I meant to write this a week or so ago, but realized I am going through Part 2 right now with Football, Men's and Women's Basketball and Volleyball. I thought I'd take notes on how I'm doing things and see if it actually matches up with what I wanted to write in this.
Gaining Trust/Showing them you care:
This is a big part nowadays. I don't think it mattered as much when I played, but people are more "in their feelings" now and it's something you have to consider.
Before you rip someone's ass you have to gain their trust. They have to believe that their best interest is in the core of what you're doing. They have to know that you care about their success.
I spend quite a bit of time talking to the athletes individually and as a group. I try my hardest to remember where they're from, what they're studying, nicknames and whatever other little details there are.
I also spend a lot of time nitpicking their lifting. This is much more of an instruction period than a true training period. They're still training hard, but we're not throwing them into the fire. By keeping the pace a little slower and the overall workload a little lighter we're not going to run them into the ground and we can spend some time talking with and coaching them on how we want things done. This is when I'll equate what we're doing in the weight room to their sport. There are a lot of comments like, "This is why we..." or, "We do this because it'll help..."
If you have a team that doesn't love the weight room I think it helps them understand that we're not in here to get jacked. We're in here to improve performance.
Now, just because I'm telling them that Squatting will help (whatever) doesn't mean their buying in. But, if I tell them that "this" is important and they eventually start to see it pay off then that's when we start to get the "buy in" and the understanding of why the weight room is so important.
In the month that I have these kids we won't get total buy in from all or even most. But, it's the start. The buy in for basketball will really start to come in September and October. Volleyball is probably a little more like January because they don't really lift much during the season. Football will buy in much quicker than others.
The process of gaining and building trust never stops. I just believe that if you start them off with the goal setting expectations and building trust it'll make your job easier in the long run. So talk to your kids. Listen to them. Try to learn as much as you can about them. Let them know that you're here to help.