2. Be Unpredictable
Basketball seasons can be long, especially at the higher levels. When practices are routine and expected, players often become bored. Uninterested players don’t put forth worthwhile physical or mental effort. It is your responsibility as the coach to keep things fresh. Try experimenting with different formats and competitions to keep players engaged and working hard. Using tangible resources like printed playbooks or incorporating basketball software to show play diagrams to teams or individual players can be a great way to increase engagement and coach-player communication.

3. Stay Positive
Have you ever tracked how many negative comments you and your staff make per practice? I bet most coaches would be shocked at their ratio of positive to negative comments. Test yourself: Have a manager track each type of comment sometime. If you aren’t at least at 3:1, you might want to reconsider how you are communicating to your players. Use as

many positive statements as possible. After all, you cannot ask players to be positive if you yourself are not regularly displaying the same behavior. READ: Putting Positive Coaching Into Practice

4. Evaluate Regularly

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“Inspect what you expect” is a common phrase in leadership. If you expect greatness, then you must regularly inspect players’ performances. Nowadays, there’s a stat-tracking app for every sport. Why not start keeping stats for at least portions of practice? A coach cannot expect players to strive for greatness unless a regular emphasis is placed on being great.