Coaching Youth Basketball - Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11 Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Your team mirrors you! What does this mean? As your mood goes, so does your team's. You are their teacher, their mentor, their role model. Your players look to you for experience and value your opinions.

Examples: If you go into a game worried about the outcome, your team will worry about the outcome. Many a game's been lost because of nerves. If you think the refs suck, so will your team. If you aren't having fun, neither are they.

I honestly believe that COACH - TEACHER AND ROLE MODEL. Be careful what you say and how you act around your team. Sports need to be a positive experience. Make sure your team doesn't miss out on a fun time because of you.

Here's an example. I have a friend who coaches a successful team, at least it's successful according to the win/loss ratio. So what's the problem? This coach screams so long and loud at his players that they either hate him, or tune him out. Every time he loses a game he blames the refs. So what? Well, every time his players make a mistake in a game, or at home, or in school, they mirror their coach. It's never their fault, it's the ref's, or the teacher's, or someone else's fault. These kids have learned from their coach that it's ok not to take responsibility for their own actions, just blame someone else.

If my team loses, I look at it like I didn't do a good enough job teaching my team the game. But it's more than this. I also won't let my players blame anyone else. If we lose, my players know it's because I didn't do a good enough job teaching them and they didn't do a good enough job learning. My players learn a lesson in life, RESPONSIBILITY!

There's another by-product of this way of thinking, MY TEAM DOESN'T WHINE ABOUT THEIR LOSSES. The end result of this is that neither you, nor your players have to listening to a bunch of screaming or whining, so we have more fun.

Everything boils down to your priorities. If all you want is the almighty win, then that's all your team will want. You will hear this again and again in various forms, your kids won't remember the score of a game 20 years from now. What there will remember how they got screamed at and treated by you.