February 1, 2012

Practice like you coach

Hello from Radford, VA. It’s hard to believe that we have reached the month of February.  In one month, the regular season will be over for most D1 programs and the anticipation of Conference Tournament play will soon become a reality.  How can a season that involves so many days and so many hours of work/preparation be winding down already?

Here at Radford, the season has been a whirlwind.  It seems like yesterday I was driving from PA to Radford for my first day of work on July 5^th.  This has been a great opportunity for my career.  We are in the process of building something special and I have enjoyed the challenges we have faced daily as a staff and as a program.

The purpose of this post sort of brings the past six months of my life full circle.   After we returned from the July recruiting period, we finally had the opportunity to sit down as a fully assembled staff and talk about the direction of our program, our current roster, recruiting and about one-thousand other aspects that go into building a successful basketball program.  When discussing our current roster and the upcoming season, Coach Jones had mentioned to me that I would often have to practice with the team due to our relatively low number of guards in the program.

Certainly, as a person who loves to play the game (and would play pick-up six or seven days a week if given the time), this was something I looked forward to doing.  Having the chance to step on the floor and compete is what I live for.  However, as I have learned over the years from doing this same thing at other places I have worked, the task is not as easy as it sounds.

As a coach, we constantly push our guys to do things better: Cut harder, be more physical, defend with more urgency, etc.  When a coach steps on the floor, believe me, they haven’t forgot one thing you have told them.  They hold you accountable for all that you demand!  You better not turn the ball over, or jog the lane or miss a blockout.  You will definitely hear it from each one of them, and maybe even from Coach Jones.

In addition, when you step on the floor as a coach, you have to tame some of your competitive spirit.  You know that the players might hit you a little harder or be slightly more aggressive than usual, might even have something to say after getting a defensive stop or forcing a turnover.  Although you might feel the urge to fire back, at the end of the day, you have to let that go.

Although it can be challenging, having a coach that is able to jump into practice and compete can really increase the level of intensity in a practice.  Simply jumping in to play defense in a drill will make the players raise their level of aggressiveness.  See, players want to “go at” the coach and the last thing they want is to hear it from their teammates that a coach got the better of them during the course of practice.  Therefore, the players all of the sudden have a personal challenge; they want to prove to the coach they are a better player.

Over the course of the past several weeks, I think this has improved our practices and preparation for the next opponent.  I have spent more time on the scout team and have even participated more fully in practices.  I have certainly had my fair share of turnovers (and yes, I need to get myself back in the weight room).  However, just watching the intensity of each player who is guarding me as they step on the floor makes me realize that we have some very competitive players in our program. 

The only way for our program to continue to grow and move forward is to make sure we get better every day.  I hope me stepping on the floor can be a small part of helping the program.

Wishing everyone the best as they enter the second part of Conference play.  I’ll be back in March.  Go Highlanders!

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