new coach

hi, i just got great job(dreams come true)...i work with very talented kids..they are 13 years old.
i have one ""problem"...i can feel that they are still atached to old coach, who was "players coach". i am not that much Players coach, but i like to talk to players...anyway, i coach them for 7 days now, and i can feel that they miss old coach...not that much, but they are not quite on my side..i try to talk to them, normaly, not political campaign"vote for me":D:D, just usual stuff:" r u ok"?" how is in school".....i did win some players on my side, but not all, and not as a team..

should i give some fun drills? but i am affraid that they will think it is not serius practice....
any advice for "breaking the ice"???
thank you coaches. D

Coach,

That is pretty normal, especially for young kids.... its hard to replace someone that is loved by the players.... but it can be done. I coached that age group for 13 years before moving on to the high school level... I loved it.... they knew I cared about them, on and off the court. I'm not sure what your situation is, but IF you can do something off the court with them... watch a high school or college game... just doing something with them where its all about fun. I was lucky enough to have a head college coach at our church that gave us 40 tickets for every home game... we went to several games - this got other parents involved too.

First of all, make sure that they know that you care about them as people first and foremost. You can be the worlds greatest coach, but IF they feel you don't care about them as people, you are in for a long trip.
Secondly, be super organized with your practices - let the kids see that you know the game and you know how to coach it. Make your drills competitive, kids love to compete. Don't run any one drill for too long, that bores them - keep them moving and don't waste any time.
As you are running your practices... find out which drills the kids like.. make sure that you use them.... and for sure do something fun, especially at the END of practice. We ran "situations" - my players loved this.... situations are mini games. You set up the game.... example... 1 minute to go, down A is down two points with the ball 84 feet away from their basket. Both teams are in the bonus and have no timeouts.

Good luck and let us know how this goes... and if you have any other questions.... fire away.

I wanted to add this.... make sure you end your practice on a high note... where they have fun.... so they WANT to come to practice the next day. AND then they will go home and talk about you to their parents and believe me, they will.

Another part -- I think that a big part of coaching is becoming a "good salesman" .. meaning, being able to sell your philosophy to your team. Once they believe in you and they know you care, they will do anything you want and play hard for you.

They are 13, make sure they are having FUN while you teach the game.

thank you, coach Sar.. you really do care to educate coaches... it is great answer...

Your welcome, always nice to give back to the game I loved to coach. Good luck and I hope that things work out for you. Let us know.

here is one interesting question...
i have 2-3 players that are noise.... they like to sometime do things diferent...i know that sometime drill can be boring, but that is not reason to not dooing drill...

my question is : should i ignore those 3 players, or should i eliminate them from team?
i talked to them whole week, i don:t think they will be better...
what is your opinion?

Tough call..... do you think they are worth keeping? Are they good kids, just not motivated or do they have a short attention span?

Our rules were simple, the coaches are talking that players put the ball down between their feet and make eye contact. IF you have a question raise your hand.

Talk to them about TEAM play and how IMPORTANT it is for EVERYONE to be ON the SAME PAGE. Ask them IF they feel like they can fit into the above rules and want to be part of the TEAM?

Only you can make that call, not fair for someone to make that decision without being there... IF you feel that they will change, give them some rules to follow..... IF they get out of line, have them sit on the side.... IF they keep disrupting practice, tell them they can leave. IF this continues, you might not have another choice other than releasing them.

Have you tried talking to the parents regarding this situation? That is another way to go here... it all depends on whether you feel that you want them part of your team. Good luck.

great post Coach...you helped me ...i will try this new approach...
i just don:t wish to take this on personal level, so players don:t feel that i have something against them...i wish them better, but we started on wrong leg :D...
i coached them 5 practices, i hope they will try to understand me...
i will try to win them one by one, it should be good idea.. what do you think?

Find their leader - get him on your side and the rest should fall in line. It gets a lot easier once you have a few guys in your corner... good luck.

Five practices, they are just getting to know each other - be patient.

Coach Sar wrote:Find their leader - get him on your side and the rest should fall in line. It gets a lot easier once you have a few guys in your corner... good luck.

Five practices, they are just getting to know each other - be patient.

ooohh, thet konw each other well, for 2 years. only new is me,,,

True, but what I am saying is to find the one that they listen to... the one kid that they all look up to on and off the court.... IF they were picking teams, who would be the first one they would pick? That is probably your best athlete.... maybe your leader too.
Once you sell him on what you want to do, it will be easier to get the others to follow suit.

Here is another big key, IF they know that you can KNOW and UNDERSTAND the game... and can TEACH it... they wil listen.... and IF they see that you CARE about them as people.... that is more than half the battle.
IF they think you don't care about them.... I don't care how good of coach you are, they probably wont listen to you.
Good luck and keep us informed.

There is always that adjustment period when taking over a team.

At all levels, players have a certain attachment to the previous coach.

You are the authority figure and have to command respect.

It's something that's earned and takes time.

This is not a hardline approach, but one of incorporating the old with the new.

Good luck and best wishes.

Coach: I had a similar situation in Hong Kong but this was with a professional team. The players loved their old coach but he was fired by the owner because they had a couple of sub par seasons. The first few practices were difficult for me because I was introducing MY drills which they had never done before and had to be taught. There was some apathy but i kept introducing my own personal philosophy to them. Winning is a great motivator for any team and we went 36-4 and lost in the league championship however, once they were familiar with my drills, my offense and defense and once we began winning, the old coach was just a fleeting glimmer in their eyes soon to be forgotten. Good luck Coach Mac

Great points Mac.....

By the way, I forgot to congratulate you on your "dream" job... Enjoy all of this... remember, sports and coaching is like life - a "journey and not a destination."

Coach Mac and I (along with Don Kelbick) are a few of the more "seasoned" coaches here... :-) and we never stopped learning and I would bet that they wouldn't trade this profession for anything - I know I wouldn't.