Kansas Wesleyan Men’s Soccer Coach Cody Barltow on Training vs Practice, Coaching Co-Ed, and Building Better Athletes

On the Contacts Coaching podcast, host Justin interviews Cody Bartlow, newly hired head men’s soccer coach at Kansas Wesleyan University, about his path from an unplanned start coaching a U6 co-ed team in high school to 25 years in coaching across club, high school, and NAIA college programs in Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas. Bartlow explains why he now calls sessions “training” instead of “practice,” emphasizing scenario preparation and player autonomy in a sport with no timeouts. He discusses lessons from coaching co-ed and both genders, building belief in female athletes through relationships and individualized approaches, and borrowing concepts from football, track, basketball, hockey, rugby, and baseball to teach soccer. He also covers multi-sport development, workload management, referee relationships, why back-to-back soccer games raise injury risk, regional differences in soccer culture, and the administrative reality of small-college coaching.00:00 Podcast Welcome00:30 Coach Bartlow Journey03:54 New Kansas Role04:17 Training Not Practice06:10 Coed Team Lessons11:13 Building Confidence16:25 Cross Sport Coaching22:11 Specialization Club Tension26:34 Managing Multi Sport Load28:58 Coed Season Juggling29:41 Managing Back To Back Games29:57 Respecting Referees32:15 Building Ref Rapport34:30 Soccer Scheduling Safety36:19 Recovery And Injury Risk40:22 Texas Vs Midwest Sports42:46 Club Culture And Ego46:01 Small College Coaching Reality51:52 Growth Mindset And Mentors54:42 Process Driven Training58:19 Final Takeaways And Thanks