This is part 2 of thoughts were collected from various sources.  Whether you agree or disagree with these statements, I hope you can take a few ideas that fit your needs, put some sustained thought and writing to them and turn them into something that helps you program.

If you didn’t see part 1, here is the link: Coaching Wisdom to Ponder Part 1

1. All successful teams start over new again every year.
2. The essence of coaching is the vision you have for your team and how it is
   communicated.
3. Success is a matter of never-ceasing application. You must forever work at it diligently. Otherwise, it takes wings and flies away. At no time can you afford to rest on your laurels-a pause for self admiration-because there are others who have eyes on your coveted place and who would like nothing better than to push you out of it, especially if they observe you have a weak hold on it or doing nothing to strengthen your position.
4. Systems don’t win, execution of systems wins
5. To coach someone to be the best is a much higher an honor than being the best – Coach Dan Gable, University of Iowa Wrestling

 

6. Part of success is preparation on purpose. Jim RohnSuccess is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day, while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the cumulative weight of
   our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure. Jim Rohn
7. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom. Jim Rohn
8. Don’t join an easy crowd. You won’t grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high. You must constant ask yourself these questions:
   1. Who am I around?
   2. What are they doing to me?
   3. What have they got me reading?
   4. What have they got me saying?
   5. Where do they have me going?
   6. What do they have me thinking?
   7. What do they have me becoming?
   After you answer those questions, then ask yourself this question: Is that OK?  Jim Rohn
9. You get whatever you expect to get. The only question is “What do you want?” Jim Rohn
10. Life is an inside-out game. The trust is that all our situations and circumstances have their beginnings in our minds. Our idea of who we are creates who we become-the great news is you can change your self-impressions and change your life. Jim Rohn

 

11. Colin Powell’s Rules
    1. It isn’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
    2. Get mad, and then get over it.
    3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when you position fails, your ego goes with it.
    4. It can be done
    5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it
    6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision
    7. You can make someone else’s choices. You should not let someone else make
    yours.
    8. Check small things
    9. Share credit
    10. Remain calm. Be kind
    11. Have a vision. Be demanding
    12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayer.
    13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier
    14. Sometimes being responsible means pissing people off.

 

12. Notes from the book “The Commandos” by Douglas Waller about Navy Seal Teams
    1. The level of preparation is incredible-they leave no stone unturned.
    2. They are prepared for any scenario they face.
    3. No one deviates from the roles each team member is assigned. The mission could be jeopardized if someone does their own thing.
    4. Team members are true team players. There are no lone wolves on the teams.
    5. Individual creativity is allowed within the team framework.
    6. There is no second chance-get it done right the first time.
    7. Mental attitude is highly stressed on each team.
    8. Each team member must have an attitude toward learning. This is essential for
    training and preparation.
    9. Individual mistakes affect the whole team.

     

    Quotes from the book Leadership Secrets of the Navy Seals
    “The ruthless effectiveness and efficiency of the SEAL teams stem from the fact that we always start from, perfect, and practice the basics.”
    “The team is a dynamic that works toward success and is not hindered by pride,
    preservation, or self-interest”
    “To some, leadership is exemplified by the blind obedience to orders. It is a
    misconception that to coerce another person to do your bidding makes you a leader.”
    “The point to the intensity of any training program is, and should be, to identify those who are going to work when it counts.”

     

    The following selections are from Jeff Jansen, a peak performance coach. You can find out more about Jeff and his material at www.janssensportsleadership.com

    Lesson from The Legends of Sports Psychology
    1. Forget about the Zone, Help Athletes Refocus When Adversity Strikes. Regularly
    simulate adverse conditions in practice.
    2. Coaches Must Find and Develop Team Leaders. Give your players leadership
    opportunities
    3. Help Athletes Deal with Fear. Fear is based on past event or future worries. Keep players focused in the present.
    7 Steps to Building Your Athletes Confidence (from the book The Seven Secrets of
    Successful Coaches)
    1. Focus on potential: What you see is what you eventually get.
    2. Plant seeds of success
    3. Sell athletes on themselves: Help them feel capable.
    4. Give them a specific and simple plan to succeed
    5. Emphasize working hard and deserving success
    6. Set people up for early success
    7. Accentuate the positive

     

    Ideas from Marty Schottenhemier, current coach of the San Diego Chargers
    Good competitors make mistakes. Bad competitors repeat them.
    When things are going well, you can win with anyone. When things aren’t going well, the only way you can win is with people who have character.
    This is about a system. Not a system of X’s and O’s, but a system of the way you
    conduct your business. It’s about the environment you create, the teaching you present, the ability to communicate and get them to value the goal.
    One of the things I think is really important if you want to be a good teacher is that when something happens rather than screaming at the kid, ask them what happened.

     

    What You Need To Know about People by Dr. John C. Maxwell
    1. People like to feel special, compliment them.
    2. People look for a better tomorrow, give them hope.
    3. People need to be understood, listen to them.
    4. People lack direction, navigate for them.

     

    What Your People Need to Know About You by Dr. John C. Maxwell
    1. Followers want to see character in their leader.
    2. Followers want to sense competence in their leader.
    3. Followers want to be challenged by their leader.
    4. Followers want to feel conviction from their leader.

These thoughts were collected from various sources.  Whether you agree or disagree with these statements, I hope you can take a few ideas that fit your needs, put some sustained thought and writing to them and turn them into something that helps you program.

1. A coach must possess mental toughness. A coach must be ready to practice every day.  The athletes realize when a coach is not prepared. The top coaches at every level are the ones that are mentally prepared every day.
2. Building character is the real commitment to winning. A coach who doesn’t stand by his or her convictions is doomed to be a big loser, regardless of the win-loss record.
3. Ability is what you are capable of doing, motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. – Lou Holtz
4. It is the loose ends with which men and women hang themselves.
5. The major part of my job isn’t to tell the players what to do. The most important thing I do is to create a setting for them to work in. I think that is the key to any coaches job—creating an environment that’s organized, free of distractions, ready.

 

6. A team has to be a melting pot. It’s going to face a lot of different challenges and it has to have a lot of potential responses.
7. Hustle isn’t a god given talent. It’s something that a person develops through sheer will. It’s a state of mind.
8. Any team can be a miracle team. The catch is that you have to go out and work for your miracles.
9. Keep the faith in times of difficulty. Every team goes through a period of unusual
   difficulty. If you’re confident that what you’re doing is right, then just work at it harder.
10. It’s getting so everyone wants to harvest, but nobody wants to plow.

 

11. To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun
12. A great team isn’t built by just having top talent. It matters how these top talents combine with each other. Attitude and chemistry are the factors that kick people up to higher levels of winning, no matter what talent they have. A great collection of talent with unbalanced chemistry and poor attitude can get beaten by teams of lesser talent.
13. Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
14. To have a great season requires not only a big commitment but a long and lasting commitment.
15. Nothing is carved in stone, you can change anything in your life is you want it bad enough.

 

16. Face it, nobody owes you a living; what you achieve or fail to achieve in your lifetime is directly related to what you do or fail to do.
17. All coaches have a powerful ally, but most are afraid to use it—the bench.  You can modify behavior. You cannot rehabilitate character.
18. Anybody who gets away with something will come back to get away with a little bit more.

 

19. The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders
    1. Link Paycheck to Purpose (The Ritual of A Compelling Future Focus)
    2. Manage by Mind, Lead by Heart (The Ritual of Human Relations)
    3. Reward Routinely, Recognize Relentlessly (The Ritual of Team Unity)
    4. Surrender To Change (The Ritual of Adaptability and Change Management)
    5. Focus On The Worthy (The Ritual of Personal Effectiveness)
    6. Leader Lead Thyself (The Ritual of Self-Leadership)
    7. See What All See, Think What None Think (The Ritual of Creativity and
    Innovation)
    8. Link Leadership to Legacy (The Ritual of Contribution and Significance)
    – from the book “Leadership Lessons from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma

 

20. Qualities of A Great Teacher
1. Model/mentor; teach kids individual responsibility; give players what they need,
not what they want.
2. Caring/loving
3. Wise use of time
4. Sense of humor
5. Have a mission (overriding purpose)
– Coach Don Meyer

 

21. 11 Hard Facts In Coaching High School Athletes
Coaching is a learning experience, in the same way that being a student or an athlete is a learning experience. Season after season, coaches have to learn more about game strategy, practice organization, community, and school relations, and philosophy.  Probably the best learning tools are sharing ideas with fellow coaches and dealing with young people. The coach who becomes more perceptive about how athletes think and feel is going to establish a better relationship with them and get more out of them. What exactly should every coach know about his or her players?

1. All players dream about being starters, but very few are willing to pay the price
for total commitment.
2. If the coach does not make them do it, it will never get done.
3. Players are looking for direction, though they may not realize it.
4. What motivates one player may not motivate another. The coach must discover
the trigger for each individual.
5. Unsupervised play creates more bad habits than good habits.
6. If just one player does not commit themselves 100% all the time, their teammates
will sense it and let down the same way.
7. Every player consciously or otherwise chooses a role model. Some choose good
models, others choose bad ones. The player will make their choice by
themselves. The coach can only influence and hope.
8. Regardless of how much time or effort a player puts in, nobody wants to win as
badly as the coach.
9. The player who lives for “next year” rather than doing it “this year” will never
realize their potential.
10. The one common denominator of successful high school athletes is confidence.
The coach can build it up or tear it down.
11. Remember, every player is an individual.

 

22. Coaches, especially young ones, must understand the enormous challenge inherent in directing and supervising young people, of dealing with their multifaceted personalities. And the first step in the training process is to get to know the players personally. Remember, a salesman cannot sell anything unless they know the product inside out- or outside in. Neither can a coach show up with just a whistle and expect to coach effectively. A coach must develop perspective, perceptiveness, sensitivity, and an understanding of athletes.  Once they do this, they will be able to create an atmosphere of mutual understanding, and
cope fully with their players problems.  – Author Unknown

23. Athletes may not remember what coaches tell them about the technical aspects of their sport, but they will never forget the coach.

These are some of the notes presented by Matt Doherty. Matt is a former D1 Coach and currently serves as a professional scout.

The Art of Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Coaches are in the people business

The art of coaching vs. the science of coaching

The art of coaching is more important. X and O’s are secondary.
Without the players feeling good about being a part of the team,
the X and O’s don’t matter.

This is not about us (the coaches)

People will judge you on first impressions and then discount you going forward.

– First 90 days on the job (or the first few weeks of a new school year for high school and middle school coaches with incoming freshman and all new players & parents)
-If you come off as rude, but you are not, people will use that as your default personality even if you are a good person in the future

Servant Leadership

– Serve the people you are leading
– What is in it for them?
– How are you going to make their lives better?
-Off the court/field you do what is in their best interests. On the court/field you do what is in the team’s best interest
-Be the model they can respect and look up to when it comes to drinking, cursing, family values, and all areas of behavior
-They are watching how you treat people -­‐ family, janitors, your spouse, your children
-Ask your players and assistant coaches what they need to be successful and then do everything you can to provide those things.

Communication

50% Body Language
35% Tone
15% Content
Stand behind players
Praise in public, criticize in private

Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence is a great book for leaders–You can click the link to read a little from inside the book.
Leadership is a learned behavior

Praise the actions you want repeated

Skill set often flips when you are an assistant and become a head coach.  You have to move into new areas of responsibility and will need to delegate which involves giving up some control.

Spend time with your people and connect
– Sit down
– Get on their level (physically)
○ Eliminate all distractions
– Have a sitting area without distractions

Staff meetings

-Include everyone when possible
-Ask the youngest assistant to answer first as he/she might have the best answer and then won’t be intimidated by someone else’s answer
-Agree to disagree but when you leave that room we are all on the same page

Hire coaches that are loyal to you.  You can teach someone how you want them to coach, but can’t teach them to love you

Let players decide on things that don’t really matter to you

-Meals
-Practice times
-Uniforms, shoes, practice gear

Have a mission statement

-Develop young people
-Positively impact the community
-Win Games

Year end evaluations
○ You write things down
○ Staff rights things down
○ Put a list together and you both sign it
○ Unemotional event
○ File it
○ Intermittent meetings during the year.
○ Coach your coaches

I found this on Alan Stein’s Stronger Team Blog. It was originally written by Coach Jim Burson (www.JimBurson.com).

Preface: Having coached for 40 years and looking back to those beginning times, I wish that I had had an article that would warn me of some of the pitfalls that were ahead of me.

However, at the time, I am pretty sure I wouldn‘t have read it and if I did, I would have thought that none of it applied to me.

However, I think these thoughts can be useful for any coach.

1. Not every player will be interested in every practice.

No matter how much experience you have or how great you are at teaching, you will encounter times in the gym when players are just not interested. Don‘t give in to the temptation to scold or yell. Instead, try changing your tone of voice. Try moving around. Try both. You can even switch from talking to a physical activity, like a scrimmage. The process of the scrimmage may increase the players‘ understanding and, possibly, their level of interest. Teach them anyway.

2. If a practice is going badly, stop and regroup.

Even if you have planned a detailed practice and have a clear goal in mind, if your approach is not working – for whatever reason – stop! Regroup and start over with a different approach, or abandon your planned practice entirely and go on to something else. Afterward, be honest with yourself as you examine what went wrong and make plans for the next day. Do it. Do it right. Do it right now.

3. Coaching will get better.

Maybe not tomorrow or even next week, but at some point, as you keep at it, your job will get easier.

Do you remember your very first practice? Were you nervous? Of course. So was I. See how much your coaching has already improved? By next year you will be able to look back on today and be amazed at how much you have learned and how much more easily you do your job. The dawn alleviates.

4. You do not have to say yes to everything.

Do not feel that you must say yes each time you are asked to participate. Know your limits. Practice saying, ―Thank you for thinking of me, but I do not have the time to do a good job with another commitment right now. Of course, you must accept your responsibility as a professional and do your fair share, but remember to be realistic about your time. Learn to say no.

5. Not every player or parent will love you.

And you will not love every one of them, either. Those feelings are perfectly acceptable. We coaches are not hired to love players and their parents. Our job is to teach players and, at times, their parents as well. Players do not need you to be their buddy. They need a facilitator, a guide, mentor, a role model for learning and for character. Give them what they need.

6. You cannot be creative every day.

When those times happen, turn to outside resources for help. Coaching books, teaching guides, clinics, professional organizations such as high school associations are designed to support you in generating well-developed practices. When you come up with your own effective and meaningful practices—and you will – be sure to share your ideas with other coaches, both veterans and newcomers to the profession. Sit at the feet of Masters.

7. No one can manage classes, students, players, recruiting, media and – oh, yes, coaching – all at the same time and stay sane.

A little multi-tasking can be good, but you must know your limits. Beware of burnout. Remember #4.
A little learning is a dangerous thing – drink deep.

8. Some days you will cry, but the good news is that some days you will laugh.

Learn to laugh with your players and with yourself. Patience is a great virtue.

9. You will make mistakes. That’s life, and that’s how you learn.

You cannot undo your mistakes, but berating yourself for them is counterproductive. If the mistake requires an apology, make it and move on. Mistakes are life. Life is not a game. No one is keeping score. Put down the beating stick.

10. This is the best job on earth.

Stand up straight. Hold your head high. Look people in the eye and proudly announce, ― I am a coach. You make a difference.

Alan Stein
Hardwood Hustle Blog
http://www.About.me/AlanStein

Be Precise

This is the next in a series of posts that come from some ideas I wrote about in my first two booklets A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants and The Assistant Coach’s Guide to Coaching. While those booklets were born out of some specific head coach/assistant coach issues I was facing with some members of a coaching staff for whom I was an athletic director, many of the ideas in them form the basis for good coaching principles in general. This post discusses the concept of being precise as we teach.

In the booklet A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants, I explain to head coaches that they need to consider how they will get their systems implemented into their programs through their assistant coaches. While we may know how we want things taught, we have to make sure that our assistant coaches know how to do this, too. Just giving assistants a drill book and sending them out to fend for themselves isn’t going to get it done.  Head coaches need to make sure that assistant coaches understand how drills work and how to teach them properly.

For kids to attain a certain skill level or understand a certain concept, they must not only practice it; they must practice it correctly.  The old saying is “Practice makes perfect.”  A better way to put it would be, “Perfect practice makes perfect.”  If you are practicing something the wrong way, you are just going to reinforce an improper way of performing a skill.  You may have some type of positive result, but you are not going to attain the level of “perfection” that you are seeking.

Coaches must be demanding of their players that they perform the drills and skills the precise way, or they are setting the kids up for failure down the road.  If I say to a kid that he needs to be at a particular spot to execute a certain move, I better make darn sure that he is at that spot each time that he is working on it.  If he isn’t, I need to stop him and correct him to make sure that he understands the importance of doing it the right way.  If I don’t correct him, it is my fault if he fails at that skill.

Early on in a season, I believe it is imperative that all the little things get corrected and taken care of right away.  Then later on, you can give them a little more time where they try to work through things without correction because they have practiced it the right way so much up to that point, that now all you need to do is stop them occasionally and remind them how that skill needs to be done.  At that point in the season, they will usually nod their heads, acknowledge what you are saying and go on.  I don’t subscribe to the theory of “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”  You need to sweat the small stuff, the big stuff, and everything in between.  It is a key to your success.

Being precise is a necessity.  Kids need specific direction in order to perform the way you want them to perform.  By the same token, assistant coaches need the same kind of specific direction.  Head coaches need to show them exactly how they want something taught, and then make sure that the assistants are teaching it that way.  Head coaches need to help assistants understand the terminology and the steps of teaching the skill.  Then they need to correct the assistants when they make a mistake.  However, they should never correct the assistants in front of the kids.  They must find a way to augment what the assistants have said, or they should have the assistants come back the next day and re-teach the skill the proper way.  That way the assistants are not put into an embarrassing spot of having to explain why they taught something the wrong way.

In any situation where there is teaching to be done, it is always best to err on the side of being too precise than to not be precise enough. While I fully understand the importance of trying to be brief as much as possible, you cannot sacrifice quality instruction in order to be brief. Yes, coaches need to talk less and have players play more. I totally agree. But when it is fitting and necessary, they need to make sure they get as precise as possible. This means making sure that every word has meaning and power, so that you can pack the most power into your message in the least amount of words. This takes a lot of work for a coach to master this concept, but it is work that will be well worth it in the long run.

For more information like you find in this post, check out my blog posts on coaches being teachers and my booklets A Head Coach’s Guide for Working with Assistants and The Assistant Coach’s Guide to Coaching. Just click on any of these to be taken to that page on my website.

 

About the Author of this Article

Scott Rosberg has been a coach (basketball, soccer, & football) at the high school level for 30 years, an English teacher for 18 years, and an athletic director for 12 years. He has published seven booklets on coaching and youth/school athletics, two books of inspirational messages and quotes for graduates, and a newsletter for athletic directors and coaches. He also speaks to schools, teams, and businesses on a variety of team-building, leadership, and coaching topics. Scott has a blog and a variety of other materials about coaching and athletic topics on his website – www.coachwithcharacter.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team. Proactive Coaching is dedicated to helping organizations create character and education-based team cultures, while providing a blueprint for team leadership. They help develop confident, tough-minded, fearless competitors and train coaches and leaders for excellence and significance. Proactive Coaching can be found on the web at www.proactivecoaching.info. Also, you can join the 200,000+ people who have “Liked” Proactive Coaching’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/proactivecoach. Scott can also be reached through Proactive Coaching at [email protected]