The Steps I Took To Stop Burning Out Every Season.
Issue #135- Jason Payne C.M.P.C
For the first decade of my coaching career, I hit the wall in February. Usually not lightly, but more like a young Wil E. Coyote, full speed every time. Appearing like the annual holiday you hate.
And like Wile E., it looked the same every year. By late January, the season I’d been excited about in October had quietly become something I was surviving. I arrived early. I stayed late. I broke down film long after my family had gone to sleep. I replayed every mistake, mine and theirs, on long drives home. But by February, I was running on coffee and adrenaline. By March, when my team needed me at my best, I was limping across the line.
Nothing about my philosophy had changed. My standards hadn't changed. But the coach holding the line on the standards was different. The coach who showed up in February was not the coach who excitedly started the season in November.
That’s misalignment. And I lived it for a decade before I stopped to ask why.
Here’s what I believed at the time.
I believed that exhaustion was the price of caring. That my athletes, their parents, my AD, and every coach I admired measured my commitment by the visible evidence of my sacrifice. Hours at the office. Midnight film. Skipped dinners. The haggard look in February that said this guy is in it.
I believed delegation meant lower standards. That if I didn’t watch every film cut-up myself, the scouting report would be sloppy. That if I didn’t write the practice plan at 11 p.m. the night before, practice wouldn’t be sharp enough. That every task handed to someone else was a crack in the foundation.
I was wrong about all of it.
I needed to learn from the best coaches in the sport's history. They could not have built lasting careers without figuring this out. Phil Jackson figured it out before he became the head coach of the Bulls. He finished up with eleven championships and more rings than he had fingers. And throughout his long career, Jackson didn't run the offence. Tex Winter ran the triangle. Jackson didn't cut the film. He delegated it. He sat, when his back got bad, in a custom chair opposing teams called the throne, and let his players work through situations in the huddle while he watched.
The winningest coach of his era had figured out what his greatest value to his team was: his presence, relationship-building, culture-setting and maintenance. He ruthlessly refused to let anything else take up space in his week. The things he wasn’t great at, or that someone else could do better, he let someone else do. Not as a luxury. As a strategy.
I realized I’d been doing the opposite for ten years. Spending my best hours on the work I was the worst at, and arriving at the stuff I was actually great at, coaching the humans in front of me, with an empty tank.
The year I finally did something about it, I didn’t start with tactics. I sat down and asked myself two questions I’d never seriously asked before:
When am I actually at my best as a coach?
How can I be at my best and stay there?
The answers were uncomfortable. I was at my best when I empowered my athletes to solve problems instead of micromanaging them. I was at my best when practice was planned in advance, not thrown together at the last minute.
I was at my worst when I let myself get dragged into the emotional muck of a game. Or when I ran myself to the E on my energy tank. When I was depleted from a lack of sleep, exercise, and not enough good food going into my body.
None of that had anything to do with basketball. But all of it determined whether my athletes got the coach they deserved in March.
I started to treat myself like someone whose performance mattered
So I made a list of small, intentional changes. None of them was dramatic. All of them were load-bearing.
I built in one day a week with no basketball. No film, practice planning or basketball discussions with my assistants, though I did allow myself the odd game on TV.
I gave my assistant more responsibility, partly because they were ready, but also because I didn't need to carry all of it on my own
I also became fanatical about eight hours of sleep every night. If it wasn’t significant enough to finish before the end of practice, it could wait. That became the rule.
I lifted weights and did cardio four days a week, even in February.
And I took a big chunk of work off my plate. I outsourced stats and film services to companies that did them faster and better than I did.
That last one felt like heresy when I did it. Real coaches do their own film. I’d been telling myself that story for ten years. What was actually true is that I didn't love cutting film, and spending two to three hours a game on charting stats made no sense. Especially when a specialized company could do it in a fraction of the time at a reasonable cost.
I wasn’t protecting quality by insisting on doing it myself. I was protecting an identity, the coach who does it all, at the expense of being the coach my team actually needed.
Here is what happened.
My energy stabilized. My tone softened without my standards slipping. I became more consistent in how I showed up, which, it turned out, was what my athletes had been asking for all along.
They told me later they had always spent the first 30 mins taking stock of the version of me that walked into the gym that day. This was not easy to hear. When they realized that I was consistently showing up as me, they stopped wasting energy protecting themselves from it, and focused on getting better.
Practices got sharper because I wasn’t running on fumes when I designed or ran them. Games were fun all season long. I finished the year without needing to disappear for a month to recover.
Nothing I did made me less committed. Every single thing I did made me more effective.
This is what I wish someone had told me in my first five years.
Sustainability is not self-care. Sustainability is a cornerstone. It is one of the four stones the whole building rests on, right next to Identity, Purpose, and Impact, and when it sinks, the walls above it crack, and the roof starts losing shingles, even if your values and your why and your clarity about who you serve are perfectly intact.
Exhausted coaches cannot lead at the level their values call them to. That’s not an opinion. That’s fact. You can have the best tactical & technical know how in your conference. The best vision for your program but if you’re running on four hours of sleep the version of you that arrives in February will betray all of it.
The coaches whose careers keep getting better aren’t the ones who care more. They’re the ones who figured out what to invest the limited amount of resources they and their staff possess. Those that do are still at their best when the season is on the line in March.
One question for you this week.
What are you still doing yourself that someone else, could do better, cheaper, or more efficiently? Or maybe doesn't need to be done at all?
Write the list. Not the version you’d show your AD. The honest one.
Then pick one thing on it and figure how to let it go before next season.
Your February self will thank you.
Build something that is designed to last.
🎧 The Ultimate List of Coaching Podcasts
It's back!
For years, I kept a list of my favourite coaching podcasts. Somewhere along the line, I stopped updating it. But I took some time and added to it. Over 160 hours of top-notch professional development for free.
One of the simplest ways to sharpen your thinking, expand your perspective, and stay connected to the best ideas in leadership and performance is through podcasts. They give you access to world-class coaches, sports scientists, and leadership minds, often during the time you were already going to spend driving, walking, or working out.
Over the years, podcasts have become part of my own development rhythm. Some challenge my assumptions. Some give practical tools I can use the next day. And some simply remind me that the best coaches are lifelong learners.
That’s why I’ve put together The Ultimate List of Coaching Podcasts. It's a curated collection designed to help you:
✅ Build stronger culture
✅ Improve how you teach and communicate
✅ Deepen your mental performance toolbox
✅ Stay current with modern player development
✅ Grow your leadership from the inside out
Whether you’re a veteran coach or just getting started, there is something in here that will stretch your thinking.
👉 Dive into the list and pick one new voice to learn from this week.
Because the best coaches don't stay static…
They keep evolving.
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 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
Book a Free Discovery Call
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 to talk about coaching and see 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.