Coach Alstin Benton discusses the key components of building a championship culture. He emphasizes that culture is the most important factor for a team's success, not talent alone. The components of a championship culture include strong character among athletes, a hard-working "grind it out" mentality, bringing passion to both practice and coaching, creating fans of the sport, organized and purposeful practices, treating athletes like whole people instead of robots, and emphasizing lifestyle factors like sleep, nutrition, stress management, and activity levels that affect performance. Building this type of culture requires developing integrity, leadership, responsibility, respect, and sportsmanship in athletes.

1. Building a Championship Culture
COACH ALSTIN BENTON –
UNIVERSITY OF SAINT MARY

3. Culture why is it so
important?
 Every time we have failed as a program it
was because of culture.
 Regardless of the talent of the team…. culture is
why we failed.
 LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR THAT IS MY FAULT/
FAILURE NOT THEIRS
 We control the culture of our teams

4. What is a championship
culture?
 Is a culture that breads success
 What factors are important to performing at a
high level? – factors that affect performance?

5. Components of a
championship culture
Character
Mentality
Passion
The Fan
Practice
The Person
Lifestyle Issues

6. Character
HOW CHARACTER AFFECTS A
TEAM

7. What are the components
of a Champion of
Character *(NAIA)
 Integrity
 Servant Leadership
 Responsibility
 Respect
 Sportsmanship

8. Why are these
components important
 Integrity
 Knowing and doing what is right
 Servant Leadership
 Serving the good of the team
 Responsibility
 Doing your part to contribute to the team
 Respect
 Treat others how you want to be treated
 Sportsmanship
 Bringing your best to every competition

9. Mentality
WHY “MENTAL” -ITY MATTERS

10. Mentality – “ The Grind”
“The art of the hero is not
about being brave but it is about
being so competent there is no
need to be brave”
We discuss working hard so that we are over prepared

11. Mentality – Central
Governor Model
 Understanding how much the mind plays in
successful running
 Introduced by Tim Noakes in the 2000’s
 Traditional Catastrophic approach is likely false
 Traditional fatigue by products don’t directly
cause fatigue
 “Fatigue is a Brain-Derived Emotion” (Noakes
2012)

12. Example’s
 When you exercise and your body heats up your
brain shuts down exercise or slows you down
before your body gets to a dangerous heat level.
 The athlete who PR’s and says that it was the
easiest race they have ever ran.

13. Mental Toughness
Workouts
 Long Runs
 The ability to stay focused for an extended period
of time
 Mystery workouts
 Do not tell them workout up front
 They only know what’s next after the previous
interval
 Surprise Workouts
 Cut warmup short
 Last Minute Changes
 Unexpected workout that day

14. Passion
COACHING WITH A PASSION

15. Passion
 Bring your A game everyday
 Be ready for practice!
 Never bring outside emotions into practice
 Be interested in their life outside of running
 Fine arts, work, family life, grad school, finals
 You should BE A FAN of the Sport!

16. The Name Game
 Say an athletes name everyday
 Try this!
 They give you 1-2 hours of your time try to spend 20
seconds saying name and asking them one
question
 “ Hey Mark! How is work treating you?
 “Hey Josh! How did you math test go?

17. The Fan
CREATING FANS OF THE
SPORT

18. Love the Sport
 Track Watch Parties
 Track is expensive to watch and not main stream
 You don’t see it everyday on TV
 Have a Pizza Party and Watch whatever big meet is
on
 Have everyone pick a favorite professional
athlete.
 Create a questionnaire

19. Athletes Name:_______________ Athlete Hometown/Country:________
Athlete Age:_____
Major Victories/Medals:
What are their main events?
What is their racing style?
What is your favorite race for that athlete?
What is the athletes background?
What college did the athlete go to?
Favorite Professional Track Athlete

20. Practice
BRING A CHAMPIONSHIP
ATMOSPHERE TO PRACTICE

21. Practice
 Organized
 Have a reason
 Explain the reason
 Keep it simple – 5 min rule
 Put your phone away
 Always be ON
 Deliberate Practice

22. Team Communication
 Communication is key
 As coaches we emphasize the importance of
communicating
 Comfortable correcting each other
 Doing exercise right
 Not skipping
 Comfortable talking with coaches staff
 Injuries/Pain
 Asking questions

23. After Practice
 The importance of friendship and recovery
 Practice should end together
 Studies show that Laughing and Spending time
with Family or Friends decreases perceived
fatigue (Magness)
 Helps Low Cortisol(stress) levels

24. The Person
THEY ARE PEOPLE NOT
ROBOTS

25.  Remember they are people
 They have feelings
 They all are going through things
 Many more than we know or understand

26. Athletic Lifestyle Issues
THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT
AN ATHLETES PERFORMANCE

27. Lifestyle Issues
The outside factors that
contribute to an Athletes
Performance
 Sleep
 Nutrition
 Stress
 Outside Activity Levels

28. Sleep
 8 to 10hrs – we already knew this
 But why…..because of two hormones that a
linked to our appetite and hunger!
 Ghrelin and Leptin – accelerator and brake
 Ghrelin – hormone released by the stomach that
affects appetite (accelerator)
 Leptin – a hormone that is thought to suppress
appetite and speed up metabolism (brakes)
 4-6hrs of sleep a night results in 14.9% increase in
Ghrelin production and 15.5% lower levels of
Leptin

29. Sleep = Recovery
 Aids in muscle Recovery
 Lack off = Loss of mental concentration
 Release of Growth Hormone
Recovery, Mental Focus, Hormone Balance = Great
Performance!!

30. Nutrition
 We are in a crisis in America
 Eating More and Being Less Active
 Spend time in practice talking about nutrition
 Try to have healthier team meals!
 Recommended Reading on Nutrition – for you!
 Lore of Nutrition - Tim Noakes
 The Story of the Human Body – Daniel Liebermann

31. Nutrition
Basic Nutrition information I share with the team
The six groups of nutrients found in our food are
 Carbohydrates
 Fats & oils
 Proteins
 Vitamins
 Minerals
 Water

32. Recommended Daily Amount
• 3-4 Servings of Fruit Daily
• Essential Carbohydrates
• Essential Vitamins
• Essential Minerals
• Small amounts of protein
• 5-7 Servings of Vegetables Daily
• Essential Carbohydrates
• Essential Vitamins
• Essential Minerals
• Small amounts of protein
• 2-4 Servings of Protein Daily
• Essential Fats
• Large Amounts of Protein
• 3 Servings of Whole Grains Daily
• Carbohydrates
• Fiber

33. How do we apply this?
 What is a Servings size?
 Fruit = 1 fruit.. I.E. whole apple
 Vegetable =1/2 cup of solid vegetables (corn,
green beans, broccoli)
 Salads = 1 Cup (Dark Greens)
 Protein = Size of 1 palm
 Whole Grain = Judgment call/ 1 slice

34. Eat more, Eat Less
 Aim for 5-6 meals daily
 Why? To maintain blood sugar levels without spikes
 Prevent metabolism from slowing
 Make meals similar in size
 Why? Keeps you full, no need to pig out at single
meal.
 Eat more often but eat less at individual meals

35. Name_Alstin__ Date__________
Meal Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Breakfast 2 Eggs, Toast
Snack Bannana
Lunch
Salad w/ chicken
apple, Bread
Snack
Protien Bar,
bannana
Dinner
Tilapia, Corn,
Asparagus,
Cookie
Vegetables
(5-7) 4 veggy
Fruits(3-4) 3 fruit
Protein(2-3) 3 servings
W.Grain
(3)(45+g) 3 servings

36. How Do We Bring This
to the Team?

37. Team Goals/ Individual
Goals
 Setting team goals based around these areas not
around performance goals.
 We don’t set goals based on
finishes/times/performances
 Focus on growing in these areas will help you
grow as an athlete
 Character
 Mentality
 Practice
 Lifestyle Issues

38. FINAL STEP-THE BUY IN!

39. The End! Thank you
QUESTIONS?

40. Sources
 Noakes, T. D. (2012) Frontiers in Physiology
 Magness (2014) The Science of Running
 Noakes T. D. (2004) Lore of Running