Basketball is a Game of Emotions

"Basketball is a game of emotions." - Jay Wright

You could substitute any sport for basketball.

There are so many ups in downs in a practice, game, season, or career.

Some days we are world beaters, and some days we can't beat anybody in the world. 

It is important to know your worth and know what you bring to the team. Keep working hard, find ways to get better, and find ways to bring value to your team every day.

Be a great teammate.

Make all of the hustle plays.

Get after it on defense.Talk, talk, talk.

There are so many ways to impact the game.

Make sure that you are doing something to make an impact.

Bria had a rough day in her classes. She didn't do as well as she wanted on a couple of her tests and she has been fighting with some of her friends outside of class.

Chelsea didn't get a lot of sleep last night because she was studying late for a science test, and because she overslept, she had to rush out of her house to get to school on time.

Coach was up late too having to help her aging parents take care of some things at home, and she is stressing now because of budget issues.

Every day, players and coaches are coming to practice with many issues on their minds and heart. The best coaches know how to process their own thoughts and feelings, and they know how to help their team members do the same so that everyone can lock-in and be more present at practice.

Community circles is a fancy or educational way of saying, 'circle up,' or, 'huddle-up.' A goal of every coach should be to have an inviting, safe, and joyful locker room and culture. Community circles can have a positive effect on relationships on the team. ivity

Coach Geno Auriemma, the legendary coach at UConn has his own version of community circles. At the start of each practice, they circle up at the start of practice and they touch the person next to you. The idea is to make sure that everyone is connected and that everyone is focused, but it is funny to hear Geno's dislike for the ritual.

The Test of Injuries

One of the hardest things to witness is an injury to a player. Nobody sets out trying to get hurt, but injuries happen.

Injuries can affect so many people. Of course, they affect the player, they affect the team, and they affect the coaching staff who has a goal to win as many games as they can. Injuries also affect parents. Injuries are hard on parents. We love watching our kids play. We want our kids to have a great experience playing sports. We don't want to see our athletes hurting, physically or emotionally.

But again, injuries do happen. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. I heard a great message one day that started with the quote, you can't have a TESTIMONY without going through a TEST.

Injuries are a test. Your testimony is your story. Steph Curry's testimony is that he was under-recruited and over-looked his entire life. He fought through that, and he became one of the best college basketball players of his time. Steph then had to fight through injuries and doubt in the NBA, and he became a two-time MVP and a three-time NBA champion. He didn't let his injuries, his lack of size, or his doubters keep him from being one of the best basketball players ever.

I am not saying that your testimony will be that you overcome your injuries, your adversity, and your haters to become an NBA star, but I am saying that we are all faced with tests in life, and the key is having the right mindset and working as hard as we can to overcome that adversity so that we have a great testimony to share with others.

When you are in it, sports are the most important thing in the world. Especially in high school sports. There is nothing like Friday Night Lights and being a high school athlete. Love it. Cherish it. Get everything that you can out of it. But when it is over, the most important thing is, "Who have you become because of it?"

Sports make us better. Injuries make us tougher. Life is full of adversity. This is just another opportunity for you to rise up and learn how to deal with adversity.

I believe in you.

The Culture of the Team is Seen on the Face of the Coach

Have you ever been in the middle of the storm when your team needs you to lead?

- The other team is going on a big run and you don't see a stop in sight.
- Your leading scorer gets hurt. Then your second-leading scorer gets hurt. Then your third-leading scorer fails a class. Your fourth-leading scorer has to miss practice for tutorials.
- They keep adding classes to your teaching load.

Storms and adversity are part of life. We tell our athletes this all of the time, but it is important for us to remember this as well.

Each obstacle is just a test. It is an opportunity for us to get better and rise up. One thing to always think about is the message that you are sending through your words and your body language.

One great quote to remember is, 

"The culture of the team is seen on the face of the coach." 

If someone looked at you today, would they see positivity, hope, and grit? Would they see victory or defeat?

A big part of being a leader is making other people believe that they can win. There is pressure that comes with being in a leadership position, but as NBA head coach Doc Rivers says, "Pressure is a privilege." He also said, "Coaches are crazy because they have to be. To be a good coach, you have to get players to believe that you believe that they can win."

"Pressure is a privilege. Why are we playing or why are we doing what we are doing if we don't want to be successful? You can play your whole life and never have a pressure situation. Who wants that? You should feel privileged that you worked hard enough to put yourself in that situation. You should embrace it, you should enjoy it, and you should understand that it is hard. It is all of that. That is a privilege."

Be aware of the verbal and non-verbal messages that you are sending. Champions aren't the ones that don't get hit. Champions are the ones who get hit, fall down, and just keep going. You knew it was going to be hard. It is hard for everybody. But nobody can do this better than you.

It starts with us. It starts with you.

These Three Things

I coach mostly soccer and basketball right now. I have found that these three rules or expectations are a great place to start with my teams and my individual athletes.

The first two are measurable, while the third is something that we will work on for the rest of our careers. If you can be great at these three things, you can play for and have success with almost any team and at almost any level.

Everybody wants to score, and everybody wants their kids to score. When we score, we smile, we are happy, and we feel valued. A lot of that is just the nature of sports. We celebrate every point, and we celebrate the person who scores.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to score and celebrating the shooter, but there is so much more to athletic success.

I try to get my girls and my teams to focus on these three. If we do these three things right, we will win most games. If an individual does these three things, they will be recognized as one of the best players in the court or field.

We celebrate effort. We celebrate falling down and getting up. We celebrate boxing out and shielding our girl. We celebrate getting back after we get beat. We celebrate getting our ball back.

We praise winning 1 on 1 battles on offense and defense. We praise winning the rebound. We praise receiving that ball rolling across the middle of the field.

And we celebrate winning plays, especially good passes. We want you to know the right play is the most important plays. The right plays lead to points, no matter who scores it. The right play is being able to finish and putting the ball in the net.

To do these things consistently, we have to work on being stronger, faster, smarter, and better athletes. We have to be more skilled, more efficient, and smarter. We also have to understand how to play team ball, recognize space, advantages, and know what a good play is a better play, and the best play.

Finally, you have to celebrate every good play, especially the non-scoring plays.

You get more of what you celebrate. What plays do you praise and celebrate?

As You Think, So Shall You Be

Scholars believe that for any student to perform at their best, teachers must believe that they can learn, and students themselves must have confidence in their own abilities.

Expectations are one of the most powerful determinates of academic success.

William James once said, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."

He also said, "As you think, so shall you be."

As coaches, it is so important for us to believe the ability and potential of our athletes. Doc Rivers says, "I am not going to coach to who you are. I am going to coach you to who you should be someday."

The more that we believe in our kids, the more our kids will grow. See the gold and potential in your athletes. See what they can be - the best-case scenario - and speak that into them. Have high expectations for them, and help them grow into those expectations.

Help them manage their thoughts. Help them remain confident in themselves by giving them affirmations that they can speak to themselves. When you have to correct them, correct them in a way that motivates, encourages, and inspires them. When they do something good, praise it.

As parents and coaches, we have to watch how we talk to our kids because what we say gets into their subconscious mind and stays there. If a kid misses a layup or a shot, and we get on them and yell at them, what is the kid going to think after that point? That is going to stick with him, and that can very easily follow them to the next practice and next game. Make sure that what we give our kids is something positive and beneficial.

The messages that we give our kids will be their inner voices now and forever. Be aware of what you are saying to them.

Courage

To do anything great, it takes courage. To take that last shot, to take that charge, to make that extra pass, to dive on that ball, to win at the highest levels, it will take courage.

Courage is the ability to do something that scares you. It is doing something while facing fear or danger. Courage is being afraid and doing it anyway.

Courage requires you to get out of your comfort zone. Courage happens when there is uncertainty or risk. If you don't know how something is going to turn out, be brave, and go for it.

You can BE courageous and confident even when you don't FEEL courageous or confident. Have a goal, mission, or task, and do it afraid. Good things will happen to you and through you.