Coaching

My first experience coaching youth basketball came when my daughter, who was 8 at the time started playing on an organized team.

I figured that I might as well be of use since I'd be hanging around anyways.



Coaching has been rewarding for me on many fronts and I can truthfully say that I developed a great deal personally from being involved.

Here are four things that I've taken away from my coaching experience:

Patience

You can never have too much patience - Each child has their own on/off switch and coaches have to identify the trigger in each to make them go. Learning a new anything takes time and a lot of trial and error.


Kids may not pick up something after the first attempt but a little repetition and patience can help a lot. Who knows, maybe they'll grasp it at trial #1000?

There's Always a Next Time
It can be real easy to beat yourself up for an in game decision after the fact, especially when the final outcome isn't in your favour. During the course of a game, there's all sorts of factors and consideration points that go into making a certain play call or substitution.

I've found that situations have a way of re-representing themselves so that we can get it right the second, third or maybe even the fourth time around.

Follow Their lead
Although you may be the coach, your players will ultimately guide the direction of the team and what you do during practice. If they don't grasp a concept or idea, be prepared to scrap your original plan and start over. Being flexible is key because you really need to be operating at their speed, not yours.













Celebrate Successes

A coach needs to be prepared to celebrate player's individual successes.I may not have won national titles or had a bucket of Gatorade dumped on my head for reaching a coaching milestone but I love the feeling I get when a player who I taught the mechanics of free throw makes the net sing. SWISH!!!

My coaching philosophy quite simply is to teach my players the right way to play the game. This means focusing on skill development, teamwork and having a good court awareness.

Oh yeah, let's have some fun out there!

Thanks for reading!

Audley