One of the things that I know I need to do to improve as a coach is to stretch myself beyond my comfort zone. I constantly look for new drills, videos, books, etc to make myself better prepared to teach our guys with a variety of methods and examples. I want them to be able to adapt to new situations and react with confidence because they're used to facing unexpected circumstances. So when I found out I was going to be responsible for leading some shooting clinics at camp I saw it as a chance to get outside my comfort zone as a coach and improve my own teaching and understanding of the game.
I'll be the first to admit that shooting has never been my strong point, so I felt like I was entering the clinics with a "do as I say, not as I do" mentality. I hate that from a coaching stand-point, because I'd much rather teach and lead by the example I set. I watched our normal shooting instructor do a clinic to get a feel for how they went, and tried to follow his model as best I could. It only took a few clinics to realize there were a few common mistakes that were repeated by most of the players who I was working with. I was able to come up with some consistent methods to correct these errors, and noticed myself getting more comfortable as the week progressed. By Thursday night I was feeling much better about my instruction and was much more confident in my approach to the clinics.
This experience again showed me the need to stretch myself as a coach. While I started out far from my comfort zone, I was much more confident by the end of the week. I feel as though I have a better grasp on the shooting mechanics that I was teaching and will be able to better help our players when they are struggling with their shooting.
I also recorded one of my individual improvement clinics that was run for our NBA (varsity) level campers. I'm hoping to get that video posted on my blog next week.
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