Imagine being a player in practice and constantly being yelled at, insulted, made fun of and badgered. Would you respond in a positive way or would you lash out at the person that was bombarding you with negativity? On the flip side, if you were helped along with kind words and advice, and constructive criticism instead of insults, you are far more likely to respond in a better way than you would if you were hit with negativity. It is the job of the coach to not only set the pace of the environment surrounding his team, but to also keep tabs on the vibes around the team and ensure that as much of the negativity is kept out as possible.

While a coach may not always have the most positive responses or opinions, it is the coach’s job to ensure that the players get along and that the feedback given to them from the coach is constructive and not negative or destructive. It may be hard, and occasionally a coach will have to take a personal time out and blow off some steam to ensure that the frustration doesn’t blow over and end up affecting the team.

The coach’s attitude affects the team, but the coach also has to control the attitudes within his team. Sometimes this is hard to balance, and negativity from any direction can cause some big issues. This can disrupt your team and cause very big and long lasting conflicts. Anything that arises that causes disagreements or fights needs to be dealt with swiftly, and if anything happens to erupt into a fight, immediate action and response needs to be undertaken by the coach to ensure that repeats don’t happen, and that the situation concludes in a fashion that ensures all parties walk away with positive resolution.

Any actions, responses, or moves by the coach can affect the team, which means in the end that the coach ends up being watched nlike under a microscope and has to pay attention to even the most microscopic details. Coaches cannot afford to yell, scream, or punch someone because the affects are a lot different than if a player were to act out against another player. Negative actions and attitudes from a coach can cause the team, fans, or parents to lose confidence in the coach, and therefore the damage would be absolute and irreparable.

Coach’s need to ensure that they go into each and every practice upbeat and ready to go, and leave anything from the outside world off the court. On the other hand this means, that everything that happened in the gym should also stay there. Letting non-basketball situations affect the team is something a coach needs to not only teach his players, but has to practice himself. Outside the court, situations are a big issue in the sporting world as they affect the attitudes of coaches and players. Coaches need to ensure that they do not contribute to the issues, and if a certain player or game is causing an excessive amount of frustration, the coach needs to learn to deal with it on the spot, and blow off steam and frustrations later when it won’t affect the team.

Picture credit: Little Silver • Creative Commons Attribution