219: Coach Skip Hall Podcast

In today’s episode of ‘Finding your Summit’ podcast, host Mark Pattison, former NFL Player, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist and Mountaineer who has climbed the Seven Summits, talks with guest, Skip Hall, former American Football Coach. He talks about his football journey as a coach, discusses his role of a coach and the importance of coaching.

Listen to “EP 219: The life lessons of coach Skip Hall” on Spreaker.

Episode Highlights

• 2:24 – Mark asks Skip about what he learned from Coach James in terms of the pyramid of success, the hierarchy of leadership and the traits that people need to have to create great trade teams, whether it’s on the football field or in business.
• 4:13 – Guest highlights that it was a wonderful 18-year ride with Coach Don James. He learned a lot from him; his attention to detail and discipline in the recruiting process.
• 5:47 – Skip shares that the “Orange Bowl” experience was one of the best that he had while he was at Washington for 12 years.
• 7:39 – He points out that when they flew back from Minnesota after the third loss, Coach James called a meeting. He wanted every one to write down on a piece of paper what they could do individually to help improve as a team.
• 10:14 – Skip still maintains relationships with players; he says that it’s all about maintaining relationships and watching people become the best version of themselves.
• 12:01 – As per Skip, “Oftentimes, it takes a couple of years or so to get to where you want to be or where you need to be.”
• 14:18 – According to him, they wanted to help build players for life. To see the success that the players have after football—that’s what special.
• 16:20 – The guest talks about the opportunity to be the Head Coach at Boise State.
• 18:18 – “We had been onto the national championship and Jim was a quarterback coach and Steve Largent, who was his friend, would come to our spring practices and work with the wide receivers” says Skip.
• 20:06 – The host inquires from the guest if he did find more of a challenge in terms of the people that he was essentially teaching this new skill set of leadership to?
• 21:46 – Skip points out: if they are considering writing a book as they want to have a team of people those can really help them.
• 23:22 – As per Skip, a Coach needs to be caring more about the players while working with the players and helping them work through their problems, rather than complaining.
• 26:12 – “I need to get an autographed copy. I’d love to read that book” says Skip Hall.
• 28:28 – Skip shares about the book that Nick Saban wrote—Nick and he were together at Kent State back in the early years. Chris Peterson, who was a coach in Washington, wrote an acknowledgement for the book as well.
• 30:55 – In Skip’s opinion, a coach’s role is to take them places that they couldn’t go by themselves—help them get to a place where they want to be.
• 31:56 – Skip says that they need to correct the issues that they have to correct, but in a positive way, and not beat them down and lead them to discouragement.
• 33:28 – He has a radio show that’s been keeping him busy for the last four years called “Gameplan for Life”
• 35:48 – The host appreciates the guest for coming in and says it’s been wonderful getting caught up and hearing little inspiring stories.

Three Key Points

1. According to Skip, players are the key—they win football games. Obviously, coaches can help set them up and get them in position and design plays and defenses and all that, but when the game starts, it’s on the players. While working with the players and coaching them up so they can be the best versions of themselves that they can develop their brand, so to speak, and watching the progress of the players in seeing the excitement.
2. As per Skip, coaching players up and not down—that’s what they need to be teaching people, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s in businesses, even in families, they need to coach people up—get the best out of them and work with them if they’re not where they should be or want to be.
3. The book is really about how the power of influence and encouragement changes lives—and it does—and that’s what we need to build our house upon, so to speak.

Tweetable Quotes

“Great leader knows what to do and when to do it.” – Skip Hall

“Sometimes people see the shiny object of my career, of really those last two years, and they don’t realize the three years of hell that I had to go through for years of glory. Right.” – Mark Pattison

“I knew what it took, and how to do it. And so, I was pretty picky. I didn’t want to just jump off and become a head coach anywhere.” – Skip Hall

“Coach James just looked at me and he said three words, coach him up, coach him up. You know sometimes leadership is pretty simple. And he said coach him up. Well, that changed my whole philosophy of coaching.” – Skip Hall

“I was telling somebody who was asking me, like, how do you keep it going—and I said, you know, I think we all need inspiration; you never know who’s going to have an impact on you.” – Mark Pattison

“If you don’t change a million people, but if you change this one person’s life, because there’s something positive, you’re done—you know, what a miracle.” – Mark Pattison

Resources Mentioned:

Book: “Coach ‘Em Up—The Skip Hall Story”