Sunday, November 17, 2024

Basketball - Transparency

I believe in transparency. That's not best for everyone. When an old guy coaches young girls is there another rational choice?

I'm not a professional coach, never taking a nickel. Although I coached in a small community (less than 30,000) for about twenty years, I was only the 'head coach' for six, two groups of 6th-8th graders, 25 players total. Two are playing NCAA D1 Women's Basketball.  

Parents were welcome at practice, pre- and post-game meetings, and I sent regular emails about their child's progress and areas for improvement.

Communications to the 6th-8th graders went to the players via the parents.

Criticism of coaching values, process, philosophy, and every other aspect of coaching will happen. Damning the intent or morality of coaching can't happen.

From a review of Adam Grant's "Think Again"- 

"By admitting some of their imperfections out loud, managers demonstrated that they could take it—and made a public commitment to remain open to feedback. They normalized vulnerability, making their teams more comfortable opening up about their own struggles. Their employees gave more useful feedback because they knew their managers were working to grow. That motivated managers to create practices to keep the door open: they started holding “ask me anything” coffee chats, opening weekly one-on-one meetings by asking for constructive criticism, and setting up monthly team sessions where everyone shared their development goals and progress."

Few parents openly complained. Absence of public criticism doesn't mean a lack of criticism. Nor does it invalidate complaints. 

Along with transparency, I have a few additional beliefs:

1) In a developmental setting, playing time should "generally" be more equal than not. I worked to get every player in twice each half. Balancing stronger players with less talented kept games more competitive, though guaranteeing nothing. 

2) Never discuss another parent's child in a discussion with parents. 

3) Anger never presents a good look. To paraphrase, "it's like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die." 

4) Use some variation of the "24 Hour Rule" or "Lincoln's Hot Letters," which were never signed and never sent. Allow cooler heads to prevail. 

5) Transparency includes writing. Everyone got a packet (most electronic) about program philosophy and guidelines. For example, if a player can't attend for whatever reason, let me know. Investing time creating lineups that go out the window with absence is frustrating. 

6) Herb Welling, basketball savant, told me once, "if you get that generational player (which rarely happens), you have to take care of her." 

Yes, the future valedictorian, McDonald's All-America nominee didn't get treated the same as others. And I have no regrets. 

Lagniappe. It's not just the Xs and Os, it's the execution. Stuff works because of patience and urgency - hard cutting and on-time, on-target passing. 

Lagniappe 2. Wisdom from an NBA and Olympic champion. Repost. 

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