Letter to All Players (Part 2)

Hi All,

So letter to players part two, this middle group of items are what you could call my pet peeves. The things that used to grind on me as a coach and impacted the number of opportunities I was prepared to give players to demonstrate what they could do on an SBL court.

I used to talk quite openly about some of these issues with my players and with my teams but not all coaches do. What players (and parents) need to understand is there is no mathematical formula for any decision a coach makes, there is no right and wrong or black and white. There are a lot of things that are influencers on this decision but at the end all these choices are emotional as much as intellectual, coaches operate on instinct, gut feel and what previous experiences tell them. This article was forwarded to me last week and in a way it describes what I’m trying to say:

http://jeffhaefner.com/coach/yes-i-do-play-my-favorites/

As a player I can see how it would be quite easy to read this list and overlook their importance, to dismiss how crucial they actually are and miss how much they affect your opportunities. I also understand not everyone will see me as an authority, so to help I contacted a group of coaches whose opinions and accomplishments I respect immensely and have included their thoughts and feelings on these points as well. The coaches who provided input include Rob Beveridge (Bevo International Coaching), Kennedy Kereama (New Zealand Tall Ferns), Darren Austin (Southwest Slammers), Ryan Petrik (Rockingham Flames), and Ashley McCormick (Lakeside Lightning), just like the players a massive thank you to them for taking the time to share from their experiences and knowledge.

Be On Time and Don’t Fluff Around

Basketball is a team game, be on time. It is a selfish act to think that your time is so important you can waste that of others, and gives the impression you think you sit above the team. Coach Beveridge has produced a document titled Expectations of a Great Player and his first dot point is “Be respectful to others and be on time / ready for practice, games, etc.” You can get a copy of this by clicking on this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzh1BvhqEj3JQVM3SnlmU181cU0/view?usp=sharing

As I’ve covered in sections of part one most of us have priority activities that occur outside of basketball, some of us have work commitments, education and even (very) rare family events. However, arriving late can’t be due to a lack of preparation or planning, many of us have to travel straight from one appointment to the other, organise meetings and activities to fit our schedules and pack bags that take us from one commitment to the other until the end of the day. While probably a little more lenient than I am, Coach Petrik’s view on this is:

“I’m pretty lenient on arrival times if the player is coming from work or gets stuck in traffic. Traveling to Rockingham isn’t the easiest thing to do mid-week if people work in the city. Having said that, if they work in Rockingham or finish well before practice, they better be on time.”

So while your coach might be understanding you still need to be committed to making the effort, and if there is a possibility of being late communicate it to the coach in the manner expected, hustle into the court and get yourself ready to go as soon as possible. Plan to be there 15 minutes early on most occasions, once there get taped, water bottle, mouthguard, anything else that is required ready so that the limited time your team has on the court can be maximised. Coach McCormick gives an example of his rules for communicating and sums up this section perfectly:

“When dealing with how to communicate legit reasons I liken this to how you would treat not coming in for work. I actually do not allow players to text me when they cannot make practice, they must call. If I do not answer they must leave a voicemail. Being on time means being ready to practice by start time. If training starts at 6:30pm do not arrive at 6:30pm with your shoes off and take your time getting ready. This creates poor team culture.”

Be Honest

So what I am talking about here is being honest if you screw up, I mean really screw up. Now hopefully it never happens but most of us become involved in SBL or WSBL as teenagers or very young adults and grow up and mature over time. We will all look back at decisions, regret some of them and make many different in hindsight. I started coaching WSBL young and certainly have plenty of them, and even many I would make differently last season. I remember doing the wrong thing at an ITC Camp many years ago and looking unprofessional in front of coaches from the Australian Institute of Sport. As a young kid I was very embarrassed, but still remember the Head Coach explaining to me that by having the tough conversations, being honest and looking people in the eye it was an opportunity. To be clear, I’m not saying honesty covers all mistakes, and it wears very thin if you then repeat these, but it is certainly much better than the alternative. At the end of the day, most of us coaches want to see our players grow, learn and succeed in life above all else.

What I’m not talking about here is the “my bad” or “I’m sorry” player. You’ve probably all played with or watched someone who is very good at using these strategies as a way to avoid receiving feedback from coaches and team mates or to avoid changing behaviours. As a coach I found players who could repeatedly make the same bad decision on either end offensively or defensively and then hold their hand up and use either of these phrases irritating. If you screwed up then we know it’s your bad and I don’t care if you’re sorry, just learn from it and do it better next time. Even more annoyingly don’t ever use the phrase “I know” or cut a coach off mid-sentence to tell them you know, coaches will judge playing performance on what they can see you get done, and we aren’t psychic so the feedback you receive is based on that.

“We stress to the players that we want them to make ‘new’ mistakes, and to not continue making the same ones. It’s a game of mistakes, it’s impossible not to make them; but if players keep making the same ones, they’re not getting any better.” – Ryan Petrik

“Further to this I can’t stand coaching players who always have a reason for why they made an error or why they went away from the offence or why they didn’t stay in front of their player. The player who can’t receive instruction and learn from mistakes is a player that will never reach their potential, they are poor team mates and create a culture of blaming others.” – Ashley McCormick

Pay Attention in Film and Watch More on Your Own

For any coach worth his salt film is one of the most important teaching tools that can be used. Film can be used to reinforce good behaviour, highlight where improvement is needed, shortcuts are being taken, or to show the preferred patterns and tendencies of your opposition. But more importantly as a player this is the best way to get a clear understanding of what the coach’s picture for the team and for you is. In these film sessions you need to always be engaged, and if it’s a clip where you aren’t on the court you need to be tracking someone who plays the same position and learning as if it was you. Don’t sit in the back corner in the dark and lose concentration, don’t be playing with your shoes or strapping, and if questions are asked and you have feedback then speak up.

“Film is easily the most powerful teaching tool us coaches have. I have to agree that there is nothing more frustrating than spending hours watching film only to have players who are not engaged with the session. Players are generally very lucky that they only watch a fraction that coaches have to. By the time we have edited and cut the game tape players watch only a quarter (if they are lucky) of what we watch. Pay attention and listen to what is being said and ask questions if you are unsure of what the coach is talking about. You are the players that have to go out and execute this stuff, so ensure you are comfortable with it and never be scared to ask the coaches questions.” – Kennedy Kereama

“I do anywhere between 4-10 hours a week on film, and I’d more than double that come finals time. All the player has to do is sit there and listen and pay attention for 30-45 minutes a week, and just watch, ask questions, be engaged, nothing annoys me more as a coach than a player sitting there not paying attention. We had a finals game a few years back where during film, several big name players were on their phones or not paying attention; yet 4 days later we came out and lost and played like we had no idea what they opposition were going to do. That cost us a playoff series, and hence a season.” – Ryan Petrik

Just as importantly for players you should be watching game films with a few teammates or in small groups. This is so easy to do these days with video files and transfer drives where you can watch from anywhere. You need to watch yourself closely and be using the pause / rewind / slow motion buttons to be analysing every movement and decision you make. This can be done in any situation, defensively pause yourself on the split line and see if you reacted to help or rotate early enough, look as you defend an on-ball screen and see if you got into coverage early enough and executed right, pause the screen as the ball touches your fingertips then track the players on the court and see if you made the right decision. The opportunities and ways to use this tool are almost endless. If your team doesn’t have an online folder where all the games are shared for every player to access you need to be asking your coach why not.

Be Engaging

“Bring energy to trainings! Training for me is the highlight of my day and as a player it should be yours also. Who doesn’t want a chance to get better? I love coming to training and getting better and this I would hope is displayed in the energy. But it really grinds my gears when players come to training and make no effort and bring baggage from a bad day at work.” – Kennedy Kereama

“I like this. I always challenge my players to “build culture.” Understand that your behaviour is contagious. You can be positively contagious or negatively contagious. I tell my players it takes only one drop of poison to turn something pure completely toxic.” – Ashley McCormick

There are players that literally feel like they are sucking the life out of you when you are coaching and interacting with them. Sometimes this can even extend into small group sessions or entire teams, and as a coach there is nothing worse than walking away from a couple of hours doing something you love and feeling mentally or emotionally depleted.

Now I’m not talking about “sucking up”, most coaches can spot that straight away and that is just as exhausting. What I mean by being engaging is be a part of it. If I’m going to get up early, stay up late, drive somewhere during the day to do an individual work out for you it needs to feel like a partnership of improvement, in which you are committed to implementing the information and getting better. That’s really why you should make eye contact, nod, ask questions at the appropriate time when you have them, and be appreciative.

The same thing applies to team trainings, be at the front of the lines, talk, know what you should be trying to achieve in each drill or progression of training. Pay attention in film and don’t be scared to ask and answer questions. Be able to take the messages out of the feedback you get even if you don’t always like the way it is delivered or the timing, don’t be precious about being told stuff in front of the team and have personal strategies for dealing with disappointment or when you disagree so it isn’t written all over your face. These things are what makes a player “coachable”, the fact is some of the most diligent, hardworking players I’ve ever had have been the least enjoyable to coach because they don’t have the self-awareness to understand how they affect the people around them.

A surprise fact for many is a lot of the coaches that volunteer their time for you are doing it for free, and for even those that do get paid some remuneration it isn’t enough to live off or not have a day job. It’s not for social status and for most of us it isn’t even about winning a championship, because while that is great it doesn’t change lives or open up magic basketball coaching avenues. When I was young I wanted to be a professional coach, but for the last decade it has been about volunteering, giving back to the community, and seeing athletes come through my teams / programs and get an enormous kick out of them growing into great people that were shaped somewhat by sporting experiences.

Know the League

“I think a big part of knowing the league is also knowing the level you are playing or want to play at. The SBL and WSBL is the second tier league in Australia. Australia is a top 10 basketball country in the world for men’s and top two or three in the women. This means playing in the 2nd division is a high level… it is elite. Therefore to be successful you have to be elite. Not everyone who wants to play SBL or WSBL makes it! Being elite means you have to study and research your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, you have to be dedicated to work on your strengths and weaknesses. You have to be organised, strategic and have a vision/goal/objective.” – Ashley McCormick

Follow the league and be a fan, keep an eye on the standings, the statistics, read the articles, listen to the radio show, read box scores and make sure you know the rosters for each team and how the players perform. For those of us that have been around the league a few years this becomes really easy and habitual. At some point every Monday morning I have a cup of tea and spend some time going through the results. This is great because it helps us to build a community, and if we take interest in our own league we can talk about it to each other, but also with others and promote it.

More specifically though the quicker you get your head around who you play against and how they play the more quickly a coach will trust you and make you part of his rotation. It is 100% not acceptable to turn up to film, training or a scouting session and have names from the other team unfamiliar. If you don’t know who is who, how can you be trusted to make a good offensive or defensive decision at the end of a close game?

It is also a very quick way to send the message to your coach that you are a part time or short term basketballer, someone who doesn’t even know the good players in the league always dropped straight back in my view. You might still be able to play but I only saw you as social after that, not genuine basketball person who loved the game or the league they were a part of.

Others

When I asked the Coaches for input I gave them the option of suggesting any areas that I haven’t covered that are important to them. While we all saw my headings with different levels of importance this is some other areas that were important to them.

“Consider the team and the program before yourself. A great player is determined by his ability to make those around him better. Understand the Team philosophy and what we are aimed at achieving.” – Rob Beveridge

“Body language- so much can be said about how you are feeling by what people see and how it most often reflects attitude. Negative body language I think that this is right up there with selfishness and individualism in a team sport. If a player is going to give off negative vibes because of how they carry themselves and behave via their body language well it pretty much puts a negative influence/outcome of said athlete in my thoughts. It's a team sport but there will always be individual trials and tribulations along the way- don't wallow in self pity.” – Vlad Alava

“Communication: There is nothing worse for me as coach than always having to be the most dominant voice at training sessions. I like to challenge my players to “be the most dominant voices at training” and drown me out. I understand as coaches we have to be the leaders when explaining drills and teaching certain aspects of an offence or defensive scheme. However simple on court communications like talking on defence whether it be a screening actions, help rotations, switches, communicating from the sideline, taking team mates through offence are your responsibilities not your coaches so use training as an opportunity to condition these skills.” – Kennedy Kereama

“The only other dot point I have is sometimes court time has nothing to do with the player, and everything to do with the matchup. Certain players expect the same kind of time every game, and that’s just not how it works. Sometimes the plan to give us the best chance of winning involves player X, and other times it involves player Y. If we’re playing a team with big guards, were unlikely to play our small guards a lot of minutes, yet the next week we might play a team that has heaps of small guards, so our small guards minutes go up. That had nothing to do with form, and everything to do with the matchup.” – Ryan Petrik

“One of my biggest pet peeves is the player that can dish out advice to everyone around them, including coaches, yet when it comes to receiving instruction or input puts up in impenetrable force field to deflect anything that may make them appear that they aren’t God’s gift to the game of basketball. I have seen players who are train on’s, rookie listed or 12th man on the roster hold this attitude and let me tell you from experience, these players do not last long.   Accountability is a 2 way street. Accountability isn’t accountability unless the person being held to account is humble enough to receive it. We have plenty of ‘givers’ of accountability but generally less that are willing to ‘receive’ or be held accountable.” – Ashley McCormick

“One of my biggest pet peeves is players with excuses – There is nothing worse than a player who has excuses for everything that happens on the court when he or she breaks down. It was never their fault, but X player didn’t do this or I didn’t understand the instructions etc. There are times when us coaches get it wrong we are human after all, however I would imagine a good 90% of the time we are right, so just take whatever we have to say on the chin and move on. Approach the coach after the game if you want to discuss something or feel hard done by. Don’t try and justify yourself with a life story during the game because we don’t want to hear it now.” – Kennedy Kereama

With a little bit more of a humorous insight into the same point was Darren Austin:

 

 

To finish I want to stress how important it is for you to get to know your coach and to quickly work out what areas are important to them and what behaviours are essential for you to be contributing to the team and building a team culture in their eyes, and we are all different. When I wrote this list I picked points to emphasize that resonated with me, but you can also see from the others sections that when I gave coaches opportunity to add they each had something different.

Within the list you also need to know what is important to different people, the Be Engaging section was key for Coach McCormick and he wrote a little bit about his views on team culture and that “behaviour is contagious.” Coach Kennedy was clear that you should communicate and “Bring energy to trainings!” This also rings true for Vlad Alava when he writes that a player who “…gives off negative vibes… puts a negative view of said athlete in his thoughts.”

Yet when Coach Petrik’s responded to the Be Engaged section he wrote “This one doesn’t really worry me these days. My number one filter is ‘what gives us the best chance to win a championship’…” This statement rings true until it comes to his weekly film session where he very clearly says to “…be engaged” and that “nothing annoys me more than a player sitting there not paying attention.” A perfect example where you need to learn your coach, to Ryan film is sacrosanct yet many other coaches may not even have a weekly session. In other areas he may not be as concerned with how you present yourself but to Coach Alava body language is a huge influencer. Both successful coaches, Vlad with Wolves won the WSBL championship in 2013 and Ryan with Flames won the championship in 2014.

That’s it from me for part two, I hope the topics we’ve covered have given you some points of reflection on how you might be presenting yourself as a basketball player and an awareness that your opportunities and success is determined by more than just how hard you work or how well you can dribble, pass and shoot.

Regards,

Craig Mansfield

craigmansfield@me.com

Follow me on Twitter @CMansfield34

SBL Slam’: Airing Monday Evenings 9-10 pm on 98five Sonshine FM

http://www.98five.com/shows/other-shows/sblslam/

Photo by Clare Chappell




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