The Forest and The Trees

"See the forest for the trees"

A famous saying, and very important to coaching basketball. A forest is made of trees; it is the larger picture to the smaller detail. But here is what is interesting for me as a coach: what the 'forest' is changes based on perspective.

Consider for a second the parents of your team. If they are parents of varsity athletes, their 'forest' is probably your win/loss total. Most parents I deal with fall into this category, simply because they see a small portion of what the team does. We generally have 240 minutes (of practice time) to prepare for a game, the game lasts 32 minutes (in high school), and their son/daughter may only play some of those minutes. Their forest is the game, their trees are their child. It makes sense, but it can also spell trouble for coaches.
Some of the teams I've coached have had success, others have struggled. Most of you have probably gone through the same things. Sometimes we have basketball players who aren't athletes, sometimes we have athletes who aren't basketball players. The best times are when we have both; the worst are when we have neither. But through it all, coaches, more than anyone else, need to keep their eyes on the forest.

As coaches our forest is our team and our program. We have a vision of our team or program, what it looks like, what it does on the court, etc. And we have some sort of plan (I hope) for how to achieve that vision. The hard part is keeping our forest separate from everyone else. You and your staff (and hopefully your Athletic Director) are all in on this vision, and when discussing the state of your program it is important to measure your progress by this and this alone. If you want to measure your coaching and progress by wins and losses, by all means, do so. My point is not to tell you what to focus on, my point is only to not allow outside influences to cloud that focus. You alone get to decide how to measure yourself.

I'll share some personal experience to help drive home my point. I took over a new team this year. A program without consistent success or player development for a number of years (about 10). I have some really athletic players, but none of them look at basketball the way they look at soccer, softball, or lacrosse. Its still an afterthought for most female athletes in the school, and you can't fix that overnight. So I work on it one day at a time. Bad habits earn players bench time, good habits earn them playing time. I don't scream and yell at our mistakes, I try to correct them, and drill the appropriate reactions and decisions. Poor effort in practice earns conditioning, good effort gets praise. This is how I coach, and you don't have to do it the same way, but you do have to do it your way.

Remember, nobody consistently wins playing bad basketball or with bad habits. Coach your players to play smart basketball, with good habits, and success will follow. Stay the course, and keep your eyes on the forest.