A Coach's Diary

What do you do when your students or athletes don’t act or respond how you want them to? What do you do when they aren’t living up to your expectations? What do you do when you need to discipline them or redirect them? In our school district, we are learning about Restorative Practices and the power of community building and relationship restoring circles. Restorative practices are a process designed to build and sustain meaningful relationships, and to restore the relationship when it is harmed or damaged. Frank Martin is an old-school basketball coach, meaning he is tough and disciplined. But even a no-nonsense, old-school coach like Coach Martin can see the importance of being what our kids need, and the importance of teaching, teaching, teaching. When I was a kid, when you did something wrong, the coach would yell at you and make you run. They would yell at you and run you until you learned your lesson, or until he lost his voice.  You can’t get away with that today. Today’s ki...

Coach Frank Martin is known for being a tough, hard-nosed, old school basketball coach.  He was asked how he has changed his coaching style and philosophy and mindset while working with today's athlete. He said that he hasn't changed his style and what he believes in, but he has had to find PEACE in having more PATIENCE today.   Kids transfer and leave earlier and more often today, and parents don't make their kids stay and go through adversity like they once did.  We have to be more PATIENT because they haven't been prepared to handle a tougher environment. Young people learn DIFFERENTLY now than they used to.  They now have so much information and they don't know what to do with it all.  They don't care how we grew up, what we had to go through, and what and how we had to learn.   They want to know that we CARE about how they learn, and we have to ADAPT to comprehend and learn about THEIR environment, THEIR learning styles, a...