Cody Royle

The power of football 💙💛💚

2 minutes and 8 seconds of what it looks like to be an ELITE Coach.

"I would never [let the media] tape a pre-game speech because it's not real. You're not being exactly you. And the guys in that locker room need you to be you in those moments. Those are the moments of intimacy that develop deep-rooted relationships."

Across 22 seasons, 96 of the 160 NFL head coaches hired didn't meet a single industry average (tenure, wins, playoffs, etc). All 160 were some sort of X's and O's wizard when they were hired, so it's almost like there's more to it... 🤔

"The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better." — @nntaleb

On this topic, I'll be sharing everything I know about effective communication in a webinar next month. Feel free to join me, if you'd like: calendly.com/codyroyle/craf…

Attention span isn't declining and we shouldn't be pattern-matching meeting duration to some arbitrary number of minutes because of TikTok. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to be more effective communicators: coachcraft.codyroyle.com

@TPiMBW In the research I’ve been doing over the last couple of years, one theme emerges: the elders are often ahead of us in their recognition of what’s really going on. We rarely listen, though. 1996!

Quotes from La intimidad del fútbol · Ángel Cappa · 1996.... 1996!

"Modern football has a dispiriting characteristic: the players have stopped thinking. They no longer know the game. Tacticism has stolen the players' brains. It comes to say something like: don't think, we think for you, limit yourselves to obeying. Those managers who value the tactics board more than they value Platini or Maradona have formed them this way. Slowly they converted them into disciplined executors of their tactics. They managed to make the player disengage from the game — to stop worrying about understanding it, about thinking through it." — Ángel Cappa

@CoachDanCasey Immediately adding #BringYourOwnPencil to my reading list. Great concept, and excited to see where you've taken it.

Hold deep convictions. Remain flexible enough to upgrade ideas. 📖 amzn.to/4ukRHRC

"Old School Principles + New School Methods." - Mike Macdonald

@JhanHky 💯 I've worked on it in hockey already - very effective and not too dissimilar from the built-in attacking concepts anyway. Idea actually came from basketball...it's the combination of 3s and layups that condenses and expands defenders, displacing them from preferred spaces.

@codyroyle I think your line of thinking is more applicable to hockey (where there are end boards and a missed shot has a fair chance of being recovered) than soccer or basketball (where a missed shot is usually a turnover). But your point stands : full optimization is actually suboptimal

A lot of "skill development" in a hockey context is: 1) moving once instead of twice to save time 2) doing two movements at once to rush others Underload as explained below is an effect we achieve with "skill development"

@JhanHky Why would a defender step-up (displace themselves) if there's no threat? There's even a 'perceived threat' that can make them displace themselves, but only if a player/team demonstrate that they will shoot from distance. Otherwise, I'll just bed in right here, thanks...

@JhanHky Love this. Similar to my 'displacement' idea. xG in soccer has basically eliminated shots from outside the box (low xG) but this assumes the only objective is high-quality shots, rather than defensive displacement.

@stephenmax2404 Top man! Would you believe I'm slightly less than half-way through the coaches/notes I have? So I guess that means there's another couple of years of stuff coming. Thanks for the kind words, @stephenmax2404.

👂🏻Have you heard about @codyroyle Blog “Coach Craft” A highlight of the week for me personally. Taken from his notes over the years, each one has a key point for every coach to take note of, you can adapt & implement within your own environment. 🔗 coachcraft.codyroyle.com

@brianlee The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh is still my #1 World’s Best by Ric Charlesworth is also up there. His thinking and ideas were central to me getting into coaching.

@codyroyle What would be your #1 coaching autobiography, Cody?

@mlombardiuncgm Agreed, Mike. What an utter farce.

In my book Football Done Right I strongly urged and established a criteria for head coaches to qualify for the HOF. This would remove politics from the vote and would avoid the complete injustice that occurred today. When I wrote the book I said the whole system was flawed today’s news confirms that belief.

@MVP_Mindset @CoachRueck @margaozasa @BeckyBurleigh @KibweJohnson @WaterPoloCoachK @CoachP4Life @cindybristow @PhilBeckner @MollyMiller33 Elite start to your podcast journey, my friend. I’m honored to be included among such esteemed company. You’re doing great stuff. Keep pushing.

Looking back on this year with a lot of gratitude. This year on the podcast, I had the opportunity to converse with some of the brightest minds in sport and coaching including: • National championship coaches. • Coaches of the Year. • Hall of Famers. • Olympic gold medalists. • NBA & MLB executives. • A World Series MVP. This year’s guests can be summed up: Elite resumes. Even better perspectives and people. I’m grateful for the honesty, wisdom, and generosity shared amongst this whole group. Thank you to everyone who contributed. 🙏 More to come in 2026.

@farnamstreet Great episode, lads. I've got about ten new books to read now. Thank you, @shaneparrish @rorysutherland

"You don't find entrepreneurs in chess clubs; you find entrepreneurs in casinos. They're playing poker; they're playing backgammon. They're playing games of chance with an occasional very high payoff, and a lot of life is exactly like that... The people who are running these organizations for the benefit of financial predictability are trying to make it chess. They're trying to turn it into a reductionist game where the most you can score is one for a win... Once you ensure that you’re not going to starve to death, die, etc., and you’ve looked after your children, 50% of your effort in life should be attempts to get lucky—in other words, as Nassim Taleb would say, I love this phrase, 'increasing your surface area exposure to positive upside optionality.' Finding opportunity." - Rory Sutherland

@stevocaldwell 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽

How good would that be! Nothing could end our friendship mate 👊🏼

@stevocaldwell Canada, Scotland, NZ, Australia would be a fun group. 🇦🇺v🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 may end our friendship though mate.

Everybody’s best case pot 1 is Canada and they know that. I think they enjoy it too.

@aksumfootball @MjallbyAIFs Gotta update your bio 💪🏽 Well done & good luck

Today is officially my first day as head coach at @MjallbyAIFs. I am both proud and humble to have been given this chance. To all the fans: I will do everything I can to help the team develop further in the years to come and give you more joy. See you soon at Strandvallen 💛🖤.