The Set the Play Blog
Posts for parents and coaches, written by Coach Isaac from his book and his practices. Each post answers a question parents ask, and ends with a page you can print and hand to her.
One of a kind: helping her find her own style
She already has a style of her own. The 8 questions, the lines she collects, and saying them her own way.
October 17, 2026
Small every day: patience for athletes who want it now
She wants the results now. Very small steps every day, cutting the amount instead of quitting, and the only guarantee there is.
October 17, 2026
Gazelle or lioness? Why her brain fights every change
She starts something new and falls right back. The gazelle and the lioness, and the six ways her brain fights every change.
October 17, 2026
Mental toughness for young athletes
Why Coach Isaac takes a cold shower, every shower, and what her version of it looks like: one thing that scares her, on her list, every day.
October 17, 2026
Why does my child compare herself to others?
She opens her phone in the morning and tries to figure out who she is from everyone else's posts. The broken mirror, and the only comparison that helps her.
October 16, 2026
How to handle trash talk without becoming someone you're not
Someone says something, makes a comment, teases her. The two moves Coach Isaac teaches every player first, and why he only talks trash as a comeback.
October 14, 2026
Afraid of messing up: fear of criticism in young athletes
She hesitates, and she keeps what she thinks to herself. How to spot fear of criticism, the three questions from the book, and why most criticism has no truth in it.
October 13, 2026
Mentally coming back from injury
A torn Achilles at 38, an ER doctor who said "in principle," and NBA numbers that didn't help. How one coach decided, started smaller than small, and walked back onto the court.
October 13, 2026
Goal setting for young athletes
She has a list of what she wants. Now what? The six rules for writing each goal, how she picks ten for this year, and why every goal gets three actions and a page of reasons.
October 11, 2026
How to balance school and sports as a student athlete
School, practice, homework, friends. By the end of the day she's tired, with that feeling of "I didn't get to it." Where that feeling comes from, and the six questions that plan her day.
October 11, 2026
What to do when your child makes excuses
"I have no energy." "My stomach hurts." "Practice isn't fun." A coach hears these every week. Here's what he says back, and why he doesn't hand her the escape hatch right away.
October 11, 2026
How to motivate your daughter in sports
She wants more from her sport, from school, from herself. And she ends up on Instagram, TikTok and the group chat instead. How to tell what's stopping her, and what you can say back.
October 1, 2026
Free: The Mini Journal
By the end of the week she has closed the last game with a clear head, picked one thing to work on at practice, and written her plan for the next one. Seven pages, one a day, five minutes a day, written by Coach Isaac in the same words he uses with his own players.
- Day 1, The Reset. Tonight, before she goes to sleep. Three slow breaths, one honest sentence about what happened, a name for the feeling, and the one thing this game is teaching her. Then she closes the game. Tomorrow is a different page.
- Day 2, The Tape. The next morning. Coaches watch the tape the next day, never the same night, because the same night you only see the mistakes. The next day you see the whole game, including what she did right.
- Day 3, My Why. When the why is strong, the how gets easier. She writes down why she plays, clearly enough to say it out loud.
- Day 4, One Focus. She knows what to fix and why it matters. Now she turns it into one small thing she can do at practice this week, and repeats it. That's how real improvement works.
- Day 5, Winter. A sports season works like the seasons of the year, and game season is winter. You can't cancel winter. What you can do is get better at it: stronger physically, stronger mentally, stronger with your feelings.
- Day 6, Believe. Belief isn't magic. It's what she says to herself, over and over, until it's what she thinks. On this page she writes her own lines instead of the ones other people put in her head.
- Day 7, Next Play. Her game plan for the next game. Eyes forward. The season only moves in one direction.
It's free. Leave your email, and the download opens right away, in Letter and A4.