Basketball Drills | Coaching Basketball

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I am ashamed to admit this, but I just saw the movie “Coach Carter” for the first time this past Friday night. As a basketball coach, I should have made the effort to see it long before now. I both enjoyed and was inspired by the movie. I watched it on network TV with two commentators (neither of whom knew much about basketball) giving their two cents before and after each commercial. There were quick (too quick for me) snippets of comments from the real Coach Carter mixed in with the commentary. Regardless of how much poetic license was taken with the actual game action and conversations that are portrayed, I saw the movie as an inspiration to coaches everywhere. Yes, there were some flaws in the way the games were choreographed, such as the officials calling the school’s name rather than jersey color when the ball went out of bounds, but, to me anyway, those were forgivable due to the powerful mission that the movie portrayed.

As the saying goes in business, “No margin, no mission.” (The same can be said for websites ) Even though winning is not the most important thing in high school basketball, it does make a difference in the types of lessons that coaches can instill in their players. If the Richmond Oilers had not been winning, the players would not have bought into Coach Carter’s system of discipline, nor to his academic requirements. Nor would they have showed the type of genuine respect that he earned from them by the end of the season. Second, had he not been winning big, there would have been no community turmoil created by his choice to “bench the team,” in order to correct their academic problems. Finally, had they had the same record the year before, the meeting regarding the lockout would have been to dismiss him rather than stop the lockout.

Every basketball coach, regardless of where s/he coaches, is going to come under criticism at one time or another–it is inevitable. There are just to many special interest groups that have an opportunity to take pot shot at you. To me, Coach Carter decided that he would stand for education first and that he was willing to stand up to any criticism that those outside forces wanted to throw his way. I have a lot of respect for that.

To me, the bottom line is that winning is not only something that quenches our competitive fires as coaches, but it is also the most potent tool that we have to influence our athletes, our schools, our communities, and in the rare case of Coach Carter, anyone who has seen the movie.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

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