Highlights:
- Sell why you're the right person for the job.
- Coaching is about relationships.
- Every day is player development day.
- Impact winning.
- Be a storyteller. Compile your list of holistic life lessons.
- Have a proven track record.
- Be committed to personal growth.
- Know the game and be able to teach it.
- Develop leaders.
Add value to get buy-in.
Whether in business, a teacher, or a coach, we sell value. Know the value you add, how to improve and measure it. And sell it.
First, steal and share.
"Obsess the product." - Sara Blakely
"The main thing is the main thing." - David Cottrell
Make it.
Sell it.
Build brand awareness.
The 'triad' of make it, sell it, and build brand awareness is Sara Blakely's mantra. She turned ordinary into extraordinary with Spanx.
High school coaches have a tough job for many reasons.
- The competition (private schools) has the upper hand.
- Recruiting siphons away top talent.
- Other sports offer real competition (volleyball, lacrosse).
- Politics is real.
- Tension between 'minutes' and participation defines relationships.
When applying, bring your receipts, your best version.
Applications for the local high school girls' coaching job closed four days ago. I've never applied...medicine is challenge enough. But if I were, here's y campaign, remembering Chuck Daly, "I'm a salesman."
Coaching is art and craft. Yo-yo Ma explains that his art follows truth, trust, and service. Seek truth, build trust, and perform service. Just as his music serves his audience, coaching serves our players and our community.
1. Explain why you're the right person for the job. That's your raison d'etre, why you're interviewing. Bring positive energy. Never mention the competition. Don't badmouth the previous administration.
2. Coaching is about relationships. The coach sent ten players onto the court to start the game. "You can only start five, Coach. Technical foul." The coach looked into the stands with his hands up. "I wanted to start your kid, but the referees won't let me." Decide what is best for the team and coach each child.
3. "Every day is player development day." I established success in player development. Nobody wins big with mediocre talent. Some coaches recruit and others develop.
- My daughters were All-League players, among the top forty players in EMASS as judged by others. They played at the AAU Nationals.
- I have one former player in Division 1 currently at Illinois.
- I have another selected for The Boston Herald "Dream Team," the top five players in the Commonwealth, a three-time All-Scholastic over three seasons.
Great players grow because of their commitment, by putting in the work. They "do the unrequired work."
4. Impact big picture winning. Help players learn how to win. Multiple former players won multiple sectional championships, State Championships (basketball, volleyball), and league titles. They win in life with elite success in business, graduate schools (Veterinary Medicine, Education), and a graduate of Annapolis (United States Naval Academy).
5. Coaches are storytellers who help players write great narratives. Empower young players through a holistic approach to teaching.
- Frances Perkins became a champion for workers including women and children and served under FDR as the first woman to hold a Cabinet post (Labor).
- Arlene Blum led an all-woman expedition climbing Annapurna, one of 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters. The climb showed women are audacious adventurers, earning both successes and risks.
- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a Bowdoin Rhetoric professor, won a Congressional Medal of Honor as a Civil War hero at Gettysburg. When asked how, he explained, "I can learn."
- Alexander Suvorov, a sickly child, became "the general who never lost." His philosophies included rigorous training, treating his men well, and "always forward."
- The aforementioned Sara Blakely explained that her father asked each week at dinner, "what have you failed at?" Failure is the precursor to success.
- Kyle Maynard, limited by short limbs, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Don't tell me you can't. Show me you can.
6. Have a track record and paper trail. Coaching relates theory and practice. I've written the Amazon e-book, "The Simple Guide to Girls' Basketball: The Game Is for the Players" and this blog with almost 3,500 entries. Baseball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean remarked, "If you can do it, you ain't boasting."
7. Demonstrate personal growth.
- Study great coaches and leaders across disciplines. Incorporate leadership lessons in our daily writing.
- "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." - Werner Herzog
- Model excellence. I served on a Presidential Medical Support mission in 1986. I was Research and Education officer for the Pulmonary Medicine Department at Bethesda. I served as President of the local hospital Medical Staff and our Medical Office was voted best locally.
- Feedspot ranked this basketball blog among its top 100 in the world.
- Learn every day. MasterClass is a great tool. I'm working through "Building Your Startup" by Alexis Ohanian, Reddit founder. Coaches create and maintain a startup each season. MasterClass includes courses from Steph Curry, Geno Auriemma, and Mike Krzyzewski.
- Explain why and how you're a problem solver.
8. Know the game. "See the game." Teach the game.
- Know the breadth of strategies among basketball and other sports through books like "Game Changer" by Dr. Fergus Connolly and "Making Decisions" by Ed Smith. The "bird's eye" view of sport is about initial spacing, player and ball movement, and executing the scoring moment. Coaching provides the granular detail.
- Have a thorough strategic knowledge of Xs and Os. Offensive philosophies? "Movement kills defenses" and "basketball is a game of creating and denying separation." With the available talent, I like spread offense, simple and complex screening, and horns sets. Blend a mix of man and hybrid defenses depending on player abilities. Learn to simplify the complex.
- Teach your basketball lexicon of player and team development.
9. Develop leaders. "Leaders make leaders." Leaders listen and craft nuanced responses based on diverse input. Leaders accept that dissent can build stronger teams. "Have you thought about trying this?" The State Department has its Dissent Channel. Wehrner von Braun had his "Monday Notes" at NASA. Even Aerosmith had "Dare to Suck" meetings to explore 'bad ideas' that became hits.
10.Playing experience is helpful but not mandatory. Lawrence Frank cut his teeth as a manager under Bob Knight. Believe in "whatever it takes."
- Captain, Massachusetts Division 1 basketball sectional champion (Wakefield) in high school
- All-League player, high school soccer
- Division 1 college baseball walk-on at Harvard
Playing experience helps understand success and failure, but extensive playing doesn't guarantee exceptional coaching.
Highlights:
- Sell why you're the right person for the job.
- Coaching is about relationships.
- Every day is player development day.
- Impact winning.
- Be a storyteller. Compile your list of holistic life lessons.
- Have a proven track record.
- Be committed to personal growth.
- Know the game and be able to teach it.
- Develop leaders.
Lagniappe. Keep learning. Coach Ayers with great tips.
Lagniappe 2. Pistol. Short video as intro to many options.
