5 Lessons From My First Year Coaching Varsity Basketball at 25

So you may or may not know, but this past season I finished up my first year as a varsity head coach, and the previous five years I spent as an assistant coach for a successful program. And then this year I was able to go back and become the head coach at the school that I actually played for. And, you know, I kind of want to talk about my experience in my first year this year and some of my takeaways, really. Overall, it was a pretty successful season. You know, ended up doubling the win total from the previous year, able to play in the conference tournament in, you know, qualify for the district playoffs, get to the district championship for the second time in program history, first time being my senior year, which was a cool, full, full circle moment, and then, you know, getting a chance to play in the state playoffs as well. So a lot of good. A lot of stuff to build on. You know, we were really young team this year in terms of experience. And so, you know, it's always a different challenge when that's the case. But, you know, like I said, there was a lot of. A lot of positives also a lot of stuff to build on for sure. And, you know, a lot of areas where I know that I definitely am going to get better and need to get better in going forward and new challenges that are going to pop up, I'm sure, over the next, you know, over the next year, coming years here. So. But I really, today I want to talk about five big takeaways that I got from this past season. Five lessons that I learned. You know, most of them I learned over and over and over again, whether it was a good or a bad thing or, you know, whatever the circumstance was. But I wanted to share those now because I think that they're great takeaways for, you know, any coach out there who's watching as well. If you guys are new, this is my second channel. My main channel at Vision Driven Basketball is where I post, you know, a lot more film breakdowns and, you know, more specific stuff when it comes to basketball iq, when it comes to shooting, when it comes to stuff that's just kind of more visually appealing, more edited, a little more cleaned up. And this channel is just an opportunity for me to be able to connect with you guys, go through different videos that I find interesting, different topics that I find interesting, having different guests on, which I'm going to get back to doing that over the coming weeks right here. So, you know, if that's something that you're into, subscribe for more of it. And, you know, if not thanks for making it this far and, you know, maybe you'll like my other channel more. But anyway, getting into these five things here, the first big lesson that I learned this year is just how important it is to give your players an identity on offense and on defense. And like I said, coming in, in my first year, not just my first year, but also having a team that's so young, both in terms of age, but also in terms of just experience at the varsity level, you know, we really wanted to establish who we were and you know, because that, that in my opinion, completely defines how some of these guys are going to view the game. So for us offensively, we want to play fast, we want to push the ball, we want to move the ball really well in the half court, we want to utilize our actions in our four out with our pin downs and pinch post action and ball screens and stuff like that. The thing is though, I think a lot of times there can be a disconnect with that when you might say, hey, we want this to be our identity. But then does practice and does the way that you structure practice and the way that you, the emphasis that you give to certain things, does it back up what you're saying you want your identity to be? And I feel like there's a lot of times that's not the case where you tell your players, we want to do this, do this, do this, do this. And you look at the habits you build in practice and the way that you prioritize things and it almost seems like that's not. Your actions aren't saying the same thing that your words are saying. So for me, it was about, okay, well, if we're going to say these things that we got to make sure that the way we practice is putting us in a position so that our players feel confident doing those things. So, you know, we would do drills where, you know, we'd, we'd be on defense and we'd have our JB team on offense. They go through a possession, we'd have to get a stop or on a made bucket, we'd have to get the ball in and we'd have to score within six seconds or sometimes we go, we have to get to our first action, which would be like a drag screen within five seconds. And that was how we developed that ability, especially early on in the year, to play fast because we wanted to actually like say, hey, this is what it means to play fast. This is what we want to do. Here's like a measurable, like, if I can get to that first action within six seconds. That means we're playing fast. That means that we're putting the defense at a disadvantage because they're still rotating back and they have to rotate back and then worry about guarding an action, all that sort of stuff right there. So that was where we. We really started to back up what we were saying we wanted our identity to be. And then, you know, we wanted to shoot a lot of threes. Like, we have some. We have some players who can shoot the ball, and, you know, ultimately you don't have a team that's super big or super physically dominant, then you better be able to shoot if you want to score points. And we kind of knew that was where we were. So the first 30 minutes of every practice for the entire season was dedicated to shooting. We'd have, like, a partner shooting routine, working on just energy transfer shooting and all, you know, very simple stuff when it came to footwork, but then just getting a ton of reps out of it in the same exact situation that you were you're going to be in, or like a driving kick 3 or an extra pass 3. For some of our. Our players who shot a lot, we added some more stuff in, in terms of ball screens and all this stuff, but everybody throughout the entire program was shooting for the first 30 minutes of practice. A lot of times we would end with 10 more minutes of partner shooting. And. And then a lot of times we'd have like a driving kick shooting mixed in there as a team. So we go with like a 3 on 2 or a 4 on 3 shooting drill. We probably spent 40 to 50 minutes every single day shooting. And, you know, I would. I would always say, like, you know, we shot the ball really well this year as a team and individually. Like, we. We shot the ball. And, you know, in a lot of. In a lot of senses, the reason we were able to be as successful as we were is because we shot the ball well, but we also spent the most time on it. And, you know, I would always say that I think we probably spent more time in practice working on shooting than any other team in our state. Like, that was. I felt very confident saying that because it mattered that much to us. And we wanted to get out there and we wanted guys to take those shots with confidence. And I think that because they saw how much we prioritized it, it made it not only easier for them to take those shots, but feel really good about it. When you feel really good about the shots that you're taking, it's more likely that you're going to make them. So that was a big part of us establishing identity, is making sure that what we say we want to be, we also back up with how we practice defensively. You know, our big thing was that we wanted to be great in gaps. We wanted to be one away from the ball. We had to be really good at that gap defense to not allow guys to get beat on the ball. And, you know, we also wanted to switch everything. And that was why we felt good switching things is because we were so good in gaps that anybody can survive a matchup for a possession or a part of a possession. And generally that's kind of my thought with high school basketball is that, like, there's very few players who are so good that you can't afford to switch off of them for one possession or part of a possession. Like, it's just you're not playing against Kevin Durant. Like, so generally that's kind of my thought process. So for us, we want to get really good at switching and really good at being great in gaps on the basketball. And so right after we finish up that 30 minutes of shooting to start, we will go right into working on, you know, a three on three drill which emphasized that switching, emphasized that gap help. And that became something that was a staple for us and a part of why we were able to be good defensively as well. So, you know, we first of all wanted to give that identity, but then we also wanted to make sure that what we do in practice reinforces and gives us confidence to actually go out there and have that be our, our real identity. So that was the first thing that I learned this year when it comes to this, there's no wrong identity. I don't think. Like, I think however you want to play, whatever your personnel kind of lends itself to is great, but I think it's important to define it so that they know and then make sure that you're backing up what you're saying with how you prioritize practice. So that's number one right there, by the way. I'm. I'm getting a little sick, so if I sound, if I sound a little weird, I apologize. But I'm doing my best to, to get myself through it here. So the second thing that I learned this year was the importance of praising habits and the process over praising results and outcomes. I think part of what made it so fun for not just me, but for all the guys was that it wasn't even about necessarily winning. And the caveat is that I tell everyone straight up like, hey, we're here to win. Like, there's no. There's no two ways about it. But I think it. It became a lot more about, are you doing the things that are going to lead to that happening. Because there. There are games that we play where we played really well and we did everything right, and we just so happen to not make shots that day or the other team made a bunch of shots that day. I think about the best example of it is district championship. We spent a ton of time the week leading up to that working on game plan. Like, we had such a good grasp on who the, you know, the other team was, their strengths, their weaknesses. And, you know, one of the big things that we identified is that they. They had some size on us and they had some really aggressive rebounders. So we had to get really, really good at understanding what it was going to take to win defensive rebounds. So our big thing was focusing on the process and the effort of. It's a process, meaning when the shot goes up, we don't care about the ball. We don't care about the ball anymore. It was a mindset shift where a lot of times, shot goes up and we just kind of follow the ball to the basket and go and jump for it. In this case, shot goes up, you don't care about where the ball is. You're going to find your man and you're making sure that he doesn't get the rebound. Forget the ball, go box him out. And then the effort part becomes when you have the opportunity to go get that rebound, first of all, you box that guy and you hold him there. But then when it's you and the other guy to pull a rebound, it's got to be you. It has to be. So that was our focus. And we did a bunch of different drills, working on going from fronting to getting to a box out and very, very detailed stuff. And we got to that game and we rebounded the ball so well. It was a weakness for us coming in. And in that week, we completely did a. Did a 180 with it. And it was completely because of the guy's willingness to buy into that and work. And it was difficult, but we got there and we did everything that we need to do. And they had a kid who scored 30 on. On really good defense by us. And sometimes it's just like that, you know, when you lose a game because someone steps up. And in basketball, that's why everyone loves March Madness, right? Because maybe not this year, but in previous years, where you have all These upsets, it's because all it takes is one game, one game where someone plays really well or someone doesn't play really well. But going back to my point is that it wasn't about like I was so. I was so thrilled by what I saw in that game, even though obviously we wanted to win a championship that day. But when I saw our ability to execute a game plan, to really buy into something like that, to me matters a ton, because you build on that and you become really confident in who your players are because of that. I think it's an important thing to understand for your players. Understand that it's about doing the right things. And while that doesn't mean you're going to be successful every single time, it's going to give you the best possible chance of doing that right there. So the things for us that were emphasized are your effort defensively and rebounding. When it comes to your buy in, your willingness to, you know, make the right play on offense, how well you know the game plan, the objectives, the tendencies of the other players, the different, you know, objectives that we might have on an individual game or an individual, you know, player basis. How well do you know that going into a game? And that's something that's all controllable, and that's the stuff that really matters, and that leads us to winning right there. In a sense, our entire approach is player development, because when we focus on the habits, building the habits, and being the people who deserve to win games, ultimately you build better players, better people, and you win games more. So for us, it became so much more about the focusing on the controllable things. The process is day in, day out, and that leads to really good things happening. And that was a really big piece for us, too. The third thing that I took away from the season is the importance of asking questions, asking questions as much as possible. There's a couple different reasons why. First of all, I think a lot of players are so comfortable being bystanders and just being told what to do. Okay, you go do that, you go do that. And they don't want to actually go out and make decisions for themselves. They don't want to go out and have any sort of pressure or ownership on them because it's way easier to say, oh, well, coach told me to do that and it didn't work. So it's his fault, not my fault. It's way easier to do that than it is to say, man, I messed that one up. I made the wrong choice right there. I've got to be better in that situation. So I think in a lot of ways there are coaches probably who. And I know because I played for coaches, like, and I see it where they want to have a hand in everything. Like, it's almost like they want to call every single set. And when you, when you. You don't have players who have any sort of ownership or buy in, it doesn't feel like it's theirs. So for a lot of them, it's like they don't really care what you have to say because it doesn't feel like they have any sort of say in what happens. If you feel like their input is valued and so you're. You're going to have a better team, and you have guys who feel like what they say matters, what they think matters, you care about those things. So for us, that was an important thing, and that's where you build that ownership when you ask them, hey, what did you see there? What could you have done differently? And that kind of goes into film, which we'll talk about in a little bit here. But even if it's just during game, hey, what's going on? Hey, what's working? What's not working? What are you thinking? What do you like? Being able to ask those questions to me gives you, first of all, an insight in terms of where are they at? Because they might say something and you. And it might open up a door. You're like, oh, wow, I didn't know that I needed to make sure that I, you know, communicated that more or make sure that we're on the same page because they're thinking about something that I, I wasn't even thinking about. That happens all the time. But then also you start to figure out, okay, where exactly am, you know, I may be overlooking or, you know, where can we be a little bit better? Where are we not prepared enough? And you learn those things by asking questions, by giving them ownership and, you know, by allowing them input. There's times where I think it's important to let them decide, hey, what are we doing on this possession? What do you guys feel confident doing right now? And run with that. And sometimes it's going to work out, sometimes it's not going to work out. But not only are they going to get better because of that, because they're going to start to see, all right, well, I made that decision, didn't work. So what can I do differently next time? That's how you build players who are adaptable and can't be schemed out of a game. But Then they also start to respect you more because you see that it's a, they see it's a two way street there. So for us it's important. Just building ownership. That was one of our pillars this year was the word ownership. And we used it a ton of. So asking questions we're watching film or we're in a game helps us to kind of be able to say, all right, well this is what I'm actually thinking. This isn't just what I'm regurgitating from what coach said or from what my teammates said there. And I think that was a big part of, of, you know, guys enjoying the experience overall was that fact of it. Now, the fourth takeaway that I had was the importance of having irrational optimism. The fourth takeaway that I had this season was the importance of having irrational optimism. As a coach, even when you have every reason to not have irrational optimism, like I think that's the, that's the point of it should be irrational. And you know, I think that you have to sometimes make it impossible for your players, for your other coaches to not believe that you're going to be successful because you can look at it and you can always find a reason to be pessimistic about things. There's always a reason to feel negative about things. And the human nature is to gravitate towards those things, to gravitate towards the potential threats and worry about that. And you're going to have, if that's, if you allow yourself to do that, then all your players are already doing it. They're already thinking pessimistically about what could go wrong and about what's not perfect. And if you're also that way, then it's gonna be really hard to win. And not only that, it's gonna be pretty terrible. Even just going to practice every day, going to games, because it's always going to be negative. It's always going to feel pessimistic. No one's going to be having fun being there. But when you're able to, to be that source of just optimism always, even on days where you just got blown out and you know, you have a guy who's hurt and a guy who's sick and someone didn't show up to practice, whatever, when you're still able to show up and be irrationally optimistic, it, it's like contagious. And all of a sudden your players start looking for reasons to be optimistic as well. And that's where it leads to more winning, but just a more fun in terms of your Practice environment, your game environment, your overall culture of your program. But it all starts head down with, are you able to show up every single day and find something to be optimistic about? Now, I'm not saying lie to your players about what's good, right, and tell them, oh, you guys are really good at this, even though they're really bad at it. That's not what I'm saying. But there's always something that you could be optimistic about. You know, there always is something where, you know, you can look at it as a glass half full sort of thing, and if you choose to look at it as glass half empty instead, because it's the easy way, then, you know, again, like I said, the entire vibe, the entire culture is going to be that of pessimism and negativity and something's going to go wrong and things aren't perfect and we don't have a chance and all. All that sort of stuff right there. I think probably the simplest way to put it is like, you know, I got. I pretty much was always using like the compliment sandwich, right? Where if I had something negative that I had to say, I was going to start off with positive. Hey, listen, that was a really intense environment we played in, and I'm really glad that we got to experience that because it's going to come back and really be a great experience for going into the playoffs here in a couple of weeks. But I feel like our overall defensive intensity just wasn't great down the stretch. And I feel like guys were missing assignments and we were, you know, not fully locked in on what the game plan was supposed to be. And guys didn't really know exactly what they were supposed to be focusing on, which is a problem. But the good thing is that it's very controllable, right? But you might need to ask yourself, am I making sure that I'm prepared enough mentally going into every game when that game plan comes out? Am I spending enough time really studying it, knowing exactly what my matchup likes to do, what they don't like to do, so that I feel confident, but like I said, very controllable. And that's something that we can get better at immediately if. If we really want to. And so that's just an example of a compliment sandwich I might give right there, where there's something negative in there, but it's always. There's always an air of empowerment and you can do this. And if you want to do it, if you're willing to put effort towards it, this is possible for you. And I think that word empowerment is such an important thing because in the world today there is, like I said, so much negativity about everything. You turn on social media, you turn on tv and it's just negativity and pessimism about everything. And that trickles down to these players nowadays as well, because, you know, how do you not feel that? So for you, being able to be that source of optimism and empowerment, I think is a way that you not only win, and like I said, we're here to win, but also I think it's how you build a culture that people want to be a part of and that players look forward to going to practice every day, they look forward to being a part of that. Even though, you know, if you're a high school coach, you probably a lot of players who, you know, are multi sport guys and basketball might be their second, third sport, but you want them to enjoy your culture so much that they love playing basketball because of that right there. And I think having that irrational optimism and being all about empowering your players is a huge, huge key to that. And then the fifth takeaway that I had from this year is that film is such a crucial separator if you want to win and be successful. It was something that we spent so much time watching film this season and that was a big thing, a big step up, I think, for a lot of guys going from, from, you know, the previous year to, to this year where we just watched so much film and we watched breakdowns of every game. We watch clips of every single game. Depending on the time of year, we might watch film on the teams that we're playing. You know, we got to the playoffs, we wanted to look at a specific action or, you know, a specific guy that we're playing against right there. But at minimum, we were watching clips on every game that we played, regular season, playoffs. And I think it's important because especially I think when you talk about younger players, like, you know, high school, middle school, like there's a lot of stuff that they don't even know happens until they see it on film. Like they'll do something on the court and they'll have no idea that they did it. They have no clue that it doesn't even register to them because they're not thinking about it. They just go and do. And so when you actually can show them on film, hey, this is what actually happened, right? They're not going to believe you. They're not going to know until they see it. So in some ways it was like, I Felt very confident saying, hey, guys, listen, here is what I'm telling you. And I'm telling you this because I watch, not only do I watch you, but I watch a lot of basketball. And so I, I was very clear about it. I'm like, listen, if you feel like I'm wrong on this and you can show me film that contradicts it, I'm all for it. This is not about me being the boss. It's not about me being right. This is not about, you know, me telling you what to do. This is about us winning. So if you feel like you see something different, go ahead and do it right? But so in some ways I'm challenging them, hey, go watch, go watch that situation and see if you see something different. And because that you're going to learn, right? But I also am being very, very transparent with them, very authentic with them saying, hey, this is what it is. And we get this stuff through watching. And when they see that, when they recognize that the things that I'm telling them come from what I've actually watched and what we actually watch and I can, I can break down the film and say, hey, here's where that just showed up. Hey, this is really good. We've been working on this and here's where we saw that actually, you know, show itself. Now they're way more bought into what you're telling them because they see that it actually works. Until that point, they're just kind of doing it because you tell them. So the more proof you can give them that what you're telling them is going to help them, the more bought in they're going to be to you, into your system. And that was what I learned big time. You know, we had, as the year went on, one of our big struggles throughout the season was foul, foul issues. And we guys in foul trouble all the time. And so, you know, I remember after. Right was actually right before one game, I had two of our bigs. We were just watching a couple clips of what they gotten called on for fouls and we're talking about, okay, hey, you know, you feel like you're walling up straight, but you're actually leaning forward a little bit. So when they go up the, the referee sees that you're breaking that vertical plane in front of you and leaning forward and you're getting called on it. So you just got to make sure you don't lean. Just little stuff like that. And that was one of the things we got feedback wise from our players. The end of the year at Exit Meetings and all that, about how much they appreciated that, because instead of just saying, hey, stop fouling, where there's no actual. Like, what. What do you mean? Like, what am I supposed to. I'm not trying to foul, so what am I supposed to do? Giving them things that you break down and see in the film where you can show them, hey, this is what happened. This is why. Here's how you can adjust right there. And those little things, I think, matter a ton and make a big impact when you can actually show them those things right there, you know? And then I think the other thing from a coaching perspective is I felt like I had watched a lot this year, and I watched enough that I feel like I had a. I had a quick hitter for pretty much any situation, whether it was, okay, big team, small team, athletic team, not athletic team, zone, man. Is this team within the man offense. Are they switching different actions? Are they not switching? Are they blitzing different things? What exactly are we looking at? I felt like as I watched more and I saw, you know, I'm watching, I'm scouting a team and I see, okay, this team ran that action and it worked for him a couple times. And, you know, I randomly see a different game and it pops in my mind, oh, I remember they ran that little hitter against that type of defense right there. So I feel like because of the amount of film I watch, I was. I felt good about any situation. I've got something that I can go to right there. And I think kind of a side note from all the stuff that I just mentioned right there, I think that alone right there gives you a ton of confidence, too. You know, as the year went on, that was an area that I think starting off the year, I was not as great in. And that's something that you just get through, I think, doing it and experiencing. So those five things were my biggest takeaways from this year. Like I said, you know, hopefully I'll have five more big takeaways a year from now after year two, because, you know, I know that I have a lot more to grow and a lot more understanding to gain and hopefully a lot more success to come as well. So hopefully, you know, this. This helped out. Any of you coaches who are watching. You guys have any takeaways that you. You've gotten, drop them down below. I'm always looking to learn more, and if you guys want me to talk about anything else, let me know as well. Appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.