206. Building a Successful Dance Team Culture

206 Team Values w/ Ali

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Passion for Dance. I'm your host, Dr. Chelsea, and I am excited to share a very special episode with you. I'm pulling back the curtain and sharing my exact process for building a team with a strong united sense of purpose and sustained motivation. It's the recipe for a team that holds each other accountable, where you don't have to ask them to go full out one more time because they ask you.

So how do you create that culture? With my proven system of setting team values and goals at the beginning of each season. Because the key is creating a sense of purpose that everyone buys into. You want a team with a clearly defined and shared purpose and a clear path about how to get there. When your dancers know what they're working toward and why it's amazing how motivation can skyrocket even in the hardest parts of your year. 

Now I could just tell you how it works, but today I'm gonna take it a step further. [00:01:00] I'll share exactly what to do, but I also want you to hear from a coach who has successfully implemented this strategy into her program.

So my special guest today is Coach Ali, who I have known for years and had the true joy of being able to see her program grow and thrive under her leadership. She was a rockstar dancer on her own high school and college teams, and now she works as an elementary school art teacher and is truly one of the best high school coaches I've had the pleasure of working with.

I asked Ali to come on the show and share her team's story of setting values and goals each year, . You'll hear my process for setting team values so you can use it yourself along with her story behind the most successful goal setting session to date, and how she gets her team to ask for another full out at the end of a long practice.

Before I dive into the episode, I also wanna share that I feel so strongly about the power of setting team values and goals, I created an online course to walk you through the process. So if you want more guidance on exactly how to implement [00:02:00] this, if you are inspired after listening to Coach Ali share how this process has changed her team, please check out my course. Dance Team Catalyst. It's the catalyst you need at the beginning of the season to spark motivation, drive, and hard work all year.

It's designed to help coaches like you develop a culture of motivation and cohesion right from the beginning. You can find out more on the show's website, passion for dance podcast.com/courses. That's passion for dance podcast.com/courses. And if you're listening, when this episode comes out in April of 2025, there's even a promotion going on right now, so don't wait, go check it out. But even if you are deep in the archives, by the time you're listening to this, I know it is still relevant and will inspire you to implement this strategy with your own team. Here's Coach Ali and the story of how setting team values and goals will change your program.

Welcome to Passion for Dance. I'm Dr. Chelsea, a former professional dancer, turn [00:03:00] sport psychologist, and this podcast is for everyone in the dance industry who want to learn actionable strategies and new mindsets to build happier, more successful dancers. I. I know what it feels like to push through the pain, take on all the criticism, and do whatever it takes to make sure the show will go on.

But I also know that we understand more about mental health and resilience than ever before, and it's time to change the industry for the better. This podcast is for all of us to connect, learn, and share our passion for dance with the world.

Dr. Chelsea: Hi Ali. Thank you so much for being here.

Ali: Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm so excited.

Dr. Chelsea: . Will you share a little about your dance and coaching journey?

Ali: Yes. My, journey has been, um, all in Colorado based as a dancer. I danced in high school as well as four years in college, and I am currently going into my eighth year as a Colorado coach. 

Dr. Chelsea: And you have been such a pillar in the Colorado community, I know supporting Colorado coaches. And so we have had a chance to work [00:04:00] together for a lot of years.

And so I brought you in today because I really wanna talk about your experience as a coach with setting team values and goals. , I can talk about the science of it and why it works, but I think your story and just why you see the difference for your teams and why you keep doing it is a really powerful thing to share.

So thank you for being willing to just kind of share all the details about what this is like for you and your team.

Ali: Yeah, absolutely. We've done this for many years, so I have lots of experience.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. So why do you keep doing it? I think a lot of teams feel like, okay, we set our values and now check that box. We're done, but we set new values every season. Why do you feel like that helps you or matters?

Ali: Yeah. As you've worked with many of my teams throughout, uh, my career, it's every team that comes in, every group of athletes. Is a little bit different. They have their own connection. They have their own goals or their own way of seeing [00:05:00] things. So we do feel like it's valuable to reset that each year and maybe they reached a goal last year and so now they have something even higher or more that they wanna share with those younger kids or that younger legacy that they're trying to bring into their culture and, and our program for sure. Um, so it's new every year. It's a whole different clean slate of team values and what that group of athletes and that group of dancers wants to bring to their individual season.

So we kind of start over every year and. Start with a clean slate, and my athletes adore this time with you when you come in and work with them. It's like their favorite day of the season and they know it's coming now, so they get really hyped for that day.

Dr. Chelsea: that's very sweet. I love it too. And it is. It is new levels. I think you're right. Like by doing it every season, the veteran dancers bring something different to the [00:06:00] conversation, that it gets deeper every year and more. We could just go further with it than you would do if you only did it once.

Ali: Yeah, I definitely feel that too. And it's fun to see what even the newbies bring the, the freshmen or the sophomores or the non-return members. They, they don't know what they don't know, so they're just bringing their pure energy to the room and then it's fun to mix those with the returning legacy members that, that do have a little more hold on what this process looks like.

Dr. Chelsea: Right, because I think that is a balance, your program has decades of legacy to it. So that has to be a part of this conversation. But then you have done such a great job of your culture where the new athletes are welcome to contribute. So it's not just that you have four seniors running the show every year.

It's like, no, it's truly a collaborative process from everybody, which is really a testament to your culture. But I think also why it works so well.[00:07:00] 

Ali: Yeah, that does help for sure. And knowing what they're being set up with for that year. I feel like my athletes more so these last few years, this generation, they want really clean cut, precise instructions and ways of doing things. And they wanna please us as coaches. And, um, so having those kind of things set in stone for them to know where they can run with things and pull in those younger athletes and where they can take charges as leaders, it's, it's them building the culture, we're setting the pillars and setting the stage for that. But it, it does come with a, a good legacy of years doing that.

Dr. Chelsea: Well, I think you're right. It is the foundation that makes it work. So what makes for a successful session when we're setting these values and goals? Uh, is it something that just happens that day? Is it that the success you see later that week, that month?

 How do you know if it like worked?[00:08:00] 

Ali: Um, doing so many sessions with you now it's, there's ones that are deeper and there's ones that are more surface level depending on the team aspect that year. Um, but I think. You know, if it, if you walk away with the team and the athletes feeling like they got a say and that this is their choice, us as coaches don't, at least my coaching staff, we don't really play a big part in that, that conversation.

It's you setting the room for them and them talking with each other and building it with each other. So I'd rather hear what they would wanna say anyways, but it's successful when us as coaches can have the tools to use it throughout our season and not just have it a one day conversation and say, okay, we wrote those down, but now we might not look at them again.

We rarely try to push them into our everyday practices or our [00:09:00] big season goals. Or how we journal about those kind of things. Uh, yeah, we've gone as far as putting it on t-shirts, we plastered it all over our practice room. We make a chants with our, our words that we choose that year, and we really do make it the center heart of our, program each year.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah, and I think that's a big part of the success. So will you talk a little bit about that? Like what makes it continue to be powerful. Like why does putting it on a t-shirt and coming up with a chant and like why does all that matter and worth your time as a coach and like letting the dancers take the reins on that.

 How do you see that help you all season?

Ali: Yeah, I think it's definitely more than just like putting a sticker up on the wall or things like that. It's us as coaches probably giving those words or those values a place to live. And then the girls or the dancers or the athletes, I. Putting in the work to uphold those, and [00:10:00] we guide them on that.

They're, you know, they're young athletes learning, but we can have our captains run their homework assignments, uh, based around those, those words or those pillars, we can, um, you know. Talk about them, journal about them, reflect on them, and they might change throughout the year. So we, we do like to go back to our athletes and say, you know, this was kind of your why and your, um, fire at the beginning of the season.

Is it still true? Does it still resonate? Is this still where you see yourself going in the projection of the season?

Dr. Chelsea: Okay. So giving them that ownership to say, yeah, that felt great in August, but now it's January and I don't feel that anymore.

Ali: Yeah, and we've built such great conversations, um, in the first meeting that we have with you, when we pick those goals that the girls know now what's gonna make them successful later on? Or what words are gonna help that are, [00:11:00] that are not just surface level words of like, you know, we're gonna have fun, which we do, but like real like deep conversation words that I, we usually don't have to change them and I don't know if we ever really have changed them because they still just resonate so much with our legacy and our program.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah, you're right. I think it's that depth and it's the ownership, like I think that's the other piece that makes it work is they, they own it. Like you've talked about, they own it in the room, they do the conversation, but then throughout the season you were saying how sometimes they might use those to hold each other accountable.

And I think that's something coaches really struggle with. So will you speak a little more about that, how your dancers hold each other accountable and the values help that?

Ali: Yeah, it's again, been built over years. It's not something that happens overnight or on a daily basis. Um, but they know that us as coaches uphold those values highly and so by leading by example [00:12:00] and showing them that that's, these are the things that they chose. So we are going to back them up on that, and how can you feed that into your captain position or your leadership role or your teammate position, and how can you be feeding those positive values into our why? Like, it's, it's, why are you here? Why are you doing this? Why are you, it's because of those values that we went back to. So just constantly reminding them and them reminding each other like, Hey, this is why we're here.

This is why we're fighting together for this goal, and this is why we put team first kind of thing.

Dr. Chelsea: Right. Well, yeah, it's the vocabulary. Like I think it just gives the dancers a common vocabulary to use all season so that when, like you said, it's, it could be your leader, it could be a, a sophomore who's just crushing it and being able to talk about, you know, we said we care about this, so that means right now when we're about to go again full out and you wanna roll your eyes, we're not doing that because this is what we said.

And it's just that like common connection at the [00:13:00] beginning that I think it's easier for dancers, to speak up against maybe a little against the grain or when the mood is not there. It's like they have the the permission to speak up 'cause they know everybody agreed on this already. So I can say something right now.

Ali: yeah. Like, oh, I mean like a mini lil contract that they decided like, these were our values. This is what we're gonna uphold with each other, with, you know, our family, with our coaching staff, with everyone. And so having that to, to, to lean back on definitely helps throughout the season.

Dr. Chelsea: I think so. Okay. I, I wanna talk about the process itself so that people understand exactly what this looks like, and then we can share maybe a more tangible story about how this has played out for you and your team, if you're willing to share, which I appreciate. 

I guess let's walk through the process. We start by working to figure out our top three values as a program and. Sometimes we end up with four. But you know, sometimes I try to steer them away from that 'cause it [00:14:00] just gets complicated. But try to come up with those top three values. So there is a process of them, you know, they have a big, long list of words and kind of finding the ones that they personally think are important first. We share them all together. Create this big, uh, wordle almost looking thing on the whiteboard. To try to get to which ones stand out most, and then we just have this big conversation. Uh, so will you share a little about what that's like when you are listening? 'cause you said you don't actually participate a whole lot as a coach, you choose to let them have this conversation.

So are there things that are surprising about it? Values where you're like, wait, what? How do, how's that?

Ali: me being sometimes a, like to be in control, it's hard for me to sit back and not talk in the back of the room. Um, especially when you hand them that paper that has the list of words and you tell them to go circle ones that are meaningful to them, and. All of them circle every single word.

They're

Dr. Chelsea: Right,

Ali: all of them mean something. I'm like, well, [00:15:00] yes. 'cause they're a list of meaningful words. But like, so it, it's always at the beginning you're like, okay, we can't be here for seven hours. Don't circle every word like, let's get down to it. But you gotta trust the process and we always come to like a great final ending, but it's just that, that first open of the door of them reading these words and stuff, they're like, well, they're all meaningful.

Dr. Chelsea: Yes, which is exactly the process because for them to be able to say they're all meaningful, but if we try to live in every single one of those, you get nowhere. Right? It's like when you try to work on too many things at once, you make progress on nothing. And so getting them, getting them to dial it down is hard.

You said at the beginning about how your younger dancers, your freshmen, your new dancers will also contribute. And that's a part of my process, right, where everybody is sharing regardless of status on the team.

'cause this is coming from everybody. So are there times when [00:16:00] that makes a big difference as far as a younger dancer or a more quiet dancer who shares something that you think it might not otherwise happen? Or like how we prevent, you know, those few veterans from running the show?

Ali: Yeah, it, it is hard and we do really push positivity of them speaking up in, especially in that conversation because it, it is about all of them. This is a team sport, so you know, they all have something to give in this aspect. So those are the times when I do step in a little bit and push some of my quieter dancers to say, what are your thoughts?

What are your. Um, 'cause we do have the, the veterans that just get so excited that they wanna say all their ideas and, and run with it. Um, but it's meaningful when a few of the underclassmen or uh, quieter dancers get to speak up. And they have really great ideas too, and it, it makes us, you know, question more things or go in a different direction and.

So [00:17:00] it's, it's a little bit of guidance to make sure that everyone is heard in that scenario and those, those younger athletes wanna please the older athletes too. So they don't wanna say something wrong. But the, uh, they all have great ideas and there's nothing wrong to say. It's, it's all about how they feel and, and what they think their values are.

And they're part of the, the team and part of the squad. So.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Okay. I would love to pick one season to maybe share more of the details on like where you landed and like what that conversation was like, how we got to that. Uh, so typically we do come up with three words at the end, but then it doesn't. Always land there. Sometimes we kind of take it in our own, like you said, deeper direction because we've been doing it so long.

Do you have a, a season that you'd be willing to share the story of what you landed on?

Ali: Yeah, I'd love to share about this season actually, because it was so much different than our other ones, um, that we've had. We've chosen words like [00:18:00] a passion fuels purpose or a grit legacy tradition, or. Different things like that that have always been so meaningful. Uh, but this year went in a little bit of a different direction.

We were talking through our words and we had 'em all written up on the whiteboard and you were circling or underlining different ones that were being repeated so that, you know, we were pulling out the ones that seemed the most liked by the group, so that we could hone down to try to get to our three.

Um, and then someone had said something about like moving mountains or like the climb or the, the process to get to the goal. And that kind of was brought over probably from years past where they had gotten really far in a competition season and just not quite made it to the, um, to where they wanted to be or to the, to the top, I guess.

Or not that they didn't succeed, but [00:19:00] that they just wanted more, they're very

Dr. Chelsea: Right.

Ali: Yeah. Competitive

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. There was definitely a theme of like, we work so hard, but we sometimes don't quite push through to the very end, and it's, I think, an honest reflection for these athletes to know like, yes, our seasons are pretty much 365, so when you get to the end that you're all exhausted and you're all tired, they really honed in on like that, needs to be different this year.

We need to figure out how to finish.

Ali: They did great at like reflecting on the past years and been like, could I have pushed harder that day? Could I have gone a little bit further? Could I have put my team first then? And they really didn't wanna give up on that. They were like, this year's gonna be different. We're gonna, I. You know, fight for that.

So then when we talked about mountains and climbing the hill, we, we talk with our athletes, my coaching staff, a lot about peaking at the right time. And I think for dance teams, because you're in a year long sport , you want to give your athletes all these stepping stones to to be competitive [00:20:00] in the best possible time.

So they know that that's a conversation we have too. And so they really wanted to make sure that they were ready for what needed to come. Nationals, state, all those kind of things at the right time. And then. There happened to be 12 of them on that team that year. Um, and they were, they were a really bonded group, we didn't have too many newbies. So there, there was a lot of, um, people continuing through the program. And so when we were talking about that hill, we also talked about like, okay, what's gonna be like our, our. Punch through the ceiling, like really breakout moment, where are we gonna hit that? All those kind of things.

And I have some very intellectual, smart, athletes on my team, uh, that are very brainy. And so they were talking about, um, temperatures in Fahrenheit and they, you know, started Googling things and we, we found out that water actually boils at 212 degrees [00:21:00] Fahrenheit. And they were excited that it had the 12 in them because they're like, it's us.

And, you know, we'd be, we'd be boiling over or peeking at that right time, um, at that temperature sort of thing. And then they were doing more research about like, okay, well. We wanna get to that boiling point, but we can't give up. We have to keep climbing that hill or climbing that mountain. And we, we talk a, a lot about other athletes and other sports and we talk about runners a lot and, uh, marathon athletes.

And they said, well, . When does a marathon athlete give up? Like where do we need to get to to know that we've broken past the point of giving up? And it just kind of fell in coincidence that, um, an average marathon runner, if you, if they're gonna give up, they give up on the 21st mile.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah.

Ali: They've gone all that way, but they don't quite make it to that finish line. So it kind of just came , up where we had all these beautiful words that we had chosen with you and that we [00:22:00] really liked. But it just, there was too many of them. I. To combine into the three, and we were loving all those things and so we decided to change our words into numbers, and we decided on just sticking with 2 1 2 was our values for that year, and it kind of encompassed all of those words that we liked.

Connection, ambition, passion, vision. Being authentic, growth, trust, grit, um, and just like peeking at the right time. There's 12 of them and that 212 degrees Fahrenheit and the 21st mile, it just kind of all came together to be our numbers instead of our words that year.

Dr. Chelsea: it was, I, I still get chills. It was one of the coolest conversations I think I've been able to see. 'cause it was, some of it was just like serendipitous of like how that we have 12 dancers this year and that it just fit, but they. Like you said before, it was them, like it was their organic conversation that got them [00:23:00] there and you could feel like the fire in the room and how excited they were in the moment.

It was so cool and I think it was more so where no single word captured it. But 2 1 2 became a feeling. It became like, I know what, I know what that means. I know how to show up like that. And I think that's why it mattered so much. It was such a cool thing

Ali: It was so cool.

Dr. Chelsea: with them.

Ali: It was fun to see those puzzle pieces come together and, and my, you know, my coaches and I, we sat back and it was all the girls, it was all them kind of bringing those pieces together. So that's the best part to watch.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Okay. So I know that moment was amazing. So then be honest. How did 2 1 2 support you throughout the season or not? Do you think it carried throughout your whole season?

Ali: Yeah, surprisingly this one really, uh, did carry, and I think it's because we had such a great breakthrough moment then. But, um, we. Like I said, we would journal about it. We would put stickers up in our room. [00:24:00] The girls made up a little chant, um, the day that they came up with those numbers, and we do that at practice every single day.

It's how we leave together. It's how we come back as a team. It's how we send each other, you know, out the door at the end of practice, just as a constant reminder of like what you signed up for and what you're bringing to the table and, and what our, what our goals are. To say, Hey, am I really tired today? Or could I push through for my team? Hey, does that other stress really matter in my life right now, or should I be present in the moment? And we, we ended up putting it on our, on our hip hop costumes and really embodying it. And we, at our banquet, we had, um, like different awards about those, those numbers, and.

So we do carry it through our season, especially this year. Super, in a strong way. And it, again, it's the athletes that recheck in with each other to make sure that that's

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Yeah. Again, I think that's [00:25:00] a big part of the magic is when you have, we, we all know those practices, the super long ones, everybody's tired. It's dark and cold outside. Like you're just frustrated 'cause you've been cleaning the same thing for feels like forever. And that's when those values show up.

When somebody's able to say like, are we at our boiling point? Nope. Check back in, let's go again And like have that. That momentum in the moment.

Ali: And they're very competitive. So they definitely do that with each other. But I'm not saying it was perfect. The, you know, we had to step in and, and do, Hey, let's sit down and do some team time. Hey, let's sit down and journal because I think we're, uh, you know, today was a hard practice.

We might be steering away from our, our values or our why, and let's bring that back in. Let's remind each other what we decided on at that great time together. Yeah.

Dr. Chelsea: I think that it is an important piece, and I'm glad you said that. Like it's not that you've set your values at the beginning of the season, and now everything is perfect after that. It's just a foundation to come to [00:26:00] when things inevitably do go awry because it's. Any coach has had those ups and downs, but you have something to go back to of like, Hey, we're drifting, we we're losing, our values and it's easier to come back when things are drifting, when you have somewhere to come back to when you have that center.

Ali: Yeah. We, we spent a little time, uh, in the trenches of our competition season, kind of resetting that. We rewrote out every word that backed up our 2 1 2. Like what? Let's go back and say, what does that really mean? What does that really, how did we get there again? And we decorated all these papers, sticky notes, like sheets of different colored, uh.

Cart stock, oh, whatever. And we wrote out every single word, and we put 2 1 2 in the middle and we covered our whole mirrors. We were no longer looking at the mirrors. We were no longer seeing ourselves in the mirrors. We were only dancing to our values. [00:27:00] So that was a really good reset throughout our competition

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Oh, that's a really good way to do it when it's like it's time to stop looking in the mirror anyway, and.

Ali: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Chelsea: If you're not looking at the mirror and you're not looking at, it's not about you anymore, it's, it's bigger than that. Yeah. Oh, I love

Ali: I was like, stop looking at these mirrors now. Oh, we're gonna cover them up with exactly what you need.

Dr. Chelsea: Yes. Oh, that's a good idea. Uh, okay, so technically in this kind of values and goals, early session, this values is actually only the first part. Then we dig into goals, and this two and two year, you took the goals on more yourself because of how deep and long this conversation was, but. We've, you've definitely been a part of the process of how the, like staircase goals kind of work of like, we have the end goal, but how are we gonna get there?

So, , usually we go through that kind of clear process of, say we're meeting in August, we might set goals for fall season that will help prepare for competition season. So we like to, you know, break it down, get smaller, get concrete about [00:28:00] it. So what kinds of goals have you seen, be the most helpful for your teams?

Ali: I think. At the beginning when they're all excited, they can say, our goal is to win. Our goal is to get a nationals jacket. Our goal is to like, and yes, but it's, it really helps when you bring a, you know, a packet and walk them through what are the tangible goals, what are the ones that we can make sure that we're succeeding in, and a small goal to get to a bigger goal.

Those are things that my athletes have now taken with them into their, their college process or their adulthood or their career field. That's just like building good people that are ready for the world too. So it helps them in more ways than dance. But, it's been really nice to really cut those back and say, okay, what's one thing we could do tomorrow?

And the next day. And the next day to be consistent to reach the first third of that [00:29:00] goal that we're trying to get to.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the breaking down that makes the big difference. 'cause yeah, they can be very, uh, it's all talk. I don't know. And it's, and I think it's not just, I don't wanna blame this generation. It's not, it's just like being teenagers where it's really easy to have a. The lofty sense of what you will do.

And then when it comes to the grid of like, oh, I have to show up and do this now, sometimes there's a gap between what we say we want and how we actually show up. And those smaller goals make a difference. Can you think of any that really helped them show up and put in the work?

Ali: I know they were really big on their stamina this year. They felt like that fell through the cracks. The, the year passed and we had a much more daunting, uh, piece of choreography that we had to step up and, and figure out this year. And they said that they wanted that and they agreed to that.

And. Uh, we're, we're willing [00:30:00] to take it on at the beginning when it's a lot about talking. Um, and I, to be honest, all the, the whole team is not always the same. There's girls that are in the gym every day pushing 'cause , they want it really bad, but it's gonna look different for every athlete.

So that's, that's a place where I've had to step in and really coach them through what that might look for in each athlete, because as a whole team, it's not gonna look exactly the same of each person. Doing the exact same things to get to that end goal. Um, but they did say that they wanted to do more full outs this year, and they wanted to do more video homework this year so that they could be ready for their full outs.

So when I would, you know, write our practice schedule out on the board, and I'd say, okay, you're gonna gimme two full outs towards the first half of practice, and then at the end you're gonna give me. You know, two more. And they would go, oh my gosh, that's the, you know, get in their [00:31:00] head. The whole practice is now like spiraling because they're so worried about these full outs and, and, but then it came down to the end and they were tired and they were beat and I said, okay, you guys have been, you know, you've done a great practice.

Let's, let's take that two full outs down to a one full out, and I'm good with that for today. Like, and they would say, no, coach. We need to do the two.

Dr. Chelsea: Which is

Ali: we don't want, we don't want to right now, but we need to.

Dr. Chelsea: but hit play anyway. And I think that's amazing because that's where a lot of coaches are. Like you feel like you are dragging the motivation out of them. So to get to a place where your dancers are able to say, I am so tired. This is killing me. I don't wanna but go again.

You don't have to yell at them to do that. They're the ones bringing it to the table. And I know that that's like the magic sauce that people are like, how do you get teams to do that? And to be fair, there's a lot to it and a lot of it [00:32:00] is your coaching in and of itself. But having the goals, I think helps them, like you said, 'cause they, if they set the goal to do more full outs in the first place, then you're the one who's just saying, this was your plan.

Here we go. I'm just here to remind you.

Ali: Yeah, I know they're, they're great athletes and I'm so blessed to have them, and I think it does help, like having other goals where they, they didn't make it to their, their ending point, or they set one that was too big and didn't have those stepping stones, so then they weren't set up for success. And then at the end they say, well, why didn't we get what we said we wanted?

And, and they, they realized through time that it's, it's not that simple. They do need those smaller goals, those smaller check-ins. To be a successful team, and it's worked for us. We've, we've had great success at Nationals the last few years, and so then coming back the next year, when we go into these team values and [00:33:00] these team goals, the girls are more hungry to do it because they can see that it's working.

Dr. Chelsea: Right. Absolutely. And I think it does help, with that sense of success at the end. Because if you don't reach your goal, and maybe the end top of the staircase goal is a competitive outcome, right? Something that you want to land a placement. If you don't get there, but you're able to look at your process and say, either we did everything right, we showed up. It was the best we could have done. That's on the judge's score. I can be proud of what I did. Or some honest reflection of like, yeah, we didn't step it up where the way we just we're all talk. We didn't do it, so let's be better next time.

Ali: Yeah, and I think me as a coach, I try to give them that clear honesty of, you know what, they set their goals, these, they're setting these goals because they're important to them and they. They want and need the guidance to get to those goals. And it's hurtful for everyone when they [00:34:00] don't make them there or they don't see that.

But it's a growing process and, and my team has learned from both of those scenarios where they said, Hey, we did everything we could because we stuck to the small steps. And sure it wasn't a placement or a ring or a jacket, but we, we feel good about the work that we put in.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah, and this looks different for everybody. I think that's a challenge for a lot of coaches of like, what do you do when you have either a huge range of actual talent or you have a range of commitment, you have a range of like, intensity.

Uh, how do you handle that as a coach?

Ali: That is one of the hardest things about coaching is that every athlete is different and they have different needs and, uh, they, they like to be coached different. So I try to also help some of my leaders or some of my veterans see that through my eyes and say like. Hey, how can you [00:35:00] help the rest of the team in what their needs might look like?

And it could be, hey, go have a conversation with that little nugget in the corner and see what her needs are. Maybe she just needs a snack or maybe she just needs a friend and like then she'll give you what you are looking for out of her. But it's a, it's a team aspect. I don't coach as like, I am the person that only knows what everybody needs and I'm gonna hide that.

Like it's a big open conversation. And we do bring that to the table a lot in journaling and talking about what are your needs today? Who needs someone to hold them up today who needs someone to give an extra 20% because I'm only at an 80 or, um, those kind of things.

So it's, it's the conversations that can help take some of that off of a coach and put it on some of your leadership or your athletes as well.

Dr. Chelsea: That's amazing. And so smart and being able to, yeah, share the responsibility again, and I think that's the value of [00:36:00] so much of this is. They are setting the values, setting the goals, holding each other, and yes, you are very involved and you have to have guardrails around things and intervene sometimes, but it's coming from them, which is gonna make the outcome, you know, it's, it's all in their hands, right?

And so much more likely that they'll get there and be proud of themselves and again, it's that light life lesson of. I achieved my goal and like I did that. Right? Like I, I made the choice every day and I did that. And that's really powerful.

Ali: Yeah. We are so lucky to have athletes that can hone in on that, but it's great to, for them to have that to take in their future as well.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Well, you're so lucky, and yet you have also created this program to help make that happen for the

Ali: with a village, with lots

Dr. Chelsea: with a village. That's also true. Always have a village. , so before we leave goals, I would love to have one more, , tangible example of a goal that has helped your team, show up and do the work and [00:37:00] be, be more motivated, you know, be ready to keep fighting.

Uh, is there a goal that you've seen be really powerful for your team?

Ali: Yeah, this is a goal we set years ago. Um, but now it's kind of part of our daily life, our daily cleaning process, our daily competition schedule. Um, so we don't really set it as a goal anymore because we just naturally do it, but uh, we call it three is key or maybe you called it three as key, um, about repetition.

The first one is if you do part of the routine one time. It's lucky,

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah.

Ali: If you do it a second time, perfect clean execution, it is coincidence. If you can do it a third time exactly how it's meant to be executed, then that is where your muscle sets in to where you can execute this without problems later.

[00:38:00] So, uh, three is key has always been like a number, uh, a very high used goal for us every year. We'll do it with bits of choreography, whether it's for a football game, whether it's a competition routine, really anything. And if we say. Hey on, on the board for practice schedule today, we gotta do three is key for this one trick or this one section.

And um, our athletes are great of knowing that now and they will hold themselves accountable of saying, Hey guys, I know we just did that. You know, section two times, but on the third try, I know that wasn't my best. I'm sorry. We have to go back to zero and we will, uh, my coaching staff will mark talies up on the board.

So if you get it once, great. If you get, if you don't get it the second time, then you go back to zero. So it's really about like nailing in and honing in that consistency. And so they'll call themselves out. They'll, you know, nicely call each other out and sometimes [00:39:00] they know how to read our faces now.

So they'll, if we're like questioning, but we're like going to write a tally, they're like, no, coach, don't write a tally. We could see it on your face that that wasn't good enough. So.

Dr. Chelsea: No, that's awesome. And you're right, I think it started as a goal, gosh, who knows how many years ago where the goal was something like, we're gonna hit, three is key on these, two tricks that our choreographer has added that we're nervous about. Like we started out with something tangible like that.

And then I love to see that it's now just a part of your program

Ali: Well, and it's so easy to. You have a number set. You know exactly how many times you can have the telemarks. It's for, for their brains. It's, it's verbal. It's visual. It's all those, those things that, that learners need to, to grasp onto something. And it, it really helps as a coach, like that one section that you need needed clean, they're gonna do it those three times and you don't, you're probably not gonna have that to clean that section too many more times later on.

So.

Dr. Chelsea: It really does work from a, [00:40:00] from a cleanliness point, and, and then it has all the added the mental skills. Like you said, if they are not stepping up, they hold each other accountable. But you also have, like, you're simulating pressure, right? Like if you've been cleaning this thing and you've gone back to zero multiple times and now you've hit it twice and it's like, if we hit this, we done.

If we don't, we're going back. That is simulated pressure, which I think is really powerful to be like, I have to hit this right now.

Ali: And it boosts the vibe of the room too. As we get to those two strikes and we need one more to hit those three, the athletes are hyping each other up. They're like, let's go. Let's get this. Like we have to push through and it really does connect them. And then when they do hit that third one, it's so relieving and they're like, you know, we can do this.

We can achieve those goals. We can small bits of making sure that that success is coming through.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah, and I love it. And sometimes you're like, send me a picture of them like holding up three fingers like we did it,

Ali: Yeah.

Dr. Chelsea: which is awesome. I love that. That's, that's the [00:41:00] power and a goal that. It starts as a simple goal for that season. But when you find some that like really click for your team, then they just get embedded into your program and then it just builds from there.

And again, the benefit of like doing this repetitively. So

Ali: Yeah.

Dr. Chelsea: any final words of advice for coaches who are thinking about spending time on values and goals this year? Like why it's important to you and why it's worth it.

Ali: I think it's the backbone of our season every year. Uh, the, the athletes love having their opinions heard and their voices heard, and being able to choose what the trajectory of their season looks like and choose what their, their goals and their what means something to them. Um. It really does, like you said, become part of your nature of what your team focuses on or how they treat each other, or how they step up in different ways.

And I think the biggest thing is doing this consistently. Maybe doing the values one time could [00:42:00] be okay. And maybe you'll get a really good aspect and maybe you'll get a okay situation from your team or your athletes, but it's the consistency throughout the years that we've been doing it that has really just built and transformed what our program's all about.

Dr. Chelsea: Yeah. Thank you so much and it has been so much fun to watch the journey of your program, so thank you for continuing to do this and to let me get a glimpse into how that shows up for your team. Thank you Ali, so much for taking the time to share your story and your expertise. If people have questions, are you okay if they reach out to you and follow up?

Ali: Absolutely. Uh, thank you for having me. It was so fun to be here. Uh, you can email me at AliJames643@gmail.com. That's A-L-I-J-A-M-E s643@gmail.com.

Dr. Chelsea: Thanks Ali I'll put that in the show notes wherever you're listening. Um, that's very generous of you. I know you act in such service of fellow coaches, so we appreciate you and thank you so much for being here. [00:43:00] Always fun to talk to you.

Ali: yes. So fun. Thanks so much.

Thank you for listening to Passion for Dance. You can find all episode resources at passion for dance podcast.com and be sure to follow me on Instagram for more high performance tips at Doctor Chelsea dot Otti. That's P-I-E-R-O-T-T-I. This podcast is for passionate dancers and dance educators who are ready to change our industry by creating happier, more successful dancers.

I'm Dr. Chelsea and keep sharing your passion for dance with the world.