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Janine Tucker: The Power Of Positive Coaching

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Janine Tucker is head women's lacrosse coach at Johns Hopkins University, where she is the all-time winningest coach. As of 2015, she was a five-time IWLCA Regional Coach of the Year and held a 249-129 record in 22 seasons, including a 191-113 mark at the Division I level at Johns Hopkins. An All-America player at Loyola, from which she graduated in 1989, Tucker is an inductee in the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame and has co-written six books on lacrosse.

Here, Tucker states that coaching with positivity, joy and energy is just more fun. "I've also found out over the years that I get more from my players." A smile and upbeat tone helps convey to players that Tucker believes in them, that they can perform what she is asking.

Coaches must maintain standards and instill discipline, she says, but "old school" ways of expressing that just are not as effective. Cursing, demeaning or degrading players, "coaching out of fear just does not get the kind of results that we're looking for in the big picture."