Recently, I read an article on Joey Woody. Joey is the head coach for the University of Iowa men’s and women’s track and field team. Coach Woody has built what could be considered a sport’s dynasty in Iowa City, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa. Woody has led Iowa to 46 Big Ten individual titles, 11 conference relay titles, three men’s Big Ten team titles, and 166 All-American honors during his eight years as head coach. During those eight years, he has won Big Ten Coach of the Year three times. Presently, it’s his men’s team that has caught national attention, but his women aren’t far behind.
Although his team’s achievements are impressive, it was Woody’s quotes that caught my eye as I read The Des Moines Register piece. To me, Woody’s coaching advice served as a great example of what a great learning coach would want to do when working with a group of young learners. Here are a few examples of what I mean:
Woody: “Once you start winning, that becomes the expectation – not just the hope or the dream or the want-to. It’s ‘No, we expect to win every year.’ Once you establish that, it’s hard to get beat.”
Just like Coach Woody is instilling high expectations when it comes to performance, the learning coach expects their young learners to “own” their own learning. Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight, but once young learners accomplish that task, no one can ever take that power away. Individualized learning becomes personal, authentic, and empowering.
Woody: “I always say, if you’re going to have a championship team, you’ve got to have a great 4-by-4.”
A 4-by-4 is a relay where 4 runners each run 400 meters, or roughly a mile total. Most of those runners are versatile enough to run either 200-meter or 800-meter individual races. The 4-by-4 relay members offer depth to Woody’s team. Likewise, a learning coach is looking for young learners who can eventually define, plan, execute, and assess their own learning, whatever the learning topic.
Woody: “We’re not getting the top-five (national) kids all the time. What we have to do is outcoach people.”
To be a great learning coach, you need to realize you’re not going to get the most talented learners. “Outcoaching” means learning coaches must develop their learners along the way. Successful development depends on strong reading, writing, problem-solving, and character skills being practiced on a daily basis.
Woody: “Fifth-year senior Alec Still serves as a great example of the type of kid we try to develop at Iowa. Still began his college career as a walk-on from tiny Woodbury Central Community High School in northwest Iowa. As a freshman in 2018, Still was running 800 meters in the 1 minute, 56-second range. The following year, he had improved to 1:51 and 1:52. Now he’s running a 1:47:5 and is ranked first in the Big Ten. That’s how you win championships.”
Just like athletic coaches, learning coaches knows success revolves around improvement, something traditional schools often ignore. Learning coaches know that young learners improve through relationship-building between other learners and those learner’s coaches. Improvement depends on a strong plan, a plan that includes short-term check-ins and more formal meetings. Learners can build strength in their reading, writing, problem-solving, character, and other important skills just like athletes build strength in physical activity.
High expectations, versatility, development, improvement, success. It seems like Coach Woody’s recipe for his men’s and women’s track and field program at the University of Iowa could and should be applied whenever we work with our young learners. Instead, too many kids meet up with low expectations, standardization, high stakes testing, and unfair grading when they show up to these places we call school.
Friday News Roundup tomorrow. SVB
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