A Coach's Diary

The video below is the third part of a great conversation between Billy Donovan and Brett Ledbetter at What Drives Winning. They talk about our legacies as coaches, how we are planting seeds in our athletes, and how to find freedom in our purpose as coaches. Planting Seeds The hardest thing in coaching is that we are always planting seeds in players, but sometimes those seeds don't sprout and take bloom until long after they are gone. And the frustrating part as coaches is that we want that plant to flower and to harvest right now while we have them, but sometimes that harvest happens at different times in people's lives. We have to keep planting knowing that our legacy is ultimately the lessons that we teach our players, what they remember about us, and what they say about us long after we are gone.   Our legacy is more than wins and losses.  Our legacies are the people that our athletes become as they grow up and start their own lives and...

Doing what it takes to achieve sustained excellence in sports and in life is not normal.  By human nature, we are lazy, self-centered, and seek instant gratification.  We want the cookie, we don't want to do the extra sprint or touch the line, we want to take a break, we want to watch that extra episode on Netflix. But to be great, we have to fight the urge of human nature.  To be great, we have to wake up every morning knowing that greatness is often a battle between who we want to be and our human nature, and to be great coaches, we have to know that our athletes are battling the same issues. When I was playing in college, we had to do times miles.  One run, I had to run the mile under 5:50. I crossed the line right at 5:50. The whole next week, I had to do morning work because I didn't make it in UNDER 5:50.   My coach taught me a very valuable lesson that day.  He taught me that good wasn't good enough.  I wasn't happy about i...

In the video below, former Florida basketball coach and current Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan says that the best teams that he has coached have had 3 characteristics: 1 - Love 2 - Care 3 - Acceptance He said that his players on his best teams had a love for eachother, they cared about eachother, and they accepted eachother. He would often have players come to his house for team dinners, and one of his players mentioned how lucky coach was to have such a loving, caring, and accepting family.  Coach Donovan told his players that his family isnt't perfect, but that they are COMMITTED to trying to be the best that they can for eachother. None of us are perfect.  Our teammates won't always get along.  There will be fights.  There will be arguments.  But if we can be committed to showing eachother love, care, and acceptance, we can create a memorable experience and we can maximize our abilities as a group.