Professional Development

This video is courtesy of Glazier Academies

In the 2 minute video, Frank DeLano delivers a powerful message taken from his full presentation “Everything They Don’t Tell You About Being a Coach” from Glazier’s Head Coach Academy.

Being put in the middle of difficult situations is seemingly a daily occurance for coaches. There is no one answer or policy that is a guide to working through these tough calls, we can all benefit from having the mindset to examine all problems that deal with kids from as mny sides as we can.

In this video, Coach DeLano gives us his thoughts on dealing with the following scenario:

One of your athletes is an at-risk student who really needs to be a part of something that you can offer them. At times, those needs can conflict with what is best for the team.

Coach DeLano has won six state championships and definitely plays to win. As you will see in the video, he also has a heart to serve students.

My lesson from the video is that we need to look for a third alternative that helps the individual and that we are still able to do what is bes for the team.

Click the play arrow to see the two minute video.

Here are a few more of my takeaways from his entire presentation on Everything They Don’t Tell You About Bring a Coach:

• Dealing with everything they didn’t tell us is not in our job description.  However, putting thought and concern into each individual challenge that you are faced with is what will allow us to achieve maximum impact for our athletes.
• Coaches must adopt a fireman-like mentality.  Firemen train themselves to run towards a fire to be able to put it out.  Coaches need to have that same mindset when dealing with issues that affect their athletes and their program.
• No matter what is going on around us, as coaches we need to remain calm.  More importantly than that, we need to help everyone else to remain calm.
• Try as we might, there will still be times when there is no resolution.  When faced with that, we need to be the leader in the healing process.
• No matter how many people are around us during our workday, having to make decide what is the best course of action can lead to a feeling of being alone and lonely as a coach.

To close, I offer a thought that I heard from That Matta (former Ohio State and current Butler Men’s Coach) at a coaching clinic in 2001. That was when we were both “young coaches.” 🙂   I made it the number one priority for our program.  He said, “I am very goal oriented.  The number one goal for our coaching staff is to establish a life-long relationship with our players that can never be broken.”

Helping coaches develop a way of thinking that can be applied to all the issues they face is the purpose of Glazier Academies. The curriculum provides coaches across all sports and at all levels with the preparation and tools to tackle the most challenging and important issues they face today.

This article was written by Coach Don Sicko republished with permission. The original article appears at How Do You Organize Your Coaching Ideas?.

If you’re like me, you have great intentions to organize all your thoughts in one place with an ongoing process and then let it slip away at various times. Everyone likely keeps various files and/or master lists of offensive sets and plays, defenses, practice drills, inbound plays, philosophical concepts, scouting reports and any other number of categories.

It’s what happens after we get organized that messes us up-the day-to-day grind of our personal and professional lives. Just navigating through our busy days can be demanding enough, let alone chronicling every new thought or coaching nugget. There is always a lot of slippage when we don’t take the time to record.

If you already don’t do so, I’d like to suggest that you keep a daily written or computer journal to keep track of everything that you deem important. If you’re familiar at all with the Boston Red Sox’ right-fielder, J.D. Martinez, you know that he keeps a written journal of every pitch he’s thrown in every At Bat in every game. It’s difficult to argue with the success that he has had in the past two seasons. Obviously, there’s a lot more to hitting than knowing a pitcher’s “book” and tendencies, but Martinez”s systematic approach certainly has been significant, if for no other reason than to reinforce his own positive swing thoughts.

The number of ways to use one’s journal are infinite- game and practice notes, personnel observations, televised game notes etc. An area that I would strongly suggest that you chronicle is what I would call “situations”. In short, those situations would be ones you might come to have to later reconstruct for some reason. If you’re also like me in this regard, there have been times I haven’t had a better handle on reconstructing events and conversations when needed.

Now that you’ve kept a daily journal of your thoughts and impressions, it’s always much easier to reconstruct them for addition to your master files or lists. The chances of slippage are reduced significantly and your recorded thoughts are much easier to gather when desired or needed.

How do you keep your thoughts and ideas organized? Let us know in the comments below.

This article was written by University of Arkansas women’s Basketball Coach Mike Neighbors and shared with his permission.

If you want to download the original pdf, you can click here: STOPlight Theory

I hope you can find a few ideas from the list that you can apply.

In Mike’s words” “All of these things are just examples to choose from… You could NEVER do them all so don’t try…”

A good way to get started is to select one idea from each color (or come up with one that fits for you) to focus on throughout the day.

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THINGS I AM GOING TO STOP DOING: So many times in our day we make TO DO lists. It is just as important to have a list of things you WON’T DO! Those things vary for us all. Eliminating the distractions is vital to you making the most of your 24 hours in a day. Actually making a list of the things that WON’T do in your day to refer to throughout the day is a valuable tool. Examples: won’t check email until certain time, won’t “surf” the web until x number of things are done, won’t focus on anything that doesn’t effect your job until after the day’s most important task is completed, won’t focus on my “turkey’s” until my “eagles” are fed, won’t go home until my urgent pile is cleared, won’t go to lunch alone, won’t use sarcasm, won’t let things I can’t control effect the things I can, won’t resent others success, won’t fear failure, won’t be afraid of hearing bad news, won’t try to make everyone happy.

THINGS I AM GOING TO CONTINUE DOING: Identify the things that are positively impacting your day that you need to continue doing but might need to do so cautiously. These things can be positives when executed correctly but can border on negatives if you over/under utilize. Examples: Seek out people with opposite opinions, argue/debate/disagree, read and write, use data to make calculated decisions, telling others the truth, learn about leadership techniques but don’t be afraid to be different (Muppets principle), be unconventional, lead by insuring others can deal with adversity, focus on bright spots rather than total focus on deficient areas.

THINGS I AM GOING TO START DOING: List actionable things you want to introduce into your daily routine that will positively impact your 24 hours. Examples: Speak in images, use least invasive correction that is needed, surround yourself with smart people that challenge you, earn trust, whisper criticism/shout praise, confront then move on, build relationships, show people how much you care rather than how much you know, Separation in the preparation, teach rather than coach in practice, coach rather than teach off the court, REHEARSE things more often in practice, focus on being better rather than being good, trust “blink” decisions, get all the facts, simplify, be productive rather than busy, spend time with the right people, take people with you.

 

 

This article was written by Don Sicko and republished with permission.

The original article appears at Film Your Timeouts and Get Instant Results.

I was watching a film of a recent game the other day and it dawned on me after I fast forwarded through a couple of timeouts that the videographer was purposely taping his team’s timeouts.

You should see the behavior. All players, assistants, managers and medical personnel go to exactly the same spot in every timeout, whether seated or standing and the attention to the head coach is total. There is absolute total eye-contact with the coach and no one is engaged in side conversations. Occasionally, an assistant is seen handling a side issue but even there, it’s all business. Big Brother is watching but with worthwhile intent. It also helped that the videographer had really good equipment and that he was considerably higher than the bench to get a good angle.

This coach has obviously trained his players exactly where to be and how to act. Maybe he told them he was doing it the first time; maybe he didn’t. In either case, his players now know the deal and know they’re being monitored just like they are in action and that they’re accountable in both situations.

I’m certain now that other coaches likely do this but it never hit my radar until now and thought it worth a short post.