March Madness starts today for college teams, which means most teams have finished their seasons. Most high-school state championships have been completed or will play this weekend.
Last weekend, I coached my 85th game between my 3 teams since I arrived in August. I estimate that I have run over 200 practices since August. We have 2.5 months left!
Several years ago, an NCAA D1 assistant coach mentioned this experience in his coaching development in Australia. He was surprised by the fairly limited, specialized coaching experience of most college coaches, as many college coaches are hired as assistants with zero coaching experience of any kind.
Beyond the numbers of games and practices, by coaching different ages and levels, there is greater variation in the experience and exposure to different styles of play, coaches, strengths & weaknesses, and more. I coach one team that is predominantly wings; no real point guard, one post with size, and a lot of wings with size. Another team is fairly traditional with two point guards, two posts and wings; bigger than some opponents, smaller than some. My other team has changed as the season has progressed, starting small and shooting a lot of 3s to moving to a team employing 3 post players together, to now a more traditional team led by a wing shooter.
Listening to podcasts this year with top European coaches (Andrea Trinchieri, Ettore Messina, Dimitrios Itoudis, Pablo Laso, and others), many started by coaching youth teams and worked their way to lower-level teams before moving to the professional level and eventually the top clubs. They have opportunities to try things outside of the pressure of college/professional basketball, and they learn by coaching different ages, abilities, levels, and more. The variation in their development provides a greater range of experiences from which they can draw than a typical college or NBA coach who has coached only one level and who has no head coaching experience until their first job at the college/NBA level.
Of course, asking a high school coach to coach 85 games and 200 practices, while holding down another full-time job, is not practical, although I imagine some coaches who coach high school and AAU or multiple AAU teams come close.
When we discuss coach education and coach development, and we imagine classes and clinics and learning from experts, we may ignore some simpler solutions. Why not require actual coaching experience at some level before hiring college coaches or even varsity high-school coaches? Why not require head coaching experience at some level before giving someone a college/NBA head coaching job? Why not allow college assistant coaches to get experience by coaching AAU, YMCA, Parks & Recreation, etc? Classes and PowerPoints can supply knowledge, but one needs to use this knowledge to make sense of it.
I enjoy coaching in Europe because of the club system that affords the opportunity to coach multiple teams without having to drive from gym to gym or town to town. I enjoy seeing the different styles of play, different systems, and more. When we talk about "developing players/coaches like in Europe", why not discuss ways to make it easier for coaches to have these experiences — coaching at different levels, head coaching experience, multiple teams — and not just focus on more traditional experiences, such as sitting and listening to a famous coach lecture or sifting through PowerPoints to check a box.
