Are captains born, or are they made? And why do so many coaches get the pick wrong?

Tex sits down with Martin Rooney [@themartinrooney] bestselling author of Coach to Coach and High Ten, founder of Training for Warriors, and a coach who's worked with everyone from Army Rangers to UFC champions to high school track teams.

Martin makes the case that captains aren't selected, they emerge, and that handing the title to your best performer or most popular kid by default is one of the most common mistakes coaches make. He shares the story of a state championship team that won without ever naming a captain, and gets into why today's athletes respond to feedback so differently than they did even ten years ago.

Along the way: Tuckman's stages of team development, the "pat on the back vs. kick in the butt" line every coach needs to internalize, and the story of a kid who gave away his own shoes mid-competition, and what that taught an entire team about leadership.

If you're a coach wrestling with who to name captain, or how to lead a generation that speaks a different language than you do, this one's for you.

Learn more from Martin Rooney:
🔗 coachinggreatness.com
🔗 trainingforwarriors.com

Education - "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" - https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

In this episode of CJ & Vinny's Secret Podcast, Tex sits down with CJ Appenzeller (Active Personal Training, ATS Systems) and Vinny Maltz (author and host of the Evolving Athletes podcast) to tackle one of the hardest skills a captain ever has to learn: how to inspire and motivate a team without it coming off fake.

The boys dig into why "fake hype" gets sniffed out instantly by anyone who's competed at a high level, why real energy is more often an emerging property of competency and alignment than something you can force, and what it actually takes to get teenagers comfortable celebrating each other instead of hiding behind "too cool for this."

Education - "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" - https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

What happens when a team stops playing to win and starts playing not to lose? Dr. Ben Freakley, Certified Mental Performance Consultant and founder of Ready Set Resilient, knows that shift firsthand. Over two decades, Ben has worked inside some of the highest-pressure locker rooms in sport and the military, serving as a college soccer head coach, Head of Mental Performance for the Toronto Blue Jays, and a mental performance coach with Atlanta United and the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.

In this episode, Tex and Ben dig into the two balls every coach has to juggle (the team and the individual), the "sustain, stop, start" halftime framework that gives players ownership of the solutions, and what separates leadership in a locker room from leadership on a battlefield. It's a conversation about loss aversion, trust, and what it really takes to build a team that plays brave under pressure.

Education - "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" - https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Every locker room has small dragons. Left alone, they grow. Handled early, they're just Tuesday.

In this episode, we break down the five conflict styles every captain will run into on a roster: Competing, Avoiding, Compromising, Accommodating, and Collaborating. For each one, you get a specific tool to manage it, so you can catch tension before it splits your team apart.

This isn't about eliminating conflict. It's about reading it, meeting it where it is, and keeping your team focused on the standard instead of on each other.

If you lead a team of any kind, this is a playbook you'll use on repeat.

Education -
"Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -
https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete":
http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

In this episode, Tex sits down with Tim Fletcher [@timfletcherco], founder of RE/ACT and the LIFT program, to talk about the hidden driver behind so much of sports culture: shame.

Tim breaks down what shame actually is. Not the emotion most people think of, but the belief underneath it. He explains the difference between big T trauma and little t trauma, the kind that comes not from what happened to you, but from what should have happened and didn't. He unpacks how that belief shapes identity, drives unhealthy motivation, and follows people straight into adulthood, into locker rooms, and onto sidelines.

Tex and Tim connect these ideas directly to coaching. How do coaches build competitive environments without leaning on fear? What happens when a coach uses shame instead of standards? And when ruptures happen between a coach and an athlete, because they will, do you punish the pain or repair it?

This episode is for every coach who carries responsibility for young people. Your words carry weight. Understanding where shame comes from is the first step to leading without it.

Learn more about Tim Fletcher's work, including the LIFT program, at timfletcher.ca.

Coach Education Courses:
"Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics"
https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening: Coaching the Modern Athlete"
https://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/

Coach blows up over something innocent. Wrong route. Empty water bottle. Kids laughing in the back of the huddle. So we hand out up-downs, bear crawls, and sprints and call it discipline.

But what is that actually teaching?

In this solo episode, Tex breaks down why punishment-based conditioning teaches compliance, not character, and why it quietly trains athletes to resent the very movement we need them to embrace. Then he introduces Funishment: movement-based discipline that builds a skill instead of extracting a cost, built on four words that anchor the whole framework: Define, Model, Shape, Reinforce.

This isn't "no consequences." It's discipline that asks more of your athletes, not less.

👉 Explore Lesson 1 free and use code POD25 for 25% off the full course at https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

Shawn Lyght [@slyght_90] made history as the first defenseman ever to win the Tewaaraton Award (the Heisman Trophy of lacrosse). A national champion at Notre Dame, he's back for his senior season carrying the weight of a program built to win it all again.

In this episode, Shawn breaks down what separates a high school captain from a college captain, how to call out a friend without losing him, why his defense huddles as one voice, and how a quiet leader earns the right to speak.

This is a masterclass in leading by example, from the sport's biggest stage.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Tex McQuilkin takes the stage at the 2026 Soldiers to Sidelines Summit with a talk built for coaches at every level: 10 blind spots you are overlooking at practice, and the one practice plan that fixes them.

He breaks down the athlete development Venn diagram, Bloom's Taxonomy applied to the practice field, the four-stage competency model, transformational leadership behaviors, and why fair and equal are not the same thing.

This is a coaching clinic disguised as a keynote. Bring a notebook.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com