of competing can create strength in pressure-filled moments.

7. Winning is often the byproduct---not the best primary motivation. Growth, relationships, and becoming better together create a stronger foundation for sustained success.

8. Focus outward when pressure pulls you inward. Instead of worrying about approval, judgment, or your own statistics, ask how you can serve and inspire the people around you.

9. Leadership starts in the invisible before it shows up in the visible. Beliefs, identity, meaning, perspective, and preparation shape the behaviors everyone eventually sees.

The bigger lesson: Hold tightly to your purpose and more loosely to the outcome.

That's not lowering the competitive standard. It may be one of the best ways to perform when the stakes are highest.

More conversations on leadership, coaching, culture, and performance on the Beyond Coaching podcast.

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08/18/2026

Coaches spend a lot of time focused on the next win, the next goal, and the next level.

But when you’re climbing a mountain, you should occasionally turn around and enjoy the view.

That isn’t lowering your standards.

Joy gives you energy. It creates a better performance state. And when your mind is working better, you may actually be more likely to win.

Keep climbing. Just don’t miss the view.

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08/17/2026

On the newest episode of Beyond Coaching, I sit down with former professional baseball player and performance coach Ricky Scruggs to talk about identity, pressure, approval, and competing with freedom.

We discuss why becoming the kind of person or team capable of winning matters more than obsessing over the result.

Who you are becoming is more important than what you are accomplishing.

🎧 Listen now:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-coaching-an-impactful-coaching-project-podcast/id1711128150

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4XZrfisl0lv82qFPtfipVz?si=3265a9ad99bb4c04

Substack: impactfulcoachingproject.substack.com

Sports Podcast · Updated Biweekly · Beyond Coaching, a podcast from the Impactful Coaching Project, explores coaching and leading the 21st century athlete. The importance of the coach being a positive impact on their student-athletes h…

08/16/2026

08/14/2026

Coaches, your spouse isn't standing outside of your coaching career.

They're carrying part of it with you.

The long hours.
The schedule changes.
The emotional swings.
The sacrifices nobody else sees.

Whether you're coaching Division I or youth sports, the people closest to you often give up more for your calling than anyone realizes.

So here's a simple challenge:

Tell them. Thank them. Affirm them.

Don't assume they know.

From the Beyond Coaching Podcast and the Impactful Coaching Project.

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https://impactfulcoachingproject.substack.com

08/14/2026

Coaches have the opportunity to do more than win games or build programs.

The words we use, the standards we set, and the way we invest in young people can stay with them long after their playing days are over.

You’re not just a coach.

You have the chance to make history.

Get more practical coaching and leadership ideas in the free Impactful Coaching Project newsletter:

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08/13/2026

Most coaching training stops at the first dimension. Skills, strategy, conditioning. The things that show up on film.

The second dimension is what they believe they can do. The third is what they think they're worth when the scoreboard stops cooperating.

You're coaching all three whether you meant to or not. The only question is whether you're doing it on purpose. Check out more info at https://3dinstitute.com/ and catch our monthly conversations with 3D on our Beyond Coaching podcast.

3D is a framework for coaching built on a foundation of purpose. We empower leaders to architect their culture through world-class training, amplifying their ability to coach in all three dimensions. Start FREE TRIAL Now Watch Video What Does Your Dream Culture Look Like? The 3D Framework empowers l...

08/12/2026

Think about the coaches you actually trusted.

They knew the game well enough that you believed what they told you. They knew you well enough that you believed they meant it. And they were the same person almost every day.

Competence. Care. Constancy.

Almost every coach can start all three in August. The hard part is sustaining them in week eleven, when you're tired and behind and a parent just emailed. That's a systems problem, not a character problem, and most coaches treat it like the opposite.

08/12/2026

What is your system of care?

Practice gets scheduled. Film gets scheduled. Meetings get scheduled.

If investing in your athletes is left to whatever time remains, there usually won’t be much time left.

Care can’t just be something coaches value. It has to show up in the way we operate.

Get more practical coaching and leadership ideas in the free Impactful Coaching Project newsletter:

https://impactfulcoachingproject.substack.com