A Coach's Diary

Practice, weight room, sprints, conditioning, reps on reps on reps. It's definitely hard on the body and on the mental aspect of it.   It's not just about doing it right.  It's about doing it so many times until you just CAN'T GET IT WRONG. It's all about conditioning and reps.  We do a lot of repetitions just to make sure that being on the floor and being tired and being in pain, we will be able to handle it in the biggest moments. Sports are hard.  Sports can be devastating.  Bad things happen in sports.  But bad things happen in life.  Going through adversity helps you learn how do deal with the bad stuff the right way, and how you respond is what makes you a better person, makes a better athlete, and what helps you succeed in life. Whatever you are going through on the court, on the field, or on the mat, you are going to get through it.

You can't have the fruits without having the roots.  You can't expect to be used without being prepared. Fruits are success.  Roots are the work that you put in to get the success that you want.  The more work that you put in, the more success that you get out.  And you can't expect to get what you want - results, playing time, opportunities, wins, etc. - without being prepared and putting the work in. Do the work to get what you want.

When people criticize you - coaches, other players, parents, etc - you can let it hurt your feelings or you can let it motivate you to get better and prove them wrong. It's not healthy to let everything that everyone says about you affect you, and you don't have to try to prove yourself to everyone, but always find ways to motivate yourself and to improve. The Girl At The Gym I was at a gym and I saw this girl and her dad going through basketball drills.  She was obviously very skilled for her age, but these boys (who I assume go to school with her) were giving her a hard time about not using the correct hand on left-hand layups.  I saw her put her head down, and she didn't have the same energy the rest of the workout. After their workout, I overheard their dad say, 'You can't get down about what people say to you.  There will always be people who criticize you.  You have to decide for yourself if that criticism is real.  If the criticism is real, ...

In the video below Brett Ledbetter shows a clip of the movie Whiplash to a group of coaches.  Whiplash is a movie about a young, talented musician and his hard-driving coach who feels like it's his job to do what it takes to get the most out of his students, even to the long-term detriment of the students. They discuss the parallels of this music teacher and many coaches that we see that act as it it's their job to push their athletes as hard as they can to get the most out of them, using fear and intimidation at times, ignoring or ignorant to the long-term damage that they could be doing to their athletes mental health. This leads to a couple of great speeches by Dr. Jim Loehr, a leading sports psychologist who teaches and encourages coaches to have the right mission as they lead young athletes  We Hold Their Dreams in Our Hands It's so important for coaches to understand the extraordinary power you have in the lives of athletes that you interact with....

Jon Gordon recently did a great podcast with author and popular speaker Molly Fletcher.  Fletcher recently released a book called The Energy Clock that teaches you how to create a life full of energy by aligning our energy and time to what matters to you the most. Molly Fletcher was once a high-power sports agent.  Her job and life was very busy, but she said that during a lunch with her parents where her phone kept blowing up with the calls of professional athletes and coaches, she realized the importance of being present and in the moment with the ones that you love and knowing how to shut off your job when you need to. Her parents came into town, and they went to an 'awesome place for lunch.'  She said that from the time they sat down, her phone wouldn't stop ringing.  Instead of letting those calls go to voicemail so that she could enjoy time with her parents, she answered every call. Her mom asked her a powerful question, "What do they want?"...

Every day this week, spend time working on your game outside of practice. Everyday. If there is something that you are struggling with at practice, practice that at home. Don't be the same player with the same struggles next week that you are today. PLAYERS:  Every practice, your coach teaches you something new or you work on something.  In between practices, work on what you were taught so that you are better at the next practice.  This is how you get better; by working on your game on your own. PLAYERS:  Learn from your games too.  If there is something that you struggle with in games or something that you don't understand or something that you want to do better, practice it.  If you lose the ball in certain spots, miss certain shots, or don't feel comfortable at certain times, work on those skills and situations on your own in between games. PARENTS:  Watch your kid at practice and during games so that you can prov...

I am short, my wife is short, and our basketball playing daughter(s) are short.  Instead of running from it, we embrace it.  We tell our daughters now that they will never be the biggest or tallest on the court, so they have to be the toughest, smartest, hardest working kids on the court.  There are some things that we just can't help, and genetics is one of them.  But we don't have to allow things like size hold us back. There are smaller players at every level of all sports having success, but it takes a different level of character and commitment when you are undersized to compete at the highest levels. I was once at a high school basketball game where an assistant basketball coach from the University of Arizona was recruiting a smaller guard, and I asked him about the athlete's ability to play at the next level.  Here is a summary of his response on what it takes for a smaller guard to play at the highest level of college basketball: "To be unde...