In surveys conducted at USSA national coaches’ academies and forums Dr. Keller estimates that as high as fifty percent of sports clubs represented in those settings do not have regular in-house training for either developing common methods or improving the knowledge and effectiveness of the program’s coaches or other staff. Over the past 35 years he has conducted scores of clinics in numerous topics in sports including technical, tactical, mental, fitness, strategic, cultural and development of overall coaching excellence in settings ranging from NGB level coach clinics and national academies to staff training for the clubs he has directed.

Dr. Keller was the principle architect of creating key development systems for athletes. He taught coaches to deliver cutting edge training methods and experiences including the original Tri-region projects in the 1990’s, The Western Region development system, the National Development (NDS) System and the revised Regional Alpine Development efforts from 2011 -15. He was instrumental in the development of the USSA B.A.S.E. evaluation program, the USSA Alpine Competencies Statement, the Athlete Management Platform (AMP) program, the Take your Brain to the Mountain, sport psychology manual, and its successor the Elite performance series CD Sport Psychology, as well as the SkillsQuest program

He played key roles in the development of a club visitation program that has become the club development effort currently being utilized by USSA. He has taught college level classes in sport psychology, performance psychology, and positive psychology at the University of Utah and Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The following are potential topics that can be tailored to meet the needs of any level sports club or other organization seeking to in prove the performance of its’ staff.

Professional Development for Coaches and Staff

• Developing a coaching philosophy
• Steps to a systematic methodology
• Ethics and Values
• Professional accountability and responsibility
• Educational and growth opportunities
• Leadership

The Art and Science of Teaching

• Pedagogy of teaching sport skills to children and youth
• Andragogy as a mentoring & coaching philosophy
• Learning styles
• Teaching styles
• Dynamic systems modeling applied to the development of sport expertise
• Game theory applied to teaching expertise in sport

Positive Psychology applied to Coaching Styles

• Exploration and integration of the Positive Psychology revolution
• Developing life skills through sport participation
• Identification of effective coaching styles
• Self-evaluation for individual coaches to identify personal style, strengths and potential weaknesses, as well as how to track and monitor progress and growth
• Battling attrition

Sport Specific Content Development

• Development of Learning Environments
• Progressions for learning skills across chronological or training age groups
• Development and implementation of modern training methods
• Technical skill development (sport specific)
• Tactical skill development (sport specific)
• Strategic thinking
• Competition mind set and contest/race day skill development

Team Culture and Relationship Building

• Establishing, enhancing, and maintaining effective and productive relationships with athletes and teams
• Methods and techniques of identifying team mission, roles, rules, expectations, and problem resolution Methods to assist in forming positive, performance enhancing team culture.
• Integration of family culture and the role parents into teams

Using Mental Skills/Routines in Coaching

• Applications of mental skills in achievement of coaching performance and enhancement
• Personal and professional growth through learning and using the same skills presented to the athletes, but in the coaching context

Performance Psychology and Integration of Mental Strength Skills in Athletes

• Understanding the role of skills in the mental domain of performance for athletes
• Methods of integrating mental skills training and the utilization of these skills into overall training and competition for individual athletes and teams
• Specific instruction/consultation in training and competition and the application of skill learned in the training and competition arena

Communication Skills

• For Athletes, Coaches, Support Staff, Club Leadership, and Parents
• Identify and build communication skills between all members of the individual’s performance team
• 3600 communication
• Develop and apply team communication procedures and training
• How to communicate with parents and other clients