What Great Coaches Teach Kids That Most Parents Miss with Coach Gene Wolverton (#187) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 187
What do children learn from a coach beyond the game itself? Gene Wolverton joins Dustin Serviss to discuss confidence, values, gratitude and the influence parents and coaches have on a young person’s identity.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:00] Basketball, parenting and the influence of a coach
[00:03:26] Using basketball to carry an anti-bullying message
[00:07:16] Gratitude after an opportunity does not go your way
[00:15:23] Balancing fun, inclusion and competition
[00:19:05] Coaching through challenge and injury
[00:23:01] Making room for childhood beyond organized sport
[00:27:03] Core values and identity in a team
[00:31:20] Letting children try without fear of mistakes
[00:34:43] Lifelong learning and putting ideas into practice
Guest & resources
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Dustin Serviss: Alright, listeners. Welcome back to the TPAL podcast. Today's conversation is one of those episodes that starts with basketball, but very quickly becomes something much bigger, parenting, leadership, identity, and the quiet influence adults have on young people whether we realize it or not. My guest today is Gene Woolverton, a basketball coach with deep roots in the game. Gene grew up as a coach in Northern Alberta and started his own coaching journey back in grade nine when he earned his first coaching certificate. Since then, he's coached youth athletes and even found himself unexpectedly stepping
[00:00:34] Dustin Serviss: into university coaching roles at the University of Waterloo, all because something as simple as saying thank you after a pickup game. In this episode, we talk about what it really means to coach kids, not just how to run plays, but how to help young people discover who they are. Gene shares how values like integrity, accountability, fearlessness, and coachability shape the way he teaches the game, and how those simple principles apply to parenting, leadership, and life. We get into everything from the pressure kids face in sports today, to why multisport development matters, to the difference between being quick but not in a hurry.
[00:01:15] Dustin Serviss: If you're a parent, a coach, or someone trying to lead others well, this conversation will resonate. Back us up. Give us a little origin. Gene's coaching.
[00:01:27] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. You bet. Oh, man. I I grew up as a coach's kid, so that's where it really started. My parents started coaching when I was just a little guy, so I lived in the gym. And my dad started coaching. There's the local high school up in Northern Alberta, Lac La Biche, little tiny town. And the athletic director knew my dad coached basketball and kind of the classic small town thing. Right? It's like, hey. We need somebody to step in. And my dad said, well, I'll coach them if they're gonna listen to me. So he went and talked to the kids, and he said, hey. I'll... I'm willing to coach you, but I need you guys to listen.
[00:02:03] Gene Wolverton: And those kids ended up becoming really great team. He ended up coaching them, and it was... That was my first experience really to see my dad do something in sports and do coaching. He played college basketball at Briarcrest College and... For one year, and then he decided he was gonna move on. But played... I had a really successful high school career, played in Gibson's BC on the Sunshine Coast. And, yeah. So my mom coached the high school girls, and that's where it all started.
[00:02:37] Dustin Serviss: So you got coaching in your blood and fast tracking sort of through university. You then found that passion to start coaching and maybe just bring us up to speed with what that looked like.
[00:02:48] Gene Wolverton: So then after that, we ended up... My parents got me my first coaching certificate at grade nine. And so I had a level one. I was level one certified basketball coach in grade nine. And, that just got the bug going for me so that over time, every opportunity that I had, I would take to coach. So whether it was at camps, and I always was coaching kids a couple of grades younger than me. And then, really, my coaching started when we went to Ontario. So my wife and I got married in two thousand and four, and we went to Ontario. And I want to learn a program called Power to Choose.
[00:03:26] Gene Wolverton: And a guy named Mana Watsa, who was playing for the University of Waterloo, He was running this program, and what you do is you go into these schools and you... It's an anti bullying campaign where you go in and you have this anti bullying message. I was bullied as a kid, and so I know what that feels like. And De Mano had the same experience being bullied as a kid. He's an Indo Canadian kid, and he had a speech impediment. And, so he just shares about how he overcame those challenges and being at school. And... But what you do is you bring in a bunch of basketball guys that can dunk and that can kinda show off their back in that day.
[00:04:04] Gene Wolverton: And so you'd come in, put on a show, play against the school team, whether it was, like, the little guys or high school teams. So, anyways, I went out to learn that because my wife still had some school at UBC left to finish, and I was gonna start up that program. But I tell the story about the next story to a lot of kids regarding how gratefulness can change our world. Just one small form of gratefulness can change your entire project... Trajectory of your life. And so I was with Mono. Mono invited me. Said, hey, Gene. Do you wanna come play some ball? We're playing pickup with the guys. It's pre...
[00:04:43] Gene Wolverton: Preseason, so this is before the season starts in, like, September. University guys just getting together playing for the University of Waterloo. And he's like, do you wanna play? So I was like, sure. So I came out, and for me, I had injured my knee. So the way I played was very vocal because I wasn't fast, but I could still play really good deep... Positional defense. And I just communicated really, really well, and I was playing good. I I came up, and I was playing really well. And I could see the coach sitting off to the sideline, mister Tom Keyswatter, and he was just watching the game.
[00:05:21] Gene Wolverton: And after the game, I came over to him just to say thanks. Just to say, hey. Thanks for the opportunity to let me join in. He doesn't know me at all. And... But he's let me run with his guys and trusting mono that he's not bringing some chump in. After he said, yeah. Hey. You're welcome. He's like, hey. Do you have any eligibility left to to play? And I was like, no. I'm done. I got no eligibility. And he's like, what about coaching? Would you be interested in coaching? And I was like, maybe. And he said, well, my lead assistant, his dad just got diagnosed with cancer. And so he's gonna have to go into, I just see, either Toronto or
[00:06:00] Gene Wolverton: or into the city to get treatments three times a week. So he's like, he can't do it this year, so I'm looking for somebody. And I was like, sure. Short story is that... I I ended up being, like... Had a super prominent role. Like, I wasn't just, like, a helper. I was, like, lead of discipline, and there's a whole bunch of stories in that. But also recruiting, like, I was... Had the paper map driving all around, like, these little towns in Ontario. It was wild, man. Like, when I think of it now, pea... Hear coaches complain about recruiting now. I'm like, you guys have no idea. Like
[00:06:36] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:06:36] Gene Wolverton: And so that's what got me started. But that little moment of just remembering to say thank you after something that I had the privilege of being a part of, and And I think that's what gets lost is, like, oftentimes, we just get too self consumed with, like, how did I play and what did I do and all these different things versus, like, right away, it was... I'd been always taught to be super grateful. Like, my parents just brought me up to be like, hey. No matter what, say thank you. And so that was a pretty... It's a pretty cool example to help kids see that, hey. That might change the trajectory of your life after a tryout just to say,
[00:07:16] Gene Wolverton: hey, coach. Thanks for, like, giving me an opportunity to try out today. Hey, coach. Or you have a job interview or you have some other... Something that maybe doesn't go your way, but to say thank you afterwards, instead of dropping your head or walking out angry. Sure, you might feel those emotions, but to remember in that moment to have gratefulness for the opportunity, I think that definitely will serve you well, anyone well, for their future.
[00:07:43] Dustin Serviss: And that's just a segue into sort of the positional play, and I'm gonna tie it back to wealth. But I think you talk on something that is in kids' sport, separates some of the better kids from the... In any sport, and it's positioning. It's having your head screwed on right and knowing sort of where to be. So what is... Basketball is a little more easier. Our kids play hockey together, so it's... They add the element of skates and then position. It's a little more challenging. And so I'm glad that it's basketball. It's like, Kate, how do you teach position, or how do you share with kids going to where the play
[00:08:23] Dustin Serviss: is going or creating space and time for the team to materialize a a point, a shot, a something that's of a high probability chance of that team's success.
[00:08:37] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. I think it's something that every coach battles with and tries to figure out with their particular group of kids. I think for me in general, the biggest thing that I wanna make sure the kids understand is that basketball is a team sport. And one of the first questions I ask them, I ask them, how many basketballs are in a game? And they all say one. And I say, how many players with two teams are on the court at once? And they say ten. Right? So I'm like, so ten guys share one basketball. Right? So right away, we just kind of make it super obvious that not everyone's gonna have the ball.
[00:09:11] Gene Wolverton: And then from there, that's when you start to help them see, well, where do we go? What do what do we do? And I think, really, the whole thing is about constantly helping them see what's best for the team. I think one of my... Especially coaching the younger guys, grade five, grade four, grade three, I say freeze a lot because Mhmm. I want them to see where they are, and then we can talk about it. And I think a lot of coaches... And this may come up more as we talk, but a lot of coaches don't tie... Take the time to actually discuss and ask the kids questions. So what... Why would we do this? Right? Why would we stand here?
[00:09:54] Gene Wolverton: Or why do you think we wanna get shots close to the basket? Like, why would we wanna do that? Because I think what happens is we miss opportunity for the kids to have self discovery. And what I've found is that's the greatest teacher is self discovery. And so as a coach and as a parent, it's... I think, and from my experience, the best learning comes from when it's the kids saying, hey. It's because of this. But that self discovery is such a huge thing, and that's where I don't teach plays at that young age. I teach motion. I teach space and time. I teach pace. I teach tempo. I teach all these things so that the kids get a feel for
[00:10:40] Gene Wolverton: just where am I, like, what you're saying, and what what do I need to do? And one of my favorite phrases in basketball is be quick, but don't be in a hurry. You know? Be quick, but don't be in a hurry. And so maybe cutting isn't the right thing to do in that particular time because we can see that these other players are gonna be go... Using that space. Right? So time and space. So when those players are through, maybe now is the time to go to that space. So when is the time? Versus, like, we're just running around with their heads cut off, which is normal in kids' basketball. Right? It look... Looks like mad chaos out there.
[00:11:24] Dustin Serviss: I think that the questioning is so key for parents in general and key for asking ourselves and what we're doing in our own life, you know, as adults and saying, okay, well, where am I in your sport, in your hobbies, in your wealth, in your career? And just having the time and giving yourself the permission to go there with your mind and say, Okay, like, am I going in the right direction? Or, you know, where am I? And I find a lot of inspiration from our kids' sports in my... Into my life and saying, okay, wow, they're doing things. What am I? And I I find a lot of people would... You know, maybe not.
[00:12:12] Dustin Serviss: Maybe it's just some people that I recently talked to. It's... It... They're not. It just sort of is like they're on track and that's that's the track and they're not ever asking that question. So from the difference between sort of grade fives to then, you know, say, grade niners, you know, where they're a little bit more... Got a little bit more neuro, you know, complexity and capability, what is that coaching looking like as as the game is developing?
[00:12:42] Gene Wolverton: And, really, what comes down to... You're starting to come into identity, the identity piece. And I think that's really where a huge amount... They know how to do a layup. They know how to dribble. They've done all these different things. Now in grade nine as a pre... As a teenager, both the guys and girls, it becomes an identity. Who am I? You know? And why am I playing? Right? And I wanna look cool. And I want I wanna look, you know, I want the cute girl at school to, like, think I'm I'm a baller. And so it... There's a whole other gamut of things that start to affect how kids practice, their interest level.
[00:13:21] Gene Wolverton: I know for me, one of the questions that I would ask recruiting is, do you have a girlfriend? Because that dramatically impacts what a grade twelve guy is gonna wanna do. And, well, she's going to UBC, and UBC is recruiting me. And so, you know, we're at Trinity Western, and so it's like, how do I navigate that? You kinda get an... A feel of, like, where they're gonna go. So, like, all of those kind of exterior life factors become a bigger deal. Whereas when you're in grade five, you're just there. You just show up. And I find that that's what... That's the difference once grade nine hits is that the world around you starts to have an impact.
[00:14:04] Gene Wolverton: Needing to touch the ball is not necessarily just because I wanna play. It's because I wanna be validated. Like, I wanna have... It's attached to my... Like, I'm a loser. If I don't if I don't get the ball, I'm a loser now. Versus, like, when you're in grade five, if you don't get the ball, you're just like, oh, this isn't fun. I wanna do something else. It's not about who you are. It's just like, it's not very fun, so we'll do something else. And I think the... That exterior just gets even stronger as kids get older. So all the way into university, that I would say is probably your biggest factor.
[00:14:41] Dustin Serviss: What would you say about sort of the old school hard ass kind of coaching versus more modern or even in the Olympics? I can't remember if it's Finland or Norway where they they don't... They play fun sports. I can't even remember how old they go, but it... They don't keep score until they're twelve or something where it's just like, hey. Have fun. Develop the skill. And then all of a sudden, as they're, like, a little bit or more older or teenager, they really kind of ramp up the the thing. So is it... Is there more modern updated coaching skills than the old school beat down the kids and all of a sudden they're gonna do what I say?
[00:15:23] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. I definitely think so. I think there's a healthy balance though where I think just like with anything, the pendulum seems to swing. And and as that pendulum swings, we kinda can swing too far one direction or create that equal and opposite reaction. I definitely think the fun needs to be there, and I think that you can include more people. And that's one thing at Shoe Shot Poops that we wanna do is we wanna include as many kids as possible. Just get excited to play basketball. Basketball is something you can do for your whole life. So you can get a group of group of buddies together, grab a ball, and you're playing. Right?
[00:15:58] Gene Wolverton: You don't have to have a sheet of ice. It doesn't have to... It's not... That takes a lot less effort to really get together. But then there are... Always are a few kids that kinda start to want more. And so I think you definitely need to have those offerings. And so we're we're wanting to offer that where we have some competitive travel teams where, okay, for the kids that... Hey. This is... I'd I'd like to do more. So then it's like, well, hey. Here here you go. Europe really encourage... Like, a lot of them have a lot of multisport experience, which I think is
[00:16:31] Dustin Serviss: important. Coaches or the kids?
[00:16:33] Gene Wolverton: Jokic in the NBA, he was a team handball player from my understanding. And so you can see, like, even when he has the ball now... Or or sorry, a water polo player. And so when he passes the ball, that has translated into basketball where now he can sing... Use one hand and really guide that ball and put it where he needs to put it. Baseball, soccer, hockey, like, all these sports, like, even for my son, Tyson, when we're watching basketball, I'm I'm talking to him about hockey. I'm like, yeah. See, when you're on a two on one, look at what's the best timing to get that puck over to the other side. Right? Mhmm. And so you can translate those
[00:17:14] Gene Wolverton: different team skills into any sport, really. And I ended up winning athlete of the year for most of my years in school just because I think I played everything. Nobody else played everything. So I was kind of a one person. So it wasn't necessarily I was a great athlete, but I was the only guy that played everything. So they're like, well, I guess we give it to him. But now, man, I'm so thankful. Like, I can join in on a volleyball game. I can join in on a hockey. Yeah. I'm not gonna play with, like, the ex WHL guys, but I can get in there and play decent hockey on things like that, soccer, whatever. Right?
[00:17:52] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. That's, how does the coaching translate to your own training now? Like, what is sort of... Do you have a coach, or do you coach yourself in the sports and activities that you do now? So listener, bring you up to speed. Jean and I crossfit together for a few years, and I can tell you he's a beast. But if he's not gonna tell you, I will tell you that. So bring me up to speed with what that looks like, and how much do you rely on your own research versus, like, taking the coaching now as a mid forty year old male?
[00:18:27] Gene Wolverton: Like, it's... I'm definitely not getting any younger. I can know that know that for sure. And, man, you're a beast too, man. When I saw you when I saw you getting those muscle ups there, I was like, man, that was inspiring for me. Early on when I was, like, couldn't even hardly get myself up. So that was... No. You... CrossFit is awesome. That's one of the reasons why I love CrossFit is the challenge, the mental fatigue attached to the physical fatigue or the... And the physical grit. When I was playing, I loved the grit. I was a gritty player. So CrossFit really fits that... Fills that niche for me where...
[00:19:05] Gene Wolverton: To push myself and really, like, see where I can go. Right? And maybe it's back on the floor. Maybe I'm puking in the bathroom or whatever, but I'm not afraid to go to that dark space to really see what I can do. And, but then the coaching on the injury side, I would say that's really where the coaching has come in for myself. And I appreciate some of the things that the coaches at at our CrossFit gym have done where they've looked at ways to modify certain things and without still giving me the dignity of doing some sort of similar movement. I think the hard part is what am I doing this for? And I think that's
[00:19:49] Dustin Serviss: around here. Yeah.
[00:19:50] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. Like, and that's where... I think for a lot of us, that's partly the struggle. And I saw online somewhere, so I got no reference, but I saw online somewhere that the new midlife crisis for a forty year old is doing a marathon. And instead of in the old days, it was like the Corvette, or whatever. And so the new midlife crisis for forty year olds is, like, running a marathon. So some sort of fitness achievement. Right? Yep. And I can see I can see where that comes from because I I could kinda feel that pull as well where it's like, hey. I wanna see if I still got it. I was used to be a college athlete. I could...
[00:20:28] Gene Wolverton: Let's see where we can go. But when you get injured, that's when you start to ask those questions. Right? And you're like, what am I doing this for? Do I really need to be pushing this hard? Where... Is there a balance here? And I think that's where I I went all over the gamut where I was like, hey. Like, I think I could... Maybe I should compete. What what age category should I wait, like, train for? Wanna be at the youngest of that category. Right? And all that kind of stuff. And then I get injured, and I'm like, oh, like, what's... What am I doing? But I think, really, for me, what it came down to was my kids.
[00:21:07] Gene Wolverton: And when I realized that I'm working out so that I can be active with my kids as a kind of an older parent, my kids are nine and ten. And so I'm not even at the one on one stage where we're having some big battles out in the parking lot, one on one. And so I wanna be there for that. I wanna I wanna be present. I wanna be able to jump up and take on my kids. And once that happened, all that other stuff started to melt away. And I think we hear that often, like, what's your why? Like, why are you pushing so hard with this? What what are you doing this for? Who are you doing it for? I think those are all really great questions.
[00:21:50] Gene Wolverton: And I think young athletes, that's where you have to start having those conversations. Going back to your question about grade nine, how does it start changing? I would say besides identity, it's also... What's the reason you're doing it? Or is it because your dad wants you to play basketball? And so you don't actually like basketball, but your dad's putting you in these camps, and your dad's signing me up for all this stuff, and he's pumped, and he cheers. So you're like, well, I don't wanna let him down. And I've had that conversation with young kids, grade ten, where I'm like, buddy, like, do you really like basketball? Yeah.
[00:22:29] Gene Wolverton: And they're kinda like, no. Not really. I'm like, am I the first person you've told that? And they're like, yeah. And Yeah. And that just breaks your heart. When parents... And it's no slight on the parent, but I think it's just that learned awareness of, like... Again, like, for the parent, you know, you brought up that great point of, like, asking ourselves questions. Like, are we as parents willing to ask ourself that question? Say, hey. Like, am I doing this because I want it, or am I... Is this something that my kid wants?
[00:23:01] Dustin Serviss: If hockey's about to end and spring hockey would be about to start, and we're not doing spring hockey this year. And and it was a big discussion with the kids, and they wanna play baseball, and they wanna do other stuff, and they wanna play basketball too with the schools. So it's like all the days. And you kinda go like, well, like, I don't know if five days a week, five nights after school, and then a game on the weekend or something is... Like, where's the kid? I get you get to be in sports and... But where's the, like, just a bit of free time to explore that creativity that you wanted to color a picture?
[00:23:36] Dustin Serviss: Or you wanted to, like, play outside and throw rocks through the shed window or something? In society today, we're all pre programmed that space is lazy. And it... You need to have you need to have lots of stuff going going on. And in a recent example, I just took basically the last six, seven months, and I didn't bring out my goal binder. I've done a lot of studying on sort of alignment and self and gene keys and all these different things just because I just was all over the place. And so after six, seven months, it was refreshing, and you kinda had some things that are still around, some things that went away, some things I wrote
[00:24:14] Dustin Serviss: down, I'm not gonna let go, and and I haven't even thought of them in two months, and that's liberating. But it... As a driver sort of personality, you do, like, a little motivation behind it. So when I was hearing about you, it was like, well, what are you doing this for? As the goal book, you know, you kinda get back to something that at least orients you to something. Like, in all the studying, it's like you're... If you're really truly aligned, then the real things will bubble up to the surface, and you will just follow where your energy kind of is of interest. So if you're interested in something and you're just, like, kinda follow that.
[00:24:53] Dustin Serviss: But then, I don't know, my personality just kinda goes all over. And it's... The beauty of the whole process, and I'll call it an experiment, is you do sort of figure out what goals are maybe societal programming ego kind of goals, where it's, like you said, the mid forty year old, the Corvette. It's like, having a Corvette or McLaren would be cool, or is it, like, just sort of a a... An item? And so then you kinda get back to some more core things. So, yeah, I don't know how you sort of have just sort of appreciated I'm doing this and and keep myself fit for my future life with my kids or if there's anything else that you're like, k. No.
[00:25:41] Dustin Serviss: I I need little anchors to keep me getting in there every day and pushing at a certain level.
[00:25:49] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head with alignment. I think that's, obviously, there's a ton of books written on alignment, and that's where I heard early on in my coaching career. I was given the phrase, steal like an artist. And coming from where take take these things that all these other people are teaching and then apply them. Right? And alignment is a huge part of most... All companies. They have an objective, a vision. They have core values. And so these are the things that they believe help them align and say this is where... How we make decisions, why we make decisions, and this is where we go.
[00:26:28] Gene Wolverton: And I think most people, if you ask them, hey. What are your core values? Maybe generosity or caring about others, putting others first, like, different things like that. But I think for the most part, people don't even know what those are. People don't know what their core values are. And one of the things that I've... I learned, we had a leadership coach when I got my first head coaching job, and I had the privilege of learning from a a man named Ernie Wooters. And he had had developed a leadership coaching program, and he taught us what he was teaching other people. And he started actually with the Medicine Hat Police Department.
[00:27:03] Gene Wolverton: He was a chaplain for the Medicine Hat Police Department. And then he was using this program with the police department, and then the Regina Pats or the Medicine Hat Tigers had heard about this and asked him to come help their team. And so just organically, he just started using the material, using using these things. And one of the biggest things is part of your identity is what what do you align with? Like, what... Where is your alignment in your life, and why do we make decisions? And so one of the things that I realized was that if I was gonna coach a team, I need to have some some hard and fast core values that the team...
[00:27:47] Gene Wolverton: That guides the team. So things like integrity, accountability, attitude, work ethic, passion, teamwork, coachability, fearlessness, kept humility, and all these types of core values where this is how I'm making every decision on the team. And so I actually dove in two feet. So the other coaches were kinda like, yeah. This is kinda nice. And that's what most... My experience, honestly, Dustin, is that people nod their heads, their eyes glaze over, and they go, well, that's really nice. Like, I already do that. But the thing is is that if they were doing it, they would see the results of it. Mhmm.
[00:28:30] Gene Wolverton: So that's where I think for me has been really the difference and what has really... I literally do use the core values for what we're doing on a team. And so I give every player and parent. So even u thirteen travel team, we're having our evaluation slash tryouts next week. And I'm gonna tell the parents at the beginning and the players, they can challenge me and question me on anything we do on how it relates to the core values that are set out. And the reason why for me, it's helpful is because I live those out personally. Those are my personal core values that I believe in and that I wanna live by. And so I'm happy to be corrected.
[00:29:19] Gene Wolverton: I'm happy to be held accountable to those core values because it's not something I don't wanna live out. I shared this with a coach, a university coach I was working with. And I said, so what this helps us do is helps to create accountability with the team. He's like, oh, I love that. I love accountability. And I was like, I don't think it's in the way you think. Like, you're thinking, like, if they don't do this, then this happens. That's accountability. Right? Versus accountability to a core value of saying, hey. This is what we want. When it's a core value, it's less about punishment and more about self discovery of like, hey.
[00:29:58] Gene Wolverton: You're right. That's not being fearless. You're right. I'm not being coachable. Right? I wanna be coachable because being coachable means I'm gonna be able to be available for the team. I'm gonna be somebody the team can count on, which now creates that teamwork. Right? Now that builds into the teamwork core value. And so then when we do the... One of the phrases that I use in coaching is how are your actions and behaviors advancing the purpose of our team? So rather than saying, hey. You're an idiot or, hey. The old school style. And I'm not saying... And then... But not not going to the pendulum of the fluffy sugarcoat of, like, hey.
[00:30:40] Gene Wolverton: It's okay. Like, let's just Right. Let's work on... Hey. How are your actions advancing the purpose of the team right now? And then now they get a chance to share back with me, and we can talk about how does that align with where we're going. And what I... And, again, this takes time, which most most people and coaches don't want to do. Right? Right. And so going into that with... And you could see... Probably start seeing how you could use that as a... Even as a debt, like, within your family, where using our core values. What are our core values as a as a family? Right? What do we believe in? Well, we wanna be fearless.
[00:31:20] Gene Wolverton: We wanna have kids that live... That operate... Don't wanna operate in fear, but operate being fearless. So how do we facilitate that? What do we do to let our kids try? Well, if they're afraid of making mistakes and we don't want them to cook eggs because they're gonna spill eggs all over the... Everywhere, it's gonna be a huge mess, and I don't have time for that mess. And I'm preaching to myself because this is what I'm guilty of, is I don't like mess.
[00:31:48] Dustin Serviss: We both are.
[00:31:49] Gene Wolverton: I don't like mess. And so then I'm like, I'll just do it. And I'm like, no. That doesn't go back to the core value of being fearless. I'm not enabling them to go out and try something. So now they're like, no. No. I've had it where I'm like... They're like, dad, we're hungry. And I'll say, well, I gotta make eggs. Go ahead. No. No. I make a mess, so I don't wanna do it. And I'm like, that's on me. That's not on me. That's on me. So then now I have to help them unlearn what I've in... What I've unintentionally taught them. Right? Mhmm. John Wooden, he has a phrase that he would say, coaches, you are always teaching something,
[00:32:32] Gene Wolverton: so be careful to know what you're teaching. Coaches, you're always teaching something, so be careful to know what you're teaching. And that phrase, like, looms over me when I coach. It's like, what am I really teaching here? Same as as a parent. Right? That's kinda scary as a parent, that phrase, because it's like, man, what am I teaching my kids? Right? And we don't know until they're like, oh, some years later.
[00:32:59] Dustin Serviss: Well, and and especially after COVID or whatever happened in the last five years where it's kinda challenged everyone's decision making ability or the fact that we just ping ourselves with scrolling social media. And we take in, like, we call the term almost like knowledge masturbation where it's like you're not really doing anything with the knowledge, but you're just... Nothing is happening out the back end, but you're just taking in all this knowledge and you feel so smart in podcasts and reading books, but really no action is taking taking course. And I'm with you, man. It's like, I'm coming home from the gym.
[00:33:35] Dustin Serviss: I'm going right by the closet. It's just more efficient to just grab the backpacks and put them out when really it's kinda like, hey, guys, your morning processes are... Like, we call it morning priorities. Like, when your priorities are done, then you can go do mini sticks. You can go play. But it's like, the bus comes at seven twenty five. So these are the things you gotta get done. I'm unlearned, I'm unteaching them. And it's harder because I just wanna grab the backboard. It's like, I'm just gonna walk by it. And, Hey, guys, grab your backpack. And you gotta put your stuff in it and get ready. So I think that...
[00:34:09] Dustin Serviss: On that same topic for coaching, I know you're a serious student. So you take in... How do you sift all the new information you're getting with watching YouTubes and how tos and whatever to then execute just just enough to move the needle forward, if that makes sense. Do you have a process, or is it just sorta like whatever kinda bubbles up to the the top on the day of practice so that gets written down in the game plan?
[00:34:43] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. There's definitely always new things, and that's where I think the learning for me is I was challenged early on to be a a lifelong learner, and I'd like to challenge kids and anyone to be a lifelong learner. And I think there is definitely is a... I've definitely been in that spot where information overload, where I'm just consuming all this information. And I don't even know what what the next thing to do is. It's kind of like that analysis of paralysis, paralysis of analysis. Yeah. Right? So... Because you just have so much. But what I found was what I find is implementing things right away. And you don't need...
[00:35:27] Gene Wolverton: There's many ways to do things. There's many ways to cook spaghetti. There's many ways to have, like, the perfect steak. And I think YouTube is a great example to show us that there's many ways to do many things. And so what you have to do is you have to find what's gonna work for you. I call them tools because the way you use the hammer and the way I use it may be a little bit different. We both know it's a hammer. We both know what it's for, but we might have different ways of using it and different times of using it. And so I think that I realize and I can appreciate that you and not I, Dustin, we could coach together,
[00:36:08] Gene Wolverton: and I'm gonna want you to flourish in your way of coaching. As long as we're aligned in what we want to see happen, if you and I aren't aligned, well, then that's gonna create some conflict at certain times because you think it needs to be here and this. And that's where, again, coming back to the core values, you and I can discuss it and say, well, how does that fit within our core values of what we wanna do? I've found for me, though, over time was that all the books I was reading basically said very similar things. So that kinda helped narrow down... Like, we're starting to get down to the meat potatoes of, like, really what
[00:36:46] Gene Wolverton: creates a successful team. Right? Knowing where we're headed. Hey. That's kinda seems pretty common sense, but a lot of people don't know where they're headed. And one of the things that I would do with the university team, high performance team and would recommend to anybody is on opening day of training camp is get all the guys in a room and just say, k. On... We're gonna do an exercise here. So on the count of three, I'm gonna get everybody to stand up, and you're gonna shout out what the purpose of the team is. Just gonna shout out. And I encourage even a business to do it because if at your next team meeting, like
[00:37:24] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:37:24] Gene Wolverton: And you're gonna get a chorus of just a whole bunch of stuff. Right?
[00:37:30] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:37:31] Gene Wolverton: The purpose of the team is. Not what the collective have agreed to what the purpose of the team is. And I think until you can do that as a group, then it really becomes a challenge to really move in a certain direction because everybody's gonna continue to have their opinion of where we should go, how we should do it, what's working, what's not working as opposed to already starting as a collective. And that's what I found with reading all of this stuff is that I... Once I saw, like, there's these basic things that really help us move forward, the next one is, like, having success factors. Right? KPIs in in business.
[00:38:16] Gene Wolverton: They're your key performance indicators. Right? And, again, nothing new under the sun, but more and more people are. But it's more about, like, spreadsheet success versus team and organizational success. Right? And so it's kind of like I would equate that to scoreboard. So we're looking at the scoreboard, but what are all the things that contribute to those numbers on the scoreboard? So when it says two zero on the score clock in a hockey game, there is a way more under that number two than than just the number two. Right? And so to be able to realize and fix those things really starts to change how people... What people decide to do when...
[00:39:02] Gene Wolverton: In practice and in organizational behavior and all of those things. I think reading that information, the process I use is to dial down what are the key things, what seems to be the common things that need to happen. And so that's how I've been able to narrow that down.
[00:39:25] Dustin Serviss: No. I appreciate that. What do you got for a closing resource that you... Is your go to as a coach? It could be a resource for specifically coaching. It could be a resource for your sort of betterment, call it alignment. It could be a resource for just overall in general, building the life you want, your picture of wealth, we'll call it. What is that...
[00:39:53] Gene Wolverton: To be honest, for me, my number one personal number one resource is the Bible. That's what I use to... For my personal alignment. And that to me is what sets me and why... What gives me my identity, what gives me my core values, all of those things. And so for me, that... That's what it is for me.
[00:40:10] Dustin Serviss: Top three top three books.
[00:40:12] Gene Wolverton: Top three books, I would say Good to Great is a really good one by Jim Collins. I would say, a legacy by James Kerr. It's about the silver... The silverbacks, the all blacks.
[00:40:25] Dustin Serviss: Good.
[00:40:25] Gene Wolverton: Yeah. That one's really good. That one's totally marked up for me, like, such good stuff in there. Legacy by James Kerr. And then... Yeah. I mean, the last one, it is another faith based book, but it's called How to Stop the Pain. And that's another one that if faith is a part of your life, I think it would be a super impactful book because, yeah, it really talks about how we think about stuff. And the phrase I I use most often, the story we tell ourselves is most most likely the story we're gonna believe is really that book kinda fleshes out what that means and how that impacts our life. Those would be some some resources.
[00:41:03] Gene Wolverton: Daniel Goleman, Talent Code. There's... I don't know. There... I could go on and on about all the different books, but... Yeah.
[00:41:10] Dustin Serviss: Well, thanks, Jean. I, I definitely appreciate our visit, and I know we visit at the rink often. And I've been looking forward to doing this for a long time. So thanks a lot for joining us on the show today, and I look forward to implementing some of your your dad isms in helping the young guys navigate life. So thanks a lot.
[00:41:29] Gene Wolverton: Awesome. Thanks, Dustin. I appreciate you and appreciate your candor. So always great talking with you.