CORVETTE HOBBY 

                      COACHING CLINIC

  Part 4:  HOW TO BE A BETTER COACH   

                                          COACHING CLINIC : Part 4    How to be a better coach.

    1. If  you are a sensitive, thin-skinned individual that want to be liked , loved and cherished , Coaching  High School Basketball is  definitely not for you. The greatest day of a basketball coaches life is the day he is hired. To be a basketball coach you must be tough, strong and resilient. During the course of your coaching career , there will be a time when things are disparaging and you will come to a fork in the road. This fork in the road will be marked: FIGHT, FOLD or FLEE.
     If you desire to be a Career Coach you can never ever FOLD. Never give up and go through the motions, you will only hurt yourself, your future and the kids. Also, if you desire to be a Career Coach you should never FLEE . You must try to always leave your job on your own terms. Never let the criticism and negativeness of others run you away from the thing you love the most, The greatest game of all times.
     You must always FIGHT. Fight for your team, fight for yourself, fight for your future and the dignitiy of your program. Do not
show weakness by making apologies and excuses . Put on your Big Boy Pants and be tenacious , show some backbone and fortitude.
You must work tirelessly during the adverse times , these are the times that molds your character as a coach. A lump of
coal can not become a diamond without time, heat and pressure.

      2. Coaches do not try to reinvent the Greatest Game of them all. 99% of everything you can think of have been
tried before. Adopt a sound and effective strategy and tweak it into a system that can be successful for you. I know
we think we are smart and that we know the game. But the knowledge of the game of basketball is so vast that , if all
of the knowledge of this great game was the size of a basketball ... the knowledge of the average high school coach would be the
size of the basketball air hole. The game of basketball is constantly evolving , we must grow with the game.

      3. High school coaches please do not go to these college coaching clinics and think you can implement into your program
every aspect that collegiate program is doing. The college system and the high school system are reversed. In college the
coach has a system and he recruits players to fit and inhance his system. In high school the coach must adjust his system
to fit the players that he have inherited.

     4. Coaches do your homework! Scout and study your opponent. Know your opponents strengths and weaknesses. Now
let's be real , do not change the basis of your system to fit your opponent , that will only confuse your players. But , you
must take away the things that they do best. If they have High Flyers  and you got a bunch of Midgets , you
can't afford to sit back and play a half court game and let them have a dunk fest. You got to get out and run. You got to
make their big guys play the whole court and wear them down.  Always force your opponent to do the things that they
least want to do.

    5. Coaches your players are not your peers. Do not try to be "buddy, buddy" with your players. It is not important
that your players and their parents like you. It is important that they respect you and the values and principles that you
represent. Player respect coaches that are fair , genuine and treat all players the same. A team is like a
V8 engine , all pistons must be firing for it to run properly . No one piston is more important than the other, no one player
is more important than the other....It is all about TEAM, TEAM, TEAM. 

    6. Don't try to be a one man show. Coaches use your asistant coaches and consider the implementation of some of their
ideas. There are many ways to be successfully , we as coaches must learn from each other. Always make your asistant coaches
feel indispensable. Demand that your players give your assistant coaches the same respect as you are given. The head coach and
his assistants must always be on the same page, with the same goals and conpetitiveness. Never disagree as coaches in front of
your players. Your coaching staff must be as one. Finally , coaches be supportive in helping your assistants secure head
coaching jobs. Encourage your assistants to grow and have the ambition to be a great leaders .

     7. Finally , coaching is Always Under Construction.To be a good coach takes time ; Time to mature, time to prepare , time to grow and time to develop . This may take many years, but it can be one of most important investments in our lives . As a coach ,we have the

opportunity to touch many lives and to positively influence the structure of many young impressionable minds. Coaching is a gift from

God and if used in a Godly manner , can be the cornerstone for many of our children. I have always said over the years , "a Coach is a

Parent, a Teacher and a  Preacher" and we must wear those badges well.