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About three or four years ago, I wrote two articles for some of my ex-players who now coach basketball on the junior varsity, varsity and collegiate level. I described the similarities and differences between coaching basketball and coaching clients with alcohol and other drug problems. The behaviors are similar, but more important than that is the thinking process of both players and clients.
When players come to the gym for basketball tryouts in early November, if the coach is new, he or she actually knows very little about the 50 to 100 kids trying out for the team. After many years conducting tryouts, within 15 minutes, I'll identify the best 10 or 15 players in the tryout. The identification will have nothing to do with how high they jump, how well they shoot, or how they handle the basketball. A lot of those fundamentals we can teach daily. It will have to do with how well they pass the ball to open players, if they play hard on both offense and defense, or are they pretty good offensive players, but loaf on defense. How they move, how they recover, if they recover. But more than anything else, it's their attitude towards the game and their teammates and how hard they work and most important, the heart they display to be successful.
As a player in high school and college, most players that I guarded were bigger than me. That was a common quality. However, I realized that being small I had to be quicker, have a better shot and be able to take the ball to the basket when the occasion called for.
When I went into coaching basketball, I went to many clinics and worked at many basketball games because I wanted to learn how to be a good basketball coach.
When I became a chemical dependency counselor, I went to many seminars and volunteered hours toward my CASAC (Chemical Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor) because similar to coaching, now I wanted to learn how to treat sick people. The point here is that in both disciplines, the kids you coach, the clients you treat, are going to determine what length you are willing to go to, to help them and if you are true to your word when you describe what you need from them.
For example, in counseling, we have a term for those clients that are uncooperative and try to circumvent the rules and authority. We in the field use the term "oppositional defiant" behaviors and attitude. It could be coming to group late repeatedly, not turning in homework assignments, constant relapses, telling the counselor what prescription the client needs. It's the same idea in coaching with some players coming late to practice repeatedly, or not wearing the protective gear issued to them. If as a counselor or coach I allow both to continue, you may be the best player I have, or the smartest client in the group, and both are creating problems because they think they are special and the rules don't apply to them.
For example, a player who is consistently late for practice, will find himself or herself standing on the sidelines while the players on the team run suicides for their tardiness. Similarly in treatment, we may send the client to a higher level of care, like outpatient treatment to inpatient treatment. Both counseling and coaching are action-reaction. Both are going to tell you as a counselor or coach, what your next behavior may be.
This idea I did not put in the article of three years ago because I hadn't coached basketball in awhile. I volunteered at one of the local high schools and had to take several coaching courses for certification to coach. My suggestion to young coaches coming into high school coaching is the following: first put your rules and philosophy in front of your principal, athletic director, parents, and players. Secondly, get an educational law book and keep it close. It will tell you what you can and can't do. I'm giving you "old school" coaching ideas. This may or may not be something your school sanctions. For example, the "star" that never passes the ball when his teammates are open, but yells when it's not passed him or her, there is always the bench. Learning to treat others the way you want to be treated is a key value in learning to be a better player and an improved human being. I always demanded that when one of your teammates throws you a nice scoring pass, that the player scoring acknowledges the pass. This begins to eliminate selfishness and team begins to be spelled t-e-a-m, not m-e.
Another aspect of having a plan in coaching basketball is "attention to detail." Without a doubt, in my coaching career, the two best coaches I ever coached with were Coach Bob Muscato, formerly of Cardinal Mindszenty High School, and Coach Bill Hughes of Fredonia State and the University of Buffalo. I was fortunate to serve under Coach Muscato as his junior varsity coach in the 60's. What he did, I did and it produced two junior varsity championships and got me the Lake Shore Central varsity basketball job in 1967. Coach Muscato would post practice on the bleachers every day with the breakdowns and station drills, which was unheard of in the 60s. Skill sessions or going over assignments were numerous, as was scouting your opponents, giving players things to do like screening, blocking out on defense and holding them accountable produced above-average results. Likewise, when I went to Fredonia State to be Bill's assistant in the middle 70's, he was doing the same things that Bob had done with high school. One thing for sure, both coaches could flat out coach practices, games and make good decisions that helped their teams win.
Likewise in chemical dependency counseling, proper treatment plans are based on both client and counselor with goals to be accomplished by time limits. Even though it is true that counselors like coaches practice "unconditional acceptance," behaviors are still confronted, when needed, the coach and counselor still direct the game.
Finally, one of the greatest attention to details stories I have ever heard was about the great coach of the Oakland Raiders, John Madden. He stated, “I thought I knew x's and o's of football until I went to Coach Vince Lombardi's camp." In one segment, Coach Lombardi spent six hours talking about one play, the Green Bay sweep. Coach stated, "when we run the sweep, if the opponent does this, we do that. We have counters and seals for action-reaction."
As one can easily see, I believe in planning and organization. I want my players and clients to be proud of what they have accomplished. The motto, "Fail to plan, plan to fail," has been with me for a very long time. I've been in sales for 44 years. When asked what makes it successful, I simply state, "60 Minutes." Confused, young people say, "what's that?" Every Sunday at 7 p.m. on CBS, channel 4, 60 Minutes is televised. At that time I do my itinerary for my company, Frey Heavy Duty Parts. I call it "trip town, skip town." Simply put, I list ten calls daily I am going to make physically and ten I'm going to telemarket. That's 20 calls a day, 100 calls a week. If that's not attention to detail, I don't know what is.
Thought of the month: "Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you." – Mary Lou Retton.
Mike Tramuta is a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapist. He can be reached at 716-983-1592.