6 Ways to Make Life's Negatives into Positives

On October 6th of last year, my life course encountered an interruption.  I have been an assistant volleyball coach at the D-II and D-I level for the past 11 years and a head coach at other levels for 10 years prior to that.  On October 6, 2015 at about 1:30 in the afternoon, my head coach was suspended.  The staff did the best we could to steer the ship for the reminder of the season with many high and low points.  Then, on December 1, 2015 I was told my contract wouldn't be renewed as they started a search for the next head coach.  For the first time in 21 years, I was without a coaching gig.

So what to do next.  I said at the time, and many times before and since, that every time something has happened in my life that may seem like a missed or lost opportunity something better always - and I do mean ALWAYS - came along.  So what did I do next?  The 6 things I always do when faced with adversity....

1. Be Positive.  If you are not a naturally positive person, I don't know if I can help you.  I've been blessed with a positive outlook always.  I don't know why, let's credit Mom (Thanks Marge Beeckman).  If you aren't that way, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem at the time, find a handful of positive things to say about your situation everyday.  Literally a handful - 5.  It's called framing.  I read a quote somewhat recently about life isn't about the things that happen, it's about the the story you tell yourself.  Now there's a fine line between framing and delusion so it's always helpful to have a trusted circle that will tell you when you have gone completely 'round the bend.
2. Ask yourself, EVERYDAY, the following question:  If money were not a factor, what would I do?  In a case like mine, where the seemingly negative life experience is a job loss, this is a great way to figure out your next step if you don't already have an idea.  Actually take the time to let your mind dive into this one.  For me it helped to pretend I won the lottery rather than money just not existing at all...so of course I went on a day dream filled with luxurious vacations and a trip to Europe, Hawaii and new homes in multiple locations.  That was fun!  Then, I focused on reality and really thought hard about the question, day after day.  My answer: help as many athletes and coaches from multiple teams and levels of play, rather than just one; write the book I always said I would; construct a more formal education curriculum for coaches.  There are schools for acting, teaching, engineering and everything in between.  Meanwhile for coaches, we get playing experience and trial and error for the most part.  Really?!
3. Make daily commitments to yourself that you keep.  While mentoring players over the course of my career, this has become one of my favorite 'life-hacks'.  This can be something as simple as picking a time to meditate or work out, plan your day, read for a short period, anything.  But pick something and commit to yourself to keep that appointment.  In my case, I decided to train for a half marathon.  Just so the reader is aware, I am NOT a runner, not even a little.  Furthermore, I have always adamantly said I would never do something so unbelievably insane as to agree to run 13.1 miles on purpose.  Fast forward to today: I purchased a new running belt and headphones, it was the highlight of my day.  Help me!!!!
4. Focus on 3 things.  Regardless of what the nature of the negative life event.  Focus on accomplishing 3 things everyday that will make you a slightly better person.  Perhaps that means better family member, friend, spouse, spiritual being, community member, or better at your craft.  It doesn't matter, get better at 3 things everyday.  Don't try for 10 - just 3.  If you accomplish 5 things - cool!  Gold star!  If you try for too many you may accomplish none of them.  You'll chase your tail around the house until your family gets home and then feel like crap about your day.  3 things - everyday!
5. Be stubborn.  Look for signals.   The world will try to tell you that you should settle.  Change course completely.  Take the safe route.  Be stubborn.  If you figured out what you would do if money weren't an issue - work your butt off to make it happen.  However, keep your eyes wide open for signs.  They're all around you trying to guide your path.  Work hard and trust your gut on what they mean.
6. Read.  Read a lot, even if you aren't a reader.  I don't mean fiction fantasy escape novels to get away from the bottomless pit that has become your life... you negative pessimist!  Find journals, blogs and books from your industry.  Tap into the 'saved' portion of your Facebook account and check off all of those articles you tagged to read later...well, it is later and what else do you have going on?! Read anything you can get your hands on. Make it one of your commitments if you must.  Why?  While reading things your mind will make connections and have ideas, sometimes about completely unrelated things.  You never know where the journey of constant reading will take you.  

Bonus #7: HAVE FUN! EVERYDAY!  EVEN IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE IT.  That's a must.  Life is too good and too short to not love the crap out of everyday.  And I like to read so if you must, email me and we can chat...tbeeckman@gmail.com

Happy Life-ing!

Why not coaches too?

I recently read an excerpt from Sum it Up, the latest book by former Tennessee basketball coach, Pat Summitt.  Who, in case you've been living under a rock, or a mountain of rocks with a giant glacier on top of them, is one of the best coaches of all time.  I found this gem of a quote:    

"Coaching isn't social work, but it's more than just a game-it's a heartfelt vocation in which you are powerfully bonded to students.  Often, they need you more than they know they need you.  It's a job in which you grab kids by the arm and pull them out of their emotional fires, and show them what real self-worth looks like."

 And of course, I went straight over to Amazon and bought the book.  I mean, why haven't I already read this one twice?!

Coaches have a vehicle to teach character and develop kids for good and bad in ways that sometimes academic teachers don't.  While teachers and college professors are required to get a degree, in teaching, numerous certifications and continue their professional development in a formal way throughout their careers, it is acceptable for coaches to use on the job training or past playing experience as their certification.  I sat through English, history and math classes for several years but that doesn't necessarily qualify me to educate our future generation on the proper use of the comma.  You're reading my writing, so you're likely experiencing that by now.

This is not to say that those in the coaching profession don't try to develop themselves.  The best are absolutely avid lifelong learners.  There are plenty of growth opportunities.  There are countless clinics and workshops I myself have gone to for years hungry to hear the best drill design methods, most effective statistic for predicting winning strategies and the like.  Some are even great, some have seemingly evolved into a networking first party where many roam around looking for the coolest coach to stand next to.  Coaches need more.  Coaches at all levels should be provided more opportunities to grow in areas like teaching techniques, motor skill development, communication, character development, diplomacy, public speaking, parent group training, etc.

If sports are going to continue as they are, the coaches who get roped in because no one else would do it must have a place to turn to develop their skills.  Players, who may have had great potential, are being driven from the sport because of under-skilled coaches who made playing the sport miserable.  Meanwhile good coaches are being driven out of coaching at an alarming rate because of overzealous parents who didn't answer the call when no one would fill the post but seem to have all the best ideas from the stands.

We should do better.   We can do better.

I want to see coaches from all sports, schools and levels come together for real collaboration.  I want coaches to be required to attend formal workshops to improve in areas that affect their players as people, not just the play on the court.  I want athletic directors and the administrators above them to recognize coaching education as the most pressing resource and help to fund it.  I want college administrators to demand that candidates have more than name recognition or recent playing experience to be considered for their positions.  I want parents and athletes to expect and demand qualified and educated coaches, just as they would expect it from every classroom teacher.  Character development is getting lost in sport, the time to address it has come.

If you are a coach or athletic director and are interested in hosting a workshop, please email tbeeckman@gmail.com

Happy Coaching!

The Day Of...The Choice After

Many people have asked me how we handled the situation we faced last season with the Central Michigan Volleyball Team.  They've asked with enough frequency that I sort of assumed I would write something to sum up our immediate reaction.  While this is not an comprehensive answer to the question, here's a small glimpse into the day of...

I don't know if what we did was perfect, but I would like to think we responded to our head coach being suspended, unexpectedly in the middle of the season, as well as could be expected.

The remaining staff found out 20 minutes before we were going to head down to practice.  We heard the information, returned to our office, had a group hug and made a decision.  We decided that from that point forward we had to work as hard as we could to make sure the season wasn't a complete loss.  The players had worked too hard to let it just go by the wayside.  In short - everything is a choice and we chose to remain as positive as possible in that circumstance.  We tried to lead our team in that direction as well.  In fact, here is a verbatim copy of the first email I sent to the team that evening, roughly 7 hours from hearing the news of the suspension:

On 10/6/15, 9:09 PM, "Theresa M. Beeckman" <tbeeckman@gmail.com> wrote:

>Just wanted to reach out and remind you all of one thing.....
>
>"The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
>Attitude; to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than
>the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures,
>than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more
>important than appearance, talent or skill. It will make or break a
>company....a home....a team. The remarkable thing is we have a choice
>every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot
>change our past...we cannot change the fact that other people will act in
>their own way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can
>do is play on the one string we have, and that is attitude.....I am
>convinced that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to
>it." -By Charles Swindoll
>
>Let's choose greatness! Game set up tomorrow.
>
>Please reach out if you need to talk, vent, ask a question,
>whatever....Shields up!
>
>Tree

Obstacles would continue to come up through the course of the season and ultimately we fell short of the greatness we sought.  I do, however, feel satisfied in the knowledge that we at least sought it.

And just as I wrote in a note to an administrator at that time, I still remain "unconditionally grateful regardless of my circumstances".  A line I borrowed from the book Burn your Goals by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert.

You always have a choice. ALWAYS.

My Final Bulldog Ride

Written in 2011, reposted March, 2016

My Final Bulldog Ride

                  I thought I could avoid it…a final bus ride that is.  For those out there that don’t know this yet, I have accepted a position as an assistant volleyball coach at Central Michigan University so after six wonderful years as the assistant volleyball coach at Ferris State, It’s time to say goodbye to some pretty wonderful people.  I thought I could avoid a goodbye tour on the Ferris maxi bus with my girls.  I had gone recruiting so I had the rides all arranged.  The girls had other ideas.  What they didn’t know was that I had many hidden tears the prior weekend on the way to and from our spring tournament in Indiana.  What they didn’t know was that I knew how hard it would be to know ahead of time that it would be my final ride on that bus, with them, as a Bulldog.

                  I’m so glad that they had other ideas!  I’m so thankful for them and for the experiences I’ve had in my time at Ferris State and very thankful that they made me take one last ride with them.  We have a few more times in the gym together.  We still have some goodbyes waiting….but there’s something about taking one final ride home… and I’m so glad I didn’t miss it.  If you’ve never been a member of a team, it may be hard to fully explain this, but for those of you who have, you all know that so much happens on the bus.  There is something about the travels, the times at dinners, the things teams do away from the court and field.  Those times are the special ones.

                  Terry Petit, a former volleyball coach at Nebraska University, wrote a whole book on it.  It’s called The Secret Life of Teams.  To me, that’s really what it comes down to, the secret or behind the scenes life of a team.  When I think of my time at Ferris State, I don’t think of the win/loss record.  I don’t think of the big wins or the tough losses.  I think of the times the players reminded me of on that final ride home.  The time I wiped out hard on a towel after setting up what I just knew was the perfect drill.  Or the time Sarah Lark set up a box for me to hit from and I walked into it backwards pulling over a ball cart full of balls spraying them all over the gym.  I also think of the day that a hand full of players came into my office with milk and Oreo Cookies to have a 3 hour chat or just last week when a different three players came in for a similar sit down. Then of course there is the time that I basically hit Lisa Tobiczyk with the van because of a stolen snack from the other half of the team.  No worries, she was sure to tell all of the parents at the next banquet.  Awesome!  Thanks for that Toby!    For all of those stories and a million others like it, I thank those girls for making me take that final ride.

                  I’m excited to take on a new challenge and to get out of my comfort zone.  I’m thrilled to learn new things and listen to new perspectives on a game I love.  I know that in my career, if it’s ever easy to leave a place, you’re definitely not doing things right.  I know all of this and yet, I hurt at the thought of not being on that bus or behind the scenes with those girls anymore.  They have all left a very large imprint on my heart.  So simply put, thank you!  I feel a debt to you all for the trust, love and respect you’ve given me.  Thank you for letting me a part of your lives and for enriching mine.

In my six years at Ferris I’ve been fortunate to have crossed paths with the following 42 people and to each of you I say thank you, you have done more for me than you know.  My hope is that I managed to enrich your life in some way as well.

                  Danielle Baucher, Lauren Heine, Lindsay Tye, Karla White, Becky Thurau, Candice Marut, Molly Pickvet, Emily Clouse, Jamie Palazzolo, Jacque Edwards, Kaite Edwards, Andrea Zylstra, Sarah Miller, Emily Nemmers, Lindsay Johnson, Brittny Godlewski, Keagan Krauss, Andrea Rich, Amanda Kettlewell, Dana Ruttle, Meredith Doyle, Sarah Lark, Whitney Rupp, Kristy Gilchrist, Arielle Goodson, Leslie Swanson, Dana Fairbanks, Lisa Tobiczyk, Ashley Nugent, Danielle Hamilton, Ashley Huntey, Samantha Fordyce, Mallory Kopa, Aly Brecht, Karen Thompson, Brianna Grover, Paige Wyers, Anne Sutton, Lindsay Miller, Angi Kent, Stephanie DeYoung and Kara Hess.

I'm not their mom...and I'm cool with that

I am a lucky lucky person, of this I have zero doubt!  I am married to a wonderful person with 2 great children, a boy (14) and a girl (10).  The kids are awesome, the separation of their parents, not so much.  

It's safe to say that the split of their parents wasn't on the best of terms.  All in all, I've been in their lives since they were 4 and 8. I've seen them grow, helped them with homework, tried to guide their character development from a weird place.  They've both confided in me in times of struggle and triumph.  I've at times been their kick in the butt when needed.  But I am NOT their mom or their dad...and I'm cool with that.

I don't seek to replace either parent, nor do I think I ever should, but I do have a place.  I coach for a living so I have a unique look into the sometimes crazy motivations of parents who truly believe that their children are possessions or at least living, breathing monuments to their own greatness.  I feel strongly that children come to this world through their parents, not FOR their parents.

So I will never claim them as my own, and I don't feel that I should.  I'm cool to be the anonymous onlooker in the stands. Oh I'll brag about them and share moments from our time together, you better believe it.  You will just NEVER see me claim them as my children.  I won't burden them with my need to feel validated in their lives.  I know where I stand from our many private moments together.  They have a mom and a dad who loves them.  I'm good to just be a bonus and a resource for them.  Their emotional needs far outweigh my own.  

.... AND I'm cool with that.  

Sports Parents: DON'T DO THESE THINGS!!!!!!!!

If your child plays on a sports team that you are not the coach of, trust me: NEVER DO THE FOLLOWING THINGS:

1. Try to get the attention of or talk to your kid while they're with their team for a contest.
- This includes from the time you drop them at the school/club/competition until they get back into your car to go home. Even if you've coached them in the past, even if you're a master coach or master former player yourself, there is NOTHING that should ever trump the sacredness of the team, period.

2. Yell or talk to the players/coaches from the opposing team during/after the contest.
- I promise you that if you have done this or do this currently, your son or daughter is embarrassed by your actions. Even if they say the opposite.

3. Cheer at the game as if you’re watching a dogfight.
- Are you kidding me?!

4. Yell out instructions to the team while they’re playing.
- 10 to 1 you are yelling the complete opposite thing the coach is looking for. If you’re not in the huddle, stay out of it.

5. Overreact to officials.
- You can react, sure. You can disagree, absolutely. Don’t make a scene about it. You look like an idiot.

6. Go onto the field of play when they get injured unless or until you’re called out there.
- Might just be a sprained ankle…don’t overreact. Go near the entry point, but wait for the nod from the trainer or coach. Your child is NOT made of glass. They will thank you for not treating them like they are.

7. Do NOT cheer to be the center of attention.
- The contest is on the field/ice/court, it is not in the stands. If you need some competition in your life, join a team, play some darts, run a race. Do not make your child’s game about you.

8. Yell at your kid for every little things he/she does.
- See #4

DO THIS:

1. Cheer positively and passionately for your child’s whole team and for great play on both sides.
- Be a great ambassador for sportsmanship and a positive example of human being-ness. Whether you think so or not, you’re child is watching and learning from you!

Why does it matter if we call them 'girl push ups'?

What's the big deal?

Yes, I played football, and yes I'm a huge proponent that girls can and should be expected to do the same amount and type of work boys do growing up - and vice versa. However, the girl vs. modified push up thing is not about a women's lib for me.  Relatively speaking, I’m not even that much of a feminist.  Racial inequality is probably the cause I feel strongest about.  In fact, the headline in the Saginaw News many years ago about my football experience observed my lack of political motivation in my choice to play football.  

So why does it matter that we call them girl push ups?  It matters because every time you label a thing - especially a lesser thing - as being a ‘girl’ this or that, you send a message that she is LESS THAN.  You send a message that her ability is fixed and limited.  You send a message that she is second class to a boy.  Yes, it is just a label, just a way of making a distinction between harder and easier push ups.  For goodness sake - In this world, knowing what we know about development, it is such an easy fix, why wouldn’t we strive to make that change as a people?!  Why wouldn’t you try to use language to empower all children?! Why, you know, in the WORLD, would anyone try to limit a child before he or she has had a chance to explore just how GREAT they can be?

So is it really that big of a deal?  The answer is, it depends on how deeply you care about the development of the girls that you teach, raise or coach.

The Art of Coaching is Changing Fast

For the past 11 years, as an assistant at both the Division II and Division 1 level, I’ve noticed an alarming trend.  Every year a minimum of five emails would come through asking if I had anyone in mind that might like to coach volleyball at their high school.  Every single year.

Athletic Directors in a 50 mile area with no other idea of how to find a coach would seek the advice or recommendation of every college coach in the area.  I don’t blame them, coaches for all sports in both high school and college are being chewed up and spit out by athletes and their parents.  That’s not the only thing doing the chewing unfortunately….

The art of coaching has changed dramatically in a very short time.  Coaches that are unable or unwilling to change their style are chewing themselves up in the process.  These coaches are putting relationship building, culture development and mentorship firmly in the category of soft skills at their own peril.  They are sticking to their tried and true methods that ‘have always been the way we’ve done things’ and seeing their careers go by the wayside.  

The thing is, kids can still take toughness, they can still take a coach driving them and they can still absolutely be held to very high standards.  However, they will take none of these things if a coach hasn’t, with both actions and words, made it abundantly clear that he or she cares deeply about them and proves that they know what they’re doing.  They also won’t hear a coach if they don’t understand the ‘why’ of a task.  In addition, their parents, without a good system in place, are very very likely to become an active part of their children’s experience.  They see 2% of what happens with their child and his or her team while they expect to have their input heard 98% of the time.

This is all a recipe for disaster.  High Schools are finding anyone who is willing to fall on the grenade to coach their teams.  These victims of bad timing are left to figure out the sport first while they feel their way through ‘this culture stuff’.  All the while the sharks are circling below waiting to snap off a limb should a moment be interpreted in a bad way by a player who thinks they should be playing more than they are.

It is said often that sports build character and bring about countless positive things for the players that partake.  This is not inherently true.  You don’t just plug a child in like bread in a toaster, hit a button, wait for the ding and out pops up a finished product.  Athletics has the potential to do so much good, but there must be a system in place to assure this will happen.

The system should address at least these 6 things:

1. The ‘why’ of the program/team must be clear and understood by every person associated with the team.  Also, players and parents are too informed for coaches to act inconsistently with the team’s why.  If the team is all about the process and you, as a coach, are reacting mostly to results, you will have problems.
2. Parents.  You need to have a clear system for parent communication and you have to follow the system.  A good amount of empathy will go a very long way toward gaining and keeping your parental group’s support.  If you ignore them, there are likely bad things festering in the stands.
3. Organization speaks to competency.  There are too many tools hanging around that can assist coaches in communicating with athletes and parents.  If you are a disorganized mess in that department, your team will feel it and your leash will shorten with each misstep.
4. Rules are overwhelming - standards are challenges to meet.  Set standards for your team that are clear, concise and empowering.
5. Program Dictionary - take the time to define important words.
6. Core Values - this can be a mission statement, a list of words that define your program, whatever you want.  It cannot be some business-like PR memo that no one looks at again.  It should guide your every decision and be talked about at every practice.

In addition to the above system points, consider empowering your athletes to look at you, your staff and the program as a resource meant to help them grow.  The coaches will not magically make them better, practices will not magically make them better, only they can make themselves better by putting forth the effort to learn and grow.

With that being said, try to empower your athletes to take charge of their own development with 4 questions:

1. What does every team and player have in common: TIME
2. Who is the best coach in the world: The BALL (or puck)
3. What are your coaches to you: RESOURCES
4. Who is responsible to make you the best player you can be: OURS (the player)

Athletics can and should be an awesome journey of self discovery and so much of that depends on the coach who is driving the ship.  Have fun, be inspired and put a system in place to help you navigate the journey.

Happy Coaching!

Sam and Max

So in the past week I posted a couple of endorsements from some players. If you are reading this and are a former player, don’t worry, you’re not off the hook. I’ll be coming after yours soon, I’m sure! I’m gathering these endorsements from various people to use for different things to promote the business that I have recently began. In the world of athletics, these are important pieces of information to help those that don’t know you personally accept that you’re not a total crack pot. Let’s be serious, all coaches are a little nutty, this just helps other coaches and administrators gauge just how much.

I thought it fitting that the first player endorsements I posted were from Kelly Maxwell, a setter I worked with at Central Michigan University, and Sam Fordyce, a setter I worked with before Kelly while I was still at Ferris State University. Their differences and similarities are in abundance.

Differences right off the bat….

Sam and I hit it off from the very first conversation we had. She blew our entire coaching staff away with her demeanor, poise, maturity and easy nature. I knew from the very start that she would be a huge success and make a giant impact on the Ferris State Volleyball program from that first lunch during her visit. She knew it too because she took all of 36 hours to commit. Meanwhile, Max will confirm for anyone who asks her that she legitimately thought I might be the spawn of satan upon our first meeting. She, in fact, talked to her mom after I spent a few minutes working with her, about how much she didn’t like me. She did this, not in the context of telling her mom she didn’t like her future position coach, she didn’t know that I was about to take that job at the time. No, she actually disliked me so much that she made it a point to tell her mom, and it wasn't even out of dread for having to work with me, she did it just for good measure. Of course she didn’t tell me that until midway through our first season together, I suppose after she realized that I was only related to the spawn of satan.

And some similarities...

In demeanor they are both demanding, Max’s sense of demand came louder in volume than Sam’s but they both had a dead serious side that said simply ‘it’s time to work’. Both were very competitive, worked extremely hard, were open to being coached, and most importantly were excellent at looking foolish and being uncomfortable while learning. If I had to nail it down to why training with them went faster than with others, I would say it was their level of vulnerability and adaptability in training above all else.

You can find many articles, blog posts and chapters of volleyball books that address the setter-coach dynamic. You can find countless more that address the quarterback-coach relationship in football. There is a reason for the expanded explanation of this dynamic, simply put, it’s just different. It isn’t different in the way that the people in those positions do or should get special or favorable treatment. It is different in the way that when you’re fortunate to find the right ones, the depth of their commitment to the team and the sport they serve is more than most people can imagine. You ask them to try things that most would scoff at and certainly not be able to take seriously while they run with it taking it to the next level. Then they ask for more. Sam and Max both had that sense of indestructibility and vulnerability in training. Walking contradictions tip toeing on the tight rope that is the space of perfect training.

Of course, those risks are easier to take when a trusted teammate is there to catch you if and when you fall. Both setters had amazing training partners in their careers. I would be very remiss to not talk about those players here as they’re role in the success of the each of them was huge, selfless and often unnoticed. Sam redshirted her first year at Ferris to train and learn from two senior setters. Paige Wyers entered Ferris State during Sam’s redshirt freshman year and first year on the court. Paige and Sam trained together for the next four years. Max, on the other hand, was the back up her freshman year and then moved into the starting role as a sophomore. Her back up that year was Catherine Ludwig, the previous year’s starter. Both Paige and Cat were bigger parts of their team’s championships than anyone outside the team ever knew. Both of them, in my opinion, played the toughest and most important position on the team to perfection. Both could have been starters at other schools and rather than sulk or bemoan their situations, they supported their teammate and their position coach in so many invaluable ways.

No road map...

How do you get to that space of perfect training with a player? It’s hard to say for sure, but I know in both cases I expressed both confidence and vulnerability in the same amounts I needed it from them. I know that both of these players wanted to be coached, knew it would seem impossible at times and trusted that from every difficulty they would get better. I also made a point to answer the ‘why’ of things before they asked in an effort to get them used to asking and knowing the ins and outs of everything we did. Finally, in both cases I allowed them to figure out things for themselves and teach me along the way. A level of trust is born from these behaviors that allowed both of them, and me, to take risks and truly train on the edge of our ability. The longer you can keep your players on the edge of their ability or comfort zone, the more their abilities increase. Their level of confidence, real confidence that a person earns through sweat and tears, also increases with every training session until as Thomas Carruthers said, you make yourself as the coach “progressively unnecessary”.

Unfortunately there isn’t an algorithm that you can just plug in and see it work time after time. Finding and then training setters like Max and Sam is like a great golf shot - the one that keeps you addicted to the game because it was so rewarding - I’m just grateful I had them in back to back rounds of golf.