Behind Every Great High School Practice…
Like most coaches, Cobie Lee grew up playing a lot of sports. After getting her degree in physical education, she taught PE at the elementary school level for 15 years. But it wasn’t until she moved to high school that she truly began her coaching journey. For the past four years, Lee has been the head coach of the girls weightlifting team at J.W. Mitchell High School in Trinity, Florida, as well as an assistant softball coach.
Describe the perfect practice
It’s when the girls are excited to be there, driven to work hard, and leave feeling good about the effort they put in. If I can accomplish that while facilitating team bonding, then we’re headed in the right direction.
What are some of your go-to drills or games?
I like to stay consistent in the way that we do the practice. We warm up together where team captains lead the team in a variety of mobility exercises. After that, we do EMOM (every minute on the minute) which is where we do a set of five lifts in a row on my queue.
We have team meetings twice a week when we sit and talk about how things are going, announce our accomplishments, and discuss what’s coming up. It’s not a drill or game, but it builds communication and strengthens the team.
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What’s something you’ve learned from another coach?
I read a leadership book on getting rid of the BCD – blame, complain, and defending, which is blaming other people or yourself for problems. It’s about getting rid of negativity and being the best that you can be when you come to practice.
What’s the most challenging part of being a coach?
Girl drama – among the girls and within themselves. We have a big team with a lot of different personalities. Last year on paper, our team did pretty well. For me personally, I didn’t feel like I was developing the girls’ character as much as I wanted to. It’s been a huge learning experience over the last few years of figuring out how to help the girls see the importance of not caring what everybody thinks. I’ve made changes to help develop and build team units, where more girls are getting the opportunity to be responsible leaders. As a coach, I can really help build the girls’ self confidence through weightlifting.
What’s the best thing about being a coach?
Having the chance to see girls being able to reach goals that they didn’t think they could achieve. Weightlifting is a sport that most girls don’t grow up doing, so it’s fun to coach because you see huge growth.
I also love having the opportunity to mentor girls, not only during high school, but also after.
We’ve had a few girls who competed with the team in high school and after they graduated, they came back to help. Just seeing that circle of them coming back and wanting to give back to the team is the best.
What’s the secret to great coaching?
Stay consistent – if you give something to one player and not another, then it’s going to be hard to keep everybody feeling like they want to be there. Treat everyone equally – don’t forget about the kid who is working really hard, but who maybe isn’t your best player.
Cobie Lee was nominated for the Positive Coaching Alliance Coach of the Year award, which is presented by TeamSnap.
