A Coach's Diary

We as coaches have to teach skills.  We have to teach how to shoot, pass, dribble and proper footwork, among other things. One of the most important things that we must teach is decision making.  Basketball is a reactionary sport.  We have to teach them how to read, react, and make great decisions.  You have to be able to play and make choices – all of the time. 17:00 – We run plays to create even a small advantage – a late closeout, and out of position defender, an opening on a back cut or back screen, the defense in a scramble rotation.  What we have to practice every day is how to take advantage of that small advantage and score.  We have to teach them to play in those situations, what to do and how to attack.  How can we turn our small advantage into a big advantage?

A Humble Mind You cannot grow without a humble mind.  You can’t receive advice or constructive criticism or instruction (that can really help you) from your coaches, teachers and parents if you don’t approach it with a humble mind.  You have to approach every class and practice like, ‘Man, I could really use this this. I NEED this.’  A humble mind is a mind that knows that it can learn from anybody at any time.  A humble mind knows that it needs to be a lifelong learner if it wants to be the best that it can be.  A humble mind knows that it has to keep working hard, consistently and every day, to become the best that they can be. If you think that you already know everything a coach or teacher is trying to teach you, or that you don’t need to hear this lesson because you already know it, or you think this drill is for somebody else because you can already do it, then you will miss out on something that could have really helped you; as a student, a...

Character drives The Process which drives The Result Results > What you want to accomplish The Process > The work you put in, over time, for the results you want Character > Who you are as a person Focusing on building character will help your athletes embrace the process more which will lead to better results. Who you are as a person will tell how hard you are willing to work (the process) for the results that you want.  Build, grow, and developing character will help you work harder, better and smarter through the process of achieving the results that you want. Of course every team wants to go undefeated and win their championship, but above that, every team should want to strive to maximize their ability.  Everyone will experience loss, and while nobody wants to lose, losing isn’t the worst thing in the world.  Worse than losing is wasted talent. John Wooden once defined success as, “Success is peace of mind which is a direct re...

This past week for our professional development leading into the new school year, we were blessed to have Brett Ledbetter come to talk to us about the importance of building character in our kids and athletes in helping maximize the ability of our teams.  The link to his power point can be found here:  please click here We were asked to answer survey questions about his visit, and below are the questions and my responses so that I can remember to ignite commitment, get kids to their sweet spot, frame struggle as development, and measure commitment level of out athletes. How do you ignite commitment levels inside the classroom (or with teams)? We try to identify what the individual goals of each of our kids are, we try to give them the road map on how to achieve those goals, and we give constant and consistent feedback throughout the process on how they are moving towards those goals.  It is cliche, but we understand that the relationship with the kid/athlet...

An Ear To Hear A Teachable Spirit Be Humble Enough to Learn As school starts, these three things are important for any student, kid athlete, teacher, parent, coach to remember. Have an ear to hear and listen to learn when your coach, teacher or parent is talking.  There are two types of students and athletes – the ones who really listen to the coach and learn what he is teaching, and the ones who aren’t.  The ones who are bought-in and the ones who aren't.  The student-athletes who are bought-in and intentionally listen will perform better every time. Have a teachable spirit that is willing and eager to learn and apply new things that will help you and that will make you better.  A teachable spirit means that you are willing to learn new things, and that takes being humble enough to know that you don’t know everything.  Be humble enough to learn because there is always a chance to get better and to learn new things if you are willing ...

I have always been fascinated with the footwork of soccer players.   Soccer and basketball really do complement each other in terms of strategy, conditioning and footwork.   You have to play in space, move together, and be able to win your one on one matchups within the team concept.   One thing that soccer players do is have really neat warm up drills that teach the proper footwork that they apply in games.  Below is a video posted from Manchester City.  It’s a good 5 minute warm-up that can be a switch up from what you do every day in practice. This coach uses 26 cones for 18 players and he goes through a series of movements around, through, and over the cones.  He will give a movement, like bunny hops over the cones, and on his whistle, the players will either run to the center of the circle or to the outside of the circle and back.  They did 2 sets of each exercise, and each exercise lasted about 15 seconds.  Enjoy the video and the...