Coaching Culture

John Mayer had just won LMU's first conference championship when he started questioning everything about how he coached. He had a system that worked. He changed it anyway.
JP Nerbun sits down with John Mayer, head beach volleyball coach at Loyola Marymount and the 2025 AVCA National Coach of the Year, to unpack the research that pulled him away from being the coach with all the answers. You will hear why a strong learning environment starts with the individual, why his practices open with cartwheels and one-eyed sets, and how handing players problems instead of solutions made them more creative, more independent, and less dependent on him under pressure.
If your athletes execute beautifully in practice but look to the sideline the moment things get hard, this conversation will change how you think about your next practice plan.
Chapters
(00:00) Intro: from elite player to coach
(06:09) What a learning environment needs
(10:14) Do feel-good drills belong?
(14:08) Differential learning and noise
(16:22) The 2019 coaching crisis
(19:49) Letting go of being the guru
(21:37) Earning buy-in with feedback
(26:31) Did it work? Results at LMU
(29:08) How practice shapes culture
(33:41) When new ideas become too many
TOC 3-2-1
3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.
"I flipped from before I was the provider of solutions, and then I became the provider of problems."
John Mayer
"I'm not as worried about what they like. My daughter likes ice cream. That doesn't mean it's gonna help her perform at a high level. I'm concerned in what's effective."
John Mayer
"These are the sort of people I want to put into the world, not people who follow orders."
John Mayer
2 Questions for Your Team
Q1: What part of practice feels good but does not actually make you better, and where do you feel the kind of struggle that does?
Q2: When something in practice confuses you or is not working, how comfortable are you telling us, and what would make it easier?
1 Resource to Go Deeper
The Nonlinear Nature of Learning: A Differential Learning Approach by Wolfgang Schöllhorn and colleagues
John credits Schöllhorn's differential learning research out of Germany with turning his coaching upside down. This open-access paper explains why adding variation, or noise, to practice can help athletes find their own movement solutions instead of copying one prescribed technique.
Read the paper here
Key Takeaways
Great players don't automatically make great coaches.
Design for the sweet spot between success and failure.
Differential learning turns off the fear of judgment.
A coaching crisis can be the doorway to real growth.
Being the provider of problems beats being the provider of solutions.
Feedback should flow in both directions.
Get the notes and tools:
tocculture.com
Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching:
tocculture.com
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Your team meetings tune the car, but practice is the road.
JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson take on a question a coach brought to JP: what do you do when there is almost no time to build culture outside of practice? Their answer is that practice is where athletes experience culture most and where a coach can push hardest on it. You will hear how to move values from the wall into the practice plan, why going hard is a skill you teach, a four step cycle for giving athletes reps at the behaviors you want, and what changes when you start from where your players actually are.
If your values live on a wall and you are not sure they live in your gym, this conversation gives you a place to start tomorrow.
Chapters
(00:00) Intro: practice is culture
(04:27) Values in the practice plan
(06:32) Where coaches go wrong
(09:07) Awareness, opportunity, reinforce
(13:10) Purpose, structure, and focus
(17:33) Efficient, game-like practice
(22:10) Your mindset toward mistakes
(26:46) Mental skills in 30 seconds
(32:35) Start where players are
(38:07) Your own experience of practice
TOC 3-2-1
3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.
"A lot of times the way that we've used some of those classroom times or those team meeting times, or those connection times is really like pulling into the pit stop and tuning up the car, but then we're putting it back out on the road. And practice is really the road."
Nate Sanderson
"The standard isn't a standard until we start actually holding that standard with our players, and the majority of those standards are being held within practice."
J.P. Nerbun
"It doesn't help them to tell them what they're not doing. It does help them to make them aware of the opportunities they have, to signal an opportunity before they're in it."
Betsy Butterick
2 Questions for Your Team
Q1: Where in our practice plan do our team values actually show up, and where do they only live on the wall?
Q2: What part of practice makes you feel like you are getting better, and what part leaves you wondering why we are doing it?
1 Resource to Go Deeper
The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
JP brought this book into the conversation. It separates measuring yourself against an ideal from measuring against where you started, a useful lens for any coach who catches themselves saying their team should be much further along.
Find the book here
Key Takeaways
Practice is where culture lives, not where it gets tuned.
A standard is not a standard until you hold it in practice.
Going hard is a skill, so teach it.
Efficient, game-like practice tells athletes you value their time.
Intensity is a rhythm. Frustration is a rep.
Start where your players are, then check your own reaction.
Get the notes and tools:
tocculture.com
Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching:
tocculture.com
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Billy Armstrong wants every player he coaches to chase one truly impossible goal.
In part two of this conversation, three years after his first appearance on the podcast, Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong digs into the goal-setting philosophy behind his program's vision: making Bergen the best place to play high school basketball in America. Billy explains why he pushes players toward impossible goals instead of realistic ones, why every player builds a quit list before setting any goal, and why becoming elite at anything requires doing fewer things, not more.
If you missed part one, start there for the personal transformation behind all of this. Either way, this is a coach thinking seriously about what he's building and why.
Chapters
(00:00) Intro: The Vision Behind the Program
(01:31) The Impossible Goal
(07:21) What Every Athlete Should Experience
(10:32) Why Over Who
(11:59) The Quit List
(16:04) Consumption and the Elite Mindset
(18:57) Elite Means Doing Fewer Things
(21:48) You Can't Coach Mad
(26:25) Getting Brutally Honest
(31:10) The Backpack Exercise
TOC 3-2-1
3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.
"Bigger goals create bigger people."
- Billy Armstrong
"In order to be elite at anything, you've got to do fewer things in life."
- Billy Armstrong
"You can't coach mad. Everybody you coach is somebody's pride and joy."
- Billy Armstrong
2 Questions for Your Team
Q1: What is your one impossible goal, and who do you need to become to get closer to it?
Q2: What's one thing on your quit list that would buy you back the most time and energy this week?
1 Resource to Go Deeper
Soundtracks by Jon Acuff
JP references this book's filter for the thoughts that keep coaches from having hard conversations: is it true, is it kind, is it helpful.
Find it on Amazon here
Key Takeaways
Everyone Needs One Impossible Goal
Ask Who, Not Why
The Quit List Comes Before the Goal List
Elite Means Doing Fewer Things, Not More
Brutal Self-Honesty Ended the Avoidance
Put the Backpack Down
Get the notes and tools:
tocculture.com
Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching:
tocculture.com
If you missed part one, catch it at tocculture.com.
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Billy Armstrong hasn't just won four state championships in six years. He's become, in his own words, a completely different human being.
In part one of a two-part conversation, three years after his first appearance on the podcast, Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong opens up about the personal transformation behind his program's sustained success: trading a hidden self-improvement journey for total openness, moving from standing over his team to standing shoulder to shoulder with them, and learning that avoiding hard truths to protect a player's feelings was its own form of harm.
Whether you're three years into coaching or thirty, this conversation is a reminder that the culture you build only grows as far as you do. Part two drops next week.
Chapters
(00:00) Intro: Three Years Later
(00:55) Becoming a Different Human Being
(03:28) From Hidden Journey to Open Book
(06:12) Coaching Shoulder to Shoulder
(07:55) Who Are You Trying to Become
(11:01) Keeping the Door Open
(12:42) The Locker Room That Changed Him
(19:12) Separating the Person from the Choice
(21:48) Lessons from Hurley and Wright
(24:22) Serious Fun and Letting Go of Control
TOC 3-2-1
3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.
"We don't have control over outcomes and results in life. We have control in practice. When we get to the games, it's an illusion of control."
- Billy Armstrong
"There's a difference between important and special. The games are important, practice is important, your schoolwork is important. But the relationships we form within our program, if they're lifelong relationships, that's special."
- Billy Armstrong
"Because of this, something good will happen."
- Billy Armstrong
2 Questions for Your Team
Q1: Where in your coaching have you been standing over your players instead of standing shoulder to shoulder with them?
Q2: Is there a hard truth you've been withholding from a player to protect their feelings, and what might it cost both of you if you keep waiting?
1 Resource to Go Deeper
The Culture System by JP Nerbun
Billy's TCC values, trust, care, and commitment, mirror the culture system framework JP outlines in this book: clear standards, built and reinforced on purpose.
Find it on Amazon here
Key Takeaways
The Real Change Was Internal, Not Strategic
From Hidden Journey to Open Book
Coach Shoulder to Shoulder, Not Standing Over
High Clarity Equals High Performance
Protecting Culture Means Separating the Person from the Choice
Serious Fun Replaced the Pressure to Perform
Get the notes and tools:
tocculture.com
Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching:
tocculture.com
Part 2, covering goal setting, the quit list, and building a program that outlasts you, drops next week.
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

A standard isn't a standard unless it's enforced. That's the line JP Nerbun keeps coming back to in this solo episode, his first since the podcast's earliest days back in 2017.
JP unpacks twelve mistakes transformational coaches make, opening with the story of Anson Dorrance, the UNC women's soccer coach who paired relationship-building with ruthless competition, and closing with the story of a former player, Akeel, whose season turned around once the team held the line.
This one is for coaches who've leaned hard into building relationships and empowering players, and who might be ready to hear where that approach needs more edge, not less.
Chapters
(00:00) Intro: The Anson Dorrance Story
(03:30) Why JP Is Going Solo Today
(05:30) The 2016 Standards Story
(09:00) Mistakes 1-2: Winning and Intensity
(12:30) Mistakes 3-4: Self-Esteem, Belonging
(18:00) Mistakes 5-6: Happiness, Playing Hero
(21:30) Mistakes 7-8: Goals, Price to Belong
(25:00) Mistakes 9-10: Life Beyond Sports
(28:00) Mistakes 11-12: No Real Consequences
TOC 3-2-1
3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.
"A standard isn't a standard unless it's enforced."
JP Nerbun
"Shut the door and make them open it."
JP Nerbun
"Empathy without accountability is a short-sighted attempt to relieve human suffering."
Anna Lembke, quoted by JP Nerbun
2 Questions for Your Team
Q1: Where in our program do we say we have a standard, but haven't actually enforced it this season?
Q2: What's the price to belong on this team right now, and is it high enough that being here actually means something?
1 Resource to Go Deeper
Inside Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann
One of the foundational books on transformational coaching, and the source of the "Messiah complex" idea JP references in this episode.
Search "Inside Out Coaching Joe Ehrmann" wherever you buy books.
Key Takeaways
Winning Still Matters for Transformational Coaches
A Standard Isn't Real Until It's Enforced
You Can't Give Players Self-Esteem, They Have to Earn It
Real Consequences, Not Just Hard Conversations
The Price to Belong Has to Be High Enough to Matter
Get the notes and tools:
tocculture.com
Join TOC Coach, community, courses, and live coaching:
tocculture.com
Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.