The Dance Coach Playbook

Initiating the connections and finding support for our athletes begins with you coach! What are some tips to start those conversations and what can we do to find the help our athletes need? Check out Part 2 of this mini-series on Dance and Athletic Trainers with my guest Ashley Gentry.

As the sport of dance gets increasingly more rigorous, the necessity to provide our athletes with medical staff support, injury prevention plans, and rehabilitation treatment is no longer optional! Check out Part 1 of this mini-series on Athletic Trainers with my guest Amanda Beers.

In the dance team world where recruitment is the latest selection model, what is the value of holding a traditional tryout? Listen in as alumna and graduate student Samantha Reutter joins me today in talking about all things tryout!

There are many difficult decisions we have to make as athletic coaches - sacrifices to family time, placing team above our own needs, determining rosters - to name a few! A friend recently encouraged me to share what I personally have found to be challenging choices during my coaching career. I hope this serves as a support for anyone to whom similar circumstances resonate. We can do hard things!

We want confident athletes and want to be confident coaches, so what's holding us back? Let's explore ways to develop the courage to be the next, best version of ourselves!

Welcome back! I'm excited to open a new chapter of the Dance Coach Playbook with you. Motivated by growing in personal purpose, and requests on how to avoid burnout, let chat about how to connect with our coaching "why" and living our legacy.

Are you the expert in all things dance team? No, you're not. Neither are we! Fortunately there are experts out there to support us coaches and our teams! In this episode, we explore how to find, select and create a working environment with choreographers, consults, and other professionals in the dance team community to supplement our programs' needs and goals. 

Here's a little episode about our favorite topic...GAME DAY! Our most frequently inquired topic pertains to dance team involvement and contribution during the Game Day experience. Having recently returned from the NDCA Conference (which by the way, this is a dance team coach must - it was so great!) where Coach GK presented a short break-out session on the topic, we thought it was time to share a little on our experiences with making a winning Game Day environment!

Let's walk through a week in the life of a dance team coach! In this episode, we take a look behind the scenes of what it takes to run a college dance team. Each week of coaching looks different depending on the season and the week from this year we selected to share included practices, meetings, baseball and basketball games, and a tryout prep clinic. Follow along as we take you through this fun week!

As Tryouts Season begins, we're opening our playbook to the chapter on VIRTUAL TRYOUTS! In this episode, we share out some tips on what was successful for us last year, and what we're carrying into this years audition process. We also include some tips for dance team applicants preparing to present their best application. Best wishes in building your new team!

Looking for more tips on Spirit Program collaboration? In this episode we chat with GCU Cheer Coach Keegan Hubbard on the benefits of cheer & dance working together and tips on program communication. Coach Keegan also offers some guidance for high school spirit coaches in supporting athletes' next step to a college team.

We received a request to hear from the dancers' perspective and we loved that idea! In this episode, you'll hear from a few of our returning members who share their current real-life experiences as collegiate dancers. Please keep those requests coming! We're learning more about what it means to be a coach through your questions and interests. Enjoy!

Happy New Year! It's the perfect time to inspect what you expect from 2021, and set yourself and your team up for success. In this episode we chat about all aspects of goal setting and goal getting. 

We're excited to share about the next chapter...of dance team, of our podcast, and of coaching! Join us in the dreaming, planning, and goal-setting for 2021!

Opening up our playbook to a more personal page, this episode features an interview-style conversation with Madeline and Coach GK on coaching, dance team, leadership, & life. Check out the IGTV video of this interview on our Instagram page at @dance_coach_playbook

Looking for a fresh take on team building? The benefits of coaching and leading a connected and bonded team are unmeasurable! In this episode, we pull out a few of our favorite activities that would work for teams of all kinds. We believe it's always a great time to get your team connecting, and hope some of these exercises inspire ideas for your team!

Looking for some tips on Spirit Program collaboration?! In this episode we chat with Dr. Paul Koch, Director of Bands, on ways Dance Teams and Athletic Bands can work together in creating an exciting Game Day atmosphere!

Dancers! Coaches! Let's chat about recruiting and what that looks like for you! This episode we open our playbook to explore the how's and why's of college dance team recruitment. 

What makes your team unique? Here's a page out of our playbook on how the concept of dance team branding supports your organization and makes you memorable.

Have you ever experienced adversity? The answer is YES, we all have. Here's a page out of our playbook on how adversity shows up on dance teams, ways to address it, and some encouragement on how we can move through it together. 

We are passionate about leadership! In this episode we chat about the importance of student leadership on a dance team, provide examples of leadership roles, share some suggested student led tasks, and list a few resources that we find valuable.