A Coach's Diary

College scholarships – and success in general in sports – can’t be the parent’s dream.  It HAS to be the kid’s dream. And the level of success or the level of college or professional that they are working for has to be the kid’s dream too. You can’t give a kid D1 dreams if they don’t have D1 talent, or D1 size, or D1 athleticism, or D1 work ethic or desire. They have to grind their own grind and dream their own dreams. Now, what we can do is instill in them the kind of character and the character traits that lead to success in any and all ventures in life.  The characteristics or hard work, persistence, grit, being humble, being a great teammate, toughness, finding their passion, putting in extra work to achieve goals, goal setting, etc, work for sports and they work for life. Instead of dreaming for your kid through sports, teach them through sports.  Teach them how to be a better person by teaching them the characteristics that it takes to ...

While they often get a bad 'rep,' and rightfully so, good trainers do a good job of pushing kids to work harder - often times more so than their school coach.  In talking with one trainer, he told me that us coaches just have to make sure that the kids know how much we believe in them and then they will give us all that they have. Kids have enough anxiety and pressure when it comes to performing in sports, and we coaches can sometimes add to that because we criticize - or coach - our kids, which includes correcting their mistakes.  If we spend more time on correcting than we do praising, it can be easy to see how kids might start to doubt themselves and our belief in their abilities. While corrective criticism, direction and honestly is absolutely necessary for growth in anything, and especially in sports, we have to make sure to couple that criticism with positive affirmation.  We have to make sure that our kids KNOW that we believe in their ability to succeed...

I think most people want to be good and try to work hard to accomplish their goals, and often when things don’t work out how we want, instead of blaming others or making excuses, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and really decide if we are working as hard as we think – or as hard as we need to – to achieve our goals. Trey Burke, a point guard for the New York Knicks, recently had to look himself in the mirror and figure out what type of player he was going to be and how hard he was going to have to work to become that. Trey Burke was a star at the University of Michigan, helping lead them to the National Championship game.  He was then a lottery pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves and traded to the Utah Jazz.  After 3 years with the Jazz and 1 season with the Washington Wizards, Burke found himself out of the NBA and in the G-League.   It was there where Trey Burke said that he had to look himself in the mirror and he realized that he wasn't workin...

Where you are and where you are going are based mostly off of the choices that you make. The rest is based off how you react to those choices. Every choice that you make matters: Do I get to the gym early, or do I rest? Do I put up extra shots, or do I hang out with my teammates? Do I read this extra chapter today? Do I stay late in the office tonight? Do I spend extra time with my family this weekend? Everyday we are faced with hundreds of choices that we can make. Each choice has its consequence. Be intentional in how you make the choices that you make.

If you want to make it - become the best you can be, get a scholarship, play professionally, become a doctor, own your own business, become a millionaire - you must do these three things: 1 - Work Hard 2 - Work Smart 3 - Work consistently Some of us do one of these things, and fewer do two of these things, but very few do all three of these things.   Working hard means taking yourself out of your comfort zone.  If you want to be your best, you have to learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable.  Working hard is a choice.  Make the choice to go to the gym.  When you get their, you have the choice to either work hard or to not work hard.  It's easy to make excuses to not go to the gym, or to study, but if you want to be great, you have to make a conscious decision that you are going to work, that you are going to work hard, that you are going to work smart, and they you are going to do it consistently.

The habit of TRYING is the first step to success.  Try.  You will be amazed at what you can accomplish if you just try. Use ‘try’ as a mini-challenge that keeps you growing and progressing into becoming the person that you want to become.  Accomplishing anything requires a start, and starting requires a willingness to try.  Try to do better, try to do the right thing, try to give your best as consistently as possible, and try to get out of your comfort zone. To do so, your try must be great.  -         -  Your try must be greater than your fear. -           -   Your try must be greater than your doubt. -            -   Your try must be greater than any embarrassment that you may suffer from failing or from not accomplishing what you set out to do. Success does not come from being a spectator.  Success comes from jumping in and being partici...

Success is smart – it will test you at many turns.  Its biggest test is failure.  Success wants to know if you will quit.  Remember that failure is a part of all successful team and individual journeys.   Don’t fear failure because it happens to the best of the best.  If you fear the consequence of failure, put equal fear to the consequence of never trying.  What would happen if you tried and it actually worked out?  At some point, it will!  Imagine if you knew you would succeed but you didn’t try.  How would you feel then? Try, and don’t quit.  Act, and don’t quit. Don’t define success by wins and losses.  Define success by starting, trying, acting and giving your best effort.  If you do those and ‘win,’ then great.  If you do those and ‘lose,’ its still great as long as you learned from your mistakes, got better, and didn’t quit.  Eventually you will win, and with the right attitude, you will proba...