Tag: john wooden

WYC 131 – 14 Great Coaches – Chris Trieste talks John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, and more

Chris Trieste has over 20 years experience in K-12 education as a teacher, school administrator, athletic director, and coordinator of physical education.  For more than 10 years he has coached numerous youth sports, primarily baseball and basketball, from the elementary through high school grade levels.

He has extensive experience in tennis, serving as the head men’s tennis coach at Mount Saint Mary College where he was twice named Coach of the Year and playing for four years at Marist College where he was a team captain.

Chris also recently authored 14 Great Coaches. Based on a study of the best practices of 14 of the most respected and successful coaches in the history of sports, and combined with the author’s experiences and observations as a coach and instructional leader, this book provides a road map for all coaches who want to have an enduring positive influence and provide a transformative experience for their athletes.

Book: /book link
Twitter: @CTrieste2

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Coaching your own kid

  • Coaching should end on the field. The ride home should be you as their parent, not their coach.

Cringe moment

  • Chris had some coaches he coached with that humiliated some of the kids, he quickly disassociated from those coaches

Teaching Skills

  • Teach in a games approach: Deliver some instruction – then create some type of game setting (competitive) activity to start the learning.
  • Innovative scoring – Reward activities that you are trying to encourage. If playing tennis and trying to get players to the net – if you win a point at the net you get double points.

Mental toughness

  • Encourage athletes to picture times they have been successful – Play a movie in their head
  • Other athletes don’t want to think about much – encourage them to think of something simple like ‘just see it and hit it’

Culture

  • Coaching staff should answer the question – in twenty years how do you want your players to remember their experience
  • Have kids help own the experience by incorporating them in the standards you set for your team
  • Captains – one good method might be to have rotating gameday captains based on merit (demonstrating leadership skills)

14 Great Coaches – the book

  • 60 timeless concepts that coaches
  • Vince Lombardi – Had zero tolerance for any type of racial discrimination. Also believed in simplicity over complexity.
  • Nick Bolleteri – You don’t have to be a great player to be a great coach.
  • Pat Summit – Her players changed a play she called. She self-reflected – and realized she had not analyzed who the best player for that moment was.
  • Tom Couglin – Tom changed his coaching style – he went from trying to force his compliance to a new style of trying to listen and incorporate their feedback. He established a player council who met regularly and communicated with Tom.
  • Joe Torre – Had a great skill for working with huge egos, and making sure they all felt their role was important no matter what it was on the team
  • Book: /book link

Parting Advice

  • Enjoy the experience. Don’t take wins/losses too seriously.

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WYC 071 – Elite Hoops Basketball – Lee Miller talks Living by Numbers

 

Lee Miller is the National Director and Skill Development Trainer for Elite Hoops Basketball. 2015 marks Lee Miller’s 12th year as Director of Elite Hoops. Previously, Miller has Co-directed the University of Georgia’s basketball camps, worked at Duke University basketball camps and assisted with Jack Haley’s NBA Complete Player Camp in California. In 2004, he was amongst the best upcoming NBA talent while working at the 27th annual Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp in Las Vegas. Since 2009, Miller has trained over 1100 players, 83 of which have gone on to play at the Division I level. One of which was the 2011 AJC High School Player of the Year and current UVA Cavalier Malcolm Brogdon. Miller also worked extensively for 4 years with 2014 Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, Isaiah Wilkins.

Website: elitehoopsbasketball.com

Facebook: /EliteHoops

Twitter: @LeeMillerElite; @EliteHoops

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Quote

  • ‘Success is the direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your very best’ – John Wooden

Coaching your own kids

  • Lee believes in letting the kids express interest before ‘forcing’ them into sports
  • With regards to travel sports: ‘What is too much?’ – Lee’s answer – if he or she has an off day, and they don’t want to go out and shoot in the driveway, then they are probably playing too many organized sports.

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Early on -‘I started teaching players what I was taught’ and did not take the time to study whether it was really the best way to teach

Teaching Skills

  • Set up the expectation that the players need to bring the excitement and passion for the game, and as a coach you will be teaching them the skills they need to achieve success
  • Spend 75-80% of your practice time on fundamentals – not X’s and O’s. Great question to ask yourself at the younger ages: ‘How many times per game do we score from one of our offensive sets?’ – If it’s rare -then quit spending so much time on it and focus instead on teaching the kids fundamentals.

Building confidence

  • Living by numbers – They have created 15 core drills that can be measured numerically. The focus is on improvement.

Culture – Discipline/Rewards/Teambuilding

  • Lee is a big believer in energy in the gym. This starts on Day 1.
  • The three T’s:
    • Talk
    • Touch
    • Tap
  • Every player is either a proton or an electron – they are either bringing positive energy or negative energy

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Lee coached a kid who was on the bubble as to making his middle school – but he committed and stuck with it and worked hard – and went on his make his freshmen team

Memorable Game

  • When Lee was coaching in high school – he had a loaded team that lost in the Elite 8 of the state championships – one lesson learned was that they should have gotten some of their younger players more experience earlier in the season

Best Stolen Idea

  • Go to other teams/coaches’ practices! At every level.
  • Watch the way different coaches motivate different players in different ways.

Best Book

Elite Hoops Basketball

  • Website: elitehoopsbasketball.com
  • Focus on fundamentals:
    • Skill development 90 minute sessions
    • Shooting club – Players get off 300-500 shots in 90 minutes
    • 3-on-3 leagues

Parting Advice

  • ‘Success is the direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your very best’ – John Wooden

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WYC 058 – Youth Softball – Valeri Garcia talks Growth Mindset and Starting at ground zero

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What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Valeri Garcia shares stories and discusses her journey to becoming a successful youth sports coach.

Garcia, a Program Advisor at UC Davis’s Student Academic Success Center, has known since about age eight that she wanted to coach. At UC Davis, Garcia conducts workshops based on Mindset, the book by Stanford University Psychology Professor and PCA National Advisory Board Member Carol Dweck, which emphasizes individual growth through effort, rather than reliance upon talent.  Valeri was honored with the Positive Coaches Alliance Double-Goal Coach Award in 2013.

Listen Now:

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Quote

‘Stop trying to coach at a pre-college level – coach them at the level that they are right now.’

Coaching your own kids

  • Utilizing the concepts from Carol Dweck’s book ‘Mindset’ has been big help – her girls know she will focus on their effort rather than be critical of their results
  • A big compliment is she has had parents who don’t know she has a daughter on the team

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Valeri wishes she had started teaching the value of pursuing greatness and using their skills to win at a little earlier age – she was focused on effort, which was great, but she says she might have instilled a little more of the competitive part of the game a little earlier for her 12 year-olds

Travel Sports

  • Valeri is struggling with what to do with her daughter who is becoming good enough to play for some higher level travel teams, but Valeri is concerned with the coaching mindset and philosophy on those teams.  Common struggle – the most important thing is to do the research and understand the philosophy of the organization and coach before signing up!

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • To encourage aggressiveness – she rewarded them with effort points
  • Always start with ground zero: you have to know where your athletes are with regards to knowledge – what do they know and what do they not know.  You have to meet them where they are.
  • HUGE IDEA #1: Great way to make sure you are teaching at their level: Try to teach one your assistant coaches to do a skill with their off hand: i.e. If they are right-handed try to teach them to throw left-handed.  This forces you to break down the skill into it’s most elemental pieces.  Then add in variables a little bit at a time.

HUGE IDEA #2: FUN GAMES THAT TEACH SKILLS:

  • 1 – Last player standing – player bats with 2 strikes – if they hit it fair they keep going.  If you strike-out you go play defense.  Then you add complexity – they have to hit it to the grass, etc.  Great game to teach the girls to play in pressure situations.
  • 2 – Throwing accuracy – Kids weren’t hitting their targets when throwing – so she put a ball on a cone at 1st base and they took turns throwing from shortstop trying to hit the ball on the cone.  Then she said first one to hit she would give $1.

Self-Confidence and teaching kids to achieve peak performance

  • Positive Coaching Alliance: ELM tree – Effort, Learning, Mistakes
  • Brush-off routines: One effective way to help kids brush off mistakes is for teammates to pick each other up: ‘I’m ready, are you ready?’

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

  • Valeri sometimes gives homework assignments – involving things like John Wooden’s pyramid of success
  • Transferrable skills – Valeri understands and teaches the importance of teaching kids that being on this team will teach as much about life as it will about sports

The One that Got Away

  • Any game where the team does not play up to their potential
  • They had one game where they had the chance to beat a team that was much better than them, and it slipped away.  She wishes she had told them more – during the game – of how proud she was of them.

Parting Advice

3 questions to ask yourself at the end of the season:

  1. Did they learn something?
  2. Did they have fun?
  3. Do they want to come back?

‘Stop trying to coach at a pre-college level – coach them at the level that they are right now.’

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WYC 057 – Youth Hockey – Warren Nye talks Mental Fitness and Mind over Sport

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Warren Nye shares stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth sports coach.

Warren has been coaching youth sports for over 30 years, mostly hockey teams from the youth level through junior national teams in which he has won the national championship in Canada.  Coach Nye is a student of the mental aspect of the game, and over the last few years he has launched ‘Mind over Sport’- which is a passion of Coach Nye’s to work with people and companies as their peak performance life coach. Warren lives in Ontario, Canada, with his wife and 2 teenage children.

Website: coachingmindoversport.com

Website: ultimatehockeysource.com

Facebook: /warren.nye.73

Twitter: @coachnye

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Quote

‘Success is a peace of mind, which is a direct result of self satisfaction, in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.’ – John Wooden

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Warren admits to thinking he knew it all when he first started coaching
  • He also shares a story about trying to fire up his team in the locker room so he kicked a garbage can and it accidentally hit a kid in the head.

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • You have to gain the kids’ trust before they will buy into what you are teaching them.  Really listen to them.
  • Start practices with a fun game – it helps get the blood flowing and gets their mind in the game.

Self-Confidence and teaching kids to achieve peak performance

  • Practice and reps are key.  Coach Nye wrote a blog about the 5 Habits of a Successful Coach – and point #2 deals with performance practice: ultimatehockeysource.com/2015/09/29/the-5-habits-of-a-successful-coach/
  • Visualization – if they are thinking about mistakes – have them picture a time or game when they were  doing really well – and have them keep replaying these times/games in their mind.
  • The process to excellence – If a kid is beating himself up over mistakes – it’s usually a symptom of bigger problems – and it can’t be solved overnight.  But pour into the kid and be a positive role model in their life by truly caring.

HUGE IDEA #1

  • Mental fitness – It starts with repeating positive self-talk.  But the core is action. ‘I can do it’ is great – but you have to define the actions and repeat them.

Culture – Creating a Winning Attitude

  • Discipline – Establish the culture up front with the players and parents.

HUGE IDEA #2

  • Lay out a game plan for the 1st half of the season and the 2nd half of the season to set expectations and create the vision of where this team is going.

 

  • Don’t overlook anything that needs corrected – correct it immediately.
  • Rewards – The kids vote after each game to nominate player of the game
  • Encourage the kids to carry forward their success at this sport towards some other activity they are passionate about (this requires for you to get to know them and other interests they have)

The One that Got Away

  • Coach Nye shared a story about one team he was involved with who changed their identity going into final tournament of the year – and how it ended up preventing them from winning the tourney.

Leadership Quotes

  • ‘Success is a peace of mind, which is a direct result of self satisfaction, in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.’ – John Wooden
  • ‘If your mind can conceive it, and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it’

Mind over Sport

  • Peak performance life coach
  • Coaches athletes and their parents, and businessmen, and performers.  Live and over Skype.
  • Website: coachingmindoversport.com

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WYC 045 – Youth Baseball – Mark Linden from BaseballPositive.com talks practice planning and the pace that kids learn

 

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Mark Linden shares stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth sports coach.

Mark Linden, Director of Baseball Positive, spent eight seasons coaching at the college level.  Experience includes assisting at two programs with multiple College World Series appearances, Wichita State and The University of South Carolina.

Later served as a head coach for five years: two at NCAA D-I Centenary College (La), and three at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, WA.  Drafted three times (Cubs twice, Royals once), played minor league ball in the Cubs organization in 1989 and 1990.  Moved on to another stint at the pro level as radio color commentator in 2007 for the Oakland A’s minor league affiliate in Vancouver, BC.

A lifetime of baseball experience, including the past seven years working exclusively at the 12U level with kids and their coaches, has led to the development of a comprehensive training and development program that is age appropriate and proven effective for kids.

Website/blog: baseballpositive.com

Facebook: /Baseball-positive

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Quote

‘Kids don’t sign up to practice baseball, they sign up to play baseball.’

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Mark tried to emulate the style of the head coach he first worked for – This was a mistake for several reasons – he didn’t have the 30 years of experience and credibility.  And he had a very different personality, so it didn’t work trying to be somebody else.
  • Mark admits his temper and style carried over off the field – and it cost him his first marriage

Practice Planning

HUGE IDEA #1

  • Every minute counts!  Plan your practices minute-by-minute.  Start with a baseline template and plug different activities in.  Kids enjoy having a routine.
  • Mark starts his practices with a skill-building-warmup.  Small stations with very basic drills that involve a lot of movement. Nothing that requires hard throwing b/c they haven’t warmed up yet. This works as a great transition for the kids coming from school/home to get into practice mode, and gets them focused.
  • Then they do team time/group time- fly balls, throwing, catching, etc. Break into several groups to keep kids moving.
  • 3rd – Batting practice drill – 4 different groups so they aren’t just standing around.
  • 4th – Scrimmage/play – ‘Kids don’t sign up to practice baseball, they sign up to play baseball.’ This will work best with mostly free play – don’t keep interrupting this with coaching – let the kids make mistakes.  Kids don’t pitch to each other – coaches pitch from short distance to keep things moving.

The pace that kids learn

  • Remember that kids are just that-kids.  They haven’t developed mentally or physically yet – so be patient

Parents afraid to coach?

HUGE IDEA #2

  • Don’t let the fear of not being a guru in a sport prevent you from coaching
  • Identify 5 things they need to learn in that sport and focus on that
  • Kids don’t learn from information – they learn from repetition

Connecting with Kids

  • Mark has hundreds of kids he’s coaches – and he enjoys pouring into them and having them learn and feel good about themselves

Best Stolen idea

  • Gene Stephenson – one of winningest college coaches, from Wichita State – Mark learned from him that there are no secrets to winning

Leadership Quote/Book

Baseball Positive

  • Baseballpositive.com – Simple to use resources for adults to use coaching 12 and under baseball and softball
  • Includes blogs, video, audio for parents, coaches, league leaders

Parting Advice

  • Be prepared for practice in advance.  Have a written plan.  Have all equipment set up before practice starts.  Be disciplined with time – follow your plan.

 

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WYC 039 Dr. Michael Phillips talks Long Term Athlete and Coach Development

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Dr. Michael Phillips shares stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth sports coach.

Michael is a professor of exercise science at Tennessee Tech University.  He has coached basketball at all levels – 5th grade AAU, middle school, high school, and 8 years at the collegiate level.  Michael also has studied and presented the concept of LTAD and LTCD – Long Term Athlete Development and Long Term Coach Development – concepts used by the Canadians and British, and being studied by the US Olympic Committee.  Michael is married and has 2 children, a 13 year-old son and 8 year-old daughter.

Twitter: @docphillips1

Facebook: /mikephillips

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Coaching/Leadership Quote

‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you figure out why’ – attributed to Mark Twain

Coaching Your Own Kids

  • It’s hard to strike a fair balance of how hard to be on your own kid

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Being a former player – in Michael’s early years he realized he couldn’t just show up and teach them what he knew – he had to learn how to teach kids

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Michael found 2 keys to learning how to teach/coach:

1 – Going to coaching clinics

2 – Talking to other coaches

  • Begin lots of drills without a ball – teach them the footwork first, then add in a ball
  • Great drill – Split the kids in half and have them do drills towards mid-court so they meet their teammates and can watch/learn as they go

Mental Peak Performance

  • Practices have to be fun, challenging, and competitive
  • Preparation is the key to achieving peak performance.  Take the thinking out of it- so they can just perform.  Make practices game-like so they don’t have surprises during the game.

Coaching Resources

Discipline/Rewards

HUGE IDEA #1

  • Spend much more time praising the kids who are doing it right – and much less time getting on the kids who aren’t behaving.  Often the misbehaving kids want attention so if you are giving all the attention to the kids who are doing it right, the misbehavers will fall in line.

Inspiring Story

  • Michael gave a scholarship to a kid who wasn’t as athletically gifted as some others but had an unbelievable work-ethic and attitude.  Michael really connected with the kid and they had a great experience.

Long Term Athlete Development and Long Term Coach Development

  • Canada and Great Britain have created programs that look at long-term athlete development instead of putting kids on teams immediately focused on winning
  • Most new coaches in the U.S. have never been trained on coaching

HUGE IDEA #2

  • When you coach – ask yourself: is your primary goal the long-term development of the athlete, or just winning?

The One that Got Away

  • When coaching college against his big rival – Coach Phillips showed some ‘Braveheart’ clips pre-game – and his guys got over-fired up before the game, and had absolutely no energy left 5 minutes into the game.  Lesson learned: be more methodical and business-like in pre-game, not too rah-rah.

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

  • Quote: ‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you figure out why’ – attributed to Mark Twain

 

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WYC 038 Emily Cohen from TeamSnap talks sportsmanship and lessons learned from great coaches

 

What does it take to be part of a winning youth team? Listen in as Emily Cohen shares stories and discusses her journey to becoming a successful youth sports team manager.

Emily has been a team manager for youth sports teams for over 10 years.  She also is a blogger for TeamSnap, and also hosts a podcast for TeamSnap.  As a youth sports podcast host and blogger, Emily is passionate about sportsmanship, injury prevention, and sideline etiquette. Emily is married and has 2 kids, ages 18 and 15.

Website: www.teamsnap.com/community/podcast

Twitter: @emilygcohen

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Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming’ – John Wooden

Coaching Your Own Kids

  • Always have an assistant to provide balance for being your own kid’s coach
  • The Team Manager can be a conduit to hear concerns/complaints from parents – embrace this!

Team Managing Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • If the coach you work with is a bad communicator – don’t be afraid to step up and take over the communication role
  • Delegate!  Have specific roles assigned to a bunch of the parents – and assign them right at the beginning of the season (even if it’s something that you don’t need until the end of the season – i.e. coaches’ gifts, team videos)

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Talk to the kids physically at their level – take a knee so you’re not talking down to them which can be very intimidating (this can be especially important when coaching girls)
  • Minimize lines – have multiple stations to keep the kids constantly moving
  • Free-play – 30 minutes of no adult involvement

Mental Peak Performance

  • As a parent – Have your child own the experience and stay out of the way, and don’t attend tryouts
  • As a coach – put each kid in the best position for them to succeed – which is different for each kid
  • Coaches – you have to format your communication to your athletes – so that they don’t freeze from the pressures you are putting on them

Coaching Resources

  • TeamSnap – Software program and app that allows you to enter team rosters, schedules, and tons of team info. You can send scheduling updates easily and it’s a lifesaver for team managers.

Discipline

  • Corporate punishment for individual mistakes – You really need to think through your team chemistry and be careful if you are going to ever use this.
  • Community service can be another positive way to discipline kids.

Teambuilding/Rewards

  • HUGE IDEA #1 – Juggling competition – Each week you try to beat your previous record of how many times you can juggle the soccer ball.  Good reward because it encourages you to practice on your own outside of practice.  And you can set individual and team goals for each week and for the season.
  • When setting up teamwork goals – make sure you include the parents, not just the kids

Inspiring Story

  • Be on the lookout for a kid having off the field home problems – being late for practice, etc. – then seek to understand and see how you can help this kid out

Winning

  • Winning is a happy result – but there are so many more lessons to be learned from losing

The One that Got Away

  • Emily’s son’s final high school start as a baseball pitcher – they were up 5-1, and then one play rattled him and the team
  • HUGE IDEA #2 – Coaches – practice situations going wrong and momentum swinging against them – you have to practice it and be prepared for it
  • Teach your kids to be idiot-proof

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

  • Quote – ‘Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming’ – Coach John Wooden

Parting Advice

  • Forget about the win/loss record – and instead focus on making the experience fun

The TeamSnap Youth Sports Podcast

 

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WYC 037 Ray Lokar from Basketball4ALL.net and Positive Coaching Alliance talks teaching athletes to focus on WIN-Whats Important Now

 

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Coach Ray Lokar shares stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth sports coach.

Ray Lokar is the Director of Basketball4ALL (basketball4ALL.net), which provides a variety of lessons, camps, clinics, competitions, and events for the benefit of the Southern California basketball community. Coach Lokar was the Head Basketball Coach of the 2002 CIF Champions while at Bishop Amat High School led St Anthony High School to the semi-finals, Western Christian High School to the quarterfinals, made 4 NCAA tournament appearances in his 9 years as an assistant coach at Pomona-Pitzer College and is a Past-President of the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association.

Always an advocate for the multi-sport athlete, “Coach Lok” coaches baseball at Covina High School and has two DVD series titled  “The Fundamentals Factory” and “Effective Practice Planning” for both basketball and baseball that are available at ChampionshipProductions.com. Ray’s book “101 BasketballTips”, published by Lifetips as part of their Lifetips Book Series,  is available at Amazon.com and his eBook titled “Creating Confident and Coachable Players” can be found on his website, basketball4ALL.net, where you can also book his sport-specific “Gold Standard Coaching” clinics. Lokar also serves as the Southern California Lead Trainer for the nationally renowned Positive Coaching Alliance (positivecoach.org) that provides tremendous resources for everyone in youth and high school sports. He has spoken for hundreds of organizations in over a dozen States on ethics in sports,  peak performance, getting the most out of your players, and being a good Sports Parent.

For over 30 years Coach “Lok” has taught basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, football, swimming and track in the San Gabriel Valley at the youth, high school, and college levels and has worked countless camps and clinics during that time for ages 8-18. He coached his children Shawn, Heather, and Brittany throughout their participation in youth and high school sports and they each went on to compete at the college level. Ray enjoyed it so much he is doing it all again  with his young son, Tyler, who he hopes learns all the same life lessons as his older brothers and sisters.

Website: basketball4ALL.net

Twitter: @CoachLok

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Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘When you take the time to teach your boys, there’s an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that’s praise in itself” – Coach John Wooden

Coaching Your Own Kids

  • Remember often kids like things their team’s name being the RoboSox as much as the wins/losses
  • Before volunteering to coach – make sure to ask your kid if they want you to be their coach
  • Err on the side of being a little tougher on your own kid- but communicate continually with your child, explaining to him why you are doing what you’re doing

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

  • Early on – Coach Lok would start his coaching points being critical – after listening to a Coach Wooden observation, he started focusing on spending more time praising little successes and less time being critical
  • Coach each game possession by possession

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Kids respond to recognition and rewards (think about kids in a classroom who will do anything for a sticker)

HUGE IDEA #1

  • Your results will come from what you measure, recognize, and reward

Mental Peak Performance

HUGE IDEA #2

  • WIN – Whats Important Now – In high pressure situations – have the kids focus on ONE thing that is important(i.e. hold your follow through) – don’t tell them more than one thing or their head will be swimming with too many concerns

Coaching Resources

Discipline/Rewards

  • Advice from Larry Brown: ‘I don’t have a lot of rules, but I have a lot of suggestions’ – If you make any hardfast rules – you have to enforce them – so be careful making too many rules, especially because each individual situation is usually very different.
  • When things tend to go bad – the tendency is to crack down on the bad stuff – but often if you start praising more the kids doing it right – the rest will come along.  You can even come up with a rewards program for rewarding good behaviors.

Inspiring Story

  • You often won’t know the impact you’re having until years later: when John Wooden was asked if the season was a success: ‘We’ll find out in 20 years’
  • Coach Lok tries to draft at least 1 kid each year who is a little challenged and he could impact
  • Biggest challenge to mom/dad coaches – Make them love the game so they keep playing. ‘Don’t ever be any kid’s last coach’

Winning

  • Be careful about talking about end-of-the-year goals of winning a championship – you want to focus on winning each game, one play at a time
  • Jim Thompson, founder of Positive Coaching Alliance – ‘The heat that competition provides is crucial to the recipe of success’
  • Nelson Mandela – ‘Sports speaks to our youth in a language they understand’

The One that Got Away

  • Coach Lok went against his gut – in a game-winning situation – he didn’t let his son (who was his best player) take the shot – he was too worried about the perception from the parents.  When you’re the coach – you need to separate out emotions and do what’s best.

Coaching/Leadership Motivation

  • Books – anything by Coach Wooden
  • Coach Wooden stories:
    • Coach Lok asked Wooden about Wooden’s lack of verbal praise for his players: ‘When you take the time to teach your boys, there’s an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that’s praise in itself’
    • Coach Wooden talked about a player he kicked off the team for smoking – the kid quit school and didn’t go to college.  Coach Wooden said from that point on, he always thought about the consequences of his consequences.

Positive Coaching Alliance/ Basketball4ALL.net

  • Coach Lok is involved with the Positive Coaching Alliance – Their Double Goal Coaching material is a great starting place for a coach at any level
  • Coach also provides great resources for basketball coaches at Basketball4ALL.net

 

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WYC 024 Youth Basketball – Randy Montgomery talks High School Basketball and shares stories from John Wooden

Randy picBook picWhat does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Randy Montgomery shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Randy has been a high school basketball coach in Northeast Ohio for the past 31 years and coached over 700 games. He coached under Bob Huggins at Walsh College in Canton for 3 years. He then coached varsity basketball at Triway High School in Wooster for 19 years and North Canton Hoover High School for 12 years. Randy also became friends with John Wooden and got to learn and share stories with Coach. Randy is married and has 3 grown daughters.

Twitter: @coachmont73

Website: beyondthehardwood.com

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘You don’t handle people, you work with people’

click to tweet!

Coaching your own Kid

  • Make sure you take into consideration the age and make-up of the teams you are coaching

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

  • Coming from an era of Bobby Knight, Coach Montgomery shares being really intense and focusing on winning

My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’

  • Know that if you set an aggressive goal like making it to the State championships – it is grueling on the coaches, players, families, and fans.

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • In 31 years – they never scrimmaged in practice – they spent practice time doing drills that were applicable to the game
  • HUGE IDEA #1Whole-part-whole teaching method – Show it all, then drill it, then run it in full. Start it at 2-0, then 3-0, then 4-0, then 5-0. Then add in a defense.
  • Dribble tag – put it to music and do it for 5 to 7 minutes to keep it fun

Best Stolen Idea

  • Figure out what your team needs to work on – then seek out 1 or 2 drills to focus on that

Discipline

  • It’s a team sport – Coach Montgomery would end every practice with a 90% drill – he picks 5 different players to shoot 2 free throws, if they don’t collectively make 9 out of 10 – the whole team runs
  • Use the Bench – One of the most effective discipline tools is to use playing time/the bench

Reward and Recognition

HUGE IDEA #2

  • 3 Huge awards at end of season:

1 – Most charges

2 – Best free-throw shooter

3 – Leading rebounder

Parent Involvement

  • Coach would never talk to parents about playing time

Inspiring Story

  • A lot of kids don’t appreciate what you are investing in them at the time – but come back years later and thank you

Winning

  • Winning should be one of the goals, but not the goal. Coach Wooden never talked about winning, but rather about playing your best
  • Kids need to learn to win, and more importantly need to learn how to lose

The One that Got Away

  • Coach Montgomery has no regrets on his preparation for each game – but certainly there are games that hurt

Spending time with Coach – Randy talks about spending time with Coach John Wooden

  • ‘You don’t handle people, you work with people’
  • Awesome story about how he ended up at UCLA instead of Minnesota

Parting Advice

  • Write down 2 or 3 things you want to accomplish, then set up your plan accordingly – don’t overcomplicate things

The Best-Laid Plans of a High School Basketball CEO

  • This book has a unique perspective in each chapter – From the perspective of a 100-win coach(Coach Matt Kramer), and from the perspective of a 500-win coach (Coach Randy Montgomery)
  • Find it here: beyondthehardwood.com

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

Hudl cover pictureHUDL

 

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