A Coach's Diary

Former NBA champion Joe Dumars once said, "On good teams, coaches hold players accountable; on great teams, players hold players accountable." Accountability is an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for your actions. Accountable teammates know what is expected of them, and they are empowered to do their best work, while teammates without accountability lack the motivation and discipline needed to achieve their goals. A lack of accountability is one of the biggest problems that can hold teams back. When nobody wants to be at fault or take responsibility for their mistakes, there can be a lot of finger-pointing and blame within the team. Doing the little things right, every day, like showing up on time, touching the line, and doing your job can be the difference between a winning season and a losing season. Great teams can't just rely on great coaching to hold teammates accountable; teammates have to be able to do that for each other, and teammates have to b...

Like many star players and their coaches, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson had a complex relationship. They had a lot of success together, but it was not without their struggles. They won three championships in a row together, but Phil Jackson wrote that Kobe Bryant was uncoachable, and after losing in the finals to the Detroit Pistons, stopping them from winning four in a row, Phil Jackson left the Lakers. Jackson returned to Kobe and the Lakers, and they won back-to-back championships during their second run together. Kobe said: "It took us until our second stint together to realize how we were perfectly suited for one another. During our first go-together, Phil thought I was uncoachable. He thought I questioned his authority and questioned his plans. He thought I didn't listen. When he came back, he realized that I was just very inquisitive and unafraid to ask questions. He realized that that's how I process information and learn. Once he put his pulse on that, he was more ...

In our house, we have a saying: No Troll Left Behind . For us, this means nobody is left to do life alone no matter what is going on. We are family, and we do what we can for each other. When someone does well, we celebrate together. When someone is struggling, we rally around them and support them as they find their way back. We also try to live this out in sports. When someone new comes to our team, we try to make them feel like they are an important part of our sports family. We do whatever we can to welcome them in, and we do whatever we can to bring them along with us. But on most teams, somebody gets left behind at one point or another. It might take someone a little longer than the others to learn a play, a skill, or a rotation, and it can be frustrating for a teammate or a coach waiting for a teammate to catch up, but  No Troll Left Behind . It is our job as teammates and friends to do everything we can to help catch them up and to support them. Every athlete has a decision...

In his book, Mamba Mentality, Kobe Bryant wrote, “A good coach is of utmost importance.” Young Kobe was out to prove himself to the world, and I’m sure he gave his earlier coaches headaches, but as he aged, so did his wisdom, and he spoke highly of and with respect for great coaching. Kobe also wrote this: “Coaches are teachers. Some coaches—lesser coaches—try telling you things. Good coaches, however, teach you how to think and arm you with the fundamental tools necessary to execute properly. Simply put, good coaches make sure you know how to use both hands, how to make proper reads, and how to understand the game. Good coaches tell you where the fish are, and great coaches teach you how to find them. That’s the same at every level. In certain situations, like in the midst of a game, good coaches relay execution information. They point out what specifically is and isn’t working. Based on that and your own feel for the game, you utilize some of that information immediately and you save...

Have you ever been on a team where one athlete's bad attitude affected everyone in the group? There is a saying that, "One bad apple spoils the bunch." The phrase is used to describe a situation in which one person's negative attitude can negatively affect the entire group, causing them to have a similar negative attitude. I'm not sure how or where this phrase began, but it does have some basis in science. When apples begin to decay, they emit gasses. If the rotting apple is mixed in with other apples, the good apples can absorb the gasses and begin to rot as well. It is important to keep good apples away from bad apples. I've had similar experiences on teams. I have had teams become torn apart because the negative attitudes and behaviors of one teammate went unchecked. I have also had similar experiences with individual athletes. They allow one bad apple, one negative influence, or one correctable character flaw to negatively affect who they are, and it kills...

Napheesa Collier is a basketball superstar in the WNBA. She sat down with Brett Ledbetter at What Drives Winning and was asked some questions about being a leader, saying, 'No,' and confidence. Question 1: As a leader, you have to be able to hold the people around you accountable. Everybody leads in a different way, and you have to know the people around you, and their personalities, and try to help them be the best they can be in their own way. NC: Delivery is really important. You can say something two different ways; one way will help a person, and one way will cause them to shut down for the rest of the game. The way that you talk to people is so important. I don't mind getting yelled at by my coach, but if you yell at some people, you aren't going to get anything else out of them. And some people need to be yelled at; they don't like to be talked to nicely. Question 2: A lot of performers are pleasers because they want the fans to like what they are doing. The ...

A couple of weeks ago, I was helping coach a new team, and a girl kept dribbling the ball with her left hand even though the right side was open. I told her that she would never get better at driving right if she never did it. I told her that she was going to mess up at first and make mistakes, but mistakes are okay and an important part of learning. She looked at me confused and asked, "So you are telling me it's okay to make mistakes?" This poor kid has been playing her entire career afraid to mess up, and it had been stunting her growth. I have been on teams where athletes were so afraid to make mistakes, they shut down.  I have also been on teams where the athletes were encouraged to try new things, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. This kind of team has what professor  Mary Murphy calls, A Culture of Growth . My youngest daughter plays on a competitive soccer team. While most coaches emphasize spacing the field and using passing to beat your defenders, h...

In 2007, we were still trying to figure out who Kobe Bryant was. The US National team was coming off an Olympic loss to Argentina, and a World Basketball Championship loss to Greece, and they needed leadership. To answer this need, they went out and recruited Kobe Bryant. Nobody brought more baggage to the Olympic basketball team at that time than Kobe. He ran Shaq off of the Los Angelos Lakers, everyone thought he was selfish, and he demanded a trade from the same Laker team in the parking lot of a grocery store.  It was an exciting point in his career. He had taken a few hits and was fighting to regain his place and restore his name. He had to prove to the NBA and to the world hat he was a good person and a team player.  Kobe told a reporter "I'm glad you're here; you're going to see something. You're going to see the USA be great again. This is my challenge; this is bigger than anything I've ever done." The same reporter then said,  "This was the s...

Kobe Bryant was hungry to learn, and he was always looking for people from which he could learn. Here is what he said about his relationship with NBA legend Bill Russell: “I knew there was a reason Bill Russell had more rings than fingers. Years ago, then, I picked up an autobiography of his and devoured it. There were a lot of valuable lessons in there. There’s one anecdote Bill shared that stuck with me. He recounts how people always said he wasn’t a good ball handler, just didn’t know how to handle and shoot the ball. He said sure, he could do all of those things, but why would he lead the fastbreak when Bob Cousy was playing with him? Why would he shoot jumpers when Sam Jones was on his wing? The message was that if you want to win championships, you have to let people focus on what they do best while you focus on what you do best. For him, that was rebounding, running the floor, and blocking shots. I thought that teaching was simple, yet profound. It was an insight I had never hea...

When you go from elementary to middle school, people start going through important changes. Around the 5 th , 6 th , and 7 th grades, you start to figure out who you want to be. Before that, your parents pretty much dictate everything, and you just followed. But around middle school, you start to make those decisions for yourself. When you get to high school, those decisions become more and more your own, and the decisions you make begin to set you up for life beyond high school. Take some time to think about who you really want to be. For the rest of your life, you really have to be aware of who you are, who you want to be, and the gap between the two. Make sure that every decision is aligned with who you want to be. People around you will start making all kinds of choices, good and bad, and you will have to choose which path you want to go down. In Matthew 18, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus brought a little...