HOOPS ELITE MAGAZINE
I cannot expect my players to
give me the best of their abilities
if I cannot provide them with the
best of my abilities. I cannot expect my parents to simply trust
me to coach their children because I state that I played basketball and can win games.
Most national, state and local
youth sports organizations and
leagues now require coaches to
acquire a certification of some
sort to show that they have
learned the “soft skills” of coaching-how to motivate, reward and
discipline players-all while developing the physical or “hard”
skills necessary to play the sport
of Basketball. No longer is yelling
and making players run for hours
on end the acceptable way to get
players to produce on the court.
Too many players are allowed to
quit and not see things though
to where these tactics are no longer effective.
6 | Issue 2 - March 2015
The ideology behind attaining a
coaching certification is for a coach
to actually learn the processes and
necessary skills to spend time
getting to know your players and
learn what motivates them to want
to play the sport of Basketball over
any other sport and to use that
knowledge in order to aid those
players in producing the desires
results on the court-wins. Lessons
on teamwork, adequate nutritional intake and hydration, handling
concussions, dealing with peer
pressure and how to deal with
parent behavior are all things that
coaches are now required to learn
to handle and resolve, as well
as, coach players in practice and
during the games.
• How do you create an effective practice agenda?
• How do you produce a Call
Tree to disseminate information on emergency changes in
the playing schedule?
• How do you fill a player’s emotional tank and replenish it?
• What is your Emergency Plan
if one of your players is injured
during practice or in a game?
• What is an effective nutritional
intake plan for any given
player?
• When should a player drink
Gatorade versus water?
• What is your process for
tryouts and choosing players?
• What is your policy for handling
parental misbehavior?
A coaching certification will provide you the answers to all of those
questions and more!
Take the time to invest in yourself.
Take the time to invest in your
abilities. Take the time to show
your parents and players that you
have the players’ best interests at
heart. Get yourself certified. Not
because you have to, but, because
you want to.