A Coach's Diary

One season, I had a team that just couldn't shoot it very well. We had one really good shooter, and everybody else wasn't very skilled at shooting. We played very hard, we were aggressive on defense, but shooting was not a strength of ours. I spent the first few practices complaining about our ability, or lack thereof, to shoot the ball. During one of my complaining sessions, my dad asked me, "What are you doing to teach them how to shoot?" That question changed my career as a coach and as a teacher. From then on, I stopped being a victim of my personnel, and I took ownership over what I taught them and their skill and ability. All it took was a mindset shift and good guidance from dad. Instead of saying my team can't do this _______________," ask yourself three questions: 1 - Why can't they? 2 - How can I teach this? 3 - What am I allowing them to do? Don't be a victim of your personnel. If your team can't shoot, teach them how....

Before the first practice when Coach K took over team USA basketball, he sat down with all members of the team and they created team standards that they were committed to living by and playing by. Those standards included things like how to show to up on time, the effort that they expected everyday from each other, and the type of teammates that they would need to be to each other. One of the first things a coach or leader needs to establish are the standards that they team would live by. One smart thing that Coach K did was meet with his team leaders before practice, ran the idea by them first, and asked them to bring one standard each to lead the conversation. After this, everybody else just fell in line. Setting clear standards draws a line of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. We want to live above the line.  1 - Set clear standards. 2 - Catch above the line behavior. 3 - Manage below the line behavior. 4 - Be the example of the standa...