Educate the Heart

This was a video that was shown to us a couple of times now, initially during one of our Thursday seminars. It is one that had a real effect on me because of the powerful message that it sends of the role that a teacher, coach, or mentor can play in a child’s life. In my own experiences be that in coaching, or through the BGC I have always looked at my role as more than just coach or tutor. This has often extended to being open and available to my athlete or mentees for any concerns they may have. As a coach I strive to get to know each and every player on a level that is beyond that of simply what they do well not the basketball court. In this way I have never sought just to teach lessons about the sport I am coaching or the homework I am helping with but relating things to broader concepts of life.

My co-coach and I made it our goal at the start of the season this year to look at creating a culture that taught the young men we coached about how to be good people, in addition to basketball players. This begins with our “standards” for our team where we talk about honesty, commitment, hard work and all of these other facets of being a contributing human being that extend beyond the basketball court. There is always room for improvement though and One of my joys in life is watching other people coach and teach. These are great learning experiences about how others deal with problems, teach and what they choose to focus on, and serve as a great starting point for creating my ever expanding coaching and teaching philosophy to suit the needs of myself as a coach and my players.