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I've coached club basketball for 15-16 years now in Philly. Done it from the Local Rec League Level, Local/Regional AAU, National Tournament AAU, back to 5 year-old home league now with my son.
Had several offers to be a High School assistant but I was never able to make it work with my work schedule.
>How do you avoid one-size-fits-all motivation? I don't profess to be some sort of zen-master Feel Jackson sports psychologist. I can't change who I am, so I tend to coach and motivate in a way that is congruent with my personality. I am a positive re-enforcer. Scoring is its own reward so I tend not to say much about that, but I praise the shit out of setting a good screen, making the extra pass, playing help defense. I try not to tear down/embarrass kids him in front of the team. Also, instead of lecturing them on their mistake, turn it around and ask them questions - i.e. what happened there? what went wrong? what could you have done better? You are having the same convo, but the kid doesn't feel "picked on".
>-What's your biggest individual success/failure? Success - In 2011, A guy who had been coaching a squad in our AAU org for a few years had been dominating in local/regional circuit events for two seasons. He asked me to to come be his "co-head coach" (he was still in charge) for the upcoming season as his now 10th grade squad was going to be playing a national schedule. This was a big thing for our little program, playing against these shoe-sponsored teams.
Our team only ended up with 1 guy going low D1, a few others playing D2, and a handful ending up at D3 schools. While that isn't a bunch of bums, we were definitely "under-talented" for the schedule we were playing. We ended with around a .750 win percentage that season and beat teams like DC Assault, Boo Williams, Albany City Rocks and played teams like Cal Supreme and Team Izod/Sports U into down-to-the-wire battles. We got to the Sweet 16 at the Adidas Super 64 in Vegas. It was quite the ride.
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