A Coach's Diary

If you want to get ahead, don't wait until practice to work on your game.  Work on your game BEFORE practice and OUTSIDE of practice so that when practice starts, you are better and more ready to perform the drills and more ready to compete. Change how you look at practice.  It is a chance to work on your game, it is a chance to improve how you play as a team, but it is also a chance to COMPETE, and anytime that there is a chance to compete, you want to make sure that you are ready and prepared to perform. To be ready to perform, work on your game BEFORE you come in. NBA star Steph Curry talks daily routine, sensory-deprivation tanks, and hacking his brain Most practices have the same three elements: 1 - Skill work 2 - Team learning 3 - Some kind of competition Work on your game on your own so that the skill work in practice is easier for you, smoother, and is just extra reps. Learn through the team play so that you can be the best teammate that you can be ...

The first decision that we have to make at the start of each season is: 1 – Am I going to work to be the best that I can be? The second decision that we have to make at the start of each season is: 2 – Am I going to do everything in my power to help the team be the best that it can be? Without answering the first question with a yes, the team just can’t be the best that it can.   For us to be the best team that we can be, each individual has to do their part.   The harder the individual works, the more energy and enthusiasm the individual brings, the more the individual competes every day, the more that the individual is responsible and accountable for their actions and behaviors, the better the group can be. But the individual also has to do it all within the frame of what is best for the team.   Working hard, bringing energy and enthusiasm, having accountability and responsibility is a necessary requirement, but we also have to be bought...

Every weekend, millions of fields across the country have been converted to football, soccer, and baseball fields where you can see kids of all ages living out their dreams, trying to become the next Patrick Mahomes, Alex Morgan, and Christian Yelich. Unfortunately, at those same fields you can hear and see those same kids' parent yelling at their kids, coaches, referees, and each other driving their kids to become the next superstar.  You get better people watching opportunities at youth sports events than the mall. Parents usually have good intentions when they yell directions and instructions at their kids, but the yelling is not usually the the most effective way to change in-game behavior and performance and too much yelling can have long-term effects. Read:   Why Are So Many Teen Athletes Struggling With Depression? Coaches spend countless hours coming up with drills and practice plans to teach even the smallest and simplest skills....

Coaching and leadership are part processes and systems and part influence and behaviors.   We put in systems and processes like how we want to play, actual plays, practice times and practice schedules, and drills to teach the game and to give our team structure, but its character and behavior that drives how much our kids buy-in, how hard they work, and how much time they put into getting better.   The better the character, the harder they work.  The more they listen and buy-in, the better the team.  Coaching is more than just plays; its influencing athletes to do what they need to do to execute at the highest level possible for themselves and for the team. When your team isn't working as hard as you would like, or they aren't listening like they should, or they aren't performing like you know they can, it can be very frustrating and it can be very easy to start playing the blame game. It is easy to start blaming this generation...

The Knuckleheads Podcast is hosted by Quenton Richardson and Darrius Miles.  they invite special guests, high-profile athletes, musicians and entertainers to get brutally honest about everything from current events to untold stories from the golden era of sports and culture. Named for the on-court celebration they made wildly popular, this unfiltered, hilarious and surprising podcast is like playing NBA 2K with no fouls. They recently had Kobe Bryant on and it was a great interview, where he talked about everything from his first years in the league to his new book. On Coming To An Already Established Team It was good for me to come in and play with so many all-stars; iron sharpens iron.  I had to do a lot and I had to be perfect just to get on the floor. Every day at practice has got to be a war because I have to prove that I deserve to be here and that I deserve to play.  Every play matters. Superheros In your game, you have weapons.  I u...

We are always pushing our kids to continue to work hard, to continue to get better, and to find ways to learn and grow all the time, but the best coaches do the same thing.  We need to model what it means to be lifelong learners. Coaches who want to continue to get better find value in examining what effective coaches do.  Anytime you have two coaches comes together about talking, their coaching improves instantly. Schools have popularized an idea called Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs.  School coaches/teachers might know them as one of those meetings that they go to once a week, but when done effectively, understanding what a real PLC is can completely change your teams and your career. The idea behind PLCs is that schools are a building full of professionals who should work together to become better teachers for their kids.  Teachers engaged in the PLC process use each other and each other's experiences to get better.  They talk ab...

Self-Confidence - Believing that you can get the job done. Self-Confidence is a skill that you build through: 1 - Repetition, repetition, repetition.  Repetition is the father of learning. 2 - Positive self-talk.  Thoughts influence actions.  Get your own positive self-affirmations.  'I am the captain of my ship and the master of my fate.'  If we don't say it and if we don't say it, nobody will. 3 - Get away from negative people. 4 - Catch them when they're good.  Praise the positives. 5 - Interpret feedback the way you need to. No one will believe in you unless you do.

"Too many kids have been taught that the goal of HS sports is to achieve an ATHLETIC scholarship.  Here is the truth - the goal of HS sports is to learn how to be a better person, better teammate, better communicator, & to enjoy being a teenager ... something you can't get back." This is a good 'twitter quote' from @bbdoctor1 that helps keep things in perspective. I was guilty of this as a high school coach.  I sometimes used college scholarships as my main motivator for getting our kids to work hard and I think it created unnecessary anxiety and stress in some of my athletes.   There is nothing wrong with using scholarships as a motivator - especially if this is what the kids really want.  We have to be open and honest with our athletes about where they are and where they are going.  But I think we have started over-emphasize college scholarahips through sports over what is really important. Working hard with energy and enthusiasm, holdi...