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My Coach Doesn’t Have Confidence in Me-hoopskills.com

My Coach Doesn't Have Confidence in Me

By Dave Stricklin http://www.hoopskills.com

Some time ago our team was

involved in a very close game

where it seemed that every

single possession was even

more important than usual.

During one particular stretch

in the second half one of our

players came off the bench

and missed three straight

three point shots on three

straight possessions. (One of

the shots was wide open and

two were semi contested.)

Not willing to risk a fourth

straight miss, I sent another

player into the game almost

immediately after the third

shot clanked off the rim.

The next day when we talked about shot

selection and managing the clock during

practice, the player who had missed three

straight shots spoke up and said, "It's hard

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My Coach Doesn’t Have Confidence in Me-hoopskills.com

for me to shoot well when I know you

don't have confidence in me."

Now I know that "My coach doesn't have confidence in me" might be the most

widely used excuse in the history of organized sports, but I decided to play along

anyway. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Instead of encouraging me after my third miss, you took me out of the game. If

you had encouraged me I probably would have made the next one."

"What if I didn't think you would make the next one?'

"You could have and should have told me anyway."

I then told the entire team that in order to increase our mental and physical

toughness we were all going up to the third floor of the athletic complex and one

by one jump off the roof and land on the concrete walkway. I told them I was

pretty confident that no one would get hurt and assured everyone that I would

enthusiastically encourage them all the way down.

One player, thinking that I was serious, asked if I ever had a team do that before

and of course I said no. Then he asked the million dollar question. "So how can

you be confident that we won't get hurt?"

Exactly! I could hope they wouldn't get hurt. I could even pray they wouldn't get

hurt. But I couldn't be confident that they would each land safely. Why? Because I

had never seen them, or anyone else for that matter, jump 30 feet onto concrete

without getting hurt.

Now back to the original shooter. I'd never seen him come in early or stay after

practice to work on his shot. I never saw him in the gym over the summer or

before he went to class in the fall. As a result I had never seen him miss three in a

row and then suddenly get hot. I guess I could have hoped or prayed that his next

shot would go in, but it's hard to be confident in something that's never

happened before!

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My Coach Doesn’t Have Confidence in Me-hoopskills.com

See, the lesson here is that confidence is based on performance not wishful

thinking!

In other words if you want your coach to have confidence in you then show him

what you can do. Want him to have confidence in your shooting? Then put in

some extra gym time. Better yet, put in some extra gym time and get him to

rebound for you. Once he sees that you can consistently get on a roll and make

eight, nine, or 10 in a row then a couple misses aren't going to bother him. He'll

know that the next shot might be the start of a long hot streak.

If you want him to have confidence in your ball handling then value every

possession in practice and concentrate on never turning the ball over. The same

idea can be applied to rebounding, defense, and running in transition.

It's time for players everywhere to trash the "My coach doesn't have confidence

in me" excuse and replace it with the much more realistic and productive "I

haven't given my coach a reason to have confidence in me yet." The key word is

YET!

Remember, seeing is believing. As soon as your coach sees what you can do, he

will believe that you can do it all the time.