A Coach's Diary

All credit of this article goes to Pat Williams and his book, Coach Wooden .  He breaks down Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed that was given to him by his father when he graduated from elementary school.  Many attribute a large part of his success to this creed and his ability to live it out daily. The first creed is ‘Be True To Yourself.’  Below is quotes and passages from that first chapter. Key Points - Be the person you were born to be. - Be true to your highest values and principles, and you will never be false to anyone. - The secret to the magnetism of John Wooden’s personality is that he is always at peace with himself. Once when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known at the time as Lew Alcindor, sat at a restaurant with Coach Wooden heard someone a few tables away whisper loudly, “Look at that black freak!” Coach Wooden saw that his star player was wounded to tears by the comment.  “Lewis,” he said, “people hate what they don’t know – and what they...

All credit for this article goes to the website, “Changing the Game Project.”  It is a great article about the importance of competing, using Lionel Messi as their muse.  In my opinion, competing is the most important character trait in athletes, young and old.  You can read the article in full here . “Competing for Lionel Messi is not a sometime thing; it is an all-time thing. He has always been smaller than the other kids. He was born with a growth hormone disorder, and as a child was nicknamed “the flea.” Clubs would not sign him because he was too small. Even when FC Barcelona brought him to Spain at age 13, he was always undersized. He had to learn grit, and persistence, and guile. The more you kicked him, the angrier he got, and the better he played. The will to compete does not simply show itself in games.  As his former Barcelona teammate Thierry Henry said, it showed in practice too .  He isn't a sometimes competitor: he is an all-time competit...

This is how I want to feel about what I do everyday; working with that caliber of people everyday and being able to say that this is easily  the best job that he has ever had. ESPN recently laid off 100 employees, many of them high profile.  David Ching sent this picture in a tweet stating how great his time was at ESPN.  I think it would be great working in an environment such as the one described here.  Some personal news pic.twitter.com/jLvoHel3Iv — David Ching (@davidching77) April 26, 2017 References Updated list of the biggest names laid off at ESPN.  Sports.Yahoo.com.  Retrieved on April 27, 2017.

I was asked a great question today about leading a new program.  “You’re taking over a new program today!   What are your first steps?   What needs to be done now and what can wait. This was my second year in a row taking over a new program and so this is what I have done the last couple of years.  In both situations, we were able to increases wins and players, parents, and administration seemed happy with the growth and direction of the program. Buy-In From The Players My first focus in both situations was on the players.  From the jump, it was about building relationships with them and getting them to trust me.  I’ve seen that if I do right by them and we grow like we are supposed to, parents are happy.  So I get the kids excited to play for me first and start preaching playing hard, playing smart, and playing together. Needs Assessment First.  On court and off the court. Off Court – Make sure that we have everything ready, or ...

All credit for this article goes to Kathleen Elkins and CNBC.com .  It was retrieved from yahoo.finance on 4/25/17.  It gives a little insight on how Kobe Bryant obsessiveness helped him become great. In  Kobe Bryant 's rookie season for the Lakers in 1996, he played five minutes and scored two points in a disappointing game against the Houston Rockets. "I needed to work harder,"  he writes  on  The Players' Tribune . He did. But three years later, he remembers, NBA legend Allen Iverson scored 41 points and made 10 assists while playing against him. "Working harder wasn't enough," Bryant says. "I had to study this man maniacally." And he did: "I obsessively read every article and book I could find about AI. I obsessively watched every game he had played. ... I obsessively studied his every success, and his every struggle. I obsessively searched for any weakness I could find." Bryant's fixation paid off. A year later, ...

“For some coaches, they love getting into the bunker of the season. They crave a darkness of everything and everyone. Yet, Kerr doesn’t see the profession as a way to grind everyone down. He coaches to elevate everyone, and maybe that’s made easy with Curry and Durant and Thompson. Still, Kerr has always been true to his disposition: fiercely competitive, relentlessly self-deprecating and smart with everything he’s done in the game. He’s truly a product of his coaching mentors: Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson and even Lute Olson. Mostly, Steve Kerr is the son of Malcolm Kerr, the American professor murdered in Beirut in a terrorist act in 1984. Kerr loves the game, but he’s always valued it within context of the people it allows him to reach, the voice it gives him for something bigger than the game.” These two paragraphs come from an article written about the struggles that Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is going through this playoff run.  For years, ‘the grind’ w...

"In high school I didn't really get to play varsity until I was a senior. Coming out of high school I had no scholarships. Luckily my assistant coach went to an NAIA school, Northwest Oklahoma State, and told me, 'Take a visit, you never know what can happen.' I went up there and ended up signing with them. I didn't play much as a freshman and ended up transferring to  Texas A&M University-Commerce . Coming out of college I thought I was done playing, honestly. I didn't have any offers, any opportunities really. I just went to open tryouts with the  Austin Spurs ,  Texas Legends  &  Rio Grande Valley Vipers . Luckily Austin picked me up and I ended up making that squad. Jonathon Simmons was at the tryout before me. We were on that Austin team together; we're good friends. If that guy can do it, so can I. We breathe the same, we put on our pants the same. Seeing the work he put in, I just follow that model."  #ThisIsWhyWePlay N...

You Can’t Just Sit Back And Wait For It To Come.  Organize Your Life So That You Can Go Out And Get What You Want.   Go Get What You Deserve.  Go Get What You WORK FOR.  I was watching the Grizzlies battle the Spurs in game 4 of their first round battle.  At half time, they had a clip of Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale talking to his team about the importance of ‘Dominating the Line of Scrimmage.’  “Dominate the line of scrimmage.  Be the most physical, toughest team.  Initiate the contact and take the action to THEM.” Play with a tough mindset and a sense of urgency.  Go get what you want from the beginning and do it the entire game.  You can’t sit back and wait for the game to come to you.  You will look up and realize that its 2 minutes left go in the 4 th quarter of a big game and it might be too late.  You can’t wait for life to just come to you.  You will look back and minutes, hours, days, and ...

  All credit for this goes to Pat Williams and his book, Coach Wooden .  In reading the first chapter of his book over the great coach, I was moved by the words spoken of Wooden’s father and the respect Coach had for him.  These words needed to be remembered as a way to positively influence your kids. He was a role model for us all. The more you study John Wooden, the more you realize that he is not only a great man – he’s a good man .  John Wooden is a man of character, wisdom, self-discipline, faith, integrity, honor, humility, and compassion for others. I’ve become convinced that both the greatness and the goodness of John Wooden can be traced to his father, Joshua Hugh Wooden.  In fact, I believe the character and achievements of John Wooden can largely be traced to a piece of paper his father gave him on the day he graduated from the either grade. When John Wooden graduated from elementary school, his dad gave him a $2 bill and a car...

You Have To Want It … More - More than your parents - More than your coaches - More than your competition Your coaches and parents can only do so much for you.  They can teach you, guide, you, help you, and push you.  But, you have to want it enough to put in the work. And you can’t just say you are going to work.  You can’t just go through the motions.  Purposeful effort is the key.  Going so hard that you make mistakes is the key.  Bouncing back and learning is the key.  Growing is the key.  Mentally, physically, and emotionally.  Pushing yourself harder today than you did yesterday is the key. Imagine where you could be if every day you were just a little better than you were yesterday? In this age of Social Media and Information Technology, ‘WANTING IT’ is even more important.  There is so much more knowledge out there – everything is ‘Google-able.’ Greatness is ...

“But there’s nothing wrong with a healthy partnership between parents and coaches — nobody is right all the time. But with parents holding the bulk of the power, any high school coach who only  gripes about parents  and views them merely as an obstacle or outright enemy, or who unwittingly gets put in the middle of long-standing parent-on-parent battles (oh, it happens) without trying to figure out what’s going on, is going to be a coach who ends up fired or quitting. It’s hard to manage these relationships, and hard to take the first, positive steps to do so, but it’s going to be a lot harder for high school coaches who just figure their record is the only thing that does the talking.” This was the final paragraph in a blog post at Forbes.com , written by Bob Cook on easily high school coaches, even successful ones, are being fired at the request, or demands, of the parents of the program.  He referenced a couple of coaches who had turned around programs ...

It is very important in today's sports culture to make sure that you keep positive relationships with your parents.   To get the most out of your kids, having the support of their parents can go a long way.  Parents are more involved and vocal in their children's athletics these days, so keeping them properly informed on their child and the team's development is beneficial. The website, CoachAD.com has some really good articles and information on building and running a successful program, and they recently posted an article on how to build and maintain positive relationships with the parents in your program.  Below are the 8 tips that they gave.  You can read about them more in-depth here . 1. Have a parent-coach communication plan in place. 2. Communicate your plan to parents, players and coaches 3. Build a solid level of trust. 4. Give parents ownership in your program.  5. Be clear and concise when you engage in parent-coach communication. ...

Below are my notes from a speech by Brett Ledbetter at ‘ What Drives Winning ’ on the importance of placing emphasis on the PERSON more than the PLAYER.  You can see the video in its entirety below. How You Are REMEMBERED As A PERSON Is So Much More  Important, And LASTING, Than Your Stats Key Takeaways: 1 - You can't remember who led the team in scoring 3 years ago, but you remember your favorite teacher from 10 years ago. 2 - How you are remembered as a PERSON is more important that how you are remembered as a PLAYER 3 - When helping with a problem, identifying the issue first and then finding common ground will help you find a solution. In the speech below, Brett Ledbetter talked about how he helped a star collegiate soccer player overcome her biggest fears in sports, dealing with the expectations of other.  It helped me become a better coach, person, and father of a young athlete (or 3) by focusing on the person and the things you can control r...

Key Takeaways 1 – Organize your life so you can have focused energy 2 – Focus your energy on the One Thing 3 – Train your mind to have more focus Find The One Thing There is a great book called The One Thing that pushes the idea that real, sustainable success comes when you are able to focus on one thing.   And not just any one thing … the one thing, that when its done, makes all other tasks much easier, creating a domino effect towards success.   The idea is great and gives a more concrete plan to priotizing your life and following the Pareto Principle. Make Life Simpler Once you have completed the most important task on your to-do list, you focus on the next important task, knocking them out one by one.   The idea is that with each task completed, life gets easier because you are doing them in order.   It makes life simpler by focusing on just one thing to do. Dr. Jim Loehr I have been watching videos on the ‘ What Drives Winning’ YouTube pa...

Key Takeaways 1 - We all have inner voices that represent our reality and shape our futures. 2 - It's important to influence our athlete's so that their inner voice matches their actions. 3 - Athletics should be about personal development first and foremost. Below are my notes from a speech by Dr. Jim Loehr on the the power of our inner voice, our stories, and our just how great, and why, our influence is on the athletes that we lead.  You can see the video in its entirety below. The stories from our inner voice shape the stories in our players inner voice which eventually shapes their destiny. As a coach, you are in the influence business, and you have to influence the minds, hearts and bodies to be successful. Great coaches are great story tellers, and through their stories, they mold, shape and modify the stories that the players tell themselves.   And the stories that the players tell themselves are the stories that they tell their parents, their...

Below are my notes from a speech by Dr. Jim Loehr on the X’s and O’s of Building Character.  You can see the video in its entirety below. Our first responsibility is to use sports to build character.    There is a huge link between building character and performance outcome. Character is a Muscle To Grow Building character is just like building your muscles.   - You place demands on the muscle by investing energy in it - Consistent energy investment spawns growth That is exactly how you build the muscles of character. Organize Your Life You have to organize your life and make the investments that allow those muscles of character to actually shine and you eliminate the blaming, excuses, and selfishness. Character in action is why we are all here, and when it happens, highlight it. Ways To Build Character - Have a theme for the day/week - Have each player identify a character muscle, such as accountability or patience or focus and focus o...

All credit of this article goes to Stephanie at LifeBeyondSport.com. via here : I attended a women’s basketball game recently in which the home team sought to win the regular season conference championship against the visiting perennial conference power. I didn’t know anything about either team—their strengths or personnel. The first few quarters were close, but the home team led. At the beginning of the third quarter, I predicted to my friends that the home team would fold and the visitors would walk away victors. My prediction was based solely on what I observed of each team’s culture. The visiting team had a winning culture. Here’s what it looked like: players on the bench were animated and enthusiastic—standing, clapping, screaming for their teammates—they were very clearly FOR each other communication was off the charts; the players would huddle on the court between plays and had tremendous vocal leadership and eye contact when a player went down, teammate...