A Coach's Diary

What Does It Take To Educate/Coach The Students/Athletes That You Serve? If we want to teach our kids, all of our kids, then we have to be able to answer that question. To answer it, we have to know something about them. We have to know how they learn, what they want to learn, what matters to them, and what their needs are. We can't assume that we know. We have to be active in getting to know them. And we can't pass that responsibility on to anybody else. We can't just pass it on to another coach or to someone who looks like them. We can and need to use others to help and as resources, but if we want to meet the needs of all of our kids, we have to be willing to grow as teachers and build real connections and relationships with our kids. The best teachers don't expect students to learn they way they teach. The best teachers teach the way that children learn. Think about how you build relationships with your students and how those connec...

Every weekend, the best place to people watch is a youth sports event.  You hear coaches yelling at players, parents yelling at players, parents yelling at coaches, coaches yelling at parents, parents yelling at parents, and everybody yelling at referees. When done right, youth sports is a beautiful thing where kids come out and play, make friends, learn how to work with others, learn how to be active, and progressively get better over time with the right support and encouragement, with the right amount of practice, and the right amount of passion and commitment level. When it's done wrong, it's a circus. One thing that I think is dangerous is having unreal expectations for our athletes.  We can have unreal expectations for our athletes when we think that they are better than what they are.  We can also have unreal expectations for our athletes when we know that they can perform to a certain level, but we haven't given them certain skills yet or they are put in c...

This is a clip from an episode titled “ What Could Have Been”   from NBA TV’s “ Open Court.”   In this clip, they are discussing the career of Tracy McGrady.  Tracy McGrady was a very talented and versatile scorer and star in the NBA from 1997 – 2013.  He was a 7 time all-star and led the league in scoring twice.  He was also known as a big time superstar, who in his prime, could not lead his team out of the first round of the NBA playoffs. In the clip, Steve Kerr questions McGrady’s ‘fire’ and suggests that this lack of ‘fire’ kept him from being greater than what he was. Some of the other guys jump to McGrady’s defense, expressing that him being able to do what he did as a professional in the NBA shows that he did indeed have that ‘fire.’  McGrady skipped college, jumping straight to the NBA out Mt. Zion Christian Academy in North Carolina.  Kenny Smith said something very interesting about the growth in learning that you get from goin...

So I just received an interesting message from a friend asking me to, in a short phrase (sentence or two), explain the type of coach that I am.  While I know exactly who I am as a coach, at least at this point in my career, being able to express it in a sentence or two was very difficult.  Here is what I cam up with: ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM are the two things I try to bring every day to the court – I get guys going and get them to see how fun the game is and how lucky we are to be a part of it.  I’m also a TEACHER – I want guys to know HOW to play the right way and I teach guys the fundamentals needed to execute consistently at a high level and I teach them how to see the game, not just play.   I’m also a big RELATIONSHIP guy – I think that is the thing that I do the best.   One of my favorite quotes is: “The leader sees things through the eyes of his followers; he puts himself in their shoes and helps them make their dreams come true.”   I try to see what ...

In coaching and in education, we hear so much about 'these kids these days' and how they lack respect, work ethic, motivation, etc.  We here about how 'back in our day,' kids worked hard, were respectful, did what they were expected to do, etc. Instead of dwelling on the problem, how can we be part of the solution? The work of philosopher Socrates, who was born in 469 BC, shows us that maybe the youth hasn't changed as much as we would like to think.  He lamented even during his days that the future generations would be in shambles because kids do not respect elders and that they were not motivated.  He was concerned for their love of luxury and their lack of manners.  He said that they showed little respect for the law, and that they had decaying morals.  He saw no hope for the future because of the recklessness, lack of respect, and lack of restraint and discretion by the youth of the times. Are our kids perfect?  No, but they are kids, a...

This article was borrowed from Education Week Teacher at http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/05/27/ctq_barile_motivating.html?cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1 By Nancy Barile One of my favorite things about Facebook is that it allows me to connect with my former students. However, I was surprised when one student in particular—Eddie Scofield—friend-ed me three years ago. Eddie and I had a fairly contentious relationship when he was my student in senior English class in 2008. There were 35 students in that class, most of whom had a mix of behavioral and academic issues. Eddie distinguished himself almost immediately as the trouble making ringleader. On any given day he could be argumentative, sarcastic, oppositional, sometimes lazy, and definitely mischievous. After the first couple of weeks with Eddie, I was pulling my hair out. I was thinking of ways to get him switched out of my class. But a couple of effective strategies changed our relationship—and I did...

John Wooden Rare Lecture Coaching Notes The following notes were taken from a video recorded by Coaches Choice.  It is a John Wooden lecture where he speaks for a little over 1 hour and 13 minutes on his coaching philosophy.   It is a great video where you get to hear one of the greatest coaches ever speak candidly about coaching and his experiences.   It is filled with nuggets on coaching, and it touches so many different topics. Below Is A Video Link To The Entire Video -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYDoa6FX_s He begins the lecture by asking the crowd to move up.  I thought that was something interesting about who he is and the way he commands certain things from the people he works with. “Quite frequently, my minister has to ask people in the congregation to move up if they have sat too far in the back.  How about moving up a little those of you in the back because I, I like to watch you.” His Philosophy On Coaching “It’s been s...

I receive a newsletter every week titled Marshall Memo from Kim Marshall at Kim.Marshall8@verizon.net.  It is an educational newsletter that is filled with great information on education and growing students and teachers, and many of the articles and information is very pertinant to coaching.  Coaches, among many other roles, are teachers of the game of basketball.  I love reading articles about education and using them to help myself grow as a coach, a teacher, a leader, and a man. This article discusses the true goal of education and what we should be looking to get out of our students. In this Education Week article, author Marc Prensky questions whether learning is the best word for what we want from our schools. Learning is the right word if our aspiration is that students graduate as learned scholars, but that’s not what most of us have in mind for K-12 schools. Learning is important, of course, but it’s a means to an end. “The real goal of education, and o...