"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail."

I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was younger, and they taught me many important lessons. One of the things that will always stick with me is the quote in my title. I can't remember the context of the conversation, but I vividly remember one of my grandfather's telling me that in a very direct and stern fashion. Maybe it's because I'm the oldest child, or because I was just a little scared of him at times, but I've never forgotten those words when it comes to anything that I've taken on in life.

I am the constant thinker and over-analyzer in any situation. Personality tests only reveal that even more. Rarely can I make a decision before I have thought about every possible outcome or scenario, whether it's in life or in sports. I think my personality is what drove me into teaching and coaching. As a teacher and coach you have so much control over everything, and when things go wrong or don't have the desired results you get to sit back and analyze what you could have done or will do differently the next time.

If you walk into my classroom you'll find post it notes everywhere with little ideas or things to work on and prioritize. The same thing applies to me when I am coaching. After a basketball game the first thing I usually do is jot down notes about things that just took place, same thing in baseball. Even if I'm watching a random game, I'll find myself take a note on my phone about something that I observed that I really liked or felt like I wanted to address with my own team. Taking down quick notes helps me to be less emotional and more logical with my team right after a game. But more importantly, taking down notes helps direct the following practice so it is specifically geared towards areas that need to be improved upon.

I think if you took a survey of most coaches, they would tell you that they enjoy practices much more than games. Practices are the times when you really get to work with players and try new things. Practices are the times when you as a coach have the most control over your team's performance. Good practices can help push a team forward, while bad practices will assuredly caused a team to regress.

In college and professional sports, most teams are relatively even in terms of talent; yet one coach can't seem to get his program to be a consistent winner and the other always seems to be in the top tier. Often times the casual fan looks to the players as the root of the issue. Maybe it's bad chemistry, maybe it's somebody not having the projected year, or maybe they're just not as talented as the other teams. Then that coach gets fired and a new coach comes in and has a marked improvement the following season. What happened? Well sometimes it is the players and there is more buy-in the first year of a new coach, but often times what separates evenly matched teams are the coaches and how they prepare their teams.

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to know some people who have access to some high level college basketball coaches and programs. I have also attended a few clinics, and it usually does not take very long to realize why certain coaches are highly successful while others tend to wander in mediocrity. Great coaches have great practices. Their players go out and perform at high levels in the games because they are executing what they have done countless times under high expectations at practice. Those coaches have their teams moving and acting naturally, while other teams and coaches are re-acting to what is taking place. Confident movements that a player can execute without thinking versus a player who is re-acting is what separates two athletes or teams that have the same ability.

Now, as a coach you have to give credit where it is do. No coach has had great success without great players. Those two things go hand in hand and always will. However, there have been plenty of coaches who have had little success with very good players. Some youth coaches will simply point to their team's record as a sign of how good of a coach they are, but nothing could be further from the truth.

One of the funniest things I can remember about coaching came in my first couple of years coaching basketball. We had a very talented group of basketball players come through, and the coach who had that group was walking around telling everybody how good his team was and his season was going. However, I shared a gym with him for practices and I could see that he was not developing or preparing his team. He finished that season 13-0 and was willing to tell anyone and everyone how good of a coach he was. The following season he got a group of kids who much less talented and experienced, ran his practices the same exact way, and he went 0-13. Of course he blamed the players. I can't remember if he was fired or quit, but the following season I inherited the same group of kids he had that went 0-13 and we went 6-6. I say this not to toot my own horn, but to speak about the importance of good practices and player development.

My three kids have all played multiple sports for dozens of different coaches, and I have to say that the reason I got more involved with coaching my own kids was because of the lack of preparation and poor practices they were involved in. That's not say this is or was the case for all of their coaches, but I couldn't believe how many coaches would show up with a general idea of what they want to do or just sort of wing it as things went along. Sure it's fun to watch your kids play in the games, but if they're not learning anything in practices then the games will only be more aggravating to watch. You'll see a team that you were competitive with at the beginning of the season come out and smoke you by the end, and as a parent or ineffective coach you'll wonder how that can happen. Sure every team has bad days and the playing field levels out as the kids get older, but it's what you don't see that makes some teams rise and others crumble.

Effective practice begins as soon as the game is over. I typically try write my practice plans before I go to sleep the day of a game. Everything is fresh in my mind, and it is clear how much time I want to spend on each item. And yes, I do write down how much time I want to spend on each thing. Practices should have a rhythm and flow to them like games often do. Everything you do should be intentional. I have also found being a teacher that it is important not to linger. If your players are not getting something in the 10-15 minutes you have delegated, move on, because going over the same thing for too long causes the brain to shut down and attention spans to dwindle. Like teaching, things need to be broken into segments that involve everyone being engaged. And yes, practice plans should be written down.

There is a reason teachers have to submit lesson plans. I used to hate doing it because I thought it was a waste of time. However, I found that writing down my plans brought a purpose and direction to my teaching. It kept me on task and moving towards the goal I had written down. I knew where I wanted my students to be and how I wanted to get them there. Even after teaching for 15 years, mainly the same subjects I cannot go without doing lesson plans. The same goes for me with coaching. When I was younger I tried "winging it" at a basketball practice, and within 30 minutes things were a complete disaster. Since I had no focus or flow between drills, my players had the same mentality. They had no idea that I didn't have a plan, but my indecisiveness caused them to be methodical and unsure of what they were supposed to be doing. Nobody got better that day, and it was my fault.

Often times when I sit down to write my practice plan, I'll find myself thinking that I don't have enough time to get everything done that I wanted to accomplish. I imagine that this is pretty common among all coaches, but having a well written and scripted practice plan allows you not to linger on one thing for too long and get everything done that you had hoped to. A practice plan also gives you a chance to reflect on what you have been doing with your team. If you save your practice plans you know exactly how much time you've put into a certain aspect of the game/sport. Maybe your team struggles against a zone defense because you've only worked on your zone offense/plays for 30 minutes a week. Looking back on practice plans also helps you understand why your team might be strong in some areas, but weaker in others. You can look at exactly when you have addressed issues and how many practices you have gone over the same things. If you don't have a written practice plan then how do you really know how much time you've put into something.

Also, practice plans should be adaptive to the situation and time of year. At the beginning of a season coaches are scrambling to cover everything, so practices should and typically do run longer. By the end of the season practices should be shorter and much more focused on specific skills or areas of the game. If you're doing the same thing in your last practice that you did in your first practice then your team probably has not gotten any better over the course of the season.

In many ways, I think teachers often make some of the best coaches. What teachers are trained to do, recognize, and measure on a daily basis allows them to give direct feedback and see if their players are progressing. Some parents or fans only look at the wins and losses, but good coaches look beyond the obvious numbers to measure the effectiveness of their coaching. Good coaches are prepared long before practice ever begins. Good coaches have effective practices that allow their players to get better and act without thinking during the actual games. Good coaches have their teams prepared for all situations, and when one emerges that has not been covered, then you can bet it will be in the next practice plan. So many people do not understand the hours and hours of time that go into coaching beyond the time spent during practices and games. Great coaching can start with simple note taking or writing that effective practice plan when everybody has forgotten about the game and gone to bed. If you're a coach who doesn't do this and your team is really good, congratulations on having great players. However, to paraphrase what my grandfather once told me, if you do not have your team prepare them prepare to watch them fail.