Greetings everyone! I apologize for the length of time lapse in my blog posts but I promise I will make up for that lost time in my posts going forward!!!!!
The “art” of coaching part 1: Selflessness
This summer ive had the privilege of being a head coach for the first time in my life coaching the Cardinal City Mafia 7th grade boys AAU basketball team. I know many of you in the basketball world have heard the phrase “coaches coach, players play” but after my first experience in coaching I can honestly say that can be more of an incorrect statement.
We all know that there has to be a great level of talent blended together with a great work ethic, discipline, and as equal amount of exposure and opportunity to be a great basketball player at the highest of levels but when it comes to coaching, there is simply an entirely different “art” to it.
For me personally, going into coaching these boys I figured that me being on the best 7th grade team in the state of Missouri when I played, I would easily be able to coach the boys because I had experience playing at this level. I say this because the first lesson I quickly learned was that as a coach you have to take “YOURSELF” out of the picture and become selfless for the best results within your team. You have to take your energy and truly exert all of your energy into teaching and working to help your players develop in every way possible. Sometimes as a player that has had vast amounts of success, coaches can sometimes view and judge their players based on the players they were when they were their same age but the first lesson I learned was that you have to help and truly develop each and every player based on the skills they already have and where the “art” comes in is finding a way to use the talents and intellect that you have developed in the experiences you have had playing the game and use that experience to pour into your players to build trust and efforts in improving their skill sets every time they are in your presence.
Coaching the game of basketball and playing the game of basketball are two COMPLETELY different things and being able to head coach for the first time I have been able to appreciate the coaches of our game with more gratitude to every coach I’ve had in my life.
#successdriven
God bless
What were some of the first first lessons you learned in coaching?? Did you find it difficult to do?
Part 2 tomorrow….
the constant motivator
