Today, Ettore Messina held a clinic at the University of Toronto regarding the development of the young post player. I thought that it was a very insightful presentation and included some technical elements which are not usually covered in North American coaching literature.
First of all, Messina spoke of developing trust with players. I agree with his point that players will respect you once you prove that you can help them improve. To me, it’s highly logical and creates relationships based on respect, not the one-sided interactions that have become prevalent in schools and teams in North America. As I am focusing on my personal connections this season, I will try to keep this intuitive point in mind.
Coaches must give athletes opportunities to succeed, in order to build confidence and build relationships between coaches and players and between teammates. When an athlete succeeds at a simple task, they feel confident about trying something more difficult. When players see that coaches are helping them, they buy into the system. When a guard sees that a post is helping them defensively, they will trust them by passing them the pass at the other end.
Messina also discussed the instruction of specific skills to make things easier for players. Skills should be challenging at first but not impossible. During the Summer Olympics, Mark Tewksbury stated that Canada should have specific skill benchmarks for athletes at all levels (for example, how well should a fifteen year old swimmer be able to perform the dolphin kick) and Messina’s coaching philosophy supports Tewksbury’s claim. Both athletes and coaches are responsible for making consistent progress and keeping standards realistically high.