Why Wins & Losses Don't Define Coaches: Player Development in Youth Sports

I am going to share a current challenge

I am facing as a high school basketball

coach and I'm sure it's a challenge many

of you are facing as coaches and even if

you are listening as parents and I think

this is one of the biggest things that I

have grown right when I think to back to

my first year of coaching high school

basketball I thought after the first

week they buy in they do everything I

said they'll give each other high fives

they're going to be great energy on the

bench all that stuff here's the honest

truth it takes at least 3 months to just

start seeing results if you're starting

from square one. You are listening to

the Beyond the Scoreboard podcast,

transforming athletes into leaders on

and off the court with host Coach

Fertado.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to

another episode of the Beyond the

Scoreboard podcast. The podcast that is

transforming youth sports together. With

that being said, I'm your host, Coach

Justin Fertado. And in today's episode,

I am going to share a current challenge

I am facing as a high school basketball

coach. And I'm sure it's a challenge

many of you are facing as coaches and

even if you are listening as parents. So

that challenge is

patience.

Patience. Now, my team, I'm a very, very

competitive person. The team I'm

coaching right now is two and eight.

Obviously, two wins, eight losses is not

a great record, right? That's not what I

set out at the beginning of the year.

Um, right now, point blank, we are not a

good basketball team. I'm not panicking,

though. And here's why. Number one, as

youth coaches, anyone can argue that

varsity coach, varsity coaches are still

youth coaches. They're they need to

obviously focus more on winning and

losing than a JV coach does. JV coach's

job is not wins and losses, it's

improvement. Now, if we finish two and

20 and we don't win again and no one's

improving, then no, I'm not doing my job

and that's unacceptable.

So, with that being said, I'm we're two

and eight. Um, and and I feel it, right?

You you feel it. You coach them. You

know, I'm coaching every game hard. And

it's we have this ego, right? I feel

this ego when I'm coaching and when I'm

coaching against other coaches, it's

it's natural to want to compare

ourselves to be like, oh, you know,

either start making excuses number one

about our team and then number two just

get really frustrated and just, you

know, what whatever you want to say,

word vomit all over the the U players,

you know, make excuses and it's, you

know, judge ourselves and really put our

worth on our win and loss record. At the

end of the day, I'm not going to judge

myself. I don't think my value as a

coach is going to be based off of win

loss. Number one, win loss has to do

with multiple factors, right? Um,

obviously talent, talent and coaching.

Those are two big factors. I can control

my coaching, right? I can't control the

talent. I can't, you know, as a high

school coach, right? I can't control who

comes through my door. what I can

control is continuing to teach

continuing to educate my players on how

to be better basketball players, how to

become a better team. And some of the

challenges that that we face um we've

we've had less practice like I'm at a at

a school where our gym is is small and

we're sharing it with other

organizations. We're sharing it with

with the play. We're sharing with

varsity basketball, with girls

basketball, with organizations that rent

the gym. We're facing all of that and

and so there is a a time constraint. We

haven't practiced enough. I cannot

expect as a coach if we have not

practiced enough like practice is where

you build all those habits and when we

go to a game and we don't perform the

habits that I want like things I'm

really thinking about. We'll just talk

about defense. Yesterday we gave up 81

points which to for a team that I'm

coaching is unacceptable, right? So in

practice today what we're going to do

know we're going to work on we're work

on defense. That way when we play

tomorrow, we're not giving up 81 points.

That's not acceptable, right? I'm not

saying accept your team's two and eight

or whatever it is. I'm saying be patient

and keep teaching. Be patient, keep

teaching because it takes time, right?

It you you have to plant the seed and

then you have to water it every single

day. And some plants take longer to

water. Some you may get some kids that

come into your program that are ready to

go. They're eager to learn. They know

exactly the system, right? But for me, I

have to teach them what I want

consistently day in and day out. We've

had a little bit of a commitment issue.

So yes, or one of the days of practice

during media day, we didn't get to have

an actual practice before a game, which

was unfortunate. But what I did have is

I had time. I had access to a classroom.

So we talked about commitment. I talked

to them and I taught them about

commitment. What does it mean to be on a

team? What when is it acceptable to miss

a practice? When is it unacceptable to

miss a practice? What is that

requirement? What does it mean to be a

part of a team? Right? Is it all about

me or do I have to celebrate other

people? Do I have to accept a role? Do I

have to shoot less? Do I have to play

defense? These are all things that I'm

teaching and we as youth sports coaches,

we are working with young people. We

can't assume. It's our job to teach. And

I think this is one of the biggest

things that I have grown, right? When I

think to back to my first year of

coaching high school basketball, I

thought, you know, after the first week,

they buy in, they do everything I said

that they'll give each other high fives,

they're going to be great energy on the

bench, um, all that stuff. Here's the

honest truth. It takes at least three

months to just start seeing results if

you're starting from square one. That's

my opinion. Now, I'm talking about

results, not necessarily wins and

losses. could probably win. But if you,

you know, let's say you have my team, my

team, we don't like to pressure the

basketball. We have built they the

players I have have built habits over

time with them playing, not pressuring

the basketball. So that it's it's a type

of defense if you're not a basketball

person. So with that being said, it's

going to take time for them to learn how

to pressure the basketball and be

comfortable and build that as a habit.

It's going to take at least three months

for us to get really good at doing that,

which a lot of times, how long is the

season? Two to three months. So, a lot

of times we'll see all the progress and

you'll be playing your best right as the

season ends, which which is the

unfortunate part. And then if you really

want to talk, so so thinking about

coaches, parents for athletes, this is

just just from my experience, um, you

know, with BTG basketball, coaching high

school basketball, if you really want to

see like that transformation, it's like

a at least six months, if not a year.

Like a year is like when you really

start to see like I have some kids that

were in my BTG basketball program who

were just they they would come to BTG,

but more importantly, they go work on

their own. And then and that compounded

over time and you can see after a year

you're like whoa right this guy's this

guy this girl she's gotten a lot better.

Um I I would say you start to see

results like 3 months out and then 6

months is really where you're like okay

the message is hitting. That's my big

thing that I wanted to come on and talk

about and share the experience that I'm

going through and talk to you as a

coach. Now here is what is acceptable

right? Say, say we're two and eight. I'm

still going to go coach my butt off. And

one of the things that I'm realizing

this the they need more discipline.

Today we're going to have a challenging

practice. Like I'm going to challenge

them. And they're not going to like me

today. They're just not. Um they're

going to have to work their butt off.

They're if they're not communicating,

they're either going to do it again or

they're going to run. Um and I would

rather have them do it again actually

instead of run sometimes. Right.

Sometimes. But I realize like in a game

if they're not pressuring the ball,

they're not communicating. We haven't

done it enough in practice. If it's not

translating the game, it has not done

been done enough in practice. And that

is on us as coaches to prioritize that

and get that done in practice. It's

obviously frustrating, right? We've had,

you know, the three the few practices

that we have had. It's frustrating when

it doesn't translate right away. We have

to have patience. Like that is like the

most important skill I feel like I've

learned as a coach. And one of the

challenges you're going to face with

every single team. You may have the the

one team every 10 years that comes in

and knows exactly what you want to do.

It just takes time. And that is the fun

part of coaching and that and the

headache of coaching where you leave and

you're like, we we covered this in

practice. Covered in practice once,

coach. Covered in practice twice, three

times. Now, if you cover it 21 days in a

row, 21 days in a row and they're still

not doing it, that's a different

conversation. Maybe what you're doing is

wrong. I don't know. I'm just speaking

from my perspective and my opinion and

how I'm addressing it. I'm going to

coach them hard today. Like I'm not

accepting the 2 and8 results. And I'm

also understanding that if we really are

intentional about working and getting

better, um I'm not going to sit here and

say we're going to be a 500 team, we're

going to be a championship team. All I

care about is getting better. That's all

I care about. you as a youth coach,

that's the that's your number one job is

to help your athletes become better at

that sport and become better as a

teammate, become better as a leader,

become better as a communicator, like

teaching them all the life skills. Like

most of your athletes that you are

coaching are not going to play

collegiately, not going to play

professionally. So, how are you coach

helping prepare them for life beyond the

game? So, if you got a lot out of this

episode, share it with a friend, a

parent, a coach, and uh make sure you

subscribe to our channel. Uh this is the

Beyond the Scoreboard podcast. We are

transforming youth sports together. I'll

be in your eyes and ears next week.

Coach Fit out. Thank you for listening

to this episode of the Beyond the

Scoreboard podcast. If you enjoyed this

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serving you all next week.