Free for coaches
The Development Loop Starter Kit
Goals, feedback and recognition are the three things a coach controls that most reliably keep athletes improving and coming back. This kit gives you a simple way to run all three, on paper, starting at your next practice.
Get the free kit. Instant download.
Seven-page PDF, built to print. No app required.
What's inside
Four tools and a two-week plan. Print it, put it on your clipboard, and write on it.
The Goal Conversation
A six-minute, six-step script to run one-on-one with each athlete early in the season.
The Athlete Goal Card
One skill goal and one habit goal per athlete, with room for quick dated check-ins.
The 5:1 Tracker
Hand it to an assistant for one practice and find out your real ratio of specific positives to corrections.
20 Recognition Prompts
Questions to close practice with, so the players who never make the highlight reel get noticed for the right things.
Why these three
Athletes rarely quit because they lose. They quit when they stop feeling like they're improving and stop feeling noticed. Both are in a coach's control.
- Goals give an athlete something specific to work on.
- Feedback tells them how it's going.
- Recognition makes sure they're seen when they get it right.
The kit cites the research behind each tool, including Smith, Smoll and colleagues' coach-training studies and Visek's work on what young athletes say makes sport fun.
Running it for a whole roster?
CoachBoost runs the same loop in an app: one active goal per player, coach observations, feedback and recognition tied to your standards, with a player view and a parent view. Every new Program starts with a 15-day free trial.