I’ve read a great article of Wayne Goldsmith, who runs the blog The Sports Coaching Brain. He writes about the reasons why athletes and teams lose and brings it down to two basic aspects: You lose by being outplayed, rather then by being out-talented.
I like the way he sees it and puts it straight to the point. Let’s be honest: Who hasn’t said things after a tough loss like “They had better calls from the refs!” or “They had more luck than we did.” etc.
We’ve played against a few basketball teams, which were superior to us athletically and regarding talent. Teams like these will always exist, but the majority of teams we’ve lost to where simply executing the fundamentals better, working their offense better, hustling a lot more than we did and made the correct decisions when having the ball on offense. It’s the execution of the small things which combined will put you on the winning street.
As coaches it is our job to make sure that our players receive top preperation. Like Mike says, you have a total control over your preparation. Plan your practices better, prepare yourself and your players better, and try to work harder in practices than your opponents. Don’t limit yourself to looking for fake reasons why you’ve last the last game. Have a look at the game notes (… you do make game notes, right?) and the scouting report and review why you have lost. Then take action and do things better the next time, … by preparing throughly. If you do, you will be successful and win more games.
Have a look at his great article and put Wayne’s advices to actions! There’s a great list which should remind all of us of the little things we are responsible for.
To your success, Coaches & Players!!
[info_box]Picture credit: Joelk75 • Creative Commons Attribution[/info_box]
