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Monday, February 3, 2025

Basketball - Ten Things I Loved Series - About Coaching

Motivation surrounds us. Here's a quote from the Karin Slaughter Will Trent series, "She'd made lists: Ten things she loved about Will Trent." What do you love about coaching? 

1. Seeing players succeed. So many players achieved extraordinary success in school, in life, in basketball, and in their other sports. 

2. Community. Coaches have a 'different' interface with the community. One parent of a former player, who also played sports at a high level, always calls me, "Coach." It's not as altruistic as working in a soup kitchen, but it's "something something" to quote Ted Lasso. "Are we building a program or a statue?" 

3. "I love practice." Practice is where players become players. Practice is our laboratory where we find out what works and what doesn't. 

4. Practice planning. 

5. Individual skill development. Dr. Fergus Connolly has a great organization for training - skill, strategy, physicality, psychology. Offseason skill building sessions separate excellent from good players. As Herb Welling says, "when you get the special player, take care of her." 

6. Studying the game. There is always more to learn and opportunities to teach with more simplicity and clarity. 

7. Teaching. Coaches teach life. Girls' coaches empower impressionable young people. Storytelling about women's leadership and success stories of local women matter. Arlene Blum led an all-women team that ascended Annapurna, one of 14 Himalayan peaks above 8,000 meters. Two summitted and two died. Women can be as bold as men with the same rewards and consequences. 

8. Networking. Coaches network to help players reach their dreams. Sending an email to an area coach about a player can trigger interest in the player, especially when accompanied by representative video. Let players know that you are there if they need letters of recommendation. 

9. Sharing the game. Coaching lives in the public domain - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Phil Jackson's epic quote, "Basketball is sharing," couldn't be truer.

10."Making friends with the dead." Well over ninety percent of all people ever born are dead. That goes for great coaches, great teachers like Richard Feynman, great leaders, writers, and great players. Holistic coaching offers the chance to expand our horizons by self-education about well and lesser known coaches. Here's a partial list of coaches profiled. Dean Smith, John Wooden, and Bob Knight are on the list. 

Brad Stevens says that coaches, "get more than we give." How can we say that better? 

Lagniappe. Lighten up. Sometimes coaches "pull" young players for making the same mistakes that seniors make without issues. 

Lagniappe 2. "Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you." Luck plays a factor in life and in sport. 

Lagniappe 3. Courage, energy, intelligence. 
It takes courage to play up on the ballhandler, to face the reality that you might get beat. Fighting through screens and taking charges demands mental and physical toughness.

Some players save their "best energy" for offense and don't put the same effort into defense. I won't name names. 

Brad Stevens said that his best defenders were also excellent students. Perhaps the same "anterior cingulate cortex" brain activation belongs to both. 



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