A Coach's Diary

Doc Rivers talks about when one of his sons complained about playing time: No coach wants to lose.  If you do the right thing, minutes go up. Kids need to learn how to fight for it and need to hear the truth father than hearing you bash the coach.   "I support you and I know you can play.  But, you have to keep working and earning your spot [while respecting the coach and your teammates and while being a great friend and teammate].

If you want to be the best, start by being the best that YOU can be. You have to practice, you have to work on yourself and your game .... everyday.   There are always people out there better than you, so you have to work hard knowing that someday you will meet and play against them. Will you be ready? You also have to find someone that believes in you, someone who has a plan for how to help you be the best you can be - and then you have you trust them.  You have to accept constructive criticism as just coaching and helping you to be your best.  Be happy when you have a coach that yells at you when you start walking or jogging because you have someone that won't let you fail.  If left to ourselves, we might not work as hard as we need to.  But when we have the right coach, they won't let us settle.  So be appreciative and thankful when you get that coach that yells at you to get better. Finally, find the best and go play th...

In a Coaching U podcast , Villanova Men's Basketball Coach Jay Wright spoke about his leadership and how leadership drives the culture. The culture has to start with the leadership and when you are a leader, you have the chance to define: “How are we going to live?” Not just how we are going to play basketball or how we practice but how we are going to live, and that is the basis of your culture.   Once you define that and you bring in people who want to learn that and want to be a part of that, then you build from there: “How are we going to practice and how are we going to play in games?”   But it starts with how are we going to live, how are going to treat each other; how are we going to wake up every day. When we wake up every day, our most important characteristic is our attitude.   We try to teach that we control our attitude every day.   How we walk in the office and say hello to each other, how we treat the people who clean the offic...

This comes from a Coaching U Podcast interview with Jay Wright .  He talks about the type of player that they recruit and how they present their culture to the kid, his family, and his coaches.  The dynamics of recruiting and coaching kids are different, and here he talks about how he is honest and up-front early, and he talks about how important it is for him and his staff to recruit character and fit as much as talent. As a player or a parent, make sure that the fit - not just the level - is right, make sure that the coaches have yours our your child's best interest at heart, and that the program focuses on growth and development of the person, not just the player. Young athletes today are different and the way you have to recruit them has to be different.  You have to keep learning because the one thing that is definite in life is change, and things change.  Part of our challenge is we know what kids used to be like and what WE used to be like...

"You better be able to relate to the players.  You can be great with Xs and Os but if you can't relate to the players, you won't be able to get them to buy-in and execute it on the floor.  It doesn't matter how much you know, but what your players are able to do on the court.  If you can't relate to the players - and if you're not willing to spend time with the players away from the floor to build that relationship, then you won't be able to get the players to do what you need them to do for the team to have success." Coach Nate Oats Buffalo Bulls Head Coach by Coaching U Podcast with Coach Brendan Suhr https://player.fm/1qBzsH?t=2298

"If you go and you trace coaches, you'll see that even some of the best in the world struggle their first few years.  It takes time to establish yourself.  Very few people are lucky enough to come in and have instance success.  It takes time to evolve who you are as a person and your coaching style, personality, and philosophy." From:  Coaching U Podcast:  Coach Brendan Suhr, Recapping the 2018 Final Fours by Coaching U Podcast with Coach Brendan Suhr https://player.fm/1qGhUU?t=920

It's very easy to get caught up with trying to 'keep up with the Joneses' in youth sports.  At ridiculously earlier ages, we are pushing our kids to specialize in one sport in a rat race to nowhere , even to the detriment of what's best from and physical and mental standpoint for our young athletes.   The world of youth sports can be confusing, complicated and an emotional roller coaster for athletes and parents if you let it.  My recommendation for any parent getting lost in the struggle of what to do with their young athlete is to be lead by 3 questions: 1 - Is your athlete having fun? 2 - Is your athlete getting better? 3 - Is your athlete doing the best that they can? Is Your Athlete Having Fun We overthink and over-analyze this sports thing.  We play sports to stay in shape, have fun, and compete.  Fun and enjoyment and joy should drive their attendance at an early age while building up a healthy level of competition.  ...

Kevin Eastman - Coaching U Podcast You have to learn how to build and or strengthen relationships.   It’s not really about networking; networking is only and number. It’s not about how many people you know, it’s about how many relationships that you have. Having 15 players is great, but do you have a relationship with those 15 players?    Because the tougher the circumstance, the tougher the message, the tougher the truth – it can only be delivered, and received if there was a pre-existing, strong relationship that was built prior to those tough messages.   Those moments of truth in a game where you have to tell a hard truth to a player in the heat of the battle are made possible when you have worked over time to build the relationship. Its not about what makes a person tick, it matters what makes them talk.   If I can get them to talk, I can figure out what makes them tick.   From there and through the strength of the relationship, I can...

Tim Elmore is one of the leading people in researching and studying the iY generation.  These thoughts came from a short story from his blog that you can find here.   Self-deception is the act or practice of allowing yourself  to believe that a false or invalidated feeling or idea is true. We all practice self-deception - seeing the world as adults for how we learned to see it as kids and not living in truth.  Or more damaging - seeing the world for how we WANT to see it and how it benefits us and not for what it really is. We grow up and learn within our small bubble - whether that bubble was picture-perfect in a house surrounded by a white picket fence or dodging bullets in the inner city on the way to school - and the real world is so much more complex than that.  The world isn't black and white - it's full of so much grey area in-between, and we often lie to ourselves because we either ignorant to truths or we ar...

Your child has the ball (pick a spot on the floor) one on one, five seconds left down by one. Does he/she know what to do? Does he/she know what to look for? Does he/she have a move and counter move going left and right? If not seek scenario based assistance ...

Quarterback  Johnny Manziel was recently on the Dan Patrick show and was asked if he had a mulligan on his start in the NFL, what he would do.   His response was an in-depth look at what happens when we grow up relying solely on our talent and don’t work at our craft or become students of the game. Learning is a skill.   Work ethic is a skill as well, and the best of the best know this and work on this part of their life.   Here is the original article , and his response is written out below: “If you would give me the mulligan, the mulligan would have had to come right after I got drafted,” he said. “I see successful guys in the NFL, and what they do in the offseason, and the time that they put in, that makes them good players. Yes, they’re athletically gifted, but guys are good in the NFL because they know film, they study hard, and they work even harder in the offseason. I didn’t know that. “And I feel like … if Cleveland did any of their homework,...

J ay Wright here is teaching their 'Bully' finish move.  The definition of a bully can be seen here: He starts out by talking about hearing at a basketball clinic at Princeton that they work for 30 minutes of layups every day.   Think about how many times in a game do you get a layup out of your offense or on a steal do you get a layup and miss? You have to practice finishing around the basket off either feet and off two feet when you get contact to finish. Jay calls finishing off two feet a 'Bully Move.'  Get to the basket, come to a 2 foot stop and extend at the rim.  Coming to a 2 foot stop allows you to also read the help defense.  You can stop and finish a layup, stop and finish with a jump stop, or stop and read the defense and pass. Here is a video of him talking about the Bully and the team working on the Bully. The reason you teach going off 2 feet is that you might beat your man, but you have to read the help.   He tal...

I just came back from a strength and conditioning clinic put on by the University of Minnesota strength and conditioning coach.  The two biggest takeaways from the camp were:  Its always energizing being around others who are super passionate and energized about what they do and the level of passion that they have for their programs.  They each take ownership in their roles of getting their athletes as strong, as athletic and as ready to play and excel as possible.   To have an elite program, everybody has to be bought in at an elite level.  This was evident by everyone who spoke - you could feel their commitment level to the program and how they felt about their role in the success in their programs. Other Key Takeways: - Work WITH the player; they know their stuff too.  In today's information age, they are much more knowledgeable about the game and their growth and development than ever before.  -  Find and address the pink eleph...

What you do is important.  How you do it is more important.  Even the best coaches can't get the most out of you if you aren't willing to put in the work!!! https://ericcressey.com/strength-and-conditioning-stuff-you-should-read-3-26-18