10 Steps to Improve Your Coaching

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By: Mike Dunlap

The richness of coaching rests within the seemingly insurmountable frustration of watching as a player finds his way. The teachable moments are those that are frequently fraught with poor decisions. Yet that is exactly when an individual needs his coach. Those moments are priceless and a turning point for the athlete. Wonder not why you do what you do and KNOW that you make a difference!!!

The evolution of a master teacher takes years of skill development. The outstanding coach is an exceptional teacher. We believe that there are fundamental steps that should be considered when teaching your team:

1) Know the five laws of learning

Explain what you want

Demonstrate for the learner

Player demonstrates

Correct demonstration

Repetition is lord and master

2) Know how players learn

Visual

Auditory

Kinetic

Writing/Drawing

Player as coach

Cooperative versus competitive technique

Whole, part, whole versus part whole method

Feedback system – negative versus positive

3) Teaching techniques

Universal teaching technique (i.e. find the problem and fix it)

Praise, prompt, and leave (i.e. find positive, correction, and next step, leave)

Relay teach – the cooperative method

Create your own language (e.g. anachronisms)

Use your voice as a tool

Speak in word pictures, analogies, and metaphors

Overload to get conditioned response (i.e. consistently give the student the advantage when they are demonstrating as early success breeds confidence)

Progression – teach in sequence and then reverse it (i.e. inductive & deductive)

4) Use the four steps of shaping

Set the stage

Modeling

Prompt

Forms of feedback (i.e. ask questions, make observations, reinforce the correct response)

5) Talk less, do more

We need to reduce out verbal instruction

6) Recognize the power of observation, listening, and gathering information

Behavior patterns

Myers/ Briggs psychological exam, self-aggression evaluation, and the “I am sheet”

7) Role declaration is paramount to a coaches’ success

8) Know your audience, circumstance, and be ready to adapt or change course

9) Competition means time, score, and personal records (e.g. individual/group)

10) Apologize

We will make mistakes. We humanize ourselves when we go public and our players will accept us more readily.

We are teachers. We are trying to create an environment of learning. Hence, mistakes must be encouraged as a form of discovery. Certainly, we want to correct the problem and move on in a timely fashion. The more teaching skills we have at our disposal – the better. If we are comfortable with our style, the player will adjust quickly. Effective communication is the instructor’s greatest tool. Learning is a step-by-step process. We keep it simple, as we know that the player responds best to precise instruction.

We believe that the coach should work off a blueprint of conceptual teaching. This means teaching cognitive ideas through a specific process (i.e. drills that are directly linked to the whole). Our shooting drills come directly from our offense and they may change from one season to the next, yet the ingredients of competition and effort level are never compromised.

The what, where, how, when, and why are always foremost in our minds when explaining our philosophy. The “when” and “why” are the most important to us. We want thinking players who can react quickly under pressure. Hence, we create that environment in our practices with consequences for actions.

We teach winning basketball. We are not interested in just playing. The enjoyment for the player comes from learning, interaction with others, and measurable improvement. We teach that perfection comes from an all-out effort.

The standards for winning must be defined. The coach should have measurements both offensively and defensively that represent a system. When pressure is applied confusion will reign unless there is structure. Moreover, that is when communication breaks down. We cannot have this. We see the first signs of a successful culture when the players start saying and teaching “Our Way” when times are tough. We like that.

In conclusion, we can only do one thing at a time. Simplicity is our guide. We constantly evaluate our system under the most severe circumstances. Teaching techniques define our system.