Questions From Subscribers...

That's a tough one. We believe that motivation begins in practice and your relationship with the players. Building a caring and trusting relationship goes a long way.

You can set goals to help motivate. Sometimes its small goals, like out-rebounding the other team or having less than ten turnovers. If they have some pride, they'll get it done. The thing is that you'll need an assistant to keep stats during the games.

Motivation really depends on each individual player too. Each player will respond differently and you need to get to know them. For example, some players respond really well to a good butt-chewing and some players won't. Instead, they may play worse. Some coaches will have individual meetings with players and set individual goals.


Here are some other articles that help with player relationships:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/earntrust.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/communicating.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/discipline.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/philosophy.html

what do you do when you have a incredibly talented player, but their work ethic even as a 13yo 7th grader is lackluster. And then it spills over to the team to the point where it can become canerous?

First, you should sit down and talk to that player individually. Tell them that he has great talent and he could do a lot of good things with that talent. Tell him that the other players look up to him and if he doesn't play hard, they think it's okay for them not too play hard. If he wants to be a really good player, he needs to work hard and stay positive. Tell him, you want him to be the team leader. Most of the time, a kid will take great pride in this and work hard to set the right example.

You also need to say to your players that you only play if you practice hard.

Bench the player players for most of the next game if you have to get the message across. As Bobby Knight likes to say, "There's a straight line from the bench through your butt to your brain." I think I worded it a little nicer than he did :)

i'm a pretty young coach, what do you do when you have a very talented player but they seem to play to the level of competition because they say they are bored. how do I get this player(s) to push themselves or challenge themselves? it makes it harder in practice because the second string is nowhere near the talent of our top players..so how do i get them to work harder in practice and games to their full potential?

Jasmine,

Solving this problem will take time.

It''s all about what you emphasize and your coaching philosophy. I have always believed that you should not talk about winning or emphasize winning. Instead, coaches should emphasize always working to improve, playing the best they can, and playing the "right" way.

This is something you must repeat over and over. This is something you must demonstrate in your actions every day.

After a game or at half time, you should not talk about the score. You should emphasize the things above. If they are not striving to their potential (even if they''re up by 50) they should know you are not happy.

If you emphasize these things long enough, you''re team will start picking up what you think is important. And they''ll play hard no matter who you face.

Their competition is not the team they are playing. They are competing against themselves. What can they do today to get better? Could they do better? Can they play harder? Are they doing what it takes to be successful and improve everyday?

That''s all you can ask from a team. Winning or losing has nothing to do with those things. Although, if you stress them long enough, winning will be a by-product of the things you emphasize.

This is just my opinion. Other coaches have a different philosophy.

Jeff Haefner