A Coach's Diary

NBA star Damian Lillard once said, “If you want to look good in front of thousands, you have to outwork thousands in front of nobody.” To be great at anything, you have to put in the work, and most of the time that work is done in front of nobody. No cell phones, no social media, and no audience; just you and the work. And then when you have success, celebrate your success humbly, recognize that your hard work pays off, give praise to God, and keep working. Fall in love with the process of working hard and getting better, a nd let your success do the talking for you rather than going around and telling everybody how great you are. In Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount, he said: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 6:1) .” Jesus then said: “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,...

  TRUST “With anything that you are dealing with, pray, trust God, and stay busy being a blessing to others.” I always tell my players, “If you want to play more, I have to be able to TRUST you more. I have to be able to TRUST that you can execute what we do and teach in practice. I have to be able to TRUST that you will show up to practice and games ready to work and ready to compete. I have to be able to TRUST that you will be able to fight through the adversity that WILL come.” As athletes, we have to TRUST ourselves and the work that we put in. Every practice and every game, we are going to do some good things and we are going to do some bad things. No matter what, we have to TRUST that we can bounce back and do and execute what we have worked on. You have to believe in yourself and you have to TRUST yourself. That TRUST comes from putting time working on your game. The more you work and the harder you work, the more consistent you will become and the more you can TRUST yoursel...

The best coaches can look you in the eye and tell you the truth. The best players can absorb that truth, whether it's positive or negative. Handling adversity and handling truth is important. It may not be easy to hear, but you have to respect it. As coaches and parents, we have to be honest with our athletes. We can do it in a way that inspires them and doesn't bring them down. I like to use the sandwich method. The bread on the outside are positives, and the meat is the truth in the middle. When my athletes aren't playing as hard as they need to play, I start our conversation with something positive that they do: "You had some good touches out there." "You made some good passes." "You looked like you and your teammates were having fun!" Then, I give them constructive criticism, and I try to tie it to their goals and dreams for themselves: "You didn't play as hard as you could have. If you want to be t...

Every great team has trust. Sometimes we have to accelerate the process of trust.  Trust = relying on others.  To accelerare trust, put your players in the position where they have to rely on each other. Trust needs trustworthiness and trustwillingness.  Being trustworthy means allowing your hand to be taken, and trustwilling means not yanking your hand away. It helps to define and show what trust, trustworthiness, and trustwillingness looks like in action and on the field.  Its important to create a culture where the players are willing to go ALL-IN and they are willing to do it for each other because they trust each other and they love each other and because that is the expectationm

TRUST .  100% trust.  "I need to make sure that you will catch me when I fall.  That is what bonds people; you didn't let me get hurt.  From then on, we are going to have this bond because I know you will catch me and you will protect me, and I feel secure." When you become that close, it becomes a family, and it makes that bond even stronger, and that is what makes a team so awesome.  But if the chemistry of the team is not there, and the trust and the bond isn't strong, then that is when things start to fall apart  Placing your trust in others can be scary, but you have to learn how to trust your teammates and you have to be worthy of being trusted. Trust is what makes teams special, and teams are what makes this sport experience special.

PLAYERS:  If you aren't getting the opportunities that you want, one of the first things that you should ask yourself is, "Can my coach trust me to do my job more than the person who is getting those opportunities?" If you truly feel like you can be trusted to get the job done, keep working hard and take advantage of your opportunities when they come.  Your time will come, and when it does, play so well that the coach CAN'T take you off the court or field. Tom Brady was the 199th pick and a back-up until Drew Bledsoe got hurt.  Tom Brady played so well that he kept the job for 19 years and won 6 Super Bowls.  If you can play, you will get your chance and you have to take full advantage of it to stay on the court. If you feel like there are things you need to work on to gain that trust, then put the time and the work in.  Be more consistent with your decision making.  Be a more consistent shooter.  Be more consistent giving your best eff...