Welcome to Dr. Rick McGuire

The Power of Positive Coaching: Positive Coaches are artists, using all the paints on their palette to create a masterpiece in each athlete and with the team.

Coach McGuire News

Positive Coaching Digital Workshop:

Open Enrollment is happening …Details

Enrolled Coaches

University of Missouri Positive Coaching Online Master’s Degree:

All online! …Program Info

About Positive Coaching

Positive Coaching provides coaches a scientifically and philosophically sound way to teach athletes how to compete and perform their very best on a consistent basis. Positive Coaching empowers athletes to prepare better, perform better, achieve more, and experience personal excellence. This drives them to be prouder, happier, healthier, and more fulfilled for their investment, and motivates athletes to come back and do even more!

When is it right to be disrespectful to another person?

When is it right to be disrespectful of a person with whom we have the opportunity of serving as their coach?

When is it right or necessary to be a negative coach?

NEVER!!

Positive Coaching IS that best way. Positive Coaching is BEST coaching! Positive Coaching is RIGHT coaching! Positive Coaching is REAL coaching! 

The Mission of Positive Coaching

To promote POSITIVE COACHING in sport at all levels, and to enhance lives and society by “Winning Kids with Sport!”

Positive Coaching develops competitive athletes and teams by teaching and modeling
the process of how to be a SuCCCCCCCess, both in and out of sport!

Demanding Not Demeaning!

The Building Blocks of Positive Coaching

The Science of Positive Coaching

Nowhere in the research or literature is there even the slightest suggestion that the best way to coach athletes and teams to become the very best that they can be would be through Threatening, Intimidating, Demeaning and/or Bullying! This is Negative Coaching!

Positive Coaching is built on the best foundations of psychology, both historically and currently, that informs us about how to teach, guide, nurture, support, encourage & coach people into being the best they can be.

Positive Coaching fuses the best ideas, best concepts, and best practices as established in the fields of General Psychology, Educational Psychology, Positive Psychology, Sport Psychology and Traditional Coaching Theory.   Specifically, Positive Coaching draws upon work from Maslow, Bandura, Deci & Ryan, Seligman, Noddings, Dweck, Csikszentmihalyi & Jackson, and Buckingham & Coffman. 

 

The Foundations of Positive Coaching

  • Striving for excellence.
  • Understanding that it does matter that we win… but it’s not all that matters.
  • Achieving optimal performance.
  • Teaching and modeling the process of success.
  • Leading a group to become a highly effective team.
  • Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation.
  • Communicating with our athletes just as we would want to be communicated with by our own leaders.
  • Respecting and protecting the self-worth of every athlete.
  • Being Demanding, without being Demeaning.
  • Shaping the athlete’s will without breaking his or her spirit.
  • Realizing that it does matter that we win…because it absolutely does matter that we win in the life of every athlete with whom we have the opportunity to serve as their coach!

"Coach McGuire casts a spell; I knew everyone in the audience felt like me: they just wanted him to keep on talking, keep on mixing wisdom and humor to encourage and inspire you to work hard at whatever is worth working for in your life and being grateful for the opportunity to do so. No platitudes; no preaching, just powerful insights about life, education, leadership, and family learned from his coaching experiences that challenge you and change you for the good. Don't miss him."

Dr. Anne Deaton, Ed. D.

"MIPC is the foundation for all that we do in our athletic department. It all starts with hiring and training positive coaches. Having coaches that create environments where student-athletes can grow and flourish is essential for optimal performances and the cornerstone for winning kids with sport!!"

Susan Noonan, Director of Athletics

Ursuline Academy of Dallas

"Dr. McGuire inspired us as he took his coaching experiences and related them to building and growing a winning team in business. He was excellent at molding his talk to fit specifically into our company values, re-energizing us in our journey as we live out those values every day. Ever since his speech there has been a buzz around our office, as we’ve grown our organization from 300 people when he spoke to us, to now over 850 people about 2 yrs later. I can genuinely say that Dr. McGuire was the best speaker we’ve ever had talk to our company."

Brock Bukowsky

President, Veterans United Home Loans

"The teachers of the Wausau School District are gaining valuable insights regarding sound teaching practices and working with students through this series. We are a public school district with two high schools, two middle schools, and fourteen elementary schools, and the methodologies employed by Dr. McGuire are helping our teachers create impactful moments with their students. We have four professional development classes associated with the Missouri Institute of Positive Coaching resources, and many teachers who are not coaches are using these courses to improve their techniques in the classroom. This video series allows our teachers to work on improving their teaching practices at a time that is convenient for them, and these resources are available to teachers, administrators, and district-level staff as resources to help teachers work to their maximum potential. Teachers especially are very excited about the flexibility of this platform, as are coaches who have struggled to be able to work on professional development opportunities because of extra-curricular commitments in the evenings and on weekends."

Patrick Galligan

Wausau School Disctrict (Wisconsin)

"I've had the privilege of working with Rick McGuire in local and statewide leadership programs. His ability to capture the attention of our participants was incredible. Rick has a keen sense of how to challenge their thinking while inspiring them to be a better leader. He is a must-have for any leadership program at any level."

Kristi Ray

Executive VP, Columbia Chamber of Commerce

"Positive Coaching is something I truly believe in because the foundation of it is that kids come first. It is about guiding and empowering athletes in to being better than they were yesterday. It applies great life lessons to sport and builds strong-minded competitors."

Brandi Thomsen

Head Softball Coach; Oak Grove High School

"I’ve coached for 24 years at an institution that prides itself on teaching leadership and character across every facet of its curriculum and extra-curricular activity, yet I’ve never met an individual who taught those qualities and lived them more effectively than Coach Rick McGuire. “Rick’s had tremendous influence among track coaches at every level and all across the Country, shaping so many coaching philosophies, including my own. Rick teaches a balance between learning and competition, education and athletics, that all in interscholastic and intercollegiate coaching should emulate. “I consider Rick my most valued mentor. Whenever I’m struggling with some aspect of coaching or teaching, I refer back to one of Rick’s articles, or my notes from a previous talk or conversation, or better yet, give him a call-- the values Rick not only teaches but personifies always have a way of grounding me."

Ralph Lindeman

Head Track & Field Coach, 9x Conference Coach of the Year, United States Air Force Academy

"During my entire career as superintendent I was looking for some vehicle to encourage our coaches to be good role models and teach their athletes that there was more to sports than winning. Six years ago I found that vehicle in Positive Coaching and Rick McGuire. Dr. McGuire and Positive Coaching have changed the face of sports in the four high schools of the Fort Zumwalt School District."

Bernie DuBray

Fort Zumwalt School District (Missouri)

"Listen to me! Rick McGuire is the best speaker I have ever heard and I have heard them all. He changes lives every time he engages an audience. There is no one I have witnessed in my lifetime that connects with the heart of the listener like Dr. McGuire. If you have a chance to sit under his teaching, warn everyone in your life to expect a different person the next time they see you!"

David L. Cook, Ph.D.

Best selling author/Executive Producer: “Seven Days in Utopia”; Top 10 Mental Training Coach: Golf Digest; Performance Psychology Coach, Speaker, and Business Consultant; President/Chairman: Utopia Films, Inc.

Dr. McGuire is a world class speaker that captivates any audience. He utilizes his expertise in sports psychology coupled with his experiences coaching at every level and delivers an inspiring message that will have a positive impact on your entire team or organization. I have seen firsthand the remarkable impact the Positive Coaching approach has had on two school districts and two communities. On the playing fields, in the classrooms, and even in the hallways this philosophy is what’s best for kids.

Bryan Thomsen

Superintendent, Oak Grove School District

Want to become a Positive Coach?

The workshop opens August 2019, enroll now to save your seat!