Athletes in all sports and at all levels of performance keep training logs, journals, or team notebooks as one more way to learn extensively about their sport. Such organizing, planning, and reflection can play a pivotal role in an athlete's life. What's more, as communication tools, athletes' writing has the potential to be especially helpful for coaches. As an English-teaching athletic coach, the author assigned writing through training logs, journals, and team notebooks. Athletes set goals and organized their training; more than a few churned out the occasional rant. This article discusses how students--and athletes-- can benefit from writing activities that take place outside the classroom walls; these activities often lead to better thinking, writing, and performance.