Coaching Kids Article

Rashid Gayle didn’t have a long professional football career, but he packed those years with hard work, dedication and determination.

And for the past four years, the Woodstock resident has been passing along that work ethic to the younger generation.

In January 2003, Gayle, 32, founded Kairos Connection, an instructional program that helps young athletes reach their full potential through speed training, strength training and learning basic football skills.

Kairos, a Greek word meaning “a critical or decisive point in time, when something is ready or favorable, or a moment of great importance and significance, when crucial events take place,” enables young people to develop athletic skills they may lack or enhance the skills they already possess.

“It makes me feel so good to watch these kids grow,” said Gayle, a former National Football League and Canadian Football League player and former Indoor Professional Football League and XFL coach. “That’s why I have them call me ‘coach.’ A coach is very concerned not only about their outer development but also about their inside development. I get great satisfaction seeing them develop. Parents talk about the changes they’ve seen not only in their skills but also changes in their character from having somebody who’s been at a higher level believe in them.”

That kind of faith from coaches and teammates is what helped Gayle succeed during his collegiate career at Boise State University and in the professional ranks.

“The great thing I was able to take from my career was I had people believe in me, and when they did, I answered,” he said. “I responded to their faith in me. I’m not very big, only 5 (feet) 8 (inches), but I made it.”

Gayle said he started the program, which he recently renamed The Blitz, so he could pass on the work ethic he’d developed as a professional player and coach to young athletes to help them run faster and be stronger.

“I want to give them an edge, give them confidence,” he said. “When someone believes in you, it’s contagious. I was blessed in my career to have people who believed in me, and I wanted to pass that on to other people.”

The youngest student he has now is 9 - though he has worked with 6- and 7-year-olds who were “very coachable” - but most of them are middle and high school students. During the summer, he also has a few college students come to him.

In the speed training, Gayle teaches the athletes skills like running form and technique, how to have an explosive start and an explosive finish, the fundamentals of running, using their legs properly and stride lengths.
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