Leadership in Coaching: Giving the Reins

Steve Kerr is the coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warrior where he’s coached them to a few titles. Before that, he was with San Antonio and the Chicago Bulls as a player–so he was around two of basketball’s best coaches of the past 50 years, Popovich and Phil Jackson. Kerr was asked a question about coaching philosophy. His answer:

“The idea of giving someone vision, and then letting them go and then occasionally reigning them back in show them the vision again, letting him go again, that’s powerful. To me that’s coaching these players are arduous they are so gifted at this level, especially. You know, if you’re going to call every play and try to orchestrate everything, you’re overthinking things and not letting players be who they really are.“

This stuck out to me–because it is the antithesis of most coaches I’ve seen in the sport of volleyball. Most volleyball coaches are calling zones, telling the setter what to set, the hitters where to hit (line, cross, tip), and ordering defensive players to move to specific floor positions. If it isn’t the head coach doing this, it’s the staff–watch a college match and you’ll see 2-4 coaches up and giving instructions with every play.

Oof. I say ‘oof’ because I don’t think it matters–for a number of reasons, not least that a coach says something, it’s got to be processed quickly by the player and there’s a limit to how much a human can process in seven seconds or less.

Kerr’s not the first coach I’ve seen make a comment like that. John Wooden was known for sitting back during games and letting the players play because they were fully prepared because of their practice time. When Fred Hoiberg was at Iowa State, they won more than one game because he didn’t call timeouts in the last thirty seconds of games, trusting his players to bring the ball up, do the right thing, and score. Rick Carlisle has trusted Tyrese Haliburton multiple times to run things without a timeout.

It’s not just basketball. Tampa Bay wasn’t good in Brady’s last season–but when the coaches left Brady alone to run a hurry-up offense, the Buccaneers scored in buckets. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Even a crappy team like the Bears under Eberflus, if the QB is permitted to improvise, good things happen. He has free rein in that moment.

The problem is–coaches AND players are conditioned. Coaches watch other coaches win contests while micromanaging, so they immediately conclude “Hey, if I micromanage or be a tin-pot dictator, I’ll win, too.” Players are young, look up to adults–and the coach is *THE* boss, so they will try and do whatever the coach says ASAP…because that’s a big key for playing time. I mean, don’t do what the coach says–players get benched (with VERY rare exceptions).

How do you let kids have ‘vision’? How do you empower them? I think that’s tricky–there’s no pithy answer I can give. It depends on the age, how much time you get with the athlete, the experience of the coach among other things.

But I *DO* believe that empowering the players is important. And as Kerr notes–it isn’t just ‘doing nothing’ if a player strays. Note that he says if Rodman went off the rails, Jackson reined him in then turned him loose again.