Problem is, too many people have all the answers.
Question is, if everyone knows what to do, why hasn't anyone done it?
I don't hold that those of us who have a pedestrian attachment to the program know but aren't in a position to do, and those in the program can't or won't do it.
They get paid to do it. Their jobs depend on doing it.
But they just aren't going to do it?
My youngest son finally talked me into letting him play basketball this year. We had a few responsibility issues to take care of first.
As luck would have it we found the most unique coach I have ever seen. I've seen a lot of little kids start a number of sports.
But never have I seen a guy that could take a dozen nose-picking, clueless little kids, and keep them all working, every minute, all of the time, actually improving their skills rapidly.
There is no wasted effort.
Two nights ago when he was engaging the forwards in the offense he had a play set up where the forward would mirror the guard, and back off from the post position out along the baseline. Then the forward would break off with a spin move off of the defenders hip getting behind and inside him to break to the basket.
Well you know how it is, after a while the defense players started to cheat because they know where the ball is going right.
So it is my son's turn to be the forward, he moves out, breaks off the defender, receives the pass, and there is another defender, selling out, abandoning his player standing right where my son is headed. Boom, without even thinking or taking a breath he passes the ball to the back side where the forward was abandon by the player who sold out, and the open kid knocks it down.
The coach stops practice, tells my son that he did that without even being taught it, and what a good job he did. Practice goes on.
Next night my son is practicing (along with his fundamentals,) 'leadership skills.'
It just so happens (probably since he had to work twice as hard as other kids at practice), my boy and I had an interesting conversation about how everyone he watches in college and the NBA has had to put that kind of time in, day after day, for years, to get where they've gotten. Yes, he was freaked out.
I mentioned this in a message to the coach. So he replied something like so you've got : dream, talent, hard work, pushing the game. What's next adversity? Then what circumstances, sometimes things just don't work out? Then what? Sometimes you only get ahead by pushing to a point that was so far past your intended goal. Then what? Sometimes you have to take others on your journey, so one of you makes it.
What I believe he was saying to me had to do with the secret of successful coaching, and why some can never quite get there.
But this guy picks the right kids. He evaluates them. He listens to them. And he watches carefully how they respond. He puts everything into them, including his sweat. As I stated earlier, he compresses so much into a practice that he sweats profusely within five minutes of the beginning of practice. Just think of a guy that can outwork a dozen ten to twelve year-olds. It would fucking kill me.
But he says if he doesn't work that hard it isn't fair to the kids, and if he doesn't show them, how are they going to learn? Because that, he says, is just what they will need most when it counts.
The last part of this post never gets talked about by any of the guru's or armchair's. And it doesn't get done by good coaches, who just fall short of being championship coaches.
