Last weekend’s nor’easter did more than disrupt life on the ground. It did its best to foul up air travel, destroying equipment that measures wind speed and direction at New York’s Kennedy Airport.

“”Wind-measuring equipment just shattered on the field,” a controller advised a pilot as the storm raged. Controllers wound up getting phone updates from Weather Service forecasters.

Thus, they gave an example that every coach should heed. You need data. And if you don’t have it, you better go out and get some.

Every practice should have something to be measured. At the end of practice, you should have more information than when you started.

This information can include: speed, strength, and results of one-on-one competitions.

And the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) suggests another, powerful type of data: Positive Charting to Catch Players Doing Something Right.

You’ve probably heard of the Magic Ratio: Five compliments to one criticism. This works in marriages, workplaces and on teams. And one way to make sure you are keeping to the magic ratio is to develop a list of things you’d like to see done in practice, and then mark down when people do them.

You can do positive charting of everything from showing up early to picking up equipment to helping out teammates to making eye contact.

It’s one thing to tell your players that you value certain things. It’s another to monitor, record and give praise for these behaviors.