Characteristics of an Effective Coach

Tom Crean and Ralph Pim co-authored a book titled "Coaching Team Basketball: Developing Players With a Team-First Attitude." Most know Tom Crean as my alma mater's, Indiana University's head coach, and Dwayne Wade's college coach at Marquette. Ralph Pim was also an extremely successful coach in his time at Barberton (OH) High School, Alma (MI) College, William & Mary, NW Louisiana, Central Michigan, and Limestone College. I have become a big fan of Coach Pim's writing, particularly he and Jerry Krause's "Lessons from the Legends", and have enjoyed hearing he and Coach Krause speak annually at the NABC Convention. Coach Pim gave Coach Crean his first college coaching job at Alma in 1986 and they partnered together again to write this great book, published in 2007.

One of the things they discussed in their book was "Characteristics of an Effective Coach". This is a great list for a coach at any level to remind themselves of on a regular basis...

- Be trustworthy.
- Be passionate.
- Be knowledgeable and competent.
- Be a team builder.
- Demonstrate personal courage and mental toughness. - "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - MLK, Jr.
- Be a communicator. (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) - "Most players only hear. The key is listening to what you're being told, what's being said, what is expected of you in your role as part of a team." - Bob Knight
- Be a teacher and motivator.
- Be compassionate.
- Be competitive.
- Focus on the important tasks. - "In the Army, this principle is accomplished by completing a Mission Essential Task List. This list identifies tasks that are the most important in accomplishing the mission. It helps team members prioritize their work since there is only so much time in every day. Army Field Manual 25-101 clearly states, "Do essential things first...Nonessentials should not take up time required for essentials."
- Be a Guardian of the Game.
- Know yourself and seek self-improvement.
- Learn from the legends.

Setting Goals from Lou Holtz

One of my favorite motivational speakers, Lou Holtz, had these things to say on choosing a profession and his categories of goals from his autobiography "Wins, Losses, and Lessons"...

What's Important in Choosing a Profession:
1) You have to do something you love
2) You have to find something you do well
3) You have to find somebody who will pay you

5 Categories of Goals to Obtain in Life:
1) Things I want to do as a husband and a father
2) Things I want to do religiously
3) Things I want to accomplish professionally
4) Things I want to do financially
5) Things I want to do for excitement (personally)

Clinic Notes from Ben Jacobson

Coming off the biggest upset in the 2010 NCAA Tournament and a new contract extension, Northern Iowa's Ben Jacobson shared some offensive insights in Las Vegas on April 30th which I will share with you...

3 Things to Start With
1) A solid foundation
2) Belief in what you're doing
3) Work hard!

3 Things they talk about offensively at Northern Iowa -
It doesn't matter what offense you run, you need these:
1) Spacing
2) Pace - Best definition of "pace" is watching Michigan St. run their stuff
3) Screening

Offensively, try to force help. What can you do to force help?
1) Post up
2) Ball screen

Jacobson also talked about how all of their secondary options and sets are called ahead of time (out of time outs). They will run these until the next media time out.

Coach Knight Clinic Thoughts

Be sure this won't be the last posting I have of Bob Knight "stuff". I often get a hard time of being too big of a Coach Knight fan. What can I say? I grew up in Indiana in the 1980s. I have a lot of things to share from when I took Coach Knight's class at IU but I will give you some things he touched upon at the Nike Clinic last week in Vegas...

Coach Knight had two rules for his players on practicing on their own:
1) Never have a girlfriend that won't rebound for you.
2) Always have a manager or another player shoot with you ("No free shooting").

Drills
1) Individual drills no longer than 5 minutes
2) Team drills no longer than 10 minutes

Coach Knight emphasized that the third phase of basketball, conversion, is just as important as offense and defense.

Free throws are the most underappreciated weapon in the game.
- Make it to the bonus(es) before your opponent does.
- Make more free throws than your opponent attempts.

"Anything you can do to make your kids think is of prime importance."

"You must pass, cut, and screen every day in practice if you're going to play against man-to-man defense."

When screening, hold your wrist with your opposite hand. This prevents your elbows from extending out and creating a foul.

Good Stuff from Nike Clinic Las Vegas

I attended the Nike Clinic in Las Vegas over this past weekend. Known as the top clinic in the country each year, it did not disappoint. I will make a couple posts over the next week with some notes from the clinic.

I was one of the rare ones to be in attendance on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. to hear National Junior College Coaches' Association President John Spezia speak. And I was not disappointed. Here are some thoughts he had to share...

Assistant Coaches
- Should have "big eyes, big ears, little mouths"
- Need to be loyal to their head coach
- The difference between the head coach and an assistant coach is a grand canyon (speaking in terms of responsibility levels)

Reasons why fundamentals aren't as good anymore
- Kids play too many games in the summer
- The practice season starts later (He pointed out that it used to start October 1 for him. I remember my high school practices starting October 15. Our practices have started the first or second week in November in recent years.)

Coach Spezia said that he doesn't think times have changed with kids. He thinks adults (parents and coaches) have changed. Our expectations and discipline of kids have decreased.

Coach Spezia made the point that if a coach is willing to overlook enforcement of rules, such as showing up late for practice or ignoring team rules, that will be remembered by the kid 5-10 years down the road and won't be respected. (Aren't we in the business of preparing our players for the future? If we're not, we should.)

He makes all of his three-point shooters make 100 in ten minutes before they are allowed to shoot 3's in a game. (Makes a kid work on his shot.)