Questions From Subscribers...

As the coach, you are in a position to be very influential in establishing a team morale that makes the experience of being on a team enjoyable for all stakeholders: yourself, the players, the officials, the parents, the opposition, and the fans. One of the most important things to do in this effort is to examine your own attitudes toward competition and your basic philosophies about sportsmanship to ensure that you are not in any way contributing to the negativity that is bothering you. Do you encourage hostility toward the opponents? Do you control yourself when a bad call is made? Do you belittle your players in front of each other? Do you overlook the questionable behaviors of your more skilled players? If you find that you are doing these or similar things, by all means try to change your own behavior as a first step.

If you are clear about your own attitudes and behaviors, be sure to find meaningful ways to share your positive outlook with you team. Catch players when they are behaving in ways that reinforce positive team morale and praise them for it. Be sure to enforce team expectations and standards fairly regardless of the possible impact that may have on winning or losing. Establish goal-setting meetings with your team. First, meet with each player individually and try to understand as much about each player as you can. Do what you can to set them on a path to a viable team attitude. Be very honest during these meetings. Don’t make promises that you won’t be able to deliver on. Then have occasional whole-team meetings to debrief and discuss how the season is evolving in terms that reference more than winning and losing. After games, talk to the team and emphasize aspects of what happened that had a bearing on team morale. Be a good listener, but remember that you are probably the one with the most experience and insight when it comes to keeping morale where it needs to be. Demonstrate that you consider team morale to be at least as important as winning and losing. If possible, find some inspirational material from highly successful coaches and high profile athletes to reinforce the idea that teamwork and sportsmanship are inherently important and satisfying. Share this information with your team. By doing these things, you will be demonstrating to your team that you take sportsmanship seriously.

Hope this helps!

Paul Giacomelli
Editor, Breakthrough Basketball.com

Steve,

Establishing discipline and rewarding good behavior, as Paul suggests above, will certainly help your situation. I've found that most coaches can greatly improve their situation simply by applying the "right" kind of discipline.

For more information on disciplining players and getting more from them, go to:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/discipline.html

You can also check out general coaching philosophies here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/coaching.html

Good luck and let us know what works for you.

Jeff Haefner
BreakthroughBasketball.com

Need a few team bonding ideas. Upper class talent vs younger very talented team-mates. Possible out side games at a potluck with canoes and beach. Open to any fresh ideas. TIA...........Greg

Greg,

Just a few quick ideas that we've done before:

- Spaghetti dinner at the coaches house, followed by a game of indoor football in the basement. :)

- Fun games of wiffle ball or kick ball in the gym.

- Movies.

- Swim parties.

Hopefully some other people have some good ideas for you. If any more pop into my head, I'll post them later.

Jeff

Greg,

One key would be to make sure that any players you have on your team are clear and comfortable with the role you have in mind for them, particularly your upper class talent. For younger players, there's always the future, but for the older kids, the future is now. Simply put, be very careful about keeping older players you don't intend to use much.

Paul
BreakthroughBasketball.com

Steve,

My experiences suggest that before any of that negative hostility arises- set clear boundaries on the first day. Let them know that for the next 3 months, they will have to become a family, and while families constructively criticize to help you achieve your maximum potential, they don't degrade you in front of others. As soon as you see it happen, defuse the situation immediately. Hope this helps-