So, I am watching Man to Man with Jim Huber -

Let me first say, "Mind Blown".

He brings up a great point about coaches communicating, being loud, being an aggressive communicator as a coach.

I so struggle with this. I am like a big docile teddy bear. I am realizing that if I want to have Coach Kelbick's transition, Coach Haske's uptempo press and Coach Huber's Man to Man, I am going to have to be much more vocal and louder with my team.

Any thoughts on how a 43 year old gentle giant can be more vocal?

Coach,

I don't believe that you have to be louder or more aggressive as a coach to get a more aggressive performance out of your team. I think that sends the wrong message. I've seen plenty of coaches who are soft spoken, and quiet, but get very aggressive, hard, fast performances from their teams.

My own coaching I've found has been better as I've toned down a little. My players were focusing too much on HOW I said something, rather than WHAT I was saying. You want players to be good at assimilating instruction.

It is about what you ALLOW players to do at practice, not how you communicate it.

Want to play fast break basketball? What do you do the first time they walk the ball up the court instead of push it hard? Do you correct? Do you let it go? Each will have an affect on your style of play.

Want to play nose to nose, man to man defense? What do you do the first time someone doesn't close out? The first time someone doesn't force a man to put the ball on the floor? The first time they are out of position help-side?

Do you correct it immediately? Do you praise those who do what you want? Or do you let it slide? These have a greater affect on your teams style of play than the volume of your message.

To summarize, it is not the volume, or the aggressiveness in which you speak. It is completely about what you allow on the basketball court. You can still be your big-teddy-bear self. But instantly correct those who don't play the way you want. AND PRAISE those who do things you want to instill in your program.

Otherwise, be technique sound in your teaching, and have confidence in who you are. It will carry you farther.

Just my thoughts.

Brian Sass

Bradley, what works for Jim Huber may not work for you. You have to coach to your personality.

Otherwise, the players will know that it's not authentic and this can create disconnect between you and the team.

As Brian mentioned, you can still be demanding and not have to be loud.

These are things that I demand:
- Box Out on every shot.
- Sprint the floor on offense and defense.
- Pass to the open player.
- No yelling at teammates in a derogatory manner.
- Sprint to areas defensively.
- Have a good attitude.
- Sprint off the floor whether it's a timeout or substitution.

Joe and Brian hit the nail on the head. I've found that kids can sense when a coach isn't being real. I had parents come up to me and give me permission to yell at their kids. Guess I wasn't loud enough for them. When I did get excited, everyone knew it and it seemed to have more impact.

Do you feel like your player's aren't responding to your current coaching style?

Well, the season has started for us yet. We go on 12/1 - I am sure I will know more in a few days ;)

So stoked to start the season!

Brad -

I really love the Huber DVDs too. And it's funny you bring this up. I can relate. After watching from the original video shoot and then seeing the footage, I adapted some of his ideas and his style too. And another coach around that time happened to suggest that I be more of a sticker about making sure they do everything on defense the right way.

So I kinda adopted the intensity that Coach Huber shows when he coaches. It worked fine the first week or two. But after a while the kids stopped responding to me.

I had to take a step back and realized that I was being a real ass. I was a coach I would not want to play for. It was mostly because I was trying to be someone else.

I even have notes in my coaching log and documented this. Afterwards I consciously made some changes to my coaching and even put reminders in my practice plans. I felt I really needed to make some changes.

Jim Huber is awesome at what he does. He holds kids accountable and I feel that is important. I do too. However I have a different way of doing that. My own style. Huber does things on and off the court that makes his style work. However I don't do those things so I was not able to adapt his style.

Once I went back to my own style (with a few borrowed improvements from Huber) and regained the players respect, things were much better.

In the long run I was a much better coach for it, but I had to learn some lessons and find my way.

I think you need to find your own way to connect with players, motivate them, and get them playing at a high level. I know really great coaches who do not yell at all. And I know others who yell constantly. Here are some motivations ideas that might help you and that match up with your personality:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/mental/motivate-players.html

The DVDs by the way are pretty awesome. I borrowed a lot of stuff from those.

Hopefully my story allows you to avoid a little bit of the pain I went through.

Coach Rob,

I have had the same thing happen. I've had parents come up to me and say "You need to be 'tougher' on your kids" and "You can yell at them, I don't mind".

Parents that say that are normally equating screaming, yelling, and being demonstrative to actually teaching and coaching.

I've told parents that I should not have to yell at a kid to get them to try hard. If I do, does the kid really love the sport to begin with? What is their motivation to play? Is it for love of the game or because the parent loves the game?

My message is sent from the bench. If I'm not playing you, it is because you aren't trying hard enough, or you aren't understanding what I want you do on the court. I will continue to work with you and coach you up. But I'm not going to embarrass you in front of your parents during a game. I'm not going to embarrass you in front of your team mates at practice. The effort of a player is a given for me. I don't coach effort. The player either brings it every day or they don't play.

That's how I hold kids accountable.

Brian Sass

Great advice Brian!

Joe,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am a silent but intense kind of guy. I guess that comes from playing poker - LOL

I don't equate communicating with being loud though and I think that was misunderstood. What I need to work on is being able to verbalize the change that is needed on the court.

Thanks again for posting your experience.