The ONE Thing You Need to Setup A Successful Foundation

Patience can be a funny thing. You need to have a balance. Tolerate things too much, like turnovers, and you don’t make progress. Don’t have enough patience and you can lose trust, kill confidence and not allow  your players and team to develop.

It’s a fine line to walk, but you have to have it.

Because you can have a great offense on paper. It looks great when O1 throws that pass to O3 for the bucket, but if your players don’t have the skills to make that pass, under pressure and on time —  it doesn’t matter what it looks like on paper.

Patience.

Your 1-2-2 full court press might look great on the whiteboard. No matter what the offense does to break it you always have a counter. But, if your players don’t have great defensive footwork, don’t understand angles and play too aggressive,  the defense will have holes.

Patience.

Patience with building your foundation early in the year. Spend more time on it than you think should. Whatever you believe in. Don’t waver. Whatever is important to you has to become important to your players.

Because when it’s the 4^th quarter in February those foundations you build now — the ones your players own — will carry you through the bad calls, the opposing crowd and inevitable fatigue.

Patience.

Because great teams don’t just practice to be better than their opponent. They practice to each day be better than they were yesterday. And, it’s so much harder to compete against a former version of yourself than it is to compete against something measurable and tangible.

Patience.

Because it might only be a few more reps or a little more time that is a turning point. A turning point to an increase in confidence, higher skill level or basketball IQ. A turning point that because you had patience today leads to success in March.

Patience.

Because we all believe success — the success of our job as a coach, our players and our team this season — is a peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing your did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.

And, that requires patience.