Are you interested or are you committed? I read this question the other day in Personality Isn’t Permanent by Benjamin Hardy P.hD, and continue to come back to it. I’ve been pondering it as I go throughout my day and deal with the different tasks at hand. I also consider it when talking to other people, particularly the kids I coach. Being interested is liking the idea. It may include talking about it, posting about it and thinking about it here and there when convenient. Being committed is entirely different. Commitment requires a deeper obligation. One of my mentors, Coach Phil Beckner, always talks about defining the words we use. The Dictionary.com definition of commitment – “an engagement of obligation that restricts freedom of action.” Wow! The terms engagement, obligation and restrict are powerful. My own definition would be similar. Commitment – the obligation, desire or action that propels one forward consistently, even when it’s not convenient. 

We’re committed to player development. We have a standard at Middleton that will never change. Our expectations adjust, but the standard remains the same. I truly believe we’re focusing on things developmental wise at Middleton High School that are different than any other high school in Idaho, stemming from the teaching points. That doesn’t come from a place of arrogance either. It comes from the confidence obtained through preparation, study and learning with and from the best. I’m being mentored by one of the best player development coaches on the continent. I feel extremely blessed to be learning from people smarter and more experienced than me. We have to find ways to be better and be different as we compete against the best. Let’s make one thing clear though. It does not mean we win every game, especially as we transition up a level. It means we pour into our players development on and off the court and do it in a way we hope elevates their basketball, life and leadership skills.

My assistant coach, Tyler Hoyt, ran a player development business in California and continues to work with individuals. Our head JV coach, Blaine Wright, had both of his boys play college basketball and has numerous years coaching at the high school level. Our JV coach, Alan Basal, coached under one of the winningest coaches in California High School basketball history. Our freshman head coach, Cayden Wright, played Divison II basketball for a winning program. More importantly, we’re all on board and on the same page when it comes to our development areas and focuses. The momentum heading into our first full summer as a staff is picking up. We’re a one town high school, which provides unique opportunity. We’re doing things differently here, which was solidified in talking to a college staff who watched our practice and said they hadn’t seen what we were doing in terms of detail in the 18 years of watching high school practices. It’s what we believe in. It’s who we are.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of coaching is spending time with the kids in our rule of 2 workouts. It allows for more individualized connection through basketball and non-basketball related topics. It calls for more in depth demonstration, teaching and understanding. This is my favorite video from our last workout. As Talmage steps into his shot, listen to the audible “ah” as he FELT why he missed. We can teach and see what’s happening as coaches, but only the player can feel it. When the player recognizes the mistake and why they missed, the opportunity to fix it and accelerate progress is heightened. The next shot he takes, you can hear it go in, is an example of how he fixed what he felt. He wasn’t falling out of his shot. You can hear Sawyer’s shot go in. Coach Hoyt pointed out the importance of the inside foot in squaring our hips to the rim on the turn, as Sawyer does a phenomenal job demonstrating. We’re fighting for base and balance, our feet, and limited negative motion with the ball. We’re emphasizing eyes get to the rim early. Our 1-2 step creates the rhythm we have built up to throughout our entire workout.

We’re emphasizing FULL body movements. I want them to over emphasize the move at a pace that’s uncomfortable enough to where they are getting better and can translate that to an increased force and pace during live action. We teach that mistakes are ok, as I demonstrated. This is the time to improve our skill.