Be Passionate About Your Players’ Passion!!
Rob Collier
Assistant Basketball Coach
Clearview High School
Lorain, Ohio
Coach Peterman challenged me to write about what I am passionate about, and what I am most passionate about is passion. Over the past few years, I have assigned to my students “Passion Projects” that they have worked on over the course of the school year. The results have been amazing, and it has influenced my relationships with my players. I have started to intentionally coach PASSION!! From the weight room to the meeting room, and the locker room to the court, I have tried to instill this in all that we do on our team and our program. This includes communicating during drills with passion. Recognizing our teammates success and contributions with sincerity. Working and playing with an energy that is contagious, and supporting other teams or groups in our school and community with enthusiasm. And finally, accepting our own mistakes and those of our teammates and coaches with compassion.
We teach passion by rewarding passionate communication in practice. During Shell, we are looking for great energy, correct footwork and passionate communication. The faster this is all done, the less time the defense is in the drill. We make it a point to sprint to teammates during a dead ball who have tried to take a charge or hit the floor for a loose ball. We stand and cheer from the bench for the same reasons. We acknowledge every contribution while watching film especially players being great teammates from the bench. We encourage active participation in our student sections at other teams’ games, and we only allow identifying mistakes in others with a solution to improve the weakness.
Intentionally coaching passion has improved the productivity of our practices and our performance in games. Our collective passion has led to growth in all of our players in the classroom, weight room and on the court. It has brought our players closer together on and off the court, and ultimately increased their PASSION for the game.
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