Co-Lead Protocol (Fundamentals)

How to learn by sharing the room with another coach.

After completing six assist sessions, you’ll spend six sessions co-leading with an experienced coach. Co-leading means you split the class: one of you runs certain segments, the other runs the rest. You’re both coaching, but the experienced coach is still the safety net.

For the kids program co-lead protocol, see Co-Lead Protocol (Kids).

How Co-Leading Works

Co-leading is collaborative, not rigidly partitioned. You and the experienced coach share the room, with you taking on progressively more of the hard stuff across six sessions. The general progression:

Sessions 1-2: You run warmup + evergreen + retrieval. The experienced coach runs most of the main topic, but hands you one game segment within it to run.
Sessions 3-4: You run the main topic and retrieval. The experienced coach runs warmup + evergreen, but may still jump in with a concept during the main topic if they see something important.
Sessions 5-6: You run the main topic and retrieval with less support. The experienced coach runs warmup + evergreen and steps back further during your segments.

The main topic is where the hard coaching lives: game selection for a new topic, teaching points that depend on what you see, reading the room, adapting when things don’t work. Warmup + evergreen is largely running familiar games. The progression gets you into the hard stuff early (a handed-off game in sessions 1-2) while building toward full ownership.

In practice, the split will be less clean than this outline suggests. Two coaches sharing a room will naturally overlap: the experienced coach might add a concept during your segment because they see something, or you might jump in to help with individual feedback during theirs. That’s fine. The point is that your responsibility grows each session, and by sessions 5-6, you’re driving the main topic with minimal input.

You plan your own segments. Read the curriculum, pick your games, know your targeted goals, and come in with a plan. The experienced coach isn’t handing you a script anymore.

You coach your own segments. Communicate rules, coach between rounds, walk the room, give live feedback, adapt when things aren’t working. This is the real thing.

What Changes from Assisting

You’re planning, not just executing. During assist, the lead coach chose the games and you ran what they gave you. Now you’re making those choices yourself.
You own the teaching points. What you say between rounds is your call. What you watch for, what you adapt, what you emphasize. The experienced coach isn’t steering you.
You’re managing time. If your segment runs long, you’re cutting into the other coach’s time. If it runs short, you need to fill the gap. Time management is your problem now.
Mistakes are yours. If a game doesn’t work, if you talk too long, if your win conditions are confusing, you’ll feel it directly. That’s the point. The safety net is that the experienced coach is there to help recover, not that you won’t make mistakes.

Before and After Each Session

Before class:

Read the week’s curriculum topic
Pick your games and know your targeted goals for each
Know the five elements for every game you plan to run
Coordinate with the co-lead coach: who’s running what, how will you transition between segments
Have a backup game in case your first choice doesn’t work

After class:

Debrief together. This is more important during co-lead than any previous phase because you’re both making independent decisions that affect the whole class.
What worked in your segments? What didn’t?
How were the transitions between your segments? Were they smooth or did the class lose energy?
What would you change about your game selection, teaching points, or pacing?

Sessions 1-2: Warmup + Evergreen + Retrieval (Plus a Taste of the Main Topic)

You run the first half of class: warmup, evergreen game, and retrieval segment. These are largely familiar games, and the coaching demands are lower than the main topic. The goal is to get used to owning a continuous block of class, managing transitions between segments, and keeping the energy up so the main topic starts strong.

During the main topic, the experienced coach will hand you one game segment to run. This is similar to late-stage assist, but now you’ve planned the rest of your class yourself, so the cognitive load is higher. It also gets you into the main topic early so the jump to sessions 3-4 isn’t as steep.

For the experienced coach

Don’t pre-plan their segments for them. Ask what they’re planning, but don’t rewrite it. If their game choices are reasonable, let them run it even if you’d have picked something different. They need to learn from their own choices.
Hand them one game during the main topic. Set it up the same way you would during assist: tell them the game, the win conditions, and one concept to focus on. This keeps them engaged in the hard half of class even though they’re not driving it yet.
Debrief the planning, not just the execution. “Why did you pick that evergreen game?” matters as much as “How did it go?” Push them to articulate their reasoning.

Session 1: Quiz & Reflection

What games did you run for the evergreen and retrieval segments? What was your targeted goal for each?

How did you manage the transitions between warmup, evergreen, and retrieval? Did the class lose energy at any point?

You ran one game during the main topic. How did it feel compared to the segments you planned yourself?

Session 2: Quiz & Reflection

Compare your experience running these segments to running them during assist. What felt different now that you planned them yourself?

How did you manage time? Did you finish your block on time so the main topic started when it should have?

How did the handoff to the experienced coach feel? Was the transition smooth or did the class lose momentum?

Sessions 3-4: The Main Topic and Retrieval

You run the main topic and retrieval. This is the hardest part of class: you’re coaching the week’s primary content, selecting games for a topic that may be new to some students, deciding what to say between rounds based on what you see, and adapting when things don’t work. The experienced coach runs warmup + evergreen and hands you a room that’s warm and ready.

The experienced coach may still jump in with a concept during your segment if they see something important. That’s not a failure on your part. Two coaches sharing a room will naturally overlap, and learning to work alongside another coach’s input is part of the skill.

For the experienced coach

Push for depth. The trainee is now in the segment where coaching quality matters most.

Challenge their game selection. “Why this game and not that one? What’s the targeted goal? How will you know if students are meeting it?” Don’t accept “it seemed like a good game.” Push for specificity.
It’s OK to jump in with a concept. If you see something during their segment that’s worth addressing, you can add a teaching point. But keep it brief and don’t take over. The goal is collaborative coaching, not correction. Talk about it in the debrief: “I jumped in because I saw X. Here’s why I thought it was worth adding.”
Watch their between-round coaching. Are they staying focused on one point? Are they using external language? Are they reading the room and adapting, or delivering a pre-planned script regardless of what’s happening?
Start pulling back on the debrief. Instead of giving them your observations first, ask: “What would you change?” Let them self-assess before you add your perspective.

Session 3: Quiz & Reflection

Walk through your game selection process for the main topic. Why did you pick the games you picked? What alternatives did you consider?

How many teaching points did you make per stoppage? Were you staying focused or drifting? If you drifted, what pulled you off track?

Describe a moment where you read the room and adapted. What were you seeing? What did you change?

Session 4: Quiz & Reflection

Lemov describes four possible responses after a round of focused feedback: (1) sustain focus on the same point for more mastery, (2) link to a related skill, (3) fix a common error, (4) increase awareness of inconsistent execution. Which did you use today? Was it the right choice?

How are you handling the balance between planning and adapting? Are you sticking to your plan too rigidly, or abandoning it too quickly?

What feedback did the experienced coach give you today? Do you agree with it? What are you going to work on next session?

Sessions 5-6: Proving Consistency on the Main Topic

Same split as sessions 3-4: you run the main topic and retrieval, the experienced coach runs warmup + evergreen. The difference is that the experienced coach steps back further. Less jumping in with concepts, less steering. By session 6, they should barely need to say anything during your segments.

These sessions are about proving you can run the hard half reliably. Different topics, different rooms, different energy levels.

For the experienced coach

These are the evaluation sessions. You’re deciding whether the trainee is ready to solo.

Pull back further. Don’t offer feedback between their rounds unless asked. Let them make decisions and live with the consequences. Save everything for the debrief.
Look for consistency. Are they making the same quality of decisions across different classes, or do they have good days and bad days with no self-awareness about why?
Push them on self-assessment. By session 5-6, they should be identifying their own mistakes before you point them out. If they can’t, they need more co-lead reps.
Be honest in the debrief. If they’re ready for solo, tell them. If they’re not, be specific about what needs more reps. “You need to work on time management” is more useful than “you’re almost there.”

Session 5: Quiz & Reflection

You ran the main topic for a different week than sessions 3-4. How did your game selection process differ? Are you getting more comfortable planning, or does it still feel uncertain?

Describe a moment where you adapted. Was it a better adaptation than ones you made in sessions 3-4? Are you getting faster at reading the room?

How are you managing time within your segments? Are you consistently finishing on time?

Session 6: Quiz & Reflection

Rate yourself 1-5 on each of these. Be honest.

Game selection and planning for the main topic

Communicating game rules clearly

Giving focused feedback (one point per stoppage)

Using external language over internal language

Walking the room and giving individual feedback during your segments

Reading the room and adapting in real time

Managing time within your segments

Transitioning smoothly with the other coach

What’s your biggest strength as a coach right now? What’s the one thing you most need to work on before going solo?

Across all six co-lead sessions: what’s the most important thing you learned about coaching that you didn’t learn during shadow and assist?

Do you feel ready to solo with supervision? If not, what do you need more reps on?

When You’re Done

After six co-lead sessions, you move to Solo with Supervision for four sessions. You run the entire class. An experienced coach observes but only steps in if something is genuinely wrong.