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Conor Howard
1-18-18
SES 435
Coaching Philosophy
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Philosophy of Life......................................................................................................................................... 3
Philosophy of Coaching ................................................................................................................................ 5
Style of Play .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Coaching Values ........................................................................................................................................... 8
DISC Profile.................................................................................................................................................. 9
Coaching Videos ......................................................................................................................................... 10
Observations ............................................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 12
References ................................................................................................................................................... 13
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Coaching Philosophy
Coaching Philosophy
Introduction
Throughout this class, I have learned so much about myself as a coach and my attitude,
style, and approach. From previous coaching experiences with Basketball, I began to see what
kind of coach I want to be, but now because of this class, I have a greater understanding of what
it means to be a coach. Previously, I had a few basic thoughts about myself being a coach, and a
general direction. But now I know more about what it means to be a successful coaching going
Philosophy of Life
husband, father, and human being. I want to be able to provide for my own family, as well as
paying my parents back for all they have done for me. As a coach, I want to be as successful as
possible, like winning championships and having consistent winning seasons. I would love to
someday be the head coach of a college level Basketball team. At the college level, I would
preferably want to be at a more lower profile Division 1 school, or something like a Division 2
school. I also want the program to have a good reputation and be highly regarded. I want to be
fanatic of Basketball at all levels, but especially the professional and collegiate levels. I have 3
years of experience coaching, being an assistant coach Basketball coach with 1 year as an
assistant with 5th and 6th grade girls, and then 7th and 8th grade boys for 2 years. I always want to
learn more about coaching and my sport in general and am willing to put in the work to be more
successful. I would definitely classify myself as a student of the game. I am always wanting to
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Coaching Philosophy
increase my knowledge and understanding of offensive and defensive tactics, plays to use, and
I represent a culmination of the hard work and perseverance in my life. I have faced
many hardships and difficulties in my life and have needed to find a way through. All the hard
work that I have put into my education has gotten me to this point. The passion and the love I
have for Basketball that was started from my favorite coach during middle school. I got to being
a Coaching major because of not making the Basketball team in my freshman year of high
school, and then went to help coach middle school kids that year to be around the game more and
do something else aside from school. That is where I found a love of coaching and wanting to try
make other players better. I combined my passion for Basketball and my desire to help others
There are several key ideas that I believe in in my life. I believe the in value of hard
work, that hard work allows a person to become more successful than people who just rely on
talent or other people. People who value hard work are more likely to be able to address and
persist through an issue they are faced with that seemed to difficult at first. I believe in the value
of preparation in all things you do in life. The statement I often refer to in life is “rather have it
and not need it, than need it and not have it”. In a mental instance, I want to prepare for a variety
of possibilities that may occur, that way I have prepared for what may happen. I want to
approach a situation knowing what is likely to happen and how to respond. As a coach, I want
my teams to be prepared and able to do anything on the court, whether that is a fast-paced
transition offense or slow, set play style involving driving to the rim or kicking out to shooters;
and we are able to perform a zone or man to man style of defense, such as a 2-3 zone or a 1-3-1
or 3-2 zone. The key is to be comfortable with any style of play, and be able to perform it well.
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Coaching Philosophy
I also want to be organized in everything I do, everything should have a place and be
fairly easily accessible, so it can be reached at a later point if needed. Another key value of mine
is to pay attention to the small details in all that I do. The finer details are often just as important
as the obvious details, especially when it comes to being successful. I believe in the importance
of communicating about issues and things a person may be dealing with in life. Talking things
over to resolve issues is a key ideal in my life; I want to understand an issue that someone has
and see if there is a way that I can help them, whether that issue is with me or someone or
something else. The sense of compassion helps to build trust between others and understanding
between people.
I feel like my behavior is appropriate to my future goals. I always works as hard as I can
and push myself to do my best in everything that I do. I am willing to learn as much as possible
about the game of Basketball and how to become the best coach possible. I am more than willing
to slowly work my way up the ranks as a coach in order to become the best coach I can be at the
level I want to coach at. I am willing to take the time to develop into the best coach I can be in
Philosophy of Coaching
I want to be a Basketball coach because I am passionate for the game and love to be
around it, and of course I want to be able to make a living and being able to provide for myself
and my future family as a coach. But as a coach, I want to take the time to help develop my
players and help them to become better, both on the court and off. I want my players to grow and
improve as Basketball players, as well as members of society. I want to transfer the same love of
the game to all of my players and provide life lessons and values to all of my players. I want to
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Coaching Philosophy
I believe that I am coaching for the right reasons. I want my players to have fun and push
themselves to perform their best. I want to help develop into better Basketball players, as well as
people too. I want my athletes to genuinely enjoy becoming a better Basketball players and
people when they are involved in my team and in the program. The winning and success is
secondary to player development. The textbook discusses a style of philosophy called “Athletes
First, Winning Second”; this belief is that you should make decisions based on what is best for
the athletes, and then on what will be best for the team to win, (Martens 2012). In the long term,
I want to do what is best for my athletes, concerning their safety and their development, while of
My goals as a coach are to ultimately try win championships with the team, have
consistent winning seasons, and have a positive reputation of both myself and the team. But
aside from the general success goals and parameters like with any coach, a key goal of mine is to
help my players develop and grow both as Basketball players and as people. I want to pass on
important life lessons and values onto all of my players that they can use anytime, not just within
team. One of the key pillars of my philosophy is to focus on the small details, give your full
effort in all you do, and to do things to completion. In drills during practice, I expect all my
players to touch the line when doing conditioning. My players should practice shooting with the
same intensity and focus they would as if they are shooting in a game, like catch-and-shoot 3-
point shots and pull-up jumpers. If we can execute the little details in practice, we will be able to
execute them in games as well. Another piece of my coaching philosophy is to be adaptable and
willing to make changes with the team; so if our current style of play is not being efficient or
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Coaching Philosophy
successful, I want to be able to accept a change and have the players be willing to make the
change as well. I also want to present my philosophy to my team in the very early stages of the
season, that way they know what I expect from them, and what they can expect from me
throughout the season. Another key idea is to have a good relationship with my players and
understand that they have lives outside of Basketball that they need to deal with. I want to
present myself as an option for someone to go to for advice and guidance for my players, should
I do not know for certain if I am a good coach. From what I understand from the material
with this course, I think I am a good coach, but can always get better. There are areas I need to
work on and implement new ideas, but I also think that I already do several of the suggested
actions of a good and successful coach. I know specifically work on my knowledge of the sport
with tactics, plays, and drills, and also working on motivating my players, as those are some of
An increased knowledge of tactics for both the offensive and defensive end of the court,
as well as plays to use in game and drills to use in practices. Having a greater tactical knowledge
of the game will have an immense impact on my effectiveness as a coach. Also, just having a lot
more experience coaching athletes at higher levels of performance will help me become a better
coach. I don’t have very much coaching experience, so I know that I need to have more, that way
I can apply more of these lessons to real life situations. That is a key step in the process to
Style of Play
court on a high level, whether that is a fast-paced offense or slowed down style of play; and also
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Coaching Philosophy
able to perform a zone or man style of defense. The key needs to be that we are comfortable with
any style of play, depending on what our opponents are giving us; and we must be able to
execute it well.
On the offensive end of the floor, I would want the team to be efficient running both in
transition and playing in the half-court, that way we are able to capitalize on what the defense is
giving us. My initial desire for the team’s style of play would be to primarily focus on fast breaks
and transition scoring. But the team could switch to a slower more methodical pace if necessary
due to the defense preventing easy transition points. I would focus on running plays that allow
the offense to move and react to the defense and have a more natural flow to it with cutters and
spacing for easy shots around the rim, or creating wide open 3 point shots. Lots of shooting drills
would be used in practice in order to work on making shots anywhere in a half-court offense
from all areas in the half-court setting, as well as working on spacing and cutting.
For defense, I would want to have my team be able to play both Man-to-Man and various
styles of Zone defense; depending on what works better against the opposing team. Some of the
various zone sets I would use would include a 2-3, 3-2, 1-3-1, or even a 1-2-2 zone. I would
mainly use Man Defense for every game with the team, but if that isn’t working consistently one
game, we would change to some style of Zone and see if that helps.
Coaching Values
In this course, we were able to uncover more about the values that we hold dear to
ourselves as coaches. My top five values were: Certainty, Recognition, Duty, Cared For, and
Safety and Security. Certainty for myself would be encouragement and knowing for certain from
supervisors and players that what I am doing with the team and the direction we are going in is
meeting the programs expectations. Recognition is more self-explanatory, that as a coach, but
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Coaching Philosophy
also the team and program as a whole are recognized for our successes and are building a
positive reputation. Duty means to me that everyone on the team and coaching staff is
performing their roles to the best of their abilities and doing everything they can to help the team
be successful. Cared For with me means that as a team we focus on the players and the staff as
people first, then as Basketball players. We want everyone to have a personal and home life in
order, that way they can go and play to their best; but if they are going through an issue, we do
our best to help them find a solution. Safety and Security applies to both on court actions, but
also to having security with the job. I want my players to have all the proper equipment and be in
a safe facility, that way the risk of injuries are decreased. If something is going on that could
jeopardize my position as the coach, I would want to know what I can do to fix the situation and
keep my job.
DISC Profile
With the information provided from the DISC profiles, I found out that in both my
Adapted and Natural Coaching Styles; my highest values were C and S, which are Analytical and
Supportive respectively. In the Natural approach, my highest value was C at 98 out of 100, with
S being second at 82; followed by I at 20 and D at 17. In the Adapted approach, my highest value
is S at 85 out of 100, and C at 84 out of 100; and then D is next at 23 and I at just 2 out of 100.
From these results, I know that I am a very analytical and planning focused head coach,
and a balanced supportive and analytical assistant coach. I believe and agree with these results,
supportive of my head coach’s ideas and want the players to know we believe in their abilities. I
also wanted to have plans or at least an idea of a plan for the practices of the day, and also the
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Coaching Philosophy
plans for the games. Those plans included drills to do in practice, the starters for the games, key
substitutes in the games, and what plays to focus on practicing to then incorporate into the game.
As a head coach, I can easily see myself being heavily focused on analytics and planning
and preparation. I would likely build player rotations on statistics and data, as well as chemistry
between players; as well as putting the right players in at statistically beneficial situations, like
putting our best 3-point shooters in when we desperately need a 3-pointer. Any plans we make
for practices or for games would be extremely thorough and detailed and have potential changes
we can shift to on the fly if need arises, particularly in-games. I would need my players to
understand the game-plan as well as the coaches do, that way they know what is expected of
them as well as the other team, and are able and comfortable to make changes on the move and
Coaching Videos
Having outside coaches brought into the class or watching videos about coaches
discussing their knowledge and experience with us was an amazing opportunity to learn more
about real world application of the concepts we covered in the class. Two of the most beneficial
coaches we heard from were Kamie Etheridge and a video from Jorge Lee.
With Coach Etheridge’s discussion, I learned more about how to build a team culture
together and holding the team to that culture and identity. One of the biggest points I recall from
her talk, which also was discussed in the textbook, is that the team culture and identity should be
created in a group with the team, not just given by the coaches. Having the team involved in the
creation of their identity and culture will often result in the players being more bought in and
invested in what they created for themselves. The coaches can still have a large input on what
they want to see from their team, but still have input and thoughts from their players. This is a
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Coaching Philosophy
key idea of my philosophy, I want the team to create their culture and identity together. I want
From the Jorge Lee video, I learned more about what it means to build character through
sports. One of the key points I got from the video was to have teams focus on working on the
easy and little stuff, as well as the hard stuff. The quote was “If you want to be good at the
hardest stuff, you gotta be good at the easy stuff”. Teams and players should always give their
full effort in every aspect of their game no matter big or small. I want my players on the team to
compete and do all the little things on the court to win, like diving for loose balls and rebounding
out of their position. These little things are key to the team having full levels of success. This is a
big aspect of my philosophy, I want my players to give their all in everything they do on and off
the court. They should go out and compete and want to be successful in the little things as well as
Observations
One of the things I picked up from my coaching observation of Coach Etheridge was to
make sure to use positive reinforcement with my athletes in practices and in games, as well as
correct athletes for mistakes they make. I want my athletes to know I support them and what
them to do well and believe they can do well. But I also need them to know that in order for them
to succeed, corrections and fixing situations need to happen as well. Coach Etheridge is also a
more aggressive coach when talking to her players and the way she goes about correcting
mistakes is extremely intense and blunt. I want to be more even keel as a coach and explain why
this is a mistake and what happens if it keeps occurring over and over. I also want to have a more
athlete-centered style of coaching, where the athletes are able to understand their own mistakes
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Coaching Philosophy
and make their own adjustments, as opposed to always have the coach give them instructions on
Conclusion
From all the material we have covered in class, from the textbook, to the videos, to the
in-class coaching assignments, there were lots of lessons we learned about how to become a
better coach. Because of this class, I know more about what it means to become a success coach
moving forward. I know the areas that I do well in, and I know where I need to improve on. I
also have a more tools now to use in real world coaching situations I will face in the future as a
Basketball coach.
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Coaching Philosophy
References
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