A Coach's Diary

Do you get nervous? Kobe Bryant was once working with a group of young athletes on a panel for a Project Play summit when he asked one of the athletes, "Do you get nervous?" They said, "A little. Some butterflies, maybe." Kobe replied, "Completely normal. Same thing you get before you play or perform." He then told them a story. He said that before going onto the court to play games, he would wait in the tunnel of the arena and listen to the crowd. He was like a character in a movie, and he was ready to embrace his role as either the hero or the villain - whichever character he needed to be. He was ready to earn the cheers and the boos. Just before jogging onto the floor, if he still felt anxious or nervous, Kobe would mentally transform into "The Black Mamba," emotionless and untouchable. It was like Maximus, the Roman general who later fought as a Gladiator in the arena, rubbing dirt on his hands before going into battle. No opponent or circums...

I once coached a kid who was a perfectionist. She was the prototypical oldest child. Type A personality, high achiever, and super competitive. What made her so good was that she really, really wanted to do the best she could for herself and others. She wanted to compete, she was super coachable, and she wanted to please. All of those characteristics also manifested itself in one negative way: she struggled mentally when she wasn't able to master something quickly. It started out simple and harmless, but her inability to handle adversity began to get worse and worse. I started to notice that with every mistake, she would look immediately to me. Then she started to look at her parents after each mistake. I set up a meeting with her parents to talk about this. My biggest goal for her was to learn how to play through mistakes and learn how to deal with adversity appropriately. This was a life skill that we needed her to learn. The last thing that we wanted was sports, and ou...

Sue Enquist was a legendary softball player and coach at UCLA.  In the video below, she talks about the importance of valuing people and the process over results, the 33% rule , managing your strong and weak voice and being an engineer who builds a model around belief. Value People Over Results Don't load up on empty W's your entire career by thinking that fulfillment and happiness are all about winning and doing more on the field.  Winning is important, and we should be proud of our on-field/on-court success.  Just don't lose focus on how we get there or how we treat our athletes and their families.   Don't fixate more on winning and dominating and than on the people that you win with. Focus on how you get there and the people you get there with. Remember why you got into coaching and fall in love again with the idea of affecting others. 33% Rule Bottom Third - The people on your team or who work with you will suck the life out of you....