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10 Ways to Develop Ownership In Your Assistant Coaches
By Coach Randy Brown

Successful basketball coaching is the result leadership, communication, and organization. A good coaches will take the responsibility for a loss and give the players credit for the wins. Behind the scenes are many people that contribute great effort to the total team effort. Assistant coaches can be a great asset to your program or a detriment. Learn how to create ownership in your assistant coaches.

Buying in and taking ownership in any process is a necessity. Assistant coaches are in the background most of the time. Their efforts go unnoticed by everyone but the head coach. A good head coach will include his staff in all planning and decisions as well as scouting and practice. The more assistant coaches are involved in the coaching process, the more they will feel part of the team effort. There are some good things that head coaches can do to encourage their assistants. When assistant coaches buy in and take ownership of the team's success, great things can be accomplished.

Below are key ideas for head coaches when developing quality assistant coaches:

1. Involve the staff in all planning sessions. Whether it is pre season, in season, or post season, uniformity is accomplished when all coaches are involved.

2. Ask your staff for their feedback, comments, and opinions. Be prepared to listen, acknowledge, and respond properly to your assistants. The best way to alienate your coaches is to ask for input, then quickly disagree with their comments or pretend to listen.

3. Divide responsibilities among your staff members. When each coach has a piece of the pie, they will work hard to show their best work. This combined effort will increase ownership in a great way.

4. Assign practice duties and give them time to coach on the floor. Great coaches allow their assistants to teach in practice, instead of standing listlessly on the baseline in silence.

5. Have your assistant coaches write up game evaluations and discuss their comments as a staff. Like it's said, 4 sets of eyes are better than one.

6. Game responsibilities are a big deal for an assistant. They want to feel like they have an impact on the outcome of the game. Give them tasks during the game and ask for feedback as the game goes on.

7. Assign titles to each coach. This is important especially for an assistant that is preparing to be a head coach. Defensive coordinator, Offensive coordinator, OB Coach, and Special situations Coach are all titles that can be assigned. It will take a level of trust to hand out titles, but when appropriate, it can be a huge help to the head coach.

8. Be aware of your staff's career goals, and let them know you will help them in any way to reach their goals.

9. Speak about the positive contributions of your staff in the media and with parents. It will boost your coaches and shows great humility.

10. Tell your coaches how much you appreciate them. It will pay off in loyalty, great effort, and team ownership.

Use this list to evaluate your own program in terms of your staff. Use and empower your coaches to make your job less demanding and enjoyable.