A Coach's Diary

"No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." - Dr. James Comer My mother spent over 20 years in the trenches of education as a middle school principal. Anybody who has spent time on a middle school campus knows the joys and struggles of working with, teaching, and training middle school students. It takes a special kind of love, patience, and skill to reach and teach middle school kids. One of the most impactful things my mother shared with me when I was first going into education was, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." What she meant was, kids don't care if you are the smartest, most accomplished teacher the world has ever seen; if you can't connect with them and build meaningful relationships with them, you won't be able to inspire and motivate them to learn and perform at the highest levels. Effective teachers form authentic, caring relationships with their students (Cacciatore). Research...

After a tough loss in the 2nd round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin basketball player Brad Davison was asked, “How do you want people to remember you when they look back on your career?” His response was:   “As somebody who gave their heart and soul into trying to be a great teammate, leader, friend, and brother. Somebody who tried to do everything he could to help his team win, but to be honest, I hope basketball is not the first thing people think about when they think of me. I hope it’s an interaction that we had, or maybe a picture or an autograph or a conversation. I hope it’s bigger than basketball or just me wearing the 34 jersey. I hope that’s how my teammates see me and how my coaches view me as well. Those are the things I really value. I love the game of basketball, but I know that I am not defined by my performance or wins and losses.”   In the book Chop Wood and Carry Water, Joshua Medcalf wrote, “Things like winning, rebounding, or beating your opponents' ...

I heard a dad once ask another dad, “Do you and your daughter ever just go outside and shoot?” The dad being questioned was worried because his daughter wasn’t performing to her full potential on the basketball court, and this was the other dad’s subtle way of reminding him that the game should be fun and there should be some unstructured, fun moments where a dad can shoot with his daughter without focusing on achievement and the score. Sports can be both fun and competitive, and when done right, they can help us learn more about ourselves and grow as people. But we often place more of an emphasis on success and achievement than on mental health, well-being, joy. School culture can be very similar. We often spend more time focusing on achievement and test scores than on the well-being and social and emotional health of the people we work with and the students we teach. The classroom can be so focused on achievement that we often value people for what they do and can achieve over who th...

Have you ever wondered why some athletes get better from game to game or season to season, why some athletes stay the same, and why some get worse? A big reason for growth and development, or a lack of growth and development, is purposeful and deliberate practice. I tell my athletes the race to greatness is a race to 10,000 hours. Author Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers , and in it, he shared how research has shown that it takes 10 years, or 10,000 hours, of deliberate practice to really master something. Andres Ericsson is the world’s expert on world experts. He studies what experts do to make them special. He says that deliberate practice has 4 key ingredients: 1 - Specific practice and goal 2 - Focus (100% Focus on the task) 3 - Feedback (Information-rich information on how to get better) 4 - Refinement (Constant learning and improvement) You can run every day for a year and never get faster if you don’t have a specific goal, if you aren’t focused, if you don’t get f...

Character is who you are, it is what you do, and it is why you do what you do. Character drives performance. When your character is high, your work ethic is high and your intensity and integrity are high. When your character is high, you do the right things, the right way, for the right reasons. When your character is high, your performance raises. The healthier you are, most importantly at the character level, the better you are going to perform. The better you are able to understand what life is all about and integrate failure - because failure is going to come at some point - the better you will perform and the better you will be able to handle and overcome adversity. If you want to improve your performance, focus on improving your character.

Every coach and athlete has been afraid, nervous, and anxious before or during a game at some point (or all of the time). They are natural responses when you are doing something that you love because when you love something and you want to be good at it, there is some pressure that comes with it. I knew a great athlete who would put her hair in her mouth every time she got nervous. She was confident in herself and her abilities, but she was still nervous in the big games. We gave her 5 simple tools to help her with her nervousness: 1 - Focus on the now . Don’t focus on what could happen; focus on doing what you need to do right now. Now could mean tying your shoes, putting on your jersey, getting a good stretch, or making the game-winning shot. Don’t worry about what could happen. Keep your mind focused on what is happening and on doing the next, best thing. 2 - Find a routine . When you have a good routine, you can focus more on the now instead of allowing your mind to wander. Having ...

A coach asked the dad of a player on his team, “When do you and your daughter go outside and just shoot baskets for fun?” The dad’s daughter is an elite basketball player. She is one of the best athletes in her state. She works hard and plays harder. She is tough, she has grit, and she is a great teammate. She is a coach’s dream. But the coach’s question made the dad pause and think. Everything with her and her family is based on hard work, grit, and having a growth mindset, and the success they have experienced shows that this formula has worked. But this was the coach’s gentle reminder to the dad to appropriately monitor the balance between achievement and social and emotional health and well-being. This was the coach’s gentle reminder to keep grinding and working hard because those are requirements of greatness, but also to have fun and enjoy the process because if you aren’t enjoying it, why are you doing it? Gentleness is a fruit of the spirit. In Matthew, Jesus said, “Beware of f...