I'll never forget one of my first realizations as a coach.

I was a college student volunteering for the first time, and I kept yelling at kids to do something right. But here's the thing—I didn't actually teach it.

I'd get furious when they didn't execute. "I told you to do X!" I'd scream. But the reality was harsh: they didn't know how because I never taught them properly.

Right now, I'm reading Bill Walsh's book "The Score Takes Care of Itself," and one thing is crystal clear: the best coaches are teachers.

So let me give you five essential tips that will transform how you teach—and how your players learn.

Tip #1: Remove Your Ego

This is the most important one because it's the most common failure I see—in myself and in other coaches.

Here's what typically happens: Player X doesn't run the play correctly. We get mad. "Hey, Player X! You don't know the play!" And we get furious.

But in reality, we need to ask ourselves: Did we teach that play well enough? Because if they don't understand, we haven't taught it right.

Think about a high school math teacher. If they don't teach algebra well, some students will get it and some won't. We have to understand that all students learn at their own pace.

When a player doesn't know the play, it's not because you're a bad coach. It's because the player doesn't know it yet. That little word makes all the difference.

This is especially important in youth sports. I'm not talking about collegiate or high-level sports where winning is everything. In youth sports, winning is not the number one thing.

You'll see it all the time—club sports, high school sports, rec sports—coaches yelling at kids. But we have to remove our ego and focus on teaching.

Tip #2: Context is King

This is the biggest issue I see with coaches right now.

We'll run a play without defense. But in basketball, there's defense when we actually play the game. So when a player is in a game setting and they don't run the play correctly, it's often because there's no context.

A lot of times we're running through things and athletes are just setting screens on air. They don't have the context they need to perform in a game.

If you want to work on a play, do it with defense. Let the athlete know, "This is the person you're supposed to screen." Give them the real-game scenario.

Providing context is king when it comes to teaching.

Tip #3: Constant Review

We need to make sure we're constantly reviewing—whether it's a play, a principle, whatever it is.

Here's an example from my team. We talk a lot about communication on defense. Our athletes need to know what to communicate. I'm coaching 9th, 10th, and 11th grade boys who are not the best in-person communicators. Maybe they communicate well online via text, but it's harder for them on defense.

So I've given them three things: Ball. Gap. Help.

• When you're on the ball, what do you say? "Ball!"

• When you're in the gap, one pass away? "Gap! I got your gap help right!"

• When you're in help, two passes away? "Help! I'm in help!"

Every single day, multiple times during practice, we review. We repeat.

I'll literally ask them: "What are the three things we say?"

If someone's on ball and not communicating, I'll stop and ask: "Hey, Johnny, Jimmy—what should you be saying right now?"

We're constantly reviewing what they should be learning. Because that's how teaching works—constant review.

Tip #4: Less is More

If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.

This is one of the most challenging parts of coaching: figuring out your philosophy and what you're going to emphasize. I struggled with this early on because it's overwhelming how many things you can focus on.

Basketball-wise, are you going to be a team that focuses on running great half-court sets? Are you going to be great in transition? Are you going to be a great defensive team?

You can't be great at everything. It's just not true. It's not true in life—you have to focus.

So what are you emphasizing? What are the two to three things you're going to be known for?

Early on, I wanted to be a really good defensive team AND get really good at cutting. But in reality, you have to choose what you're going to be great at and live with it. Obviously you'll make adjustments as the season goes on, but you don't want to constantly change your philosophy.

Pick those two to three things, two to three topics that your team can identify with. Then teach them over and over and over again until they learn it.

Think of it like learning math. When we're in an algebra 2 class for the entire year in high school, we're not also doing geometry at the same time, right? There are levels to it. We need our own curriculum.

Less is more. And that's going to help you with your reviewing too.

Tip #5: Patience

Honestly, this is one of the more important aspects of coaching and being a teacher as a coach.

We have to have patience.

Sometimes I feel like I'm great at this. I'm patient. And then I'll just erupt and get super frustrated. But when it comes to any human being's learning, we have to be patient with their learning process.

Obviously, we need to help them learn and drive some urgency. If it's a play, are you giving them a video? "Hey, go watch this. You're struggling with closeouts—go watch this player."

How are you giving them teaching and homework at home?

I think this is one of the biggest challenges living in our social media society: How do we be patient?

Here's what I've learned being focused on development: you can see a team improve in two to three months. But if you really want to see great improvements, it takes at least six months, most of the time a year.

You might be coaching a rec team or club team for two to three months. You'll see improvement, but think about why teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder dominate—they have continuity. They didn't have to reteach anything in the offseason. They just continued to build on their system.

Continuity is super important. Having patience is your job.

If you're a club coach or high school coach, your job is to develop players over time.

The Practice Fallacy

It always cracks me up when coaches say, "We worked on this in practice—why is it not showing up?"

You worked on it one time. Two times. Three times.

It's not going to show up. It's just not.

If you want to build habits, you have to do that activity, whatever you're emphasizing, at least 21 times. The science depends on the athlete, but it's going to be more than one to three times.

That's the thing that drives me the craziest. It's going to take a long time.

It's habit. It's habit. It's habit.

The Five Tips Recap

So let me bring this home for you:

1. Remove your ego - If they don't get it, you haven't taught it well enough yet

2. Always provide context - Practice with game-like conditions

3. Constantly review - Repetition is the mother of learning

4. Less is more - Pick 2-3 things to emphasize and master them

5. Patience - Real improvement takes 6-12 months, not 2-3 practices

If you become a better teacher, you're going to become a more effective coach. And you're going to transform athletes beyond the game significantly better than you would have otherwise.

That's the difference between coaching and teaching. Teaching changes lives.

If you got value from this, share it with a coaching buddy or parent. Let's transform youth sports together—one patient teacher at a time.

Full Episode Transcript

Full Episode Transcript

[0:00] Something that I have learned the hard way and one of the first realizations I ever had as a coach. In this episode, I'm going to give you five different tips. There's a lot of different aspects and avenues you can take to become a better teacher, but these will be some of the most essential ones to help you become a better teacher.

[0:23] Now, you are listening to the Beyond the Scoreboard podcast. Transforming athletes into leaders on and off the court with host Coach Furtado.

[0:37] Coaches, are you ready to take your passion for coaching and turn it into a full-time career? I know the challenges firsthand, but the Make Money Coaching Sports program helped me take BTG basketball full-time. If you're tired of juggling coaching part-time and want to fully focus on doing what you love, this business accelerator will give you the tools and support to make it happen. Hit the link in the show notes below to learn more and start living your dream.

[1:03] Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Beyond the Scoreboard podcast. Your podcast for coaches and parents to be smarter, well-informed, and become better coaches and parents for our youth athletes. I'm your host, Coach Furtado, and in today's episode, I'm going to talk about one of the most important and not talked about topics on how to become a better coach.

[1:19] A lot of times we focus on X's and O's, communication, which is going to be a part of that. I want to talk about something that is really essential. All the great coaches have it. I'm reading Bill Walsh's book right now, The Score Takes Care of Itself. And the best coaches are teachers. And this is something that I have learned the hard way. One of the first realizations I ever had as a coach when I was a college student. I was volunteering for the first time and I would just yell at the kids to do something right, but I didn't teach it.

[2:01] And in this episode, I'm going to give you five different tips, ways of teaching. There's a lot of different aspects and avenues you can take to become a better teacher, but these will be some of the most essential ones to help you become a better teacher now today.

[2:20] So number one is remove your ego. And this is the most important one because it's the most common one that I myself as a coach fail and an issue that I see with other coaches as well. What happens is especially—and I'm talking again this podcast is for youth sports, not for collegiate high level. Winning is not the number one thing. Winning is not the number one thing in youth sports.

[2:52] Now, being competitive, of course, is what you'll see often times when you go watch club sports, high school sports, rec sports, it doesn't matter. You'll see coaches yell at kids, "I told you to do X," right? But player didn't do X. So, let's say we'll talk basketball, right? Because obviously I'm a basketball person. We'll just talk about running a play. Player X doesn't run the play correctly. Now, we get mad. "Hey, player X, right? You don't know the play." And we just get so furious often times as coaches when in reality we have to really ask ourselves did we teach that play well enough because if they don't understand we haven't taught it right?

[3:34] So in math think about a high school math teacher. If they don't teach algebra, algebra 2, whatever—some students are going to get it, some students are not. And so we have to understand that all students are going to learn at their own pace. So we have to teach. We have to remove the ego. If a player doesn't know the play, it's not because you're a bad coach, right? It's because the player doesn't know it yet.

[4:02] And number two, tip number two is context. We have to teach with context. And this is the biggest issue that I see with a lot of coaches now is we'll run a play. We'll stick with the play analogy right now. A lot of times we're running plays without defense. And in basketball, there's defense when we play. So when a player is in a game setting and they don't run the play correctly, a lot of times it's because there's no context.

[4:29] Tip number two is you always have to provide context for the player. So if you want to work on a play, that's great. Do it with defense so an athlete knows, "Hey, this is the person that I'm supposed to screen." A lot of times we're running through things and they're just setting a screen on air. The athlete doesn't have the context they need to then perform that in a game. So providing context is king when it comes to teaching.

[4:54] Number three is review. So we want to make sure that we're constantly reviewing whether it's a play, whether it's a principle, whatever it is. So I'll give an example. For my team, one of the things that we talk about—and we talk a lot about communication on defense. Now, our athletes need to know what to communicate on defense. I'm coaching 9th, 10th, 11th grade boys who are not the best in-person communicators. Maybe they communicate well online via text, but it's a lot harder for them to communicate on defense.

[5:31] So, I've given them ball, gap, help. When they're on the ball, what do they say? Ball right. And I'll ask that. Now when you're in the gap when you're one pass away, what are you? Gap. "I got your gap." Help left. "I got your gap. Help right." "I'm in help. I'm two passes away." So you're communicating that you're letting them know. And so every single day multiple times a day during practice we are reviewing, we are repeating.

[5:54] I'll literally ask them, "What are the three things we said?" If there's someone on ball, they're not communicating, I'll ask. "Hey Johnny, Jimmy, what should you be saying right now?" So we're constantly reviewing what they should be learning, right? Because that's how we teach—it's constant review.

[6:14] And the next point is less is more. If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. And this is one of the challenging parts of coaching is figuring out your philosophy and what you're going to emphasize because this is something that I struggled with as a coach earlier on because it's overwhelming how many things you can focus on and be great at, right?

[6:35] So, basketball-wise, are you going to be a team that focuses on running great half court sets? Are you going to be a great team in transition? Are you going to be a great defensive team? You can't be great at everything. It's just not true. It's not true in life. You have to focus. So, what are you emphasizing? What are the three things? Less is more. Then in that review, I don't have to review everything. And that's one of the challenges that I faced when I was early on.

[7:01] I wanted to be a really good defensive team. I wanted to get really good at cutting, but in reality, you have to choose what you're going to be great at and live with it, right? And then obviously make adjustments as the season goes on. But you don't want to constantly change your philosophy. What are you going to continually emphasize over and over and over again? Less is more.

[7:21] So picking those two to three things, two to three topics, right? Whether it's things that your team can identify with and then you're going to teach that over and over and over again until they learn it. It's like learning math. We're in an algebra 2 class for the entire year when we're in high school. We're not in algebra 2 and geometry, right? There are levels to it. And then we have to obviously have our own curriculum.

[7:49] So the last and honestly one of the more important aspects of coaching and being a teacher as a coach is patience. We have to have patience. And this is one of the things that sometimes I feel like, "Oh, I'm great. I'm patient." And then there'll be sometimes where I'll just erupt and I'll get super frustrated. But when it comes to any athlete's, any human being's learning, we have to be patient with their learning process.

[8:16] And obviously, we have to help them learn and drive some urgency. If it's a play, right? Are you giving them like, "Hey, here's a video. Go watch this. Go watch this player. You're struggling with this, right? Hey, you're struggling to shoot with a closeout." How are you giving them teaching and homework at home? And just understanding that patience.

[8:38] I think this is one of the biggest challenges again living in this society, in the social media society—how do we be patient? I see as I've been in this industry and I've been focused on development, you can see a team improve in two to three months. But if you really want to see great improvements, it takes at least 6 months, most of the time a year.

[9:03] A lot of times you may be listening as a coach. You may have a rec team or club team, something that you're coaching for two to three months. You can see improvement, but why you're seeing a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder dominate the start of the year—they have continuity. They didn't have to reteach anything in the off season. All they did was continue to build on their system and obviously they get to emphasize more because they have higher level athletes, athletes that can do more, that are more versatile and honestly just higher IQ than high school basketball athletes.

[9:38] But continuity is super important, having patience, and that's one of the big things and that's your job. If you're a coach, right, you're a club coach, you're a high school coach, your job is to develop players over time. And this is one of the things that I struggled with again at first when I first started coaching. I wanted to see results that practice.

[9:59] It's always funny to me when coaches say, "We worked on this in practice and why is it not showing up?" You worked on it in practice one time, two times, three times. It's not going to show up. It's just not right. If you want to build habits, that means you have to do that X activity, whatever you're emphasizing 21 times. The science is obviously, you know, again, depends on the athlete, but it's going to be more than one to three times.

[10:21] That is the thing that drives me the craziest is when I hear coaches say that. It's going to take a long time. It's habit. It's habit. It's habit.

[10:30] So, I hope that is really helpful for you on teaching is to number one, remove your ego. Number two, always provide context. Number three, always constantly review. Number four, less is more—especially that's going to help you with reviewing. And number five is patience.

[10:49] Those are the five tips I have for you to become a better teacher. And if you become a better teacher, you're going to become a more effective coach and you're going to transform athletes beyond the game significantly better than you would have otherwise if you were coaching how you used to. So, I appreciate you. If you got some value from this podcast, make sure to share it with a friend, share with a coaching buddy, share with a parent, whoever. Leave us a five-star review.

[11:13] I am going live every single Friday. Hopefully I'll get some guests on here soon. And then with that being said, we drop this every Wednesday. So, we want to make sure we provide the max amount of resources for you, the coach, the parent to become a transformational coach, and to make an impact on our youth athletes and change the game. There's a lot of chaos out there in the youth sports world. So, Coach Furtado out.

[11:40] Thank you for listening to this episode of the Beyond the Scoreboard podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and share it with a friend, coach, or parent you feel would get value from this episode. It's our responsibility to impact as many parents and coaches who are the ones that are impacting our athletes. That's how we create a ripple effect. So, thank you for being a part of our community and we look forward to serving you all next week.