Green, yellow, or red?

One question to ask before each practice.

Issue 152- Jason Payne, CMPC

You walk into your team room for a random weekday practice.

The players are dressed. The music is on. From the outside, it looks like any other practice during the season.

But you can feel it within ninety seconds. Something is off. Two of your seniors are quiet in a way they aren't usually quiet. The freshman in the corner is going through the motions. Your captain, who is normally the first one to talk, has not said a word.

You know something is wrong. You cannot name it. You do not have the language for it, and neither do they. So you run the practice you planned, and by the end, you are several steps behind where you needed to be. Whatever the players were carrying in the door, they took with them to the practice.

Every coach has that day. Some of us have a lot of them. So do our athletes.

The tool this week is the simplest thing I have included in my book.

It is also one of the most useful.

The Traffic Light Check-In

Before every practice, you ask each athlete one question.

Green, yellow, or red?

Green means I am in my window. I am ready to work.

Yellow means something is off. Maybe I slept badly or had a fight with my mom. Maybe I do not know what it is yet, but I know I am not fully here.

Red means I am not in a state to perform right now. I need a reset before practice begins.

That is it. One question. Three answers. Ninety seconds at the start of every practice.

You can run it verbally at the top of the huddle. You can put a board on the wall of the locker room wall and have them mark it as they come in. You can use an app if that is where your team already lives. The format is not what matters. The habit is.

When I first saw this exercise, it was targeted at how athletes were feeling physically. How much pain were they experiencing? This is great, but taking it a step further is simple. Allowing them to tell you how their life is affecting them makes it a much more powerful tool.

How it becomes a discussion tool

The check-in gives you data. That is useful. What makes it powerful is what happens after the number.

If a player is yellow, you follow up. Not in front of the team. Later, in the water break, in the parking lot, in a text on the drive home. You marked yellow today. Anything I can help with. Ninety percent of the time, they name it. Sometimes it is a bad grade or a fight at home. Or it is something they struggle to articulate, and just being asked drops the pressure by half.

If a player is red, you have a decision to make. Sometimes red is a signal that they should watch today rather than participate. Or red could be a signal that they need three minutes alone before practice starts. A red light often signals that a longer conversation is coming this week. You do not always know the right response, but you always know a response is required.

If the team as a whole is yellow or red, you change the practice you were going to run. That is not weakness. That is athlete-centered coaching. A team carrying that kind of weight and physical exhaustion cannot improve their craft that day. They can get better at knowing themselves. Sometimes that is the most important work we do with our athletes.

The bigger thing that happens

Do this for a season, and something shifts. At first, most players tell you they are green. It is easy; it doesn't draw attention, but once athletes feel comfortable, they start to answer honestly. Coaches can help with this by providing their traffic light color as well. Vulnerability goes a long way, and it helps you assess how you are feeling. When I reflect on my most difficult season, I was yellow or red every day. I just didn't stop long enough to reflect on how I was feeling.

Your team also develops a shared vocabulary for what is happening inside them. I am yellow today becomes a thing they say to each other in the locker room, without you in the room. That is the culture you were trying to build. It arrived through one simple question, asked every day.

Self-awareness stops being a private exercise. It becomes a team norm. And when the pressure of a playoff game, a bad loss, or a long road trip impacts your program, you have a language for it before it lands.

Green, yellow, or red?

____________________________________________________________

P.S. Two quick things.

If you have not taken the Aligned Coach Scorecard, it is a four-minute diagnostic that covers the four pieces of coaching identity: who you are, why you coach, the impact you want to leave, and whether your work is sustainable. About a hundred coaches have taken it so far, and their scores are already painting a picture.

ALIGNED: The Inside-Out Path to Coaching Excellence, my first book, launches on Amazon on October 27. If you want the first chapter free and reader-only bonuses, join the launch list here.

Are you or your athletes struggling to be their best?

Let's find a solution together.

I help coaches thrive.

As a Certified Mental Performance Consultant and a basketball coach with over 25 years of experience, I understand the barriers to peak performance for both you and your athletes.

I would love to help you or your team build a competitive advantage.

Here are a few ways I can help:

• Consult with your team or coaching staff
• Teach mental skills to your team via Zoom
• Work 1-on-1 with coaches
• Work 1-on-1 with athletes

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If you’re feeling the weight of expectations, pressure, or burnout, you don’t have to figure this out alone.

A discovery call is simply a chance to talk through your season, your goals, and your process with another coach who’s been there. No pitch. No obligation. Just a meaningful conversation.

Schedule a discovery call here.

Shoot me an email at jasonpayne@evolutionmpc.com. I love talking about coaching and seeing how I can help you.

Coaching is hard; let's make it easier.

Check out my website at http://jasonpayne.ca​

Thanks for reading, and have a great week.