Congratulations coach, it’s been a long year. You successfully completed your season, managed an offseason workout program, and for many coaches, you have finished or are close to ending your spring practices.   

Now what?  

Before you dive into preparation for this coming fall season, now is the time to reflect, recharge, and re-energize. Here is how you can do this, and the benefits of doing so:  

1.Reflection - It’s really hard to see where you are going, if you don’t know where you have been. Summer is an excellent time of the year to pause and reflect on the past year.  

Why reflect?  

Reflection is an important part of your personal and professional growth. It helps you identify what is working and what is not. Be honest with yourself here. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself 

• What progress did I make as a leader?  

• What challenges did we as a staff, and team face? How can we overcome them next year?  

• What aspects of this past year can I bring forward with us into the next season? 

Once you answer these questions, you can make adjusts accordingly. The point is to take time away from working the details of the season, and take a look at your past. It provides the key to your future.  

2. Recharge - Whether you feel it or not, your battery has been running on high for an entire school year. Just like your car, you need to shut down yourself and let your battery recharge.  

What better time to do so than the summer. Summer is a time to connect with your spouse, your kids, and your friends. Not talking football or the upcoming season, but investing in those closest to you. Ask about their lives, make time for activities together. Once the season starts it will be all about you and the team, so make an effort this summer to turn the spotlight on them.  

What’s really important is giving yourself the opportunity to fill up your battery up with new experiences, fun, romance, and love. Believe me, if you walk into your first team meeting this coming fall, with a battery full of fun, romance, and love, you are going to be on fire! And your team is going to feed off of your positive energy 

Learn to let go and recharge.  

3. Re-energize - What gets you excited? I mean really pumped? If you said football and coaching, great. Now do less of it this summer.  

You know that feeling when you haven’t seen your spouse or kids for a while? You love them, no question, but when you have been out of town, or away from them for a while, there is an extra level of energy and excitement to see your loved ones.  

Same goes for football and coaching. You love what you do, but it should not define who you are. This summer take a break from the game and your duties. If you are a head coach and you your team is to attend a 7 on 7 camp this summer, send your coordinators to it while you put your energy towards something else that makes you happy. Take your kids camping or fishing. Take your spouse on a week away. Attend one of your own kids' camps and support them.  

If you do this, it does not mean you check in every minute to see how the 7 on 7 camp is going. Give your staff some autonomy as it will help them grow and help you create a better work/life balance.  

Now watch what happens when you do this. After the camp is over, you are going to be so excited to talk to your staff to hear how it went. This is new energy. This is placing your attention and focus on other aspects of life which make you whole, and in return you build up new energy and excitement for doing what you love, coaching.  

So please, this summer, put down the whistle and fire up the barbeque. 

As founder of The Recovering Athlete™, Cletus Coffey teaches and trains coaches, teams, athletes and professionals how to take skills and success learned on the field and apply it to life off the field. As a former defensive back/receiver in the CFL and Arena Football League, and as a first team all- conference football player and a college decathlete at Lewis & Clark College, he faced even bigger challenges once his athletic career was over. By combining his success as a professional athlete and a business/industry expert, he now helps others win at the game of life, not just sports. To connect with Cletus Coffey, email him  info@cletuscoffey.com and listen to his podcast here.