Hour
Coach
How great coaches develop athletes beyond practice.
Great coaches know their influence extends far beyond the few hours they spend on the field. Every week has 168 hours. The question is: what happens during the rest?
The Question
What happens after
practice ends?
Practice ends. Players gather their gear and head home. The coach is no longer in the room — but development does not stop. The question behind 168 Coach is simple: how do great coaches continue to positively influence athletes when they are not physically with them?
Because every week contains 168 hours, and coaches are present for only a small fraction of them.
Great coaches understand that athlete development doesn't stop when practice ends. Their influence extends into the hours when athletes train, recover, lead, make decisions, build habits, and shape who they become.
The Project
A Project About
Coaching Influence
168 Coach explores how coaches develop athletes beyond practice — through culture, leadership, accountability, relationships, communication, and intentional development environments.
It began as a technology question. It became a coaching question. This project is built around the voices of coaches who have spent years creating programs that continue shaping athletes long after practice ends.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE EBOOK
Based on interviews with coaches and athletes, The 168-Hour Coach explores what development really means outside the limited hours of formal practice. Not a playbook. Not a training manual. A reflection on coaching influence — how it is built, how it is sustained, and why it matters.
Prefer to listen? Get the audiobook.
Coaching Doesn't Stop When Practice Ends.
Short reflections on coaching, leadership, and athlete development beyond practice.
How great coaches extend their influence beyond practice.
Listen on Spotify →Voices of the Coach
Lessons From Coaches
of Consequence
Grounded in conversations with coaches who have built lasting influence through relationships, standards, traditions, and trust.
Building a community-centered program sustained by culture, alumni connection, youth alignment, and long-term commitment.
Developing leaders through trust, accountability, player ownership, mentorship, and relationships that extend beyond the game.
Fifty years of coaching, teaching, and staying connected to athletes beyond the season.
What We Are Learning
The Patterns Are Clear
Influence Outlasts Instruction
The best coaches shape standards, habits, confidence, and identity — things that persist long after the final whistle.
Culture Has To Travel
A program's culture matters most when the coach is not present. The goal is not control. The goal is ownership.
Development Is Bigger Than Practice
Physical training, mental skills, leadership, character, and relationships all develop in the hours outside formal team activity.
Join the Conversation
Help Build The
168 Coach Project
We are continuing to learn from coaches, athletes, parents, and researchers who care about development beyond practice. If you know a coach whose influence extends beyond the scoreboard, we would like to hear their story.
About the Project
Why 168 Coach
Exists
Every week contains 168 hours. Coaches spend only a small fraction of them directly with their athletes. The question behind this project is simple: How do great coaches continue influencing athletes when they are no longer physically present?
The Story
From Technology Question
to Coaching Question
168 Coach began as an exploration of how technology might help coaches stay connected with athletes outside formal practice. The deeper we looked, the clearer it became that the real story was not technology. The real story was coaching influence.
This project is built around the experiences of coaches who have spent years creating cultures, relationships, traditions, and systems that continue shaping athletes long after practice ends. Their stories are the project.
The People
The People Behind
the Project
Nearly five decades of coaching and teaching experience focused on developing athletes and people. Co-author of The 168-Hour Coach and the original reason the question was worth asking.
Former athlete, entrepreneur, and investor exploring how leadership, culture, and relationships shape performance and development beyond formal coaching environments. Co-author of The 168-Hour Coach.
Get in Touch
Contact
the Project
Coaches Helping Coaches
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Effective Date: July 1, 2026
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Contact Us
The 168-Hour Coach
Email: [email protected]
Website: 168coach.org
Coaches Helping Coaches
Terms of Use
Effective Date: July 1, 2026
Welcome to The 168-Hour Coach website. By accessing or using this website, you agree to these Terms of Use.
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Nothing on this website constitutes professional, medical, legal, psychological, or coaching advice.
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We believe in the positive impact that coaching can have on young people and athletic programs; however, we make no guarantees regarding specific athletic, educational, or organizational outcomes resulting from the use of our materials, resources, or recommendations.
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Continued use of this website constitutes acceptance of any revised Terms of Use.
Contact Information
The 168-Hour Coach
Email: [email protected]
Website: 168coach.org
Help Us Find Great Coaches
Recommend a coach whose influence extends beyond practice—or sign up to share your own coaching experiences with other coaches.
Recommend a Coach
Know a coach who makes a lasting impact on athletes during the other 160+ hours of the week? Tell us who we should talk to.
Recommend a CoachSign Up for an Interview
Have experiences, challenges, or ideas about developing athletes beyond practice? We'd love to hear your perspective.
Sign Me Up
Coaches Program Assessment
We’re gathering insights from coaches across sports and program types to better understand the challenges, priorities, and opportunities facing today’s athletic programs.
Coaches Helping Coaches
Take the Five-Minute Assessment
Share your perspective on the challenges, priorities, and opportunities facing today's athletic programs. The assessment takes less than five minutes.
Resources & Evidence
What We Are
Reading
The 168 Coach Project is shaped by coach interviews, athlete perspectives, practical experience, and outside work on leadership, culture, motivation, trust, and long-term development. These resources helped shape the questions behind The 168-Hour Coach.
Recommended Reading
Research Behind
The Project
We particularly recommend the work of EverRise, whose reports examine coaching behaviors, athlete experience, and the conditions that help young people grow through sport.
EverRise Report
The Coaching Pillars
A framework for understanding the core coaching behaviors that shape athlete experience, trust, growth, and development.
EverRise Report
The State of Coaching
A broader look at coaching effectiveness and the behaviors that influence how athletes experience teams, coaches, and development.
EverRise Report
Moving the Needle on Effective Coaching
Research focused on the coaching behaviors most associated with stronger relationships, better environments, and athlete growth.
Thank You
Your participation helps us discover great coaching stories, better understand the challenges facing today's coaches, and identify ideas that can help coaches build stronger programs, develop better leaders, and create a lasting impact on young athletes.
Coaches Helping Coaches
Mike Elia & Lou Elia
Creators of The 168-Hour Coach
You're in
Check your inbox now. Look for an email from Mike Elia and click the button in it to confirm your email and download the guide. The audiobook link is in the same email.
If you asked to be a Founding Coach, Mike will be in touch personally within a few days.
Don't see it in a few minutes? Check your Promotions or Spam folder.
Your influence shouldn't end when practice does
You already put real time into developing your players: the lifting program, the team handbook, the videos you send them. Most of that work happens between practices, and you rarely see who's using it.
Start with one thing you already share. Put it on your players' phones with TriadXP, see how each player engages, and bring what you learn into your next practice. Then build out as much of your program as you want. We're looking for 20 Founding Coaches, in any sport, to try it with their teams.
168 Coach is our pilot program. It runs on the TriadXP app for iOS and Android. Founding Coaches use it free for a year, any coach can try it free for 30 days, and players always use it free.
See what you'd otherwise miss
- The quiet kid who hasn't missed a workout all winter.
- The starter who hasn't opened anything since the season ended.
- The reflection where a player admits he's lost confidence in part of his game.
Each one is the start of a conversation you might never have had. The app shows you the opening. The coaching is still all yours.
Start with what you already use
Whatever you share with players now
No new curriculum. Bring the material you already believe in.
In minutes, not weekends
When you create your team, the app starts you with a ready-made structure. Rename it, remove parts, add your own. Paste in a program or snap a photo of one, and the app turns it into a session you can edit.
A program on your players' phones
Share it with the whole team or a few players. As they use it, you see how they engage and decide what to bring up at the next practice.
What you get, and what we ask
You get
- One year of free Pro access, with no credit card and no automatic renewal
- Personal help getting your first resource onto your players' phones
- A direct line to Mike Elia, founder of TriadXP and co-author of The 168-Hour Coach, whenever something's working, or isn't
- A real say in what we fix and build next
- Free use for your players on any phone
What we ask
- Try it with your team, starting with one thing you already share
- Tell us what works and what doesn't as you go
- One 20-minute call after you've used it, to help shape what comes next
No reports or recurring meetings. The pilot runs for the same year as your free access.
Who you'll be talking to: Mike Elia played football and baseball in high school, then pitched for Gulf Coast Community College, the University of New Haven, and the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod Baseball League. He founded TriadXP and wrote The 168-Hour Coach with his brother Lou.
Why “founding” matters: the app is still evolving, and Founding Coaches help shape where it goes. When you tell us something isn't working or should exist, it goes straight to the people building the app, and it shapes what we build first.
You control the program: what's in it and which players see it. Start with one resource and a few players, and add more as you go. Not ready to commit? Any coach can try Pro free for 30 days, and the trial ends without charging you.
Join the Founding Coaches
Tell us a little about your team and Mike will follow up personally. Everyone who signs up also gets the free guide, What the Research Says About Developing Athletes When Practice Ends, and the audiobook of The 168-Hour Coach (a $9.99 value).
From the 168 Coach Podcast
A short conversation about the ideas in the guide. The guide itself comes by email when you sign up.
Your free 168 Coach resources
A week has 168 hours. Most coaches see their players for a small part of them. Start here.
What the Research Says About Developing Athletes When Practice Ends
A short guide to recent research on what helps players develop between practices.
Download the guide →The 168-Hour Coach
The book Mike and Lou Elia wrote on coaching beyond practice. The full audiobook runs 61 minutes, with chapters so you can jump to any section. Listen free on:
