Back to Work

So now that the trip to Orlando is complete and the Spring season at a close, I now turn towards the Fall season.  For those interested, here's a link to information on the tryouts -

Tryouts Info

All the work, time, and effort put into the Spring season would be for naught if I didn't take anything away from it to better myself as a coach.  I figured I might as well talk about some of those things here to help cement the ideas, share them with any future players should they be bored enough to dig through the archive, and to look back on when I make it big like Coach K and win the Olympic Gold Medal Game.  Okay, so maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch, but if you don't reach, what are you doing?

One thing I learned in the Spring is that you need an identity.  In the past, I figured that I didn't need to have an identity - I'd let the players form it on their own.  I don't get to pick from the best players that match my style, that's reserved for private schools and colleges.  So I'll get the best that walks through tryout and just figure it out.  While I had some minor success with that approach, I have to admit I didn't meet my own expectations and I was my own obstacle.  While the other teams may have still beaten us, I can't help but feel that if my teams had established an identity maybe we would have pulled through with the win.  I saw it several times this past season, and in the couple of games I stepped in as coach it made it that much easier.

The Spring also confirmed that I need to put more of an emphasis on man-to-man principles.  I had been going back and forth on this leading into the Spring - do I sacrifice instant competitiveness for future growth?  Obviously the answer is yes, but I wasn't sure how to make it work.  Playing basketball isn't really cheap, and parents expect wins in exchange for all the time and money they put into their child's time on the team.  We may lose a couple of games, but I've been convinced that I need to do more man-to-man work and use it in games.  In addition to that, I will be a bit more aggressive on the court.    Normally I would settle into a half court defense, and slowly bring the ball up the court.  This spring made me want to speed all that up.  Full court defensive pressure, up tempo offensive attack - it's on like Donkey Kong!!

But all of this means nothing if I end up without a team again.  I decided to personally reach out to all the people I've coached in the past, people I've met, and all that to try to make sure we get a good turnout.  I had already established an email address for all things related to coaching, and I've recently set up up a Twitter account (Follow me!) - Facebook is next once I figure out how to post to my personal account and my coaching one from my phone.  Why?  Perhaps I am biting on Coach D - he has all of those to keep in touch with his players and he manages to get so much out of them as a result of that relationship (mentioned in this post from a few weeks back).  It also gives me another medium to reach their friends, winter teammates, as well as give me some insight to their mental state coming into games.  Sounds like nothing but good can come of it if managed correctly... Only time will tell.  I'm also considering getting some kind of card or something (cards seem to equal legit in the human mind) to hand out at tournaments and other events so that the word gets out about our program and me as a coach.  Networking is very important, more important than I thought when I started or I would have done more about that earlier.

Like I said, changes are happening and I have a few weeks to get all the things lined up before the next tryouts.  I just hope it's all beneficial for the teams and my future and not just perceptual improvements.  I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me and the success that it brings.