A Coach's Diary

This article comes from Hoopthoughts.Blogspot.com regarding the characteristics needed to be a successful head coach. Bill Polion, one of the NFL’s best general managers, in his book,  "The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team," gives great insight to what he is looking for from a head coach.   Below are the 10 characteristics that he finds most important in a head coach: The 10 characteristics he outlines are: 1 – Organization 2 – Leadership 3 – Communication 4 – Emotional Stability 5 – Vision 6 – Strategy 7 – Flexibility 8 – Judge of Talent 9 – Public Relations 10 – Player Respect You can read the article in full below.

In 2008,  Pat Williams , the GM of the Orlando Magic and a tremendous motivational speaker put out a book,  “The Ultimate Coaches’ Clinic.”  It is a fascinating book because of the style Pat utilized. He surveyed over 1000 coaches and administrators for insights to what is important to successfully do their job. From time to time I will share a few but it is a great book to own and I highly recommend it. Here are some thoughts from  Jeff Van Gundy : •  The players don’t care if you are short or tall, black or white, a former player or not, all they care about is whether you can help them. •  When I was 29 and an assistant with the Knicks,  Pat Riley told me I could be a head coach in the NBA. Then Pat said, “Remember these four things, and you can lead anyone:” …… Competence—know your stuff. …… Sincerity …… Reliability …… Trustworthiness •   John Wooden  and  Dean Smith  were right. Focus on the process and not the result. That i...

This post was taken from one of my favorite sights, HoopThoughts.BlogSpot.Com Another great newsletter from the Texas A&M men's basketball staff and Coach Mitch Cole.  If you have already, you need to sign up for it -- each edition is outstanding. Simply email Coach Cole at Mitch Cole  mcole@athletics.tamu.edu  and ask him to put you on the list.  Here are the Aggie thoughts on peak performance as we head down This time of year, everyone is searching for the best ways to get their teams to play at  peak performance in February/March . Every staff asks the questions: What is the best way to prepare our players for a late season run? What is our strategy if our team is favored and playing well?…Or what if our team is the overwhelming underdog? What approach is best when our team is inconsistent, good one game and poor the next?  The following are a few concepts that are some helpful reminders to stress to our players in February, regardless...