Young Coach to Young Coach

In my final semester of my undergraduate career, my degree field required a writing-intensive course centered around our discipline. The course had several assignments throughout the semester to help build toward our final project and our teacher did the best job to help us reach maximum potential (Shout out to Dr. G). After several days of writing and preparing for one of the early assignments, I submitted it. The next class period Dr. G calls my name with my submitted paper in hand. He asked me if my work was the best that I could do, and I can’t recall if I answered aloud or not, but before I knew it he had wadded up the five page document in front of everyone.

Dr. G’s message was a simple one – don’t fall in love with your work (of course he was talking about the first draft of the writing process). That day taught me that the process of accomplishing anything is tedious. Becoming a coach is no different especially in the early stages…. Young coaches are going to give their best and sometimes it’s still not quite how they want it to be. IT IS OKAY! Be okay with it not being perfect!!!!

Every now and then I will get a phone call, email, or have a chat with a current player or student coach about becoming a career coach. While I still consider myself a young coach, I heavily rely on and want to share things I have learned during my first few years as a scholastic coach and now college coach. Because the topic of helping young coaches is often brought up, below is a portion of my answers to a graduate student’s interview last semester. (Another Shout out to BG ---- I forgive you for unknowingly using me to collect data for your science project AND I know you're going to be a GREAT coach)

Whether it’s 8 year old kids or professionals, I LOVE to coach – I’m thankful I get paid to do it.

(If you're a young coach and don't want to read this in it's entirety scroll down to #7 and #10 for the best takeaways I have.)

1. Philosophy –

My coaching philosophy is to foster a culture of love, collaboration, and intentionality. It is my aim to be the best decision maker that I can be for young students. It is important to “be where my feet are” for myself and the team while always evolving professionally through learning. Through teaching the game, I want to help equip our future leaders with confidence as they enter real-life. While listening to players, it is my priority to add value to their lives.

2. Success –

Long term - This one is basic for me. I think of the “rocking chair” theory. If I am able to sit on my front porch when I am 80 years old and think about the relationships I have developed through basketball, then to me that’s success. Relationships are cultivated by not the end of the journey or the number of wins, but the experiences along the way. I would define immediate success as the ability to persevere and learn through the process of a project or game regardless of the outcome.

3. Leadership Style –

While I am highly energetic, I strive to be a servant leader. I was fortunate to come from a unique family where the thoughts and feelings of others were to be considered before your own. I have tried to implement that same concept into my leadership. Sometimes that means doing something that I may not be excited to do, but I know that it will help benefit the entire group. I love to love people!

4. Method of motivation –

Motivation isn’t something that you pour into people… I think in large part motivation comes from the environment the coach creates. The culture seeps in over time. In a practice setting it is has been proven effective to place players in situations to compete. After all, the majority of players love to compete. By placing them in game-like settings, where there is a winner and a loser, will help keep their attention. With basketball being a sport with the longest season, I think it is important to “level” with athletes from the very beginning of the year to define roles and meet them where they are …. Not where we would like to them to be. I also believe that for the millennial age group it is important to be transparent. It is helpful to let them know exactly what we would like to accomplish that day… they can hear it or see the practice plan and attack it! For starters or reserves, it is helpful to meet with them and listen. At the end of the day in women’s athletics, if they know you truly care for them they will try their hardest.

5. Pre-game / Pre-practice -

I view these handful of minutes as opportunity to reinforce a skill that was covered the day before or to introduced/review a skill that you plan to improve throughout practice. This time can also be used as a time to sharpen fundamentals. I think the structure of these times need to be similar so the players can be familiar with the routine, but there also needs to be slight variations for reviewing what has been covered or what will be taught.

6. Challenges in our Profession –

Intentionally building the culture for the team. It takes a daily commitment.

While competing with the 10 second videos of snapchat and Instagram, I think one of the biggest challenges is helping a young athlete embracing the process of growth. Often times, I’ve found that people want to microwave things.

7. Two tips to beginning Coaches –

1. Be where your feet are – view every opportunity, good or bad, as a chance to learn. Submerge yourself into what is happening within that program… don’t think about the next stop or day dream about being at the school/team of your dreams.

2. Teach what you know! It’s important to keep learning at all phases of this profession but when you first start out you won’t be great at teaching every aspect of the game. That’s okay.. continue to learn to add to your collection. Players will be able to tell right away if you are confident teaching something.. and if you’re not they won’t believe in it. We don’t have to be great at every aspect of the game, but we can be great at one or two things!

8. My Professional Values –

Self-awareness and Emotional Intelligence, Relationships, and Compassion. In order for me to be the best leader I can be, I value being the best version of myself. This means admitting to myself when I make a mistake, being mindful of different perspectives and often times reflecting on why I feel a certain a way. At times words can be more powerful than actions, and I aim to be mindful of what’s inside of me before I speak and communicate with others. Relationships and Compassion go hand-in-hand to me. We live in such a dopamine driven society and hunt the immediate “feel good,” but sometimes life just doesn’t feel good. I seek out moments to strengthen relationships in the most subtle ways and I can’t completely understand each person’s walk of life, but I want to take the time to listen.

9. Coaching Difficult Teams -

I honestly don’t know how to answer these.. They’ve all had difficulties and excitements. I will add under this section that creating an environment of team success is important. Often times we keep track of individual stats, but in order to help keep them on the same page I believe that players need immediate feedback on how they did as a unit. 3-on-3 or 5-on-5…. Placing an emphasis on collective success rather than individual success as much as possible will help buy-in. This can and should be done more than individual goals/measurements throughout practice. It is after all a team sport.

10. Coach/Player Relationships Importance -

It is extremely important to me. Other coaches may believe differently, but I think it is the coach/player relationship is the foundation underneath everything else. Because each relationship is different, there is no one single method for all of them. For some players, spending extra time with them in the gym is meaningful – in that setting they are most comfortable and I’ve found it interesting to ask them a couple of questions while they are taking a water break. On a daily basis, I am “checking-in” before practice with every single player. I may give them a quick fist bump, high-five, ask a question about an upcoming test or class, or make a small joke – I want to make sure I look into their eyes before the practice day begins. Even though I already mentioned we live in a microwave society, relationships take time… so I aim to use any idle time to find out about what is going on in their world…. This also means taking time out on a weekend or at night time to grab a bite to eat and get to know the players. Some relationships will be there right from the beginning and others take time.