Player Traits
What are the life skills we will instill within the athletes of our program?
COACHABILITY
“Coachability describes someone who wants to be coached. This manifests itself as someone who likes being challenged, loves learning, strives for more and more and then works tirelessly at what they’re taught.” – Coach Geno Auriemma
Being coachable and teachable go hand in hand. Above all things, the court is a classroom and coaches are teachers…then players are students…basketball is the subject matter. We want our players to care about what our coaches say. With that being said during any training or practice or game situation, a coachable player will give the coach their undivided attention. To be coachable, there are 4 main traits a player needs to possess. When tryouts occur on both the youth and elite level, these will be critical elements we will assess for whether our program is a good fit for both the PLAYER AND PARENT.
HUMILITY
A player that has humility accepts and admits there are things they do not know and cannot do at certain times based on the dedication that has been put in. In addition, the player is willing to concede when they cannot achieve true and full success certain tasks alone, and are willing to allow the coach and team to help.
SENSE OF PURPOSE
Players who are willing to state their goals and demonstrate motivation will typically be easier to coach and as a result achieve the improvement we are willing to dedicate to them.
SURRENDERING CONTROL
For a player to make true change and improve their game, the player must be willing to FAIL FORWARD and journey outside of their comfort zone into uncertainty. Once we as coaches have been verified as credible and qualified teachers, a coachable player will be fully invested in that journey.
FAITH
A player puts faith in us as coaches by forgoing the benefit of hindsight, understanding that sometimes things need to get worse before they get better.
COMMUNICATION
96% of communication is nonverbal. Your actions as a coach SPEAK MUCH LOUDER THAN YOUR WORDS. It’s important that you coach your players to say what they mean and mean what they say. Some of the most essential non-verbal cues with communication include:
Posture
Facial expressions
Body language
Gestures and tone
Unspoken cues
It is your duty as a coach to keep messaging clear and effective. Several team activities will be completed during the season to demonstrated clear and effective communication between players, coaches, parents, and administration.
6 communication principles we will emphasize in our program will be:
CARE – you must have a genuine concern for other people and their needs
CREDIBILITY – you must remain consistent, fair, and competent
CONSTRUCTIVE – you must be positive, full of energy when positive things happen, and see obstacles simply as temporary obstacles
CONNECT – you must use EVERY opportunity to communicate with simple and direct language to hold someone’s attention
CONFIRM – you must check back with the other person to ensure the message is understood
CONCENTRATE – you must give opportunity for others to respond, and LISTEN INTENTLY to responses and feedback
CONFIDENCE
As a coach, it is imperative that you PROVIDE YOUR PLAYERS WITH ENOUGH CONFIDENCE TO DRIVE THEIR PASSION TO ADVANCE IN THE SPORT.
5 ways to promote and instill confidence
COPE WITH FEAR OF FAILURE – you must talk openly with players about their personal fears, coach them to identify and openly discuss what scares them the most
ASSIST IN SETTING EXPECTATIONS – you must assist your players in identifying reasonable expectations they can realistically achieve.
AID IN NAVIGATING DISTRACTIONS – you must aid you players in FOCUSING ON THE PROCESS AND NOT THE OUTCOME
SERVE AS YOUR PLAYERS’ BIGGEST FAN – you must help your players erase doubts and beliefs that undermine confidence, demonstrate loudly to them you are behind them using positive reinforcement during favorable and unfavorable situations
HELP PLAYERS DEAL WITH SETBACKS – you must teach your players to learn from, and then let go, of the past, with a focus on always moving forward at all times
HARD WORK AND DISCIPLINE
It is important to recognize that the definition of hard work for one player may not be the same as it is for another. But hard work and discipline compliment each other and will demonstrate a sense of self-discipline. As a coach, you must set this tone by putting in extra effort and training yourself to uphold the same expectations you have for your players.
LEADERSHIP
Ultimately, the coach will lead the group, however the coach will need to rely on others to lead at various points. Teaching your players and assistant coaches how to lead allows your coaching philosophy to spread consistently throughout the group. It is important that as a coach you encourage constructive feedback to better yourself as a coach.
RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility involves making choices and then accepting the results of the choices that were made. Often, young people allow circumstances to dictate poor choices. Players will often minimize or ignore their power to choose so that they can satisfy short-term wants and needs. For example, a player may miss a practice when a perceived better opportunity presents itself in the moment, such as playing video games with friends. This doesn’t necessarily mean the player doesn’t want to improve, but in that moment the player casts aside their long-term goals in basketball to fulfill a short-term desire, which in this case was playing video games instead of practicing. As a coach, it is your duty to consider a player’s long-term growth and impart true responsibility in your players in order to produce long-term results.
To teach responsibility in your players, take these steps:
Develop and adhere to consistent consequences for every player you coach. Apply grace to situations that warrant it, but do so equally for all players.
Reward positive behavior as often as you correct negative actions. If you only recognize negative behavior, a player will respond negatively and you will impede the long-term growth of the player and the team.
Model responsible behavior by acknowledging your own choices and how they may impact the player or group.
SPORTSMANSHIP AND FAIR PLAY
Athletes should treat teammates, coaches, opponents and officials the same way that they would like to be treated – fairly and with respect.
IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR A PLAYER TO COMMUNICATE WITH A REFEREE ABOUT CALLS BEING MADE DURING GAMES, THAT IS THE COACH'S ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY. Instead the player should utilize dead ball time to communicate with teammates on how they will use their mistake response to better the situation.
Do not tolerate regressive thinking by your players, and do not exhibit regressive thinking in your coaching style. Players will mirror the behavior of their coach as their leader. Set the example for your team by controlling your own emotions toward officials, parents, your own players as well as your opponents. Don’t allow unfavorable situations to permit you, your assistant coaches or your players to cause discredit to your team.
TEAMWORK
“To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.” – Coach Mike Krzyzewski
As a coach you develop people to work well with others, but you also need to ensure that every player understands their particular role in that process. When everyone focuses on performing within their role then everyone achieves more.
As a coach, encourage each of the following habits in all players:
Cooperation.
Contributing with ideas, suggestions, and effort.
Communication (giving and receiving).
A sense of responsibility.
Respect and toleration for different opinions, customs, and individual preferences.
Teach your players that “we over me” is what most often leads to “us over them,” in team sport competitions. Encourage your players to be selfless and supportive teammates in both losing and winning efforts.
Unacceptable Misconduct
What is acceptable player, parent, and coach conduct?
1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18.
90% of abuse happens by someone they know.
Growing trend of peer-to-peer sexual abuse.
Typically happens and occurs when coaches DON’T report things.
Realize as a coach there is a huge amount of trust created between yourself and your players. There is also a huge amount of trust created between players and players, as well as players and parents.
Any form of sexual or unwanted abuse between ANY PLAYER TO PLAYER, ANY PLAYER TO COACH, ANY PLAYER TO PARENT, OR ANY COACH TO PARENT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
What are some proactive tips you can take as coaches to avoid such situations?
Make sure what you are posting on social media is not anything derogatory or personal in any negative way or form about the organization, your team, or your players you are representing.
In addition, make sure anything you post on social media is not inappropriate in any way shape or form for youth to view.
Implement group texting at all times, avoid private streams with players.
Never engage in 1 on 1 communication with athletes, make sure a third party or other people are present whenever communicating with athletes.
It is especially helpful to have these combinations during crucial conversations with athletes:
Player, parent, and coach
Player, coach, coach
Share all schedules and itineraries with parents in advance.
If you are ever in a locker room setting as a team, do not allow any recording devices to be used by either players or coaches, gather cell phones from everyone once in the locker room (they should be paying attention anyway).
If you are ever in a situation where you need to travel to a local tournament, make sure you provide:
Parent contact information for others to communicate and a carpool schedule
Clear communication that parents/guardians are responsible for transportation
If a situation arises where an athlete needs a ride home and you are the only option available, make sure there is a 3rd person in the car and NEVER a situation where it is you and 1 athlete in the car.
Example: a player gets a concussion that drove themselves to practice alone, the player cannot drive home and no one can get a hold of parents to come pick the athlete up. The coach could drive the injured athlete with another uninjured athlete to a common location (such as a school, etc) and have a fellow parent come pick up BOTH at the location. Then kindly ask fellow parent if injured athlete can stay at their location until the injured parents are contacted. But DO NOT take injured athlete home privately. HYPERLINK "http://www.pgcbasketball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2012-Commitment_Culture.pdf"