A Coach's Diary

Do you ever feel anxious or afraid that you are falling behind when you aren't working out? Author and runner Steve Magness writes that this anxiety and fear is common in all types of high performers. Buddy Edelmen was an American runner who became the first man to run a marathon faster than 2 hours and 15 minutes, and he represented the U.S. in the 1964 Summer Olympics. Magness writes that Buddy was so meticulous with his training, fitness, and diet that he would record his heart rate and how many hours he had slept every morning, he tracked his weight, his workouts, and how he felt after completing them. He would then send off all his data and notes to his coach who would give comments and suggestions on how he could improve. While his dedication and meticulousness helped him break records, it also might have held him back. Edelen's trainer told him that he need to take more time to rest, but Edelen told Sports Illustrated in 1964, "If I rest a day or two after doing thi...

Have you ever played with someone who made you more confident just because they were on your team? Paige Buekers plays basketball for the University of Connecticut. She was the number 1 player in the country in high school and won the National Player of the Year award as a freshman. She is a great basketball player, and by all accounts, a great person. But like many athletes, Paige has had to battle through injuries. Early in her sophomore season, Paige missed over 2 months of the season because of a knee injury. During that time, UConn's women's basketball team, one of the most dominant teams in the sport over the last 20 years, dropped out of the top-10 rankings for the first time in 17 years. Their head coach, Geno Auriemma, said, "When we lost her, a lot of other players really felt that loss hard because it puts so much on their shoulders. They began to understand just how much Paige does for them." He then said, "She gives them confidence. Teams' confid...

CONFIDENCE is all about trust and belief. Sports psychologist Dr. Patrick Cohn defines self-CONFIDENCE in athletes as to how firmly athletes believe in their ability to execute a physical skill or perform a task. He says that  CONFIDENCE  is how strongly you believe in your ability to make or execute a play, and  CONFIDENCE  comes from past performances, training, and preparation. As your ability and skill grow your confidence grows. Former NBA player Matt Barnes has a popular podcast where he interviews other athletes. In one of his episodes, Jeremy Lin spoke about his struggles with mental health and his  CONFIDENCE  . He said: “The game is 90% mental. At the elite level, everybody has the skills. It's the dude who can shoot 7 times and miss all 7 and not care and shoot the 8th who is different from the person who missed his first 3 and will play it safe from there. There is so much power in the mind.” I think CONFIDENCE comes from two different places, t...

Before the first NBA 3-Point Shooting Contest in 1986, Larry Bird walk in the locker room and said "Man, who's coming in second?" That is confidence! That is belief in yourself and your abilities. The days that I am most confident are the days where I know what is coming and when I am prepared for it. I feel the same about sports. When I have put in the work and I feel good about what I have done in practice, I feel more comfortable and confident in the game. In an interview, Michael Jordan was asked if fear of failure was a motivator. He said, "I never feared about my skills because I put in the work. Work ethic eliminates fear. If you put forth the work, then what are you fearing? You know what you are capable of and what you are not." What that quote tells me is confidence and success come from work. Sports psychologist Dr. Patrick Cohn defines self-confidence as how firmly athletes believe in their ability to execute a physical skill or perform a task. He sa...

Being a girl dad and a girl coach, I am often asked what the difference is between coaching girls and boys. My most common answer is that I spend most of my time building up my high school girls' confidence, and I spent most of my time managing my high school boys' confidence. I was always finding ways to get my boys to have more realistic expectations of their abilities, as they would usually overestimate their abilities and performances. I find that I spend an almost equal amount of time building up my girls and getting them to understand how good they are, because they usually underestimate their ability and performance. With the high school boys, they were always thinking that they were better than their individual opponents. In practice and games, they usually have no problem going one on one and breaking away from the team game. We would spend a lot of time watching film breaking down when we took a good shot vs. when we should have passed the ball for a better ...

Confidence in the game comes from putting the work in during practice and on your own.  If you put the time in doing something over and over again in practice, you will feel more comfortable performing that skill in the game. But if you really want to get ahead, don't wait until practice to work on your game.  Work on your game BEFORE practice and OUTSIDE of practice so that when practice starts, you are better and more ready to perform the drills and more ready to compete. Change how you look at practice.  It is a chance to work on your game, it is a chance to improve how you play as a team, but it is also a chance to COMPETE, and anytime that there is a chance to compete, you want to make sure that you are ready and prepared to perform. NBA legend Kevin Garnett recently said that he would get to practice 30-45 minutes early to work on stuff on his own.  Then he would practice with the team.  During practice, they would COMPETE with each other...