That Basketball Life

As a coach there are many hats that you need to wear.  You need to be an organizer, a salesman, a tireless worker, a teacher and most importantly of all, a motivator.  Kids go through many hurdles as they grow up in the game.  There are setbacks.  There are bad games.  There are games against great teams. And there are days where the kids just don't have it.  You as a coach don't have the luxury of having an off day.  It isn't fair to the kids you coach to have an off day.  One bad day and you could lose your kids for the rest of the season.  The balance you need to maintain lies between pushing your players to go beyond their comfort zone which can be exhausting and uncomfortable for them and instilling confidence in them that each and every day they push themselves they are getting better.  It isn't easy but it needs to be done. 

As a coach you wear many hats.  It is your job to be able to manage the team, prepare the team, get the team up from lows, and keep them from getting overconfident.  It's your job to make them understand what the goals of the team are, teach them how the team is going to get there, and then keep them focused on the task during the long hard grind of a season.  It's like a tight rope that you need to carefully manage.  One false move and you will fall off.  The price you pay when you do fall off is that you lose your team.  From the outside looking in, some may think that coaching a team of players is easy but it's not.  In many ways you are like a good symphony conductor who is able to bring all of the wonderful talent that surrounds him into harmony. So how do you get started on this task of bringing a group of players and form a team?

Basketball is a game and a game is supposed to be fun.  As a coach you can't lose sight of that. The main reason why your players play is because they want to have fun.  When the game stops being fun then you've lost your players.