The Random Ramblings of Coach Reggie...
« "Pennies in a Jar" - This is a story I tell at parents' meetings at the beginning of every basketball season: Basketball is 90% mental. You need a lot of self-confidence to be a good player. Think of a player like an empty jar. If she's having a good day so far you can add a couple of pennies to the jar. If on the way to the game you don't lecture her and she's in a good mood, you can add more pennies to the jar. If she enjoys basketball and likes her team, already you can add more pennies because she's somewhere she wants to be. Let's say during the pre-game meeting the coach and players keep it very positive and encouraging, that's more pennies for the jar. When she enters the game (whether it's off the bench or as a starter) she shoots and scores. More pennies. She's fired up and on defense she gets a steal, goes on a fast break, and scores again. More pennies. Back on offense, she again gets the ball and shoots... but this time... As she's shooting, someone yells, "Pass it!" This throws off her shot and it doesn't go in. A few pennies fall out of the jar... and not because she missed the shot, but because of what was said. Now a parent yells, "Chucker!" The coach yells at her, "Concentrate on your shot!" The next time down the floor she's wide open for the shot, her teammates are covered, but she doesn't want to shoot because she's afraid of what will be said. So, she forces a bad pass instead and it results in a turnover. More pennies are taken out of the jar. The coach is now yelling at her for not taking the shot. Now there are even less pennies in the jar. Feeling defeated, she jogs back on defense instead of hustling to make up for it... and now she's being taken out for not trying hard. Sitting down on the bench, she doesn't want to go back in. There are no more pennies left in the jar. »
« When I first start coaching a team I go over with them the shooting form I want them to use. After explaining to them from feet to head exactly how I want them to stand, etc. a joke I like to tell them is, "I want you to shoot every single shot you take for the rest of your life exactly like this. If you take all of them like this, they will all go in." The ones who are a little more familiar with basketball smile and laugh... The ones who are new study your face to see if you're serious... Then they each go off to a basket to practice the form. They, new and old players, realize within minutes how difficult it is to keep that form during every shot. They basically self-teach the lesson that basketball must be practiced a lot to be perfected and that even after practicing for hours the results may not be what you want them to be. So... Why do coaches and parents get so bent out of shape when players (children, none-the-less!) don't perform to their potential? Or when players make what adults consider "simple" mistakes? Or don't do what they were told to do? The answer is easy: Basketball isn't easy! If it were that easy... coaches wouldn't be needed. Coaches could just give a list of everything he/she wanted done and games would be played without mistake: "Today I want you to box out every time there is a shot and then go for the rebound. If you get it on offense, put it back up strong. If you get it on defense, turn and make a smart pass out." How many times up and down the court do you think it will work exactly like that? If the response is, "not every time." Is the next thought, "...but we told them to do it! We can't do it for them!" Exactly... but that's what makes basketball so fun - the constant changing... no game is exactly the same. People make mistakes, that's what makes the game what it is. It's also not easy being out there... and to tell someone to do something, is a lot easier than actually doing it yourself. »
« I like other sports. I love basketball. It's my passion. When it came down to it, I realized that while I was playing another sport, for example soccer, I could be playing basketball. For every second I'm spending doing something else, I could be practicing basketball. Basketball is my life, nothing comes between me and basketball. »
« Anytime a player starts wearing something an NBA player wears I HAVE to laugh... because... Do you want to be your own player? Or do you want to be another player? I certainly don't want people not knowing my name and referring to me as the player who is 'just like so-and-so' ... »
« Anyone who says to me: "Practice makes perfect, but nobody is perfect, so why practice?" Here is my response: I'm a coach and I'll never see it that way... SO GO PRACTICE! »
« I saw this quote somewhere, "I'm at practice, working my butt off so I can sit on the bench at games." So much heart - and so true for a lot of players. »
« The scoreboard is for the fans... What's for you? Hopefully the heart. »