Coaches and other faculty from the Lauderdale County School District listen to a lecture for the 3D Institute’s “3Dimensional Coaching” program Tuesday morning at Southeast Lauderdale Middle School.

Coaches and staff from the Lauderdale County School District spent several hours at Southeast Lauderdale Middle School Tuesday morning learning how to improve their trade.

But this wasn’t a lecture on form tackling or how to charge a ground ball. Instead, coaches were introduced to the 3D Institute’s “3Dimensional Coaching” program, in which a speaker from the institute discussed ways to impact student-athletes both on and off the field or court.

Established in 2014 by Jeff Duke, Ed. D., the 3D Institute aims to teach coaches on how to influence their players in three key areas: fundamentals, or physicality; psychology, or mind; and spirit, or holism. Tim Moore, athletic director for the LCSD, said the goal was to introduce the district’s coaches to the 3D Coaching program so they could later take an online certification course designed to improve how coaches interact with their student-athletes.

“Coaching has changed,” Moore said. “Coaches used to just have to deal with getting athletes physically ready to play and motivating them from the perspective of what’s going on, on the field rather than what’s going on outside of the realm of the playing aspect. Athletes today are dealing with so much more than just things (previous generations’ athletes) dealt with before.”

Those challenges include the increased workload for athletes thanks to the growth of year-round sports, as well as pressures from social media and other things going on at home.

“What we’re trying to do is give our coaches the tools to be better coaches and to be able to help them deal with those things so they can make them not just better players, but overall create individuals with outstanding character and the kind of citizens we want them to be in our country,” Moore said.

Clarkdale baseball coach and athletic director Scott Gibson took the online certification course prior to Tuesday morning’s lecture and said the course was well worth the time.

“You hear nowadays that kids aren’t tough anymore, but there are so many pressures on them nowadays that you have to be more well-rounded as coaches,” Gibson said. “It puts emphasis on not neglecting the coaching of physical skills but also coaching them mentally and developing their heart, emotion and spirit.”

Clarkdale softball coach Kate McCarty said team-building exercises was stressed in the lecture, which she’s already implemented on her team. She also said leaving a legacy beyond the field is something the program wants all of its coaches to become better at.

“It’s something you don’t think about nearly enough,” McCarty said. “I usually don’t think about it as much as I should until I get a past player calling me and thanking me for something I don’t even remember doing back when I coached at the junior college level.”

Southeast Lauderdale football coach Calvin Hampton said he’s looking forward to taking the online certification course and, like McCarty, he left Tuesday’s lecture with a greater appreciation for impacting student-athletes from beyond the field.

“Society is so caught up in wins and losses and doesn’t look at the foundation (the coaches) have laid for the kids as far as being productive citizens in society,” Hampton said. “There are a lot of skills kids learn through athletics that they don’t learn from anywhere else.”

The program also offers new ways to approach certain situations that may arise with players, and McCarty said she’s always open to new coaching methods.

“I’ve never been that coach that’s stagnant in my drills or anything,” McCarty explained. “I want to learn more because I don’t feel like I’m worthy to be in the position that I’m in because I don’t feel like I know enough to do what I do. I love coming to these kinds of things, and I commend Mr. Moore for having this.”

Gibson said he’s glad the LCSD provided its coaches with resources to improve their understanding on how to impact players through the 3D Coaching program.

“I think it’s really going to benefit the Lauderdale County coaches,” Gibson said. “I’m glad the district chose to do this because it gives you framework and strategies to implement in your program to help these kids. With travel ball and year-round sports, there is a lot of pressure on these kids, so we’re trying to prevent burnout and over-usage. One statistic they said was that by age 12, close to 70 percent of kids quit sports, and that’s when it should be fun for them.”

For more information, visit 3dinstitute.com.