Template for Improvement

 

Many people are too proud to ask for help. They could need spiritual help, emotional help, money, technical help. Maybe they need a mentor or a friend.  

If a player stops growing, they won't succeed.   

Everyone benefits from coaching. The same categories of improvement for players apply to coaches:

• Technical (skill development)
• Tactical (strategy)
• Physicality 
• Psychology 

Be specific with recommendations. Mr. Rogers said, "Look for the helpers." Where are they? As coaches, are we supporting or chastising each other? 

Skill development. At some point, every coach says, "I don't have enough good players." Remember what legendary UCLA Coach Wooden said, "Don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses." Use available resources to improve our skill development - YouTube videos, online clinics, blogs. 

Do our players 'buy-in' to the process? That's on us. What separates the most successful players from others? "Champions do extra." 

Strategy. Xs and Os, analytics, "countermeasures" are all part of the game. 

• Study topics. Hitting, serving, passing, blocking, etc. 
• When watching games, "play along." What would I do here? Take a timeout? What actions are working or not working? 
• Study video. Break down successful teams' actions and study why other teams fail. Where are the points and errors arising?  
• Compile written and mental actions that work in your notebook or other "commonplace book."  
• Apply more "hard-to-defend" actions according to your percentages - outside versus middle attacks, setter dumps, back sets. 

Physicality. Are our players in optimal condition? What's our plan to train them and to assess the training response? What's their nutrition and hydration plan? How much sleep do they get? Many teens don't get enough sleep. If we don't ask, then we can't know. 

You snooze, you win. Study showed sleeping more increased performance in basketball. 

"At the end of the sleep extension period, the players ran faster 282-foot sprints (16.2 seconds versus 15.5 seconds) than they had at baseline. Shooting accuracy during practice also improved: Free throw percentages increased by 9 percent and 3-point field goal percentage increased by 9.2 percent. Fatigue levels decreased following sleep extension, and athletes reported improved practices and games."

Psychology. Each of us comes with different hardware (cognitive capacity) and software (knowledge, learning and study habits). What's our plan to upgrade the hardware (neuroplasticity) and software (what's in brain storage?).

Mindfulness training improves focus, grades, and standardized test scores, lowers stress hormones and blood pressure. Use these free guided meditations. 

Sports psychologists advocate for "positive affirmations" and visualizations. Have a mental "highlight reel" of proven success. 

Lagniappe. Passing drill.