A Coach's Diary

I just came to a terrifying realization. I am the decisive element for my team. My approach to EVERYTHING creates the climate. My daily mood and interactions make the weather. As a coach, I have the power to make or break my athletes. As a coach, I have the power to make an athlete’s life miserable or full of joy. As a coach, I can be a tool of torture and pain or a source of inspiration and encouragement. I can hurt or help, humiliate or humor, harm or heal. In everything, every day, it is my response that decides whether a conflict or crisis will escalate out of control or de-escalate. And in everything I do, every day, I impact how my athletes believe in themselves or doubt themselves. I impact whether they live and play with peace and confidence or live and play with anxiety and fear. ... You can substitute teacher for coach , students  for athletes, and classroom for team. But you can't substitute any thing for the impact that a leader, a coach, or a teacher has on their athle...

Like any parent, I would love it if my kid could be one of the better players on one of the better teams and, if they want, could go on to have sports pay for their college.   But more importantly, I want my kids play as long as they are having fun and I want to make sure that they are in a great environment that is conducive to them enjoying the game, getting better, learning social skills and learning resilience.  I also want them to grow up to be well rounded adults when this is all over. As a sports parent, I have very clear expectations for my kids when it comes to how the practice, how they treat their teammates, and how they treat their coaches, and how they treat their opponents.  And, we TEACH these expectations and model these expectations for our kids, and when they aren't correctly living up to these expectations, we give clear and honest feedback. Two things that drive good coaches crazy are athletes that don't pay attention to instruction and a...

I get this question a lot in our program, and another question we get along these same lines is, 'what can I do to play more?' This is a list of the basic skills that you must be able to do to be a varsity basketball player in our program.   Ball-Handling - You have to be able to handle the ball, against heavy pressure, with both hands without turning it over and keeping us in what we are trying to do as a team. Passing - You have to be able to make the right read and the right pass with both hands, against pressure, and while reading the defenses without turning the ball over and keeping us in the rhythm of wait we are trying to do on offense. Shooting - You have to know what a bad, good, and great shot is for yourself and the team, and you have to be able to take and make good shots that you have practiced and have confidence in. One on One - You have to be able to handle your man one on one and keep us in the offense.  When you have an advanta...