A Coach's Diary

I was on a Zoom meeting, and the superintendent in our district asked the group, 'Why is energy important?' I am a big believer in bringing energy and enthusiasm to everything that I do.  My coach in college always preached about the importance of bringing your own energy to practice and games and that your energy is contagious. Everything is really just made up of vibrating energy.  We are energy.  " Energy powers machines and moves our bodies. It is exchanged in every interaction. Energy is the unseen force necessary for growth, development, and change."  Energy is what we are made of and it makes us go.  The more energy that you have, the farther you can go.  The more POSITIVE energy that you have, the farther you can go in the right direction. Energy powers your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions, so it is important to have the 'right' energy.  Having the right energy at practice leads to a more productive workout where teams are wo...

I heard a great speaker talk about the importance of being purposeful in practice.   He said that every practice should have two goals: 1 - Every individual gets better and FEELS better and more skilled.   Players have more fun when they are more skilled because they have more possibilities and solutions available, and they are more confident. An everyday goal should be to GET BETTER. 2 - The team should be more prepared to win games. I would add that another goal should be that athletes are more prepared to win at life as well. 'THAT IS WHAT WE WORKED ON' He uses the phrase, 'Thats what we worked on to constantly reinforce and reward teaching points.  He says that we want our players to always come back to understanding what we are working on and if it is helping us become better players and teams, he does that by using the 3 Rs: Reinforcing what we teach. Reminding what we teach. Rewarding and noticing progress. A bi...

There are many reasons that athletes don't achieve their goals, but one reason they don't make it is because they run into opposition, adversity, or what they feel and and don't feel like doing, and they didn't know how to stand against adversity and their feelings and work their way through it. The journey is hard, and we might not always feel like putting in the work necessary to keep progressing to the next level.  We sometimes let how we feel hold us back. I don't feel like getting to the gym early. I don't feel like getting these extra sprints in. I don't feel like touching this line. I don't feel like doing this at-home workout. Don't wait and see how you feel before you decide what you are going to do.  You decide what you are going to do, led by the Spirit, and if your feelings don't like it you just take them with you anyways.  Do what you know you are supposed to do.

"Hard work is just the price of admission.  Be dedicated.  Be determined.  Work to be great at your craft.  Be patient.  Knock on the door.  Continue to work.  Continue to learn.  Good things happen over the course of time." "The most dangerous person over the course of time is the one who is constantly improving." Both quotes above were given by Charlotte Hornet's assistant coach Jay Hernandez.  He also shared the following competitive shooting drills that he uses with the Charlotte Hornets.  These are great tools for your players to have.  

Below are some notes that I took from a speech by basketball trainer David Thorpe.  The speech was titled, 'We are first in the business to inspire.'  There were some good notes about building culture, mentoring and inspiring your people, embracing the merry-go-round, and scientists vs artists. Be A Culture Builder Culture is everything.  Some of the best coaches aren't great Xs and Os, but they are great motivators and culture builders.  Their teams would do ANYTHING to WIN, and the way that they cared about each other was like family.  This is just as valuable, if not more valuable, than being a great Xs and Os guy. Teach your players how to respect the game, respect their teammates, respect their coaches, and respect themselves.  Encourage your players to be the best TEAMMATES that they can be. The CULTURE of a team is as important as anything else.   Take the time to invest in the culture and developing great TEAMMATES. We Are...

"I was fortunate to have coaches who had the COURAGE to coach me. They weren't trying to be my friend or hang out with me. They said this is what you HAVE to do: Be a good person, go to school, go compete!!" I heard NBA legend Isaiah Thomas say this on a podcast yesterday when talking about his coaches. At every level, he played for tough, demanding coaches. A lot of high-level coaches say that we have to have a more relationship-based approach to effectively reach, tea ch, and inspire today's athletes. We have to be ready to explain the why behind our methods, and we have to build relationships so that our athletes trust us and let us in. But we still have to COACH and TEACH. We still have to hold them accountable and hold them to the standards that we set, and we have to have the courage to correct when needed. A high-level soccer coach said that the best coaches he sees are coaches who are able to hold their players accountable and correct them while st...

One of the positives about Social Media is that we can see what people like us are doing around the world.  We can see the skills and talents of athletes our age everywhere, so we can compare ourselves to the best, we can measure ourselves against others, and we can see what we do well and see where we can improve. There are cool things being done and shared everywhere on Social Media.  Use that as inspiration to go work on your game. The downfall of Social Media is that we don't see the grind behind each post.  We only see the one, perfect, finished post, but we don't see the many mistakes before and after that post was shared. We have to make sure that we understand that a lot of work goes into being great at something.  A lot of work goes into that one post, or that one skill, or that one perfect shot.  It really is a process of messing up over and over again, learning from your mistakes, grit, resilience, and perseverance. One of the...