A Coach's Diary

How do you get people to want to be a part of the team and stay on the team? A former HR person once told me, "People leave people [coaches, principals, and leaders] before they leave teams and jobs." He was writing his dissertation on retention, and he was studying why people stay at certain jobs and how to get them to stay. His favorite thing to talk about was Job Embeddedness Theory. The theory states there are three powerful forces that keep team members attached to their jobs and less likely to leave: Links, Fit, and Sacrifices. Links are the relationships and connections you build. One of my goals is to have the most connected team because it's harder to break away from and leave strong connections and relationships. Fit is how well someone fits in with the group, and how aligned their are to the values and goals of the team. It’s harder to leave something when you feel like you fit in well. Sacrifices are what they would be leaving if they left the team. It’s the v...

"I love coaches who resist the responsibility of coaching because they are easy to beat.”  - Mike Tomlin What do you do when the people you are coaching and leading don’t listen, don’t respond, or don’t do what you are coaching them to do? You just keep coaching. Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is one of the most respected coaches in all of sports. His interview with The Pivot Podcast is one of the few interviews I recommend to all coaches because of how clearly he is able to communicate his philosophy of coaching and how important relationships are to creating a championship culture that leads to success. One of my key takeaways comes at the 33:33 mark where he talks about how he manages, leads, and most importantly, just keeps coaching. He says when trying to compete at the highest level, you have to know how to bring out the best in the group, and in order to that, you have to be able to manage the group and the individuals in the group. He t...

Photos of St. Joseph boys basketball coach Gene Pingatore, who has 999 career wins as of Feb. 9, 2017.   The following article is about the career of Coach Gene Pingatore, a legendary coach at St. Joseph’s high school.   I was first exposed to him as the coach in the movie Hoop Dreams.   This gives a very different side of coach than what was presented in the documentary.   Below are some key parts that I took away.   You can read the article in full here or after the jump. -  Kathy Taylor excused herself Thursday at St. Joseph High School because Taylor knew if she talked any longer about the generosity of her boss, high school basketball legend Gene Pingatore, the tears would begin to flow. -  The same emotion oozed out of the woman behind the welcome desk who, unsolicited, shared the memory of Pingatore sending her son souvenirs at the hospital without even knowing him. Longtime St. Joseph assistant Bill Riley, at Pingatore's side for 34 y...

Tom Brady Celebrates Another Touchdown The article below is full in excerpts from a Sport Illustrated article that you can find here .  I originally came across this article on Facebook through a Huffington Post article.  My biggest takeaway is this: - You have to make a decision on what type of person that you want to be.  Do you want to dedicate your life to this and be the best, do you want to put in the work to be great, do you want to go with the flow and be average? - In all things, you have to find balance and stability while still searching for the best practices available to help you grow and become your best self.  Don’t settle for status-quo ‘just because.’ - Its important to have stability in a world that is constantly changing.  The Patriots having a constantly changing roster, but have stability at the key parts of the organization: ownership, head coach and quarterback.  Though all the pieces around Brady on the field is cons...

The following notes were taken from an article in the San DiegoTribune about a couple of San Diego area coaches approaching milestones.  I took out some notes on some of the things that I want my program to be about.  You can read the article in its entirety here . -  “It’s insane how this has worked out,” Cassaw said. “We’ve had some huge years (winning 29 games in 2005-06 and 2010-11, 30 in 2011-12 and 28 in 2013-14), but you don’t win 400 games and CIF championships without good players, good assistants, a strong administration and having the support of your family. -  “I love coaching, so I consider myself very lucky to do what I do.” -  “I’ve been blessed with hardworking kids who put in the time to succeed,” Olive said. “The players take a lot of pride in being part of the program. -  “There is a sense of family in the program and that family extends out. I love that our former players come home and help with our tournament.  - ...

The article below are notes taken from an article  I first found  through Ron Sen's blog here .  You can find the full article here or after the jump.  It talks about how Lakers assistant coach Brian Keefe is using the same growth and professional development the young trio of Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, and D'Angelo Russell that he used in OKC with KD, Westbrook, and James Harden. 1 - Before each game Keefe and KD worked together on the court.  Keefe would give a schedule to create a routine so he could learn habits that would stay throughout his career. “Taught me everything I know,” said Durant, a seven-time All-Star and league most valuable player in the 2013-14 season. “About work ethic, being a pro. He wouldn’t take any credit for it, but he taught me everything I know as far as how to approach shoot-arounds, practices, games, workout sessions.” 2 – Their extra work was scheduled and they got individual attention that expanded their games. Dur...

I’m reading the book, ‘ The One Thing ,’ by Gary Keller , and there is a chapter titled Willpower is Always on Will-Call .  There is a common saying that goes – where there’s a will , there’s a way , and in this chapter, Keller talks about how misleading that saying is and how misleading common perception of will-power is as well.  Keller calls will-power a renewable energy source, and that will-power is usable and rechargeable, much like a cell-phone battery or the gas in your car.  He references university studies, such as ‘ TheMarshmallow Test ’ by Walter Mischel, the ‘ Heart and Mind in Conflict ’ experiment by Baba Shiv, and a study on the impact on willpower on the Israeliparole system .  He uses these studies to show the effects of will-power and how to effectively use it. While studies have shown how effective will-power can be, studies have also shown that we all have a limited amount of will-power, and that when we use it up, we revert to ‘default...

“Steve Jobs has a really good quote.  It says that you cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking back.” In the video below, Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers began talking about his success with Warriors by referencing the above Steve Jobs quote and how each stop along his journey has helped prepare him for the position his is in now. While we have goals for our teams and our careers, we often look up and our realities our different than planned.   All we can really do is show up, work hard, be persistent, and have faith that our dots are connecting in a way that one day we will be grateful for. He also talked about the culture of the Warriors and how important it is to have people around you who are passionate and deeply care about basketball. From Forbes : It simple terms:   Trust Yourself .  Trust yourself to think big, make a difference and have an impact in ev...

I came across this story on a Facebook group, and thought it was full of gems from a coach who has seen a lot and has a great perspective on coaching, running a program, and being someone who positively impacts others through his profession.  You can read the original article here . "All coaches teach. Temple's Fran Dunphy is one of the nation's few teachers" Being Able to Bring Stories To Life, and Make it Interesting “Stories, stories, stories,’’ Anderson said with an enthusiastic smile. “He can bring concepts to life like I never could, and make it interesting, and he is the most amazing and caring networker I’ve ever met. More people love him, and he’s so attentive to everybody.’’ Coach Knight on Teaching About Life In a 2000 interview with television host Larry King, Knight said he taught a class at Indiana University called Methods In Coaching. “I really didn’t talk basketball,’’ Knight said, “but how to get a job, and things I thought were importa...

The following article is one of the legendary coach Pete Newell.  It is an old Sports Illustrated article that covers so much information about teaching the game and the life (and stresses) of being a coach.  You can read the article in its entirety here .  Below I have posted some of the key points that I took away. A GAME OF MISTAKES "Basketball," says Newell, explaining the reason for his malaise, "is a game of mistakes, and the team making the fewer mistakes generally wins." Despite his worry, or perhaps because of it, California rarely makes more mistakes than an opponent. In fact, California on the average makes only six ball-control errors a game compared with an opponent's 15, and since Newell figures control of the ball is worth about 1.5 points, that gives Cal a 14-point head start before the teams even take to the court. ON CONDITIONING At all three schools, Newell has used the same approach. Basically, he has a "for want of a nail the ...

As coach Sherri Coale, head women's basketball coach at OU, explains below, we are 'telling' our kids everything that we know and what to do instead of 'asking' them what they know or see on the court.  She talks about the power of 'questions' and how effective asking them questions can be on their learning process.  I really took away the part where she mentioned how to 'gradually teach your kids to be convicted about they do' through questions and their answers.

What's Your Monster and How Do You Feed It? When you start winning games as a coach, the feeling of success can create a monster where you allow winning to become your benchmark or measurement of success.  Whenever you tie your satisfaction solely to wins and losses, it's dangerous because it's really easy to start basing all of your decisions on how if affects your winning instead of doing what's best for the kids you lead and their overall growth and development as people. It's important for a coach to make sure winning isn't the main measurement for success in your program, and that you have your own definition of success that drives your work everyday.  Below, OU women's head coach Sherri Coale talks about what she uses as her measurement of success. John Wooden has famoulsy coined his own definition of success.  Below are two quotes and a short poem from Coach Wooden: "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfac...

Success Magazine just released its December issue, and John Wooden graces the cover.  Don Yeager wrote the cover story, using interviews of a few of the many athletes and coaches that Wooden influenced throughout his life.  Below, Dick Enberg talks about how powerful Coach Wooden’s influence was on anybody in his presence. You look at his eyes and see how he could be a tough disciplinarian even though he was a man of God," sportscaster Dick Enberg, a longtime friend, recalls.  "We see a lot of his photos from later in his life where he had that sheepish, sweet smile and innocence all over his face, but if you go back to his coaching days, his players knew what he meant when he burned a hole through them with those eyes of, at times, toughness.  If you stayed around him enough you learned an awful lot about life and yourself and how to be good.  You felt a responsibility to conduct yourself the way Coach would want you to behave if you were wearing one ...

Dick Vitale shares a story on how he reached out to several coaches when he was still a young high school coach and the advice and assistance John Wooden provided for Vitale and his career.  This story appeared in Success Magazine’s December issue in which Coach Wooden is the cover story, and is written by DonYaeger . The coach was also an active mentor, advocating on behalf of people and seeking out younger coaches he felt demonstrated a commitment to building character as much as constructing winning teams.  “When I was just starting out as a high school coach, I started reaching out to people I admired to find out a moment of their success with a young guy aspiring to be a coach on a collegiate level,” says National Collegiate Basketball Hall of fame member Dick Vitale.  “A lot of people, of course, never wrote back, but I was absolutely in awe when I opened the mail and realized I had received a response from the Wizard of Westwood [one of Wooden’s nicknames]...