As I mentioned, Sunday night was the airing of the documentary A Woman Among Boys from ESPN. The film documents a woman, Ruth Lovelace, successfully coaching a boys high school basketball team in one of the worst neighborhoods in the country.
One of the main reasons her story is prolific is the fact that she is a woman coaching a boys basketball team, and I do not think this film would have been made if this was a man coaching the team. The intriguing part of her story is that mainstream thought ponders how would a woman be able to coach a boys team? How could she possibly get these kids to respond positively?
I believe majority of people’s thoughts were there is no way a boys team would listen to a woman coach, they (boys) would not respect her.
Well, as you saw in the documentary and with Coach Lovelace’s proven record, she does get the high regard of her players and the respect is the first step into making her successful as a coach. All coaches from youth to the pros need to understand that in order to obtain any sort of achievement, first, you need the respect of your players.
How did Lovelace command the respect of her players?
The answer is easy but sometimes hard to implement for a coach. Lovelace understood what is most important to her players or any basketball player for that matter–playing time.
In the film, you saw that if a player acted up in practice or did not follow instructions, she disciplined them with extra suicides. If they didn’t wake up at the right time for practice, they sat out of practice doing situps, pushups and running. Ultimately, if the players aren’t going to abide by these punishments, they understood the next punishment was not playing.
Now, I am not saying that playing time is the end all be all as it is one of the many attributes a coach must have on how to be well regarded by your players. However, I believe the quickest fix to an undisciplined team and a factor that gets forgotten most by coaches is that they have the power of “playing time.”
As a coach, you need to understand that you have the ultimate control of playing time and that is the upper hand above anything else. Coaches should not be afraid of their players, but demand the attention of their team, which can come through with controlling a player’s minutes.
Ruth Lovelace proves and shows all coaches around the world that it doesn’t matter who you are, any coach has one fundamental attribute that hovers above all players heads—playing time. It also doesn’t hurt that she has the some other great qualities in a high school coach; she cares about her players, has basketball savvy and knows how to win.
