Saturday, October 25, 2008

TO BE A GOOD COACH

Ladell Anderson is a legendary coach in the state of Utah. He was an assistant at Utah under Jack Gardner before returning to his alma mater Utah State where he coached from 1961 through 1971, guiding them to four NCAA tournaments and two NITs. In 1970 he lead Utah State to the Elite 8 where they lost to eventual national champion UCLA. One of his assistants at Utah State was Dale Brown and because of that I had the good fortune to spend some time with him several years ago to pick his brain. Here is a quick sample of some of the things he passed on to me.

To be a good coach you need to...

...have a vision

...the ability to motivate

...have confidence

...be desperately honest (with everyone)

...commit to solid core values

...have courage (you can develop this)

...understand your players' background

...know how to pull a team together (team)

...find a leader on your team (if you don't have one, develop one)

...be prepared (organizational wise)

...be prepared for changes that have an impact