Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

A Week with Riley - Complacency

Posted by Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group on Fri, Oct 8, 2010 @ 08:10 AM

How do you avoid complacency in a team setting?

everything basketball

RILEY: First of all, you have to realize that complacency is a way of life.  You don’t ever avoid it.  You have to alert your players to the fact that there are so many things that can get between them and what you are trying to teach them.

You can’t become distracted and let all of these things get into the way and take your mind off of the prize. It’s a deadly disease because it simply gets in the way of your energy and your effort.  And when your energy and your effort are down, your efficiency is going to be down.

(Interview questions and answers taken directly from the February 2007 edition of Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director)

Topics: basketball performance, basketball resources, basketball training programs, athletic training, Ownership, Pat Riley, discipline, customer service, development, Leadership

A Week with Riley - Relating to Players

Posted by Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group on Thu, Oct 7, 2010 @ 08:10 AM

How important is it to relate to individual players and how can a coach improve his or her interpersonal skills?

everything basketball

RILEY: It depends on what level you are coaching.  When it comes to coaching on a youth level, in  a junior high school level, or a high school level, where kids are still maturing emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually, I think the communication, talking, educating type of approach transcends the actual X’s and O’s.  I think you have to develop the mind and the will as much as you develop them on the court.

As players get older, especially as professionals, they will bring the philosophies of five to fifteen coaches with them.  That means they have been talked to, they have been coached by a lot of different people, they have been motivated and inspired, and they know what it’s like to be a player who is being coached. Sometimes in professional basketball, saying less is best.  Your actions and how they work and what you put in front of them every day will be noticed. 

If I were coaching a high school team, I would be teaching, teaching, teaching, and teaching verbally every single day to every single individual.

(Interview questions and answers taken directly from the February 2007 edition of Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director)

Topics: basketball performance, basketball resources, basketball videos, Pat Riley, discipline, development

A Week with Riley - Discipline

Posted by Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group on Wed, Oct 6, 2010 @ 07:10 AM

You have said that dscipline is not a dirty word. Some coaches are wary of disciplinary action fearing it may have an adverse effect. What is your approach? How can a coach use discipline to his or her advantage?

everything basketball

RILEY: Whenever somebody goes outside the covenants and does something that can break the spirit of the team it cannot be allowed.  As a coach, I liked to take some of my most experienced players and converse with them about what they think should be done.  It isn’t just a my way or the highway thing.  Even though at times someone can do something so egregious that yes, he’s out of here.   And I think we understand what those things are.  When that happens, there is no team consultation.

(Interview questions and answers taken directly from the February 2007 edition of Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director)

Topics: basketball performance, basketball training programs, Pat Riley, discipline, everything basketball, development

A Week with Riley - Teamwork

Posted by Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group on Tue, Oct 5, 2010 @ 07:10 AM

Your award-winning motivational video, Teamwork, applies winning philsophies to business and life in general. What is your definition of teamwork as it applies to sports?

everything basketball

RILEY: Teamwork is the essence of life.  And teamwork is an interactive relationship, whereby all of us are either hired or brought together for whatever reason to get a result.  It is the essence of life in family.  It is the essence of life in sports.  And it is the essence of life in business.  In order to be successful as a group of people the dynamics of being a team are all the same, with the exception that you are jumping off a different platform – probably from a different industry.  But really, the principles are the saem.  People have to come together for the common good.
The only way you are ever going to do that is through trust.  It’s even more than belief.  Belief just isn’t enough.  You simply have to get to a point where you trust one another – in their motives, in their approaches, in their games, in their idiosyncrasies, and their personalities, and what they bring to the table – not be judgmental as a coach, or a teacher, or a parent.  No student, no player, no child will ever let you coach, parent, or teach them unless they trust that you are absolutely sincere, competent, and reliable. They are smart enough to see that.  If your intentions as a coach or a teacher or a parent are nothing less than sincere, because you want to get something out of it yourself instead of what’s in the best interest of the person, then they won’t let you.  They will sort of punch the clock with you.

You have to be competent because they want to learn.  Most kids and most players simply want to learn and get better.  And so you have to know what you’re doing.  It’s the same thing when it comes to reliability.  If they know you’re going to be there, then the trust and the fact that teamwork can cross over from sports into real life will be there, too.

(Interview questions and answers taken directly from the February 2007 edition of Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director)
 

Topics: basketball performance, basketball resources, Pat Riley, discipline, development, Leadership

A Week with Pat Riley - Leadership

Posted by Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group on Mon, Oct 4, 2010 @ 08:10 AM

Team-Building Leadership Philosophy

Whether you agree with the Heat’s move to acquire and sign Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and LeBron James this off season are or not, one thing most of us can agree upon is that only a weathered and tested leader could handle the ego’s and attitudes of all three at the same time.  With the NBA basketball season quickly approaching, the following week’s inserts will focus directly on the man with the mission of delivering an NBA championship to Miami – Pat Riley.

everything basketball

What is your team-building leadership philosophy?

The overall philosophy is that you have to, voluntarily, get out of yourself and get with the program.  Whatever the program is.  You have to find a way to decide to either jump in or jump out. And getting yourself to that point first, instead of riding the fence philosophically, is first and foremost in trying to develop the confidence of the team. You’re either with me or against me. A house divided against itself surely will not stand. The most difficult thing any coach or teacher or parent ever has to do is to get someone to do the things they don’t want to do in order to achieve what the team needs. An that’s our challenge.

(Interview questions and answers taken directly from the February 2007 edition of Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director)

 

 

Topics: LeBron James, Pat Riley, discipline, Leadership