For the last two years, my favorite part of the NSCAA Convention has been the opportunity to give a session to those in attendance. Speaking at the Convention was an item on my bucket list (which has conveniently disappeared and I need to update) since I attended my first Convention in 2009.

In 2012, I had the opportunity to conduct two sessions on Friday, which combined with the NSCAA Blogger Brunch and New Media Mixer presented by Demosphere and the WPS Draft made for a fairly hectic but rewarding day. But then again, what day at the NSCAA Convention isn’t hectic and rewarding??!?

five secrets to successful soccer websites

It’s no secret that my partner in crime for most digital/social media presentations is Amanda Vandervort, (@vandeyo1). Amanda is one of the smartest people I know in the sports social media/digital space. Amanda and is also a close friend, challenging my ideas and questions me helping me to think about problems and solutions in a completely new light.

Now that Amanda is Social Media Strategist for MLS (how cool is that by the way?) I was only able to steal her away for one of two sessions this year, Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites.

The idea for Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites came about thanks to our work on the new NSCAA.com. The website project a labor of love for Amanda and I which began in August 2010 and launched in November 2011. Notice how I didn’t say ended as this project will never end!

During the months we researched the new site, we gathered together what makes successful websites tick and combined the research into five secrets (aka takeaways) to share with the audience.

Successful websites are…

1) part of a larger business plan.
2) built with the user in mind
3) embracing content
4) sharable and social
5) analyzed and Adjusted

Of course there is more to the picture and the five above are not cut and dry. When I present give presentations I always leave listeners with actionable items to use as soon as they leave the room. (I know Amanda feels the same way)

Click here to download the .pdf presentation, Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites (.pdf)

social media best practices for clubs

The second session of the day was “Social Media Best Practices for Clubs”  This session gave me  trouble during the planning stages because explaining best practices of social media means those in attendance have a basic background knowledge in social media. In this case, I was clueless as to the prior social media knowledge the attendees would have.

To start the presentation, I quickly went over the Five Steps for Success in Social Media slides I’ve used during prior talks to ensure everyone in the room was on the same page (or at least had an opportunity to be). After that, I dove into five, what I would call promises or best practices, to keep in mind when going forward with social media. During the discussion we decided these five items apply to customer service and general good business practice as well.

1) Deliver
2) Blow you away
3) Never leave you hanging
4) Make a difference
5) Tell you what we know

The takeaway with the five above points was to make sure the focus with social media was outward facing and not inward. When a company (soccer club, coach, college program) makes the commitment to use social media, they make a commitment to those who are on the other end waiting for information or interaction.

I enjoyed the discussion points and questions at the end of the talk about privacy laws how they relate to minors and how to grow a social media presence with that in mind. I’ll draw up a post later on to cover that issue.

Click here to download slides from Social Media Best Practices for Clubs (.pdf)

As is the norm, I’m posting the .pdf’s of the slides to share with those who want to see them. The problem is the slides I use both in solo presentations and with Amanda are very image heavy and light on text. I’ve tried to incorporate notes into the .pdf’s so you can see the thought process behind each slide.

A huge thank you to all of those who tweeted and provided insightful feedback on the presentations. If you are interested in learning more about my speaking gigs, head over to the speaking page on my website. If you want to be blown away by some serious expertise, head over to Amanda’s site, Soccer Science, and get in touch with her.

click an image to download the .pdf presentation

I was honored to be the Keynote speaker for the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Convention on November 16-17 in Naples, Florida.

Thanks to an introduction from Rob Kehoe, a member of the NSCAA staff, I spoke with Gothard Lane from the IWLCC and made arrangements to speak at their Convention. It is always an honor when any group, no matter how big or small, invites me to speak at their event.

While at the IWLCC I gave two talks. The first was on The Impact of Social Media and the second was The Modern Coach: Coaching in the 21st Century.

The Impact of Social Media

The Keynote on Wednesday, The Impact of Social Media, was adapted from a talk that Amanda Vandervort and I gave at the 2011 NSCAA Convention in Baltimore. I adapted many of the slides to the IWLCC and also added in some great collegiate examples of how teams are using social media and digital media to achieve individual goals.

While I love to praise the role of social media and it’s ability to be a game-changer if used correctly, I also brought up questions regarding compliance, player privacy and other pressing issues in collegiate athletics. A main point I hammered home is for coaches to make sure they include their compliance officers in any social media planning if it goes beyond what their collegiate athletics department is already doing, especially with regards to recruiting.

Impact of Social Media – Click here to view the slides in a .pdf

The Modern Coach

Thursday’s talk revolved around The Modern Coach, a spinoff title that Jeff Tipping used in several presentations with the NSCAA. My talk was not on the technical or tactical aspects of coaching, but rather what five characteristics that successful modern coaches need to think about in the 21st century.

Thursday’s talk was a new topic and a new deck, but after speaking with coaches post-talk, it was extremely well received. I look forward to developing The Modern Coach chat in the future.

The five main characteristics I focused on were:

1) Tries new technologies to understand how their players think.

2) Seeks out new ways to objectively measure performance.

3) Is location independent.

4) Understands the importance of collaboration.

5) Creates sharable content and understands it’s role in the bigger picture.

Click here to view the slides in a .pdf.

Thank you to everyone at the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association for inviting me to speak and for being such gracious hosts during my time in Florida.

For those who attended, you can always get in touch on twitter @ryanknapp or email me at ryan [at] ryanjknapp [dot] com.

The swope trails are my favorite place to run in all of Kansas City. I can get to the trail head 15 minutes door-to-door. Even though the trails are relatively close to the city, it feels like you are deep inside the woods — a welcome rest when I need to get away from it all.

This summer they opened up Phase Four of the trail, adding in a new 1.75 miles of trail which serves as a great section to get some speed work done, in contrast to the technical beginning few miles. Being that fall is my favorite season, I’ve been taking some shots during my trail runs the last few weeks and wanted to share some with you. The shots on the trail were taken with my iPhone 4 and the shots on the road were taken with my Nikon D200.

Check out some more pictures after the jump.

Ella loves to join me out on the trails. Once she sees me grab my running backpack she immediately starts spinning, hoping I will take her with me. With a face like that, how can I say no?

If I run my normal six mile loop, the few shots below are in my favorite section, which sits right at mile five. There is a quarter mile stretch of flat and straight trail which is breathtaking in the fall.

After today’s run with Ella, I brought along the Nikon D200 and took a few others. The shot below is the road which is right near the trail head.

Three years ago I welcomed into my life Ella, a bundle of Shetland Sheepdog joy (and fur…lots of fur).

On Sunday, Oct. 2, that bundle of joy got spooked by a loud noise and pulled away from us while we were on a walk on the Plaza in Kansas City. After a frantic two mile chase down two busy streets and up numerous hills, there was no sign of her. I was left with only her harness and leash she had slipped while running away.

I knew I had close friends, both online and offline, but the support and work you put in helping to spread the word about #findella was beyond any of our wildest dreams. The shares on Facebook, tweets and re-tweets on Twitter, texts and emails were a true testament to the power of good in the world.

Eighteen hours after she was last with us, a young woman spotted her running down the street  at 5:45 am after taking her fiancee to the airport. We flew out of the house and into the car, caught up with Ella sprinting down the street, and with a simple command of “Ella, get in the car” our nightmare was over.

Some people may look at how we reacted to losing Ella as a bit strange or a bit over the top for losing a dog. Three years ago I cried in the car when we brought her home from the breeder.

Ella is the only constant in my life. The thought of never seeing her again broke my heart in a way I cannot describe.

Ella’s a little worse for wear. She’s worn off most of her pads on her feet and adopted a new found fear for going outside. She will heal, we will tell stories about this later and we will always remember how lucky we are to have her back.

We would have never found Ella without your kindness. You are all amazing people and I am forever grateful.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible for us to be a family again. We will never forget it.

An old monk was sweeping the yard in a monastery under the scorching sun.

Another monk passed by and asked him, “How old are you?”

The old monk replied, “I’m seventy-seven.”

“You are so old! Why are you still working so hard here?”

“Well, because I’m here.”

“But why are you working under the scorching sun?”

“Because the sun is there.”

—-

My favorite topic to coach is the idea of just play.

Some games it will be raining, some times a referee will make a poor call. Some games you may make the wrong pass or you might miss an empty net. We will win, we will lose, but we just play.

This season I have the privilege of coaching Wits FC a U-9 soccer team at Blue Valley Soccer Club in Kansas City. Last weekend we had our first tournament and the girls made it to the finals, losing 2-0 to the fifth U-9 team (we are the sixth team).

In the last game, every girl on the team just played. They were running at full steam and they gave it their all. They didn’t care about the heat or the fact we down two goals or that the other team had bigger, stronger girls. They just played.

While we have a way to go with technique and tactics, they are learning to play within themselves and not to listen or let outside forces matter.

And for that, I am a very proud coach.

During a momentous battle, a Japanese general decided to attack even though his army was greatly outnumbered. He was confident they would win, but his men were filled with doubt. On the way to the battle, they stopped at a religious shrine. After praying with the men, the general took out a coin and said, “I shall now toss this coin. If it is heads, we shall win. If tails, we shall lose. Destiny will now reveal itself.”

He threw the coin into the air and all watched intently as it landed. It was heads. The soldiers were so overjoyed and filled with confidence that they vigorously attacked the enemy and were victorious. After the battle, a lieutenant remarked to the general, “No one can change destiny.”

“Quite right,” the general replied as he showed the lieutenant the coin, which had heads on both sides. – buddhist story on destiny

Earlier this year when I began raising funds to support Comfort Zone Camp, I secretly knew my first marathon would be on my Dad’s birthday. There would be no better way to finish my first marathon and remember the experience forever than to combine it with a day that is extremely special each year.

The ‘run for dad’ was a coin with heads on both sides. It didn’t matter how long it took me to finish (4 hours, 48 minutes), but instead all that mattered was the fact I was doing something I had never done before, while raising money for an incredible cause, and remembering my father during the journey.

‘Run for dad’ exists because of a myriad of factors which all came together on August 9…My father’s sickness, finding Comfort Zone Camp, turning a hatred for running into something that I couldn’t live life without.  While I have said before the day my father passed away was the worst day of my life, it is a privilege to be able to help those who are going through a similar experience.

This year I’ve interacted with many people who have lost a loved one growing up, and while the circumstances surrounding the loss are different, the feelings we have are the same.

Thanks to the generosity of everyone on this journey, I’ve reached my goal of $2,011 raised for Comfort Zone Camp in 2011! Some people gave big, some gave small, but more importantly, so many of you gave whatever you could, and that is what makes the difference.

It’s onward and upward in my training as I move closer to the fall and Blue Springs 50 miler. My mileage is increasing and I’m back training with Jeff and Diane at PRS Fit. The week that I have been back with them I’ve already felt a surge of energy and boost in my training.

Excited for the challenge that lies ahead.

#dowork

Click here to support Comfort Zone Camp and my goal of raising $2,011 for Comfort Zone Camp!

On August 3, 1998 I saw the one thing a child should never see in their young life.

Their parent’s obituary.

My father, Donald Knapp, died on August 2, 1998 due to complications from End Renal Failure (Kidney Failure) and inoperable brain cancer. He was 42 years old, just one week shy of his 43rd birthday. I was 14 years old, heading into my Sophomore year of high school and it was the worst day of my life.

The pictures above show how quickly the cancer took hold. The first picture was Christmas 1997 and the second picture was six months later in June 1998. The cancer ravaged his body and he had no chance to fight it.

I wish I was the only child to have ever went through this, but sadly I’m part of an estimated 1 out of every 9 children who will lose a parent before turning 20.

While we as a society are working to cure cancer, prevent violent crime and stop senseless acts of violence, little is done to help the children whom are affected daily by these tragic events.

Those of us who have been affected know all too well the feelings that accompany the loss of a parent. Grief, anger, loneliness overwhelm while 75% think their life would have been much better if their parent hadn’t died when they were young. (I’m part of this 75%)

Run for Dad – August 9th

On Tuesday, August 9th I’ll run my first marathon (aka. Run For Dad) to honor his life and to support my ongoing cause to raise funds for Comfort Zone Camp. Since I took up serious training two years ago I knew I wanted to run my first marathon on my Dad’s birthday away from the craziness of a normal marathon. What better year to do it as I’ll challenge myself even further to run the Blue Springs 50 miler on October 30.

What is Comfort Zone Camp?

Comfort Zone Camp is the nation’s largest bereavement camp which transforms the lives of children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. The free camps include confidence building programs and age-based support groups that break the emotional isolation grief often brings. Comfort Zone Camps are offered to children 7-17, and are held year-round in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia.

One night while searching online I came across the Comfort Zone Camp website and immediately felt a connection (and tears down my face) while learning some of the camper’s stories. I remember the feeling of loneliness and grief which overcame me while I was coming to grips with what happened.

How can you help?

My ultimate goal is to raise $2,011 during 2011 for CZC. This would allow four children to attend camp all expenses paid. At the same time, it is important to spread the word about Comfort Zone Camp and the crucial job it does helping those who are dealing with loss at such a critical time in life.

To donate to 2,011 in 2011, visit my CZC support page on FirstGiving. If not, you can copy this tweet and use it to spread the word about CZC and the cause.

Please support @ComfortZoneCamp and @ryanknapp during the “Run for Dad” Visit http://bit.ly/ngpgH6 for info!

The support I’ve received so far has been incredible and I thank each and everyone of you for all of your support to help children know they are not alone.

Thank you for reading and supporting in any way you can.

Flattop Mountain’s 12,324′ summit is more aptly described as an expansive alpine tundra bench along the Continental Divide. From its lofty perch you’ll enjoy 360 views of the Park’s most formidable and distinguishable peaks and mountain ranges. Despite a strenuous climb through high elevations, a well marked and maintained trail makes Flattop Mountain a popular and accessible destination for adequately prepared and fit hikers. From ProTrails description

15.29 miles (but total 16.5 roughly)

4 hours, 41 minutes.

3,487 feet of vertical elevation gain over the first 4.2 miles as my chicken legs carried me up to 12,324 feet and into the heavens of Rocky Mountain National Park. Instead of coming to a sign and an incredible view, I came upon a group of accomplished trail runners, clapping and yelling for me, after I made the hardest climb of my life – something that one and a half years ago would never have crossed my mind.

The climb and celebration was just the beginning, as what goes up, must come down. We ran across rocky terrain, through snow fields still feet deep, and took on single track downhills with 200 feet sheer drops off the side. With every few miles came the same result: the front of the pack would stop and make sure the back of the pack were okay and accounted for.

“Yep, everyone here? Jeff? Ryan? Ernie? Okay, let’s go”

And the group was off to attack the rest of the trail. We brought down a few things from the trail, mainly mud, twisted ankles and cuts and bruises, all which will be healed in a few days but were well worth the views along the way.

One day, I will need this run when heading south on the Trolley Trail in Kansas City.  I’ll need to get my miles in but my mind will be fighting against me, telling me I should have stayed home or my legs are gassed and it’s time to give in and turn around.

When that happens, I’ll pull the memories of today’s run to the front. I’ll remember the handshakes from strangers who became friends on the trail. I’ll remember what speechless truly is as I looked out over the Continental Divide from 12,250 feet. I’ll remember the pop-pop-pop of Jeff’s form as he guided his bruised ankles down the descent, being ever so careful to stay injury free, but enjoy the entire experience. I’ll remember as women and men double my age made me feel as I was standing still as they flew up and down the mountain, unfazed by oxygen debt or any number of elements, sent to attack and throw us to the ground.

Most of all, I’ll remember exiting the trail, sitting on a rock thinking how good it felt to finally have a rest…
and how grateful I was for the experience.

Thank you to Terry, John, Jeff and the rest of the trail running group who made me feel like a regular, 1,000 miles away from home.

I could write 500 words about my experience here, but the five pictures above stand out for me. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, here’s 5,000.

Colorado (trail)running – day one – Colorado has some incredible views. Wow.

Day one worked on form…form…form. Early in the AM we took a drive 10 minutes away and ran a couple of laps around Lily Lake. After a few laps, it was time to work on the form. Coach filmed my running and I got to see for the first time.

My biggest problem is I favor my right side, carrying my left arm super high and pawing off of the ground. I realized since I am blind in my right eye, I lean to the right to compensate for my vision. After learning how to relax everything seemed to come natural to me and a half-hour later I was running better than before.

A quick breakfast and we headed to the pool. A few quick tweaks on my form and I was swimming smoother than ever, minus my body working overtime to find the oxygen at 9,000 feet. I’m glad to have a better feel in the pool.

The highlight of the day was the drive to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. Standing on top of the rock at 12,250 feet was an incredible feeling. The wind, the cold in the middle of summer and the chatter of people saying ‘this place is beautiful’.

And that it was.

This post is a few days coming, but there isn’t much left to say about the US women’s national team and their run through the Women’s World Cup. I haven’t seen opinions so divided on a soccer subject in quite a while.

It was incredible to see the outpouring of support, especially while watching the final at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. My parents, normally non-soccer watchers, even watched the Brazil game with me while at home visiting and my mother texted me ‘good try’.

I’m not here to argue whether or not the USWNT should be treated as heroes when many feel they choked in the finals. This post from Deadspin gives quite a few tweets from those in the world of sports who feel the women choked in Frankfurt.

Looking at this Women’s World Cup, I was more interested in the sports business side of the tournament.

Tweets during the final were 7,196 tweets per second, beating out Osama Bin Laden’s death and the Super Bowl. Newspapers and media outlets covered the matches and the ladies were on front pages on more than one occasion.

sponsorship dollars

My immediate thought post loss was the amount of sponsorship dollars left on the table coming in second place. Forbes estimated in an article losses up to $10 million because of the loss.

Star forward Abby Wambach and goalie Hope Solo were likely the biggest endorsement losers. Both players were looking at $3 million to $4 million a year in marketing deals — a modest sum predicted by sports marketing experts but still a decent amount for a sport that has had trouble sustaining roots with the American public. The experts said another $2 million could collectively be brought in by remainder of the team.

Great news today coming out of USA Today that Hope Solo, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan have agreed to a sponsorship deal with Bank of America, tied in with the Chicago Marathon in October.

WPS has also seen a rise in popularity, with the WNY Flash v magicJack match selling out in Rochester and the Atlanta Beat v magicjack match selling out in Atlanta. Good news on the homefront.

Will this push for women’s soccer sustain? Only time will tell, but with the direction WPS has been heading this year, full stadia and happy fans are just what the doctor ordered.