4. Recovery Time
Sometimes, as coaches, we think we can continue to work the kids, day in and day out. After all, they are young; they can handle it. Then, after the second week, we look at the kids and they just do not seem to have the same enthusiasm. Well, guess what? Sometimes, kids need a break. Otherwise, you will burn them out (or they might get sick, because they are worn down physically). There is a great section in the book on Overtraining and its effects on the body. As a coach, one our responsibilities is to protect our athletes and to look out for their best interests. Make sure you are building some break times into your practices, so that the kids can recover during the practices and make sure you even build some "break days" in there, these are low key practice days, so that the kids aren’t constantly "on the edge." It is difficult to maintain that intensity for a week, let alone the whole season.
5. Off the Court Get-Togethers
Not everything that happens in practice, translates to the game. A kid could have a bad day at school or something could be going on at home that causes a kid to be "out of synch." Alternatively, maybe some kids on the team just do not get along with each other. I have found that team dinners or pizza parties or ice cream parties, or whatever you decide to call it, helps. It is important for the kids, to be just kids. Off the court get-togethers help them let their hair down, relax and get to know each other because there is no pressure to perform (like there is on the court). These events help the team to build their unity.
Well, those were some of the things that I incorporated, after my first year of coaching. The results? The next year, the Junior Varsity compiled an 11-7 record. The varsity also had a very successful season where it compiled an 11-5 record and qualified for our state tourney for the first time in 6 years. The varsity ended up losing in the second round, but the kids were excited to finally break through and enjoy some success. The program seemed to have turned around and I felt we were now heading in the right direction. I was ready for my next level of learning, which I thought was how to take our program deep into the state tournament. However, something else happened. Something I did not expect, after all, remembers, I was still a new coach...
