HOF Insights: Advice for First Year Coaches

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION- Share some advice for young coaches just getting started- What mistakes did you make as a first year coach or do you commonly see beginning coaches make? What is great advice that you got when you first started out in coaching? What advice would you have for beginning coaches?

Bob Anderson- Williamsfield

1- Don't yell, holler or cheerlead. You have a team to coach. 

2-While i'm talking about yelling, don't yell at the refs. Unless it's a rule and you know you are right for sure, leave them alone. 

3- Make sure you work on shooting and situations in practice. I neglected these two areas. 

4- This is huge, make sure you tell, show and drill kids to do the things you want done. Until you tell a kid what you want, show him how to do it and then drill them on it, I don't feel you can get on him if he doesn't do it right in a game or practice. 

5- Go to clinics, read books and watch tape. If you want to be good, you've got to do this. 

6- If you want your team to compete they have to shot fake, draw the charge and get on the floor- then you might compete. 

7- If I had it to do over again, there are 3 things I would work on to help us win. I would work on switching man to man defense, I think it's good defense, I'd play some 1-2-2 zone, I think you can cover the perimeter and inside with it, and last I would teach my kids how to run the flex offense. I think the flex is good man offense. 

There are many things out there to help you but these 7 things come to mind first.

Diane Lichtenberg- Bettendorf

Some common mistakes first year coaches make are:

• Trying to be a “friend” instead of a coach

• Inconsistent with their rules letting some of the players get away with things and others are reprimanded for the same things.

• Failure to build rapport and trust with their players

• Provide criticism without positive feedback

• Try to do too much coaching in the game.  Most of the coaching is done in practice.  Let them work on those things that were taught during practice without the constant negative feedback.

• Try to teach too much, too fast.

• Too much emphasis on winning over player development.

• Failure to see the big picture.  Stick with your game plan.  You cannot make changes on every play.  Make adjustments in chunks.

 

Great advice I received when I first started coaching:

• Be yourself.  Be confident and organized.

• Develop your own coaching style and philosophy.

• Grow with the game.  Stay up to date with the newest techniques and changes to the game.

Advice for beginning coaches:

• Be organized for practice each day.  This is where most of your coaching is done.

• Focus on the fundamentals.  These are the keys to your players’ development.  

• Be an effective communicator with players, parents, your staff, and administration.

• Keep practice moving.  It should be active and fun.  High energy, competitive, all players have a role in each drill.  

• Set expectations for players and parents.  Communicate them through a parent meeting, team meeting, and individual player meetings.

• Adapt to your players and their skill set.  Set up your offense and defense based on the players and their abilities each year.

• Learn from veteran coaches.  Ask advice from experienced coaches.  Attend coaching clinics, watch a practice, research drill ideas and coaching tips from on line sources or books.

• Learn to delegate some of the daily tasks so you can focus on the players and their development.

• Make sure you are looking at the big picture.  i.e.  If one of your goals is to be a tough serving team, you have to expect some serving errors during the game.  Don’t tell them to just “keep it in play” during the match.  

Tim Engebretson- United

I made so many mistakes that I can't list all of them. Here are a few I made and some  I see others make.

1- Not being efficiently organized. 

2- Worrying too much about officials. 

3- Not having a more professional relationship with the student/athletes. 

4- Spending more time on coaching than teaching. 

5- Not spending enough time on improving my weaknesses. 

6- Avoiding difficult situations. 

7- Running schemes not suitable for your players. 

8- Thinking plays win games instead of players. 

9- Thinking schemes are more important than fundamentals.

The best advice I received throughout  my career is the same advice I would share with beginning coaches.

1- Be yourself.  

2- Always surround yourself with great people. 

3- You can never be too organized. 

4- The majority of your practice time should be spent on fundamentals. 

5- Read as much as you can and pick the brains of as many coaches as you can. 

6- Just because they are doing it on Saturday or Sunday doesn't mean it is what you should be doing. 

7- If you can't put the student athlete first you shouldn't be coaching High School sports. 8- Every decision you make should be based on what is best for your players

Greg Bennett- Lewistown

Throughout my life, I have somewhat specialized in making mistakes. This was definitely true during my coaching career, especially during my early/formative years.

Making mistakes is human nature, and we must all accept the consequences which they bring. The key to overcoming mistakes, whether they be mistakes in coaching or mistakes in other aspects of our lives, is to learn from them as a means to avoiding their repetition.

I made a long list of the mistakes I made as a first year coach. From that list, here are five of the most significant:

1.  I tended to make things too complicated and obsessed that we needed to execute an entire playbook from the “get go.” Attempting to cram too many “Xs and Os “ into  the minds of teenagers proved to be counter productive. 

2.  I didn’t always do a good job of varying my coaching to connect with all of my players. Different kids take in information and learn things differently. Some can see a play drawn up and execute it, others can execute simply off of verbal instructions, a third group needs all instruction to be hands on, etc.  (If I would have paid more attention during my education classes at WIU, I probably would have done a better job of differentiating and individualizing my coaching techniques.)

3.  I didn’t always utilize all of my practice time in an efficient manner. This tended to occur  in two primary ways. First of all, I didn’t do a great job keeping to a schedule and would spend more time on certain drills or activities than was necessary, meaning that something else would be neglected. Secondly, I often failed to prioritize properly and scheduled too many activities, which made practices more cumbersome and less productive.

4.  I over emphasized the idea of “winning now.” I feel that this emphasis tended to be short sighted, as it sometimes took away focus from the skill development  activities and culture building needed for long term success as a program.

5.  Many times I was too inflexible, and wanted to only do things a certain way, even if that certain way didn’t best suit the individuals I had on my team.  Instead of adapting my offense, defense, etc. to the players I had, I stuck to the established playbook with which I was most comfortable. Forcing “square pegs into round holes” does not usually produce the best results.

There were many great pieces of advice that I received from “mentor coaches” during my first few years. I would like to pass on five of the messages had positive influence on me:

1.  K.I.S.S.  = “Keep It Simple Stupid.” There is no reason to make things any more complicated for your players than they need to be.

2. Never neglect the fundamentals. Your mind can be a treasure trove of coaching knowledge, but if your players are not fundamentally sound, you will never have consistent team success.

3.  Fail to prepare = prepare to fail. It is your responsibility as a coach to put your players in the best position to achieve success. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose. Make sure that when losses occur, they are not because your team wasn’t prepared to the best of your ability.

4.  Never stop learning, never stop evolving, and never stop improving. Change is inevitable. Nothing ever stays the same. Every day a team gets a little better…..or it gets a little worse. It is your job as a coach to keep everyone moving forward.

5. Never forget that you are a teacher first. It is not just about wins and losses. Your most important job is to help young people become successful and productive members of society. The accountability, discipline, mental toughness, teamwork, and leadership skills that you help to develop are priceless.

Evan Massey- Galesburg

1- Best advice that I was given starting out was to ALWAYS publicly support my head coach and to ALWAYS support my head coach with my players. I was an assistant for a head coach who was in the tough spot of being “the man following the man.” My college coach instructed me that, “If anyone says negative things about your head coach and you remain silent, they will interpret it that you agree with their criticism. ALWAYS speak up for your head coach.”

2- If you are running your own practices, always have a written practice plans. You may have to adjust but don’t go into a practice just “winging it.”

3- Learn to develop your own drills to work on weaknesses your team has.

4- Have people on speed dial to call for advice. It can be college teammates, people you coach with, people you coach against, your old coach. Don’t worry about “bothering them.” If they don’t want to talk, they have caller ID and will not answer. Obviously you can text people. I have three coaches who I never worked with who text me- I am flattered to text back and forth. If you asked me- I could tell you what coach that I got my best zone ob from, what coach gave me my favorite FT drill, what coach told me how to handle bringing underclassmen up to the varsity. 

5- Develop a method to keep information and ideas- it might be old fashioned paper files, a notebook, etc. You may see something this year that you want to find in three years. 

6- Your advantage as a “young coach” is that players will find it easier to interact with you. All of us want to be liked, but your job is to be their coach not their friend. As a young coach maybe you should view your relationship as being “big brother” to the players. And as you know, big brothers are never afraid to go off on little brothers when they screw up!!

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