A Coach's Diary

Let's say that you are a coach, a teacher, a principal, or in a leadership role and you are starting a new season, a new year, or starting a new leadership position; what are some of the first things, from a cultural standpoint, that you would think about or do to set the tone for success? Daniel Coyle is the New York Times bestselling author of the Culture Code. He has worked with and learned from some of the best leaders of the best cultures in the world. He was asked this question, and the first thing he said was he would think about the relationship between connections and safety. He says connection and safety are the foundations of a great culture. "WITHOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY, YOU CAN BE AS SMART AS YOU WANT TO BE, BUT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ADD UP TO MORE THAN THE SUM OF YOUR PARTS BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT GIVING PEOPLE A VOICE."  - DANIEL COYLE When teams win championships, they often talk about how close they are and how strong their relationships are. When the LA R...

“Work hard.” “Bring energy and enthusiasm.” “Talk, talk, talk.” Coach Story was getting tired of repeating the same motivational slogans every day with little results. Coach Story was the new head girls’ basketball coach at Desoto High School. Desoto was once a state powerhouse, but they were now struggling to make the playoffs and have had 5 straight losing seasons. Coach Story was hoping to change the culture in her program, and after leading her team to their first playoff berth in 5 years and being only 2 games away from the state tournament in her first season, she thought she was going into the off-season with a lot of positive momentum, but she was frustrated with the effort and attendance of her athletes. Coach Story was explaining her situation to Coach Mills, one of her trusted coaching friends. Coach Mills told her, “You need to create a shared purpose or vision statement for your team.” Coach Story asked, “What is that?” Coach Mills replied, “We spend so much time t...

We build great teams and experiences so that our athletes never forget that they are capable of greatness. Coach James was taking over for the basketball program at New Hope High School, but the first time he visited the gym he realized that the team and program needed a lot of new hope because there wasn't a lot of hope there. He saw an old, unkept gym and a team full of players who looked uninspired and discouraged. As he watched his team scrimmage, he saw athletes not competing, pointing fingers and giving excuses, blaming others, and dragging their feet with their heads down after each mistake. Coach James thought to himself, "Why do they think it is okay to not compete, not to play through mistakes, and not be great teammates?" Coach James realized that the athletes were just living up to the expectations set by the adults who were in charge before he got there.  New Hope was far from a basketball powerhouse, and most coaches ended up leaving the school after a year ...

If you look in the transfer portal, you can see that there is a need, now more than ever, to take a deeper look at the human side of coaching and sports, and a need to build winning cultures that put people first and that people want to join and stay a part of. Workhuman is an organization that helps build winning cultures. Their research says that we can increase performance by 32% by creating a culture of thanks and recognition. We can build better athletes and better teams by giving and receiving thanks and by valuing what they bring to the team. When we make our people our 1st priority, success will follow. Shawn Anchor, a happiness researcher, and bestselling author wrote, "Each and every person has the right to lead a happy life at work." As coaches, we can change that to say, "Each and every teammate has the right to lead a happy life on our team." This doesn't mean that everything will be easy. We can and should still have high expectations and hold them...

Have you ever noticed that some athletes excel under some coaches but struggle and melt while playing for other coaches? Kelsi was a player who had a lot of talent but struggled with her confidence. She could do complicated moves and mazes in training, but she struggled to replicate them in games. She always told her parents that she didn't feel confident enough to try what she was working on in private training sessions in practice and games because she had a fear and anxiety of messing up. Going into Kelsi's senior year, her high school hired a new coach, and almost immediately, her parents saw a change in her confidence, energy, and performance. Kelsi had a great senior year, and when her parents asked her what changed, she said that it was that she felt more comfortable and confident playing for her new coach. Kelsi said that her new coach made her feel confident because he believed in her, and she felt safe because when she made a mistake, he helped her through them and th...

We have a saying that everybody is great and happy when the shots are falling or when the bats are hitting, but who can we count on when the storm comes and we have to navigate through and around adversity? When the storm comes in a game and the coach has to call a timeout, it's interesting to see how the huddle, the players, and the coaches react and respond in the heat of the moment. Wins and losses aren't determined by our mistakes; they are determined by how we respond to mistakes. An important word and concept to learn and live by is the concept of de-escalation. Deescalation is calming someone (or yourself) down so that they can respond appropriately instead of reacting emotionally. Something happened - it could have been a made or missed shot, a turnover, an injury, or anything else, and responding with empathy, even in the moment, will help respond in a way that shows empathy in order to get to the heart of the matter. Dr. Bruce Perry  is a researcher, clinician, and te...

Great teams are teams that have coaches who are truth-tellers and players who can listen, take coaching and criticism, and use it to help them be and play better. There is a team in Texas that was known for having a lot of talent, but they were never able to put it all together to create successful, winning seasons. When they were on, they were on. But when adversity hit, they would start to fight with each other by pointing fingers and blaming others for mistakes. Coach Rod was ready for a change, so he read Jon Gordon's book, the Power of a Positive Team. Toward the end of the book, a story about Pete Caroll and his time coaching the USC football team stood out and inspired him. When Carroll was at USC, the Trojans enjoyed an amazing run of success that included a record of 97-19 and winning the 2003 and 2004 AP National Championships. Carroll created "Tell-The-Truth Mondays." The team would get together on Monday's after their game and talk about what they did wron...

A connected team is a more committed team. The more connected you are to each other, and the more committed you are to each other, the more you will fight for each other and not with each other. There is a great quote that says, "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." There is another great quote that says, "Teams beat talent when talent isn't a team." One thing that every coach and every athlete, especially the leaders of the team, can do is work hard to connect with their teammates. The best teams are connected and work together. The best teams become a family. I often say that you have to catch the fish before you can clean it. This means that you have to connect with and build relationships with your teammates before you can lead them. Connection doesn't happen by accident. You have to connect on purpose. You have to invest in relationships and team building, and you have to invest in it every day. Think about how you talk to your tea...

The health of the team is reflected in the face of the coach.  We are the standard.  We have to reflect and model the standards that we communicate and expect from our athletes. When we teach and preach one thing - be on time, be prepared, be accountable, and when we DO something different - show up late, show up unprepared, make excuses, we are sending mixed signals.  When we send mixed signals, we are causing confusion and we lose credibility. Tim Corbin, head baseball coach at Vanderbilt, says "modeling is what you do and what people see from you."   What would your athletes say about you?  What would they say that you value?  How would they rate you as a leader and a coach and a teacher?  If someone followed you around for 48 hours, what would they see and hear, and what would they say that you value, based on your actions? The hardest person to teach, lead, and coach is ourselves.  We have to make sure that we are living up to and abo...

- How can we be intentional in making this process magical for our athletes and their families? - How can we be intentionally ‘plus’ the school experience for our athletes and their families? I include families because how we treat the girls we have impacts, not only them, but their families.  We have a girl who basketball was her ‘second sport’ who wants to be a basketball player.  Her parents are now signing up her younger sister in basketball so that she can one day be in our program.  Because of how we treated one girl, her younger sister now wants to play basketball and her mother wants to make that happen because she knows that we will take care of her!  How cool is that?

The article below was borrowed from Bob Starkey at HoopThoughts.BlogSpot.com .  You read the original article here . It's been a while back, but I posted briefly about a concept that I hold dear to my coaching philosophy -- the ability to teach your players to figure things out on their own. There are three things that I think coaches should stress, teach and demand on a daily basis regardless of what their philosophy is in regard to X & Os, discipline and team building.  I believe you should be teaching players to Talk, to be Tough, and to Think.  Figuring things out is a major component to thinking. One of the most underrated things that the best coaches teach, in any sport on any level, is that of educating their players how to think on their own.  Few were better than Coach Newell. “I wanted players with initiative, guys who could control a difficult situation on their own.  People may not realize that years ago, you couldn’t bring a player...

After elimination, the Spurs played paintball together.  It’s important to be a team and to have camaraderie both on and off the court.

The January 2015 edition of the Texas High School Coaches Association magazine had an absolute gem regarding developing a winning culture in your program. Coach Angela Beck wrote a two page spread on her philosophy on how to create and sustain a success program.  I think it is very important to know what your vision and philosophy is, and it is equally important to be able to clearly communicate that when called upon. Creating A Winning Attitude And Culture You must be able to produce a 'winning attitude' - a culture of winning that will continue to bread success.  This attitude is how your team acts, plays, and lives.  It is a lifestyle that everybody in your program must buy-into and live by.  This culture and attitude is how you treat the people around you.  You must strive to treat everyone and everything with respect and you must try to leave each situation a better place than how you found it. How To Inspire Your Team To Compete She had a good quot...

My job as a coach is to help everyone in my program have a great experience with me and help them become the best version of themselves.  To do that, I have created 13 characteristics that will help myself and the people I lead in my program become the best versions of themselves.  I will have a value based system where these characteristics drive our growth as people and basketball players. Diligence Doing your job expeditiously, on time, to the highest standards possible, regardless of what is demanded or expected. Preparation Being prepared for whatever comes your way gives you the ultimate confidence and peace of mind when the time comes for you to do your job to the best of your ability. Sacrifice What are you willing to give up to be successful? Service Always seek ways to make the world better than how you found it. Fight You have to either be willing to fight for what you want or deal with what the world gives you. Energy and Enthusiasm Not...

Here, The Grantland guys talk about the value of the 'camaraderie' the Golden State Warriors have and its role in their early season success.  Bill Simmons goes on to talk about their unselfishness, how they pull for each other, and how the bench stands to celebrate their success. It is important to find ways to build camaraderie and togetherness in your team's culture.  Of course, everybody is not going to always 'like' each other.  But if you can get guys to truly celebrate the successes of their teammates and enjoy the process of growing, building, and winning together, it can be just one more competitive advantage that will greatly help your guys out.