A Coach's Diary

Have you ever had teammate who had all the tools to be great, but they couldn't, didn't or wouldn't take that next step? Below 32 degrees, water is solid. Above 32, water is liquid. At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, water boils, it turns to steam, and steam can power a train. One extra degree can change the state of water. One extra degree of effort can be the thing to take you to the next level. One extra degree, in sports and life, can separate the good from the great. One degree can change your life.  Consider the ABC's of change: Attitude Everything starts with your attitude. When you turn up the heat, water starts the process of turning into steam. A small change in your attitude can have a positive impact on your behavior. When you have a positive, growth mindset, gritty attitude, your behavior improves. When you believe you can do something, you attack it with more force. Approach everything with the right attitude. Behavior Growth and improvement hap...

This isn't sports-related, but it is. I have seen many high school and college freshmen struggle when they stepped up to a new, tougher stage. We see and celebrate the Mal Pugh's, Luka Doncic's, and Naomi Osaka's of the sports world and marvel at how they can be so dominant so early. But we don't always notice the growth of someone like Dana Evans, the star basketball player at Louisville who came off the bench her first two years before becoming the ACC player of the year as a junior. She was an All-American in high school, but she struggled her first year of college to earn meaningful playing time. She didn't quit and she didn't transfer. She learned, she grinded and she kept getting better. Leveling up is hard for everyone. Stay curious and stay persistent.

What is holding you back? Write down your goals. Write down what is stopping you. Then write down how you are going to overcome those barriers. Know what your enemy is. Know what you are fighting against. Create a plan of action. Create a routine. Create good habits, then master them. Master the little things that keep your habits going, and build on them.

Your ability (and willingness) to listen, learn, and apply what you coach teaches you is one of the biggest indicators of your future success. The best athletes have talent, but they are also talented learners.  They want to know more.  They want to be better.  They want to learn. They want to grow. Be a sponge. When your coach is talking and teaching, try to soak up all of the knowledge that you can. The more you know, the more tools in your tool box.  Pay attention to all of the little details. Each detail that you master can make you that much better, stronger, faster, and quicker.

How can you be better than the next man if you aren’t better than your previous self?  Use others as measuring sticks but don’t compare, you’re not them! Do something every day to push yourself forward to maximize YOU! • Be consistent with your work: Preparation, Consistency, Mindset, REPS. • Find/Create motivation from within. Work with pride. • Kill the excuses, all of them. Don’t entertain them. Be about it. • Surround yourself with people that have your best interest and will support your journey, even the low moments. • Enjoy the process, the moments. Ride the highs, feel the lows. Balance the two and flow. Get BETTER today.

When people criticize you - coaches, other players, parents, etc - you can let it hurt your feelings or you can let it motivate you to get better and prove them wrong. It's not healthy to let everything that everyone says about you affect you, and you don't have to try to prove yourself to everyone, but always find ways to motivate yourself and to improve. The Girl At The Gym I was at a gym and I saw this girl and her dad going through basketball drills.  She was obviously very skilled for her age, but these boys (who I assume go to school with her) were giving her a hard time about not using the correct hand on left-hand layups.  I saw her put her head down, and she didn't have the same energy the rest of the workout. After their workout, I overheard their dad say, 'You can't get down about what people say to you.  There will always be people who criticize you.  You have to decide for yourself if that criticism is real.  If the criticism is real, ...

“If I’m asking my players to improve, I have to be improving” - Mike Neighbors Even us coaches, especially us coaches, have to find ways to get better every day and every year for our players.   It’s important to take a step back at the end of each season to self-assess your performance.   It’s important to assess your strengths and your weaknesses.   It’s important to have a plan on how to grow your strengths to a level of mastery, while growing your weaknesses.   Each off-season find at least one area that you want to grow in as a coach - set plays, zone defense, a new press, new 1 on 1 drills etc.  Master something new this off-season, learn something new this off-season, and bring something new because your kids and your teams need you to. We ask our kids to improve, and each NBA great talks about how they come back with something new each year; so should we as coaches.  Invest in yourself and in your craft.

Below are my notes from a speech by Brett Ledbetter at ‘ What Drives Winning ’ on the importance of placing emphasis on the PERSON more than the PLAYER.  You can see the video in its entirety below. How You Are REMEMBERED As A PERSON Is So Much More  Important, And LASTING, Than Your Stats Key Takeaways: 1 - You can't remember who led the team in scoring 3 years ago, but you remember your favorite teacher from 10 years ago. 2 - How you are remembered as a PERSON is more important that how you are remembered as a PLAYER 3 - When helping with a problem, identifying the issue first and then finding common ground will help you find a solution. In the speech below, Brett Ledbetter talked about how he helped a star collegiate soccer player overcome her biggest fears in sports, dealing with the expectations of other.  It helped me become a better coach, person, and father of a young athlete (or 3) by focusing on the person and the things you can control r...

On a random Facebook post on the topic of implementing Ralph Miller's 8 Drills For a Fundamental Practice, someone in the comments mentioned a book regarding Ralph Miller's college basketball coach, the legendary Phog Allen.  In the book it states how the inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, ‘ was very much against sport being anything but a human development tool to enhance physical well-being, social acumen, and spiritual growth, truly the educational model. ' After doing some research on Dr. Naismith’s beliefs on the true purpose of sports, I ran across this article from Aleteia.org in which it discusses in good detail Dr. Naismith's vision and mission for athletics and the role it can play in developing young people's lives, especially in relation to becoming a better Christian. The articles states that Naismith was convinced that, “ he could better exemplify the Christian life through sports than in the pulpit ” and sought to “ develop the ...

The following article is borrowed from AskMen.Com covering MehKeflezighi , an Eritrean-born American  long distance runner who has won multiple Olympic medals for the United States. What especially resonated with me from the article was the resilience that he showed in not knowing if he would ever have another shot at making the Olympics, resilience in dealing with sponsorships, and the fact that he knew and felt that he was ‘born’ to run. "Breath a little bit harder. If you breath harder, the competition will think you are hurting and decide to make a move. And then when they make a move and have exhausted themselves, since you're faking it, you can take over." Meb Keflezighi has come a long way since fleeing East Africa. When he arrived in the U.S. and ran his first race, his teacher asked him if he wanted to go to the Olympics one day. He couldn’t answer because he didn’t speak English and didn’t know what the Olympics were. Now, he’s prepping for his ...