Athletes Are Made, Not Born

Last week, in the article about the future for the WNBA, I mentioned my philosophical approach to coaching and teaching skills. There have always been pros and cons related to this thought, along with the methodology of coaching, no matter what the sport. So now I feel I must explain how I managed to come to this realization, and what I have discovered throughout my career that backs up this philosophy, a reinforcement, if you will, of a strategy to teaching and coaching. First of all, in so many words, I just stated that teaching and coaching are identical. I have grown to believe that a coach and teacher have the capability of becoming a conduit of knowledge or skill that transfers to the students and athletes. Briefly, let me explain a myth: one of the clichés that relates to the visual arts is a common statement, “I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler.” I have seen former students of mine learn to draw through the process of a step-by-step approach that helped them develop their skill, and without a ruler. I have read different books and articles that relate to the theory that we all have unlimited potential. First of all, as a coach/teacher you have to have patience with a method or plan of instruction to enable your students to grasp what it is you’re trying to pass on to them. Second, you must remember that each athlete and student has a different way of learning and understanding. The trick is to get into their learning processes through repetitive practice and cognition, and hardwire their brains so it comes naturally for them. Some coaches and even teachers have different philosophical beliefs. That’s why we’re all unique in our own way. Groups of people with a common purpose can have their own personality, like a team. Throughout my career as a coach, never have I had the notion that my teams will run the same plays, offenses, and defenses. I don’t support the belief that it’s, “My way or the highway.” Generally, I do not have a single strategy that I live or die by, therefore, I do not use as a carbon copy of a system for every season, or team. Whatever my strategy is for a particular group relates to the team’s personality and skill level. In other words, if I had a team that had one outstanding player, I would use an offense that would revolve around that player, but also present opportunities for the rest of the team — like the triangle offense used by the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era. On the other hand, with a team that has a multitude of talented players, I would focus on using offensive sets that had many players touching the ball, like Duke’s motion offense. I am a huge believer of individual skill development, both in the classroom and the gym. I have many stories to share, but I will mention a few to use for examples. In the early 1970s when I was coaching the boys JV basketball team at Saratoga Springs, a 6-foot-5-inch varsity player saw me working with my players on their shooting technique. After practice he asked me if I would help him work at his game, especially his shooting. Of course, I said I would. I was told by an adult, who observed what we were doing, that it is possible that I might be wasting my time because he felt that it was too late for the kid, a high school junior, to break his old habits and learn new skills. In my subconscious mind, I totally disagreed. This player finished his junior year with a mere three points and five rebounds per game that season. We continued our work almost every day after practice, and at the season’s end I gave him some homework related to what he was learning, along with the changes that he needed to make to reinforce his new shooting skills. The following season, his senior year, I was still coaching JVs. He averaged 24 points a game, with one game of 37 points against one of the top teams in the Albany area. In a later time, when I was Saratoga’s varsity basketball coach, I had a player who was a junior and we were preparing to play in a big game on the coming Friday for the league title. On the Thursday night before the title game, after practice, he and I worked on his jump shot. Practice ended around 6 p.m., but we left the gym between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. The next night he scored 34 points, a game we won by two points to clinch the championship and an undefeated season. Before his outburst of points, he was averaging about 10 points per game. The next season, he averaged over 21 points a game. Later in his college career, he was selected as a First Team Division II All-American. In my third year of a 10-year career as the girls’ coach at Saratoga, one of my four sophomore girls was shooting her jump shot with two hands. It was like the old set shots of yesterday, but with a jump. We changed that with a lot of work and dedication on her part and in her senior year she had a great jump shot—the right way. She eventually was named player of the year by the local press, and went on to play at a well-known DI school. At the same time, we had a 6-foot-tall freshman—a great rebounder who had a flawed shot. With her hard work and will to change, she developed a great jump shot. She went on to play DIII basketball and was named the SUNY freshman of the year. I have experienced many stories like these with former players and I know through their determination, along with their willingness to make changes, they were able to improve their game to a higher skill level. One teaching story I would like to share. There was a young lady I had as a student in the mid ’80s. She wanted so much to become an architect and to do that she had to have outstanding drawing skill. Over a two-year period of drawing classes and homework, someone close to her said to me that she wasn’t good enough to become an architect, partly because it was primarily a man’s world. I insisted that she was very capable. Later on she was accepted to Cornell with a strong portfolio of her drawings. She is now the architect she dreamed of becoming. We all have potential and there will always be some limitations and barriers that we all face, but that doesn’t mean these shortcomings can’t be turned into a victory. Nothing comes easy, or is easy. Life has many challenges, but with determination and the will to learn, barriers can and will fall. These former players and students who I have used as examples never said to me, “I can’t.” It was their drive and desire to be as good as they could possibly be that throttled their success. There is a book titled, “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle, where he provides many stories of success through hard work. He mentions in the book how “Greatness isn’t born, it’s grown.” I highly recommend this book as an excellent source relating to the topic of developing skills, whether it be through athletics, art, music, writing or anything else.