The key to becoming an outstanding basketball coach is not to focus on forcing your players to listen to you, but on making yourself the kind of coach they want to play for. You must become a highly competent, completely trustworthy coach that your players can believe in and follow. These simple guidelines might help:

1. The Coach Players Want to Play For
-by Coach Dave Stricklin
http://www.hoopskills.com
The key to becoming an outstanding coach is not
to focus on forcing your players to listen to you,
but on making yourself the kind of coach they
want to play for. You must become a highly
competent, completely trustworthy coach that
your players can believe in and follow.
These simple guidelines might help:
1. Leave your ego at the door.
The truly great coaches are not in coaching for
their own personal gain and benefit. They coach
in order to impact the lives of others. Coach Don
Meyer has always said that coaches just starting in the profession need to be
willing to "suck scum." The quote from Lawrence D. Bell seems to say it another
way, "Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I'll show you a
man who cannot be trusted to do big things."
2. Relationships first and X's & O's second.
Coaching is leadership and leadership is teaching and influencing. Nothing more,
nothing less. Because of this, coaching is much more than understanding offenses
and defenses; it's about cultivating relationships. Since people go along with
people they get along with, it's crucial that you build genuinely strong relationships
with everyone on your team.
3. Make excellence your trademark.
John Maxwell has written, “No one respects and follows mediocrity. Leaders who
earn the right to lead give their all to what they do. They bring into play not only
their skills and talents, but also great passion and hard work. They perform on the
highest level of which they are capable." Aristotle once said, "We are what we
1
The Coach Players Want to Play For-hoopskills.com

2. repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit." If you want to be an
outstanding coach you must commit to excellence.
5. Put your emotions aside.
Coaching is easy when you are winning and everything is going great. It's when
everything seems to be going wrong that you earn your title of coach. During
almost every season, there will be a time when coaches must choose between
"man up" or give up. During those tough and stressful times, emotional decisions
and reactions usually make things much worse.
6. Make a difference.
Coaches who are loved and respected long after they have finished their coaching
careers are those men and women who positively impact the lives of their players
both on and off the court. A school team will typically play about 25-30 games a
year but a coach's influence can and often does last a lifetime. Make sure that
influence is positive not negative and that it extends far beyond the walls of the
gym.
7. Empower your players.
Encourage, no insist, that your players consider it to be "our team" not your team.
Ask for their input and then listen to them. Encourage them to expand their skill
sets and refuse to stereotype them based on size or body type. Sell them on the
idea that the sky's the limit both collectively and individually if they will only buy
into the program, have great attitudes, and work hard.
Some of the general ideas in this article were adapted from John Maxwell's A Right
to Lead.
2
The Coach Players Want to Play For-hoopskills.com