These are some of the notes presented by Tennessess Assistant Coach Dean Lockwood that apply to all sports.

How to Be a Great Assistant Coach

Know and Understand Yourself

Take some time to think about and write out answers to these questions:

1) Why did I get into coaching?
2) What do I love about coaching?
3) What do I dislike about coaching?
4) What are my present and future goals?
5) Why am I in coaching now?

Know This Profession

1) Job security
2) Stress
3) Scrutiny/criticism
4) Time-consumption
5) Things beyond your control that impact success
6) Limited flexibility/autonomy (as an assistant)

Features

1) Teach life lessons and impact people
2) Working at what you love
3) Competition
4) Each season and team is a new journey
5) Keeps you “young at heart”
6) Help people/teams mature, develop, and win

Non-Negotiables

1) Loyalty
2) Integrity
3) Passion for work/commitment to excellence
4) Love for people/your team
5) Love for your sport

Approach

1) Support Head Coach and team mission
2) Reinforce program values, principles, and standards
3) You are always representing your Head Coach and your program–realize the power of your own example
4) Take pride in and fulfill your role
5) Check your ego at the door–be careful of your pride, it’s not about you
6) Servanthood–pour into the lives of others
7) John Maxwell’s 3 things everyone asks of leaders/staff:
A. Do you care about me?
B. Can I trust you?
C. Can you help me?
8) An assistant’s overall tone should be positive
9) It’s all about TEAM
10) Make the “Big Time” where you are

Communicationan

1) Use we/us/ous instead of I/me/my
2) Must have honesty in all interactions
3) Treat ALL staff as colleagues/peers/equauls–Head Coach is your boss, others are co-workers
4) Never talk to anyone (other than the Head Coach) about another staff member unless it is positive
5) DO NOT talk whenever the Head Coach is talking
6) NEVER undermine the Head Coach (Disagree in private, support in public)
7) Find out what the Head Coach needs from you
8) Pick your times to discuss certain things with the Head Coach–be aware of “Mind Space”
9) Don’t just point out problems…present some solutions
10) Be a buffer without being a crutch
11) Do not allow players to play you against the Head Coach or other staff
12) Don’t “write checks you can’t cash” (don’t overextend your authority)
13) Look for legitimate ways to encourage and complement
14) Verbally and non-verbally convey to players: “We believe in you.”
15) Check for consistency
A. Are we doing what we are saying?
B. Are we reinforcing it?
16) Develop positive relationships with other staff, department members, administrators, and faculty

Execution

1) Be at ALL presentations by Head Coach to team
2) Pith in–help other coaches/staff members when you can. Share burdens, nothing is beneath you. Everyone has a role
3) Make the job of the Head Coach easier–take on tasks that help the Head Coach focus on the team and recruiting
4) Anticipate–what does the head coach and team need? (See the need and fill it)
5) Share material and resources
6) Share information: team issues should be out in the open
7) Bring these every day: Energy & Encouragement–be a battery charger–your passion and energy should inspire others.
8) Time management: invest time where it matters most. Recruit, teach, develop, graduate, help team win
9) Attention to detail: Little things matter
10) Continually develop, hone, and evolve teaching skills (Your position group, phases of the game, within systems)
11) Teach every day (be demanding without being demeaning) Pete Newell-“The game is over-coached and under taught” Coach Lombardi “Blocking and Tackling”
12) Laws of learning: instruction, demonstration, imitation, repetition, correction, repetition
13) 33 years has taught me: Simplicity of the game and execution of fundamentals
14) Learn and use your program’s terminology
15) Be available for extra work/shots/film with players
16) Watch video of your team (Self scout)
17) When watching scouting video look for ideas and concepts that you can steal for your team
18) Program organization: Play book, Drill book, Criticals (Special Situations), Team notebooks, game notes
19) Game Management
A) Bench demeanor 10% emotional–90% analytical
B) Bench comportment of team
C) Staff interaction (positive, analytical, team-oriented, never allow players to hear anything negative about team or player coming from you
D) How do you need to feed information to Head Coach (How does Head Coach process info?)
E) MUST know/be aware of fouls, timeouts, possession arrow
F) Leave officiating issues to the Head Coach
20) Post game breakdowns
A) Watch game tape
B) Take emotion out of it; analyze what happened and how and why it happened
C) Know what hurt your team; know what was effective for your team
D) Notes/charts/stats
E) Suggestions for next practice/game/moving forward (support with video clips often)

Growth

1) Pat Summitt: You never arrive in this game. You are always learning and improving
2) Don Meyer: Get all the good ideas, but you can’t use all the good ideas
3) Growth is intentional. Become a better teacher and communicator
4) Continue to increase your value: recruiting, teaching, scouting, etc…
5) Be a lifelong learner
A) You can’t give away what you don’t have
B) The same principle that applies to your players applies to you-KEEP GETTING BETTER
C) Read, observe, listen
6) Seek out mentors and people who can help you learn and grow
7) Success is “rented” and the rent comes due every day
8) Realize that the one certain thing is change and uncertainty… things will change often in this profession
9) Talk to Head Coach about you long-term goals and aspirations (But always do a great job where you are. When the team wins–everyone wins)
10) Appearance and presentation
11) Leave it in better shape because you were there: Make it better. James Naismith
12) Take time to “Sharpen Your Saw.”
13) Be thankful and appreciative. Enjoy the journey

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This post is the third part of an article that Washington women’s coach working on to detail his move from assistant coach to head coach. The article is entitled “418 Mistakes Later” and he is still adding to it.

I know that he is much harder on himself than he should be, but the points he makes are lessons to consider for all coaches, not just head coaches.

Here are links to the first parts of the article:

Coaching Mistakes We All Make Part 1

Coaching Mistakes We All Make Part 2

I GOT OUT OF ALIGNMENT BETWEEN PROCESS AND RESULTS

When you get your opportunity to be a head coach after years of being an assistant coach, you have a mountain of ideas on who you think you want to be. You have been watching your mentors for years making mental notes of ways you want to be like them and ways that you don’t want to be like them. You have been attending clinics hearing speakers filing away bullet points of this you are going to do some day. You have observed, studied, researched, and compiled. You have most likely put together some form of portfolio for a hiring committee that details everything you have been thinking about. Probably took it to Kinko’s and had it bound even. It’s yours, but is it YOU?

I am not saying any of the above is a bad idea. But, I am saying, be careful of who you say YOU ARE, before you know who you are.

My biggest mistake in this area was talking about Process, process, process but in many causes becoming reactionary to Results. When that happens it alienates the people you are trying to lead.

You can’t preach process then turn around and speak about results. The very second you do this, the process loses its punch.

It’s okay to be results driven. It’s okay to be process driven. It’s not okay to teeter back and forth between the two.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have been a little more patient in announcing to the world who we were and what our identity was going to be. My mental image that had been conjured up over the years simply wasn’t doable in the timeframe that I had all worked out in my mind.

I didn’t understand how time consuming things can be. I didn’t understand how long it takes to assemble a staff. I didn’t understand budgetary issues. I didn’t understand many aspects of the position of being a Head Coach. As a result my alignment between process and results was often a blurred line. Creating confusion and uncertainty among the people I was trying to lead.

Don’t give you team three goals that they need to achieve to win a game, then lose your mind in the locker room afterward only to realize later that night they had met all three. Don’t set standards that are met yet don’t produce results. Don’t celebrate good results that were not reflective of the process. All these things are easy to do because of human nature. And are very easy to do as a young head coach.

Be patient in deciding who you are and who you want your program to be. But when you decide, stick to it and don’t get out of alignment with your team, your staff, your administration, and your loved ones.

I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO MANAGE A STAFF OR HOW TO “MANGAGE UP”

Going from “being on a staff” to “having a staff” overnight is one of the greatest challenges I faced. It’s also an area that now, almost two years in, I continue to struggle with. It’s hard. My situation was particularly challenging because five of my staff members were co-workers, equals, and colleagues the day before my hiring was announced.

One day you are 100% focused on doing everything in your power to make your boss look good, do their job better, do their job easier, and being ready to do whatever is asked. Your world is focused on doing What You Do. The next day, you ARE the boss and your actions and decisions effect the lives and lives of families for other people.

As an assistant my actions reflected only on me.

As an assistant my decisions only had repercussions on me.

As an assistant my accountability was to one person.

As a head coach your actions reflect on numerous people… the people who hired you, the people who work for you, they people who you lead.

As a head coach your decisions impacts a pyramid of people that cascades down and down and down.

As a head coach you are accountable to more than one person. You have many people ‘UP’ the ladder now that you are accountable to.

The learning curve for making this adjustment is expected. Most people will give you some free passes as you learn to navigate the waters for the first time. But it’s NOT LONG ENOUGH… trust me.

You can read all the leadership books you want to. You can seek advice from mentors. You can have a plan. All that helps for sure, but nothing can actually prepare you for the daily dealings that you have signed up for until you live them.

So, with that said, I say, read everything. Have a plan. Talk to your mentors… AND then expect to get it wrong some. Don’t expect it to work perfectly. Be adaptable earlier than I was. Don’t be rigid. It’s NOT a my way or highway situation. It can’t be. There is a great book called YOU CAN’T FIRE EVERYBODY that I wish I had read before I made the move.

You have to surround yourself with people that you trust and trust you. This way there is an understanding that you are both working through the process of figuring it out. While there will be mistakes made on both sides, you can survive it all and in time will begin to thrive. It will become very obvious who believes in and who is faking it. You will learn valuable lessons along the way that will shape your identity and the culture that surrounds your program.

You need to know what inspires each member of your staff. From your “chief of staff” to your volunteer, you must have full understanding what inspires them to be a coach and drives them to excel in a profession that we all know can grind you down. Just like your players, each of them will be unique. You can’t treat them all the same. For some it’s good old money… incentives. Others it’s future jobs and responsibilities. Others it’s the being a part of the here and now. Other’s will be inspired by the intrinsic rewards being a part of team provides. Some day I am going to write up a FIVE LANGUAGES OF COACHING in reference to the great book by Gary Chapman THE FIVE LANGUAGES OF LOVE (which is a must read for anyone in any kind of relationship.) Until then, just be aware that what inspires you, doesn’t inspire everyone.

Sure you can get a staff of people that are inspired by the same things you are, but that is dangerous. Then you have YES people who may not tell you when you are wrong and when you are making these 418 mistakes!!!

Managing UP is a term I picked up from some reading. It’s how you communicate with the people who hired you and the people who hired them!!!

These are the people who believed in you most. They wouldn’t have hired you if they didn’t. It’s imperative you keep them in the loop. It’s imperative you tell them things FIRST before they hear it from someone or somewhere else. People UP the ladder hate surprises. Don’t YOU hate surprises from your players? Well, you are one of their players!!

It’s okay to show them vulnerability. My direct supervisor told me from Day 1 it’s okay to be a little scared…. It’s a big deal to be a head coach and if it doesn’t cause you a little anxiety, then you aren’t really the person for the job and don’t have a full understanding of what is at stake!! That message drove me. And while I didn’t make many mistakes in this area, I put it on here so that you don’t either.

I fully believe that this is what allowed us to survive my 418 Mistakes and actually find a way to win 20 games, keep our players off the front page and on the sports page, and raise our team GPA to unprecedented success.

While this wraps up the 12 categories I mentioned in the beginning, it segues nicely into the fact that WE DID ACTUALLY DO SOME THINGS RIGHT!!!

That may become an off season project.

Until then, I hope this piece will help a variety of people. I hope it will help long time head coaches as well as young assistant coaches who may simply file this piece way for “their day”.

And yes, I do have a list of Mistakes I am making in year 2. For those of you scoring at home that lists stands at 57. Yes, I have made a few twice but only a few.

Some of the new ones of have been BIGGER while others are smaller.

Needless to say, making mistakes is part of the profession we are in. We are the ones who choose a profession where we invite people to (in fact beg them at times) to come into our workplace and watch us work. Can you imagine 250 or 2,500 or 25,000 coming into an insurance man’s office and watching him settle a claim. Or a surgeon preforming open heart procedure in front of that many people AND being broadcast on the Pac 12 Network!!!

We choose this profession. We have to accept the scrutiny that comes with it. In fact, you must embrace it!
You’re not going to be perfect. You can try to be, but you’re not going to be.

While you certainly don’t have to keep a running list of your mistakes, I do think every coach can benefit from recognizing their faults. Moving on from their failures and rebounding from them improved.