What Makes a Bad Coach?

Not Listening

• The main thing any coach must do is listen to their players. When you don't listen to the players, they don't want to listen to you. Players value the fact that a coach is willing to listen to them. When you as a coach shows the value of the players' input, then players are more apt to listen to you. If you don't listen to your players, then you're likely to see their attention wondering during practice, and even during timeouts of a game.

Unapproachable

• Your players have to know they can approach you with anything in their life, whether it's on or off the basketball court. If your star player is having a few bad games in a row, it doesn't help to get onto him saying he's not picking up his slack. Instead, talk to him and see what is going on in his life. You may be surprised to find out that there is something going on at home, or he's nervous about some big test that is coming up.

  Also, players need to know that input is not only accepted, but encouraged. As a coach, you may have played the game, but you're not out on the floor and seeing exactly what is going on. There may be a play where something just doesn't work for them, even if it worked for another team you coached. You have to open up to the players and allow them to communicate with you what they see from their point of view on the court.

Rigidness

• Adjustments are a big key in basketball, especially during timeouts, quarter breaks and halftime. As a coach, you have to be flexible in what your team can do on offense and defense.

  If you're running a 2-3 zone, and the other team is finding the open shots and knocking them down, then you might want to switch to a different type of zone, go to a man-to-man look or even pressure the ball. Switching up what you do will keep the other team off balance and force them to look deep into their sets of plays to figure out what is going to work.

  On offense, if you're a 3-point shooting team and the other team is getting out on the perimeter to defend you, you have to adjust your strategy and try to get some looks inside. It might not be what your team is comfortable with, but it might be what you have to go with. Do this by setting some screens, doing some pick-and-roll's or give-and-go's.

Lazy Practices

• Bad coaches allow their players to run practice. From an hour of shoot-around to just shooting the breeze. Coaches need to come into practice with a plan and do it in an efficient manner. Players don't need to be just standing around and watching, either. Every player should always be doing something.

  When a team is going over a certain play, coaches need to engage their players by keeping them involved. Whether it's having the players not involved standing behind the play watching or having them shadow the offensive players during the walk-through portion, it's important to keep them busy.

  Another important thing in practice is to ensure all of your players are getting worked during practice. During a game, your star player can go out with injury and someone on the bench is going to have to step up. They should be able to come into the game and know how to do his job.

Soft Schedules

• Sure, it looks good for the win-loss record, but what favors are you doing your team if you are playing a weak schedule? Now, it's understood when it comes to district, conference or region schedules, there's not much a coach can do about it. But, when it comes to an out-of-district, conference or region schedule, coaches should be facing as much tough competition as possible.

  Say, you have 10 games that you will play out of district, conference or region, at least six to seven of those should be against quality opponents. This will only serve your team better come playoff time. If you've played a soft schedule throughout the year, then by the time your team gets into the first round of the playoffs, you'll be one-and-done. I believe it is important to have a few games you put on your schedule where you know your team will walk all over the other team. This will help build their confidence. But, there shouldn't be many of these games because it won't give you a true look at how your team matches up against quality teams.

Not Studying

• At the very least, you should have an idea of what the other team's strengths and weaknesses are heading into the game. By doing this, you should have a good idea of how your team can be successful against them.

  For any level about high school, film is an important aspect of any team. Not only does it allow you to see what worked for your team in a certain game, it allows you to see what didn't. Also, for players, it gives them a visual on things they need to correct, instead of you just telling them. Having film on another team will also allow your players to see first-hand what they are up against and the things other teams do that worked well.

  If you have no clue what to do against a certain team coming into a game, you're setting your team up for failure. Coaches have to do their homework. After all, that's what they get paid for.