Navigating Minefields and Kiraly Defensive Tips

Mines are 'low-tech', demoralizing weapons of war. Designed as much to maim as kill, anti-personnel mines are outlawed under the Geneva Convention. They're still being used in regional war today.

Coaches have numerous minefields to navigate. 

• Attitude 
• Bias
• Confidence (including overconfidence)
• Conflicts
• Energy
• Expectations
• Parents
• Playing time
• Politics 
• Scheduling

Excellent teams usually have collaborative, learning cultures with great teamwork. They don't have the dreaded S's of selfishness, sloth, and softness. "Fight for your culture every day." 

I'm not talking about race or ethnicity bias. We can be biased based toward experience, youth, or balance, or toward size, athleticism, offense, or defense. 

Confidence cuts both ways. Teams underachieve lacking confidence or when overconfident headed into "trap games." If a team doesn't show up physically or mentally, an inferior team can beat them. 

Coaches, setters, and top players must bring energy and energize teammates every day. 

Some coaches downplay expectations. The 'perennial loser' Boston Red Sox turned their franchise around in 1967 hiring Dick Williams as manager. Williams said, "we'll win more than we lose," guiding the Red Sox to the World Series where they lost in seven games to the mighty Cardinals. Lowering the bar only wins in limbo. 

 

Parents can present challenges, judging the coach through the prism of their children's status. Chuck Daly's triad of minutes, role, and recognition (48 minutes, 48 shots, 48 million) applies the same for middle schoolers as for pros. 

Playing time represents a constant issue. There's an old joke about the coach sending out ten players to start, for which the officials assess her a technical foul. She turns to parents saying, "I told you that they can't all start." Coach Sonny Lane emphasized to us, "it's not who starts, it's who finishes."

Every parent should read Carl Pierson's The Politics of Coaching.  Players, coaches, administrators, and others seek to undermine the coach for their own ends. 

Scheduling can work for or against coaches. Schedule some 'cupcakes' to pick up cheap wins? Your team won't be prepared to face quality teams or to win in the postseason. In Massachusetts, a power rating formula rewards teams for playing better schedules. 

Nothing could be more wrong than "any idiot with a whistle can coach." Negotiating the pitfalls above is a constant. No matter your effort, you will never make everyone happy.

Lagniappe. Defensively, "keep the ball in the air." Always follow the system of Coach Celli or your coach of the moment.