It's the Coach's Fault

“It’s the Coach’s Fault”

“It’s the coach’s fault...”

This phrase is usually attributed to activities in the field of sports. In this book however, I’d like to take a look at the phrase, not just sports related, but also in the social environment. Sometimes we can look at things that have absolutely nothing to do with sports; we can look at how something develops; we can look at a social activity; we can look at an academic activity and we can look at something in the business field; we get evaluated from so many different viewpoints and in the end, regardless of whether the result is negative or positive, we can look back and say “it’s the coach’s fault”.

Why should you read this book...?

“There is almost always someone watching...”

“There is almost always someone watching...”

This phrase is usually attributed to activities in the field of sports. In this book however, I’d like to look at the phrase from another vantage point; not just sports related, but also in the social environment. Sometimes we can look at a sports activity and apply what we see in it to a situation that has absolutely no direct connection to an athletic activity.

We can look at how something develops in the athletic environment... and we can apply it to a social activity... we can apply it to an academic activity or we can apply it to something in the business field. We all get evaluated based on many different criteria and, in the end, regardless of whether the result is negative or positive, we can look back and say, “it’s the coaches fault.”

There is always someone watching....

With very few exceptions, every time someone does something (good or bad), in some manner it is possible to say that it’s the coach’s fault. Coaches are also teachers, parents and others in positions of authority. In a different sense, we are all coaches. Every one of us who comes in contact with others is placed in a position to teach. Even when we don’t consciously make an effort to do so, our actions affect those around us and if we are in any way, shape or form in a leadership position, then we are coaching.

The successful individuals who were taught well and prepared for the task they accomplished... They had coaches.

Artland Dragons on the way up... with D.Strauch and C.Fleming

Nothing happens in a vacuum... Even when someone accomplishes something “seemingly” on their own, without assistance... Somewhere there was a motivating element. It might even be a negative experience. That player, who was cut from a team and later becomes a very good player may have been motivated by the coach who cut him. Yes, that player must go out and work his tail off to become a good player ... but he derives his motivation from the man who said he was not ready... In essence ... It was that coach’s fault.

Coaches can show them the way…. But they have to do the work.

C.Wiegand fought through the pain and disappointment of injuries

In the Spring of 2016 she was awarded a scholarship to play at Gardner-Webb University

V.Karambatsa as a youth player in Leipzig in 2008

V.Karambatsa was a member of the Greek National Team in 2015

reunited in 2016-2017 while coaching the Women’s Bundesliga Team in Gruenberg, Germany

For me, as a coach, it feels somewhat like an architect or interior designer who has a choice regarding accepting two job offers.

One potential client offers you a large amount of money to build something for him. He gives you all of the specifications and designs concepts. He provides all of the materials and funds.

Another interested party offers you less money and all he says is “Here is an idea of what I want. Build me something good, something I will like. Here are the funds you will need.”

From the standpoint of personal income and headaches, the first client is certainly the best option, but there is something about the second opportunity.

What? You might ask.

It’s the feeling of pride and accomplishment. It’s yours. You started with nothing and put yourself into it. It’s a part of you.

There is a definite distinction between coaching and teaching. Most coaches who are worth their salt are capable of coaching. Coaching is sometimes all about managing.

Your players are generally well-skilled, and your job is to direct them to victory. You manage the game with offensive and defensive tactics. You manage playing time. No, it’s not always easy, but the more skilled your players are, the better your chances of succeeding.

Teaching Basketball - now that is a completely different story. It is especially unique when it involves starting with players who have never played or who have minimal experience.

There is a special feeling in your heart when you look out on to the floor and see players who learned the game from its complicated beginnings and emerged on the other end and fundamentally solid players. Should one or two of them manage to excel and become really good players, then your sense of pride increases exponentially.

I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with some great young individuals.

With some of them, it is fair to say that I have gone full-circle.

A.Potratz (3rd from Right) started with me in Quakenbrueck

In 2016-2017 I had the opportunity to coach A.Potratz in the Women’s Professional League in Germany (2.DBBL)

To have two players simultaneously playing professionally for me, who had both been set on their courses in my program made me feel really good.

Further down the road, to still have contact and good relations with former players always makes you feel good about what you’ve done.

Detlef Musch / Andreas Helmkamp

Detlef left Fulda and went on to have very successful career - first at Davidson College, then in the German Professional League and on the German National Team as well .. as did James Marsh (right)

No .. It’s not just about the players who go to college or make it to the professional level.

S.Tarasewicz is a “late starter” who began playing in 2015...in 2017 she is among the top scorers in the league. For me, it is just as rewarding to see her performing as a contributing member of my Women’s Team in Germany in 2017

I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with so many great young individuals. Some of them essentially began with me. Others are players whose paths crossed with mine along the journey. I’ll tell you more about many of them later.

In some way we are all coaches. In our families, our communities, our jobs and in our teams...someone is looking to us for guidance... even if we don’t realize it...

In a manner of speaking, we are always coaching because there is almost always someone watching....

Role Models.... What motivated me...!

A Boy’s Idol....

When I was a Junior at Olney High School, I began copying things in a scrap book, my “Commonplace Book” ...

What is a “Commonplace Book”

Commonplace books (or commonplaces) were a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books.

They became significant in Early Modern Europe.

“Commonplace” is a translation of the Latin term locus communis which means “a theme or argument of general application”, such as a statement of proverbial wisdom. In this original sense, commonplace books were collections of such sayings, such as John Milton’s commonplace book. Scholars have expanded this usage to include any manuscript that collects material along a common theme by an individual.

Such books were essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and humanistsas an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator’s particular interests.

So, there you have it...! .... and this is mine... actually my whole Web-Site and Facebook Pages are a sort of Commonplace Book...

I collected poems, newspaper articles and other writings. It became a collection of material which I would use for motivation. At the time it was solely intended to help me personally, but, over time, it became a source that I would use as a coach to try and guide others. Sometime, during my sophomore year at Hofstra, I found this poem and I have kept a copy of it to this day.

This Poem motivated me and helped to keep me moving in the right direction...

It was written by Stewart “Stu” Brynn, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1934 and died in 2013.

He was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard and among other things he was the head football coach at Tabor College in Kansas.

A Boy’s Idols....by Stu Byrnn

When I was six years old, I idolized two boys older than me by five and seven years. Both had all the makings of fine athletes. I watched them constantly as they caught a pass, hit a baseball, made a basket, and I pictured the day when I would be like them.

I GREW AND THEY GREW.

I listened as they told of how they took it easy in practice sessions; how they refused to block for a teammate they didn’t like; how they chewed Dentyne and rubbed their hands with after-shave lotion so the coach wouldn’t know they were smoking.

I listened as they called their mother “old lady” and their father “old man”; as they called this teacher and that coach something else they spoke of Church and God as being non-existent.

I listened as they laughed about quitting a team; being thrown off a team; being thrown out of a game for fighting; being thrown out of school.

It thrilled me to catch a pass thrown by them, hit a ball pitched by them, or retrieve a basketball shot by them. My day was made when they would say “hello” or simply nod their head in my direction. They were my idols. I longed to be an athlete just like them.

I watched and listened as they bragged about cheating in school. I absorbed all of the ways of cribbing on exams: the hidden answers written on the palm of the hand, the half-opened book on the floor.

I listened as they bragged about how many beers they could drink; how many girls they had had; how many nights they had broken curfew.

I listened as they bragged about telling off a teacher; about stealing library books; about stealing equipment from the locker room.

I listened as they swore. Man, they were the greatest! They were my idols. I hoped to be an athlete just like them.

I GREW AND THEY GREW.

I became a man. Suddenly, I saw my life in perspective. I wondered about my two idols. Surely, they were successful; surely they were all-Americans; surely they were pillars of their community.

I searched and found them. Alas, both had given up struggling to establish themselves as plain, ordinary people. They had set no records, achieved no goals, set no world on fire.

Then I wondered: Could some young, aspiring athlete have idolized me? Had I led him down the same trail I had followed? Had he longed to be an athlete-- just like me?

THEY HAVE GROWN OLDER AND SO HAVE I.

My sons with watch and listen to you because you are athletes. You will wear the Crimson and Grey. Many other sons will watch and listen to you, too. You are their idols. They will long to be athletes just like you.

YOU WILL GROW AND THEY WILL GROW.

Someday you will have sons. Perhaps my sons will be their idols. Your sons will want to be athletes just like them.

Once I had worshipped them. Now, no one in the community gave them a second look.

My parents: Could I ever repay them for the sorrow and anguish I had brought them? My teachers and coaches: Could I ever befriend them? Other people who had suffered because of me: Could they ever forgive me? That young, aspiring athlete: Could he forgive me? Where is he now because of me?

Now as a parent, I love my sons deeply. I want them to love God. I want them to serve man. I want them to be athletes.

So, don’t forget... There is almost always someone watching.

This book is an appeal to all of us to do the best we can ... because in the end... It’s the coach’s fault... Ray “Ritz” Ingram

As for me, today I’m a coach and I’ve been a coach for a long time. As I look back over my life and ask myself the question “Why am I a coach?” The answer would be without question ...it’s the coaches’ fault... More on that in another section...

So....Why read this book?

Why should anyone read this book? .. Will anything change in your life because you read this book? ..

Will it make you a better person? ..

Will it make you a better parent? ..

Will it make you a better coach? ..

Will it make you a better player? ..

Will it make you a better referee? ..

Will it have any positive effect on your life?

There’s no way for me to answer that. There’s no way for me to guarantee that anything you read here will have any effect whatsoever on anything that you do. On the other hand, there is a possibility that something that I say might have an impact in some way, shape or form on some aspect of your life.

As a person and as a coach I have always believed that it’s the little things that often make the most difference. It’s not always some major event.

That’s why, at practice, I spend so much time working on the little things ... making sure that a player makes a fake convincingly... that the players try to execute every movement in an offense with perfection.

I try to make sure that they learn all of the little things that are involved in each play. I try to make sure that they do all the little technical things right in shooting, dribbling, passing, rebounding and every other aspect of the game because I believe it’s the little things that make the difference in the end.

Let’s imagine that you run a play at the end of the game to get your best player a shot and there are only two seconds remaining in the game.

He gets the shot and the ball goes in the basket... but... the ref says the basket doesn’t count because he didn’t get the shot off in time. You ask yourself what happened... You look at the video and you see that he didn’t use the screen properly and that allowed the defender to get through and that forced him further from the basket... or you see that the pass was not accurate and he had to reach for the ball and then gather himself before he could shoot.

There can be any number of other seemingly insignificant elements that caused him to use more time to get his shot...

Well, maybe we can look at this book in the same way...

Maybe most of the things you read in this book will have absolutely no effect on anything you do... but then maybe one sentence... one little comment about coaching, teaching, playing, officiating, or parenting will jump out at you...

Maybe one item, one sentence might strike a chord and influence you to think a little bit differently about something.

That one item may cause you to make a change in an offense or do something different with your kids, or do something different as a ref. If one sentence causes you to see your calls differently, coach your team a little differently, give one player a little more playing time or another player a little less playing time...

If something in this book results in your being less argumentative or better capable of holding your ground and doing what’s best for you...

if one small suggestion makes a change in anything you do, then everything that I have written here will have served its purpose.