Happy Wednesday - Make sure you’re taking game shots.

One of my coaches growing up used to say, “It’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s.” I did not fully understand it at the time, but the older I get the more it rings true. Great coaches are shaped by great players. We all love to talk strategy and schemes, but talent matters. It always has.

There are coaches who squeeze everything they can out of a roster with limited ability. There are coaches who take gifted players and help them reach a level they did not know existed. Both versions of coaching require skill. What often gets forgotten is that even the legends of coaching look a whole lot more human when the talent is thin. Greg Popovich is an unbelievable coach, but the story changes without David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, or a young Kawhi Leonard. Bill Belichick is one of the best to ever do it, but his record without Brady looks very different. Did he suddenly forget how to coach? Well no, but having a HOF quarterback can help.

Some of my favorite seasons as a coach came in years when we won only nine or ten games. We were small, we were inexperienced, and we were outmatched in every game we played. If you were picking up teams in an open gym, you’d probably pick 4 players from the other team before you selected one on our side. But those kids were scrappy. Those kids showed up, worked, and gave everything they had. Getting that group to overachieve might have been some of the best coaching I have ever done. It taught me that success does not always show up in the standings or overall record.

As coaches we need to give ourselves credit for the seasons where we drag everything out of a roster that is limited. There is real pride in helping a team reach a level nobody expected. Wins matter, but so does the honest evaluation of the job we did with the players we had. Some years you have Jimmy and Joe. Some years you do not. The work you put in still matters.

Questions to ask yourself:

The Eye In the Sky Doesn’t Lie…If You Use It Correctly

Watching film can be one of the best tools we have as coaches if we use it the right way. It gives players an unbiased visual of what actually happened. No opinions, no emotions, no parents telling them what they did or didn’t do. It’s right there on the screen for everyone to see. That alone makes film powerful.

You can use it to highlight the things you want more of. Hustle plays. Great block outs. A possession where five players are connected defensively. A clear example of what proper spacing looks like when your offense is executed well. When you show players the good stuff, they start to understand what excellence looks like and they want to repeat it.

Where film becomes dangerous is when it turns into a negativity session. If all you do is show bad plays, kids start to dread film because they know they’re about to get called out. They stop watching to learn and start watching to survive. Confidence drops, effort drops, and the whole thing backfires.

If you’re using film to point out mistakes, make sure the mistakes connect back to things you actually teach. That way players see a direct path from the problem to the solution. They can hear the correction in practice, then watch it on screen, then go fix it the next day. That creates growth. But if the only purpose is to scold or shame, the message gets lost and film becomes a negative part of your culture.

The goal is simple. Use your film time to teach, reinforce, and build confidence. Film should leave your players walking out of the room thinking, “I know what we need to do next time,” not, “I hope I’m not the one that gets blasted today.”

Audit yourself: Are you using film to truly fix mistakes and build up players? What can you change or adapt in your next film session?

The Scouting Report is your weekly dose of resources that can help your coaching. Plays of the Week, videos, drills, etc. What’s the old joke? The best coaches are just the best thieves?

Shared Resources

A good breakdown by my guy over at Full Court Dash:

We’ve all gotten that one message from a parent that makes you pause, blink twice, and say… “Did they really just send that?”

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Let’s remind each other we’re not alone in this coaching journey.

That’s a wrap on Episode 20 of Game Shots. Thank you for subscribing.

My mission has always been, and will always be, to support coaches around the world who love the game and want to keep getting better.