How To Build a Football Program (Keep Players From Quitting) With Melody Johnson

In this episode, we talk with Melody Johnson, founder of the youth program development system Skillz.

Melody is the founder of Skillz and is certified in interpersonal neurobiology. We get into the first 10, last 10 rule, her CALM and RARE methods for handling attitude, why she calls it an attitude signal instead of a problem, and the three things she would change on day one of taking over a failing program.

Melody has helped over 1,000+ youth programs and martial arts dojos improve their player retention and keep kids having fun and engaged.

Chapters
0:00 Cold open + meet Melody Johnson
1:10 The first 10, last 10 rule for practice
6:25 How to end practice so kids want to come back
8:21 The player who complains about everything
10:56 The CALM method: check yourself first
13:10 Discipline and the RARE method
18:28 Coaching by fear vs coaching by desire
21:28 When players get down on themselves (window of tolerance)
27:30 Why each player needs to be coached differently (the brain bank)
31:59 Attitude signals, not attitude problems
33:37 How to set up a fun, engaging practice
40:28 Skill progression: how long it takes a kid to learn a skill
43:29 What most coaches get wrong
46:05 Football is dying: why kids quit and how to fix it
47:46 Taking over a failing program: the first 3 changes
48:45 Where to follow Melody