The Coach's Notebook - 50 Lessons to Become a Better Coach This Season

I’ve spent the last several weeks building something a little different for the Vault.

The Coach’s Notebook is officially finished and ready for the 2026 season.

This isn’t a playbook. There aren’t any blocking schemes, protections, or defensive diagrams.

The Notebook is divided into five sections:

• Building Your Program

• Becoming a Better Coach

• Practice Planning

• Game Planning

• Leadership

We cover everything from building trust and establishing standards to running better practices, correcting mistakes, self-scouting, halftime adjustments, handling parents, developing assistant coaches, coaching through adversity, and leaving a legacy.

But here is what I really like about it:

You don’t have to sit down and read the entire book.

Pick on lesson that your staff needs that week.

Maybe practice hasn’t been good enough. Pull out Coaching Effort or Practice Tempo.

Maybe you’re struggling with the same mistakes every Friday. Work through Correcting Mistakes.

Maybe you’re getting predictable offensively. Use Self-Scouting.

Maybe your staff needs a conversation about leadership, accountability, relationships, or handling adversity.

Pick the lesson. Read it together. Answer the questions. Talk about it as a staff. Then put something from it into action that week.

Every lesson includes reflection questions and action steps designed to make you evaluate the way you actually coach.

There’s no wrong way.

Pull out a lesson when you or your staff need it.

Work through a section during the season.

Use individual pages in staff meetings.

Or go through one lesson per week for 50 weeks and make it a year-long coaching development plan.

I’ve built a lot of football resources for the Vault.

This one isn’t about becoming better at football. It’s about becoming better at coaching.

And I think it may be one of the most useful resources I’ve put together.

The Coach’s Notebook is available in the Vault now.

Paid members — go check it out.

Not a member yet? You can join for $7.99/month or $64.99/year, with annual members saving 32%.

50 lessons. 5 sections. 5 Halftimes. One Final Self-Scout.

Use it yourself.

— Coach Johnson