WYC 024 Youth Basketball – Randy Montgomery talks High School Basketball and shares stories from John Wooden

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Randy Montgomery shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach. Randy has been a high school basketball coach in Northeast Ohio for the past 31 years and coached over 700 games. He coached under Bob Huggins at Walsh College in Canton for 3 years. He then coached varsity basketball at Triway High School in Wooster for 19 years and North Canton Hoover High School for 12 years. Randy also became friends with John Wooden and got to learn and share stories with Coach. Randy is married and has 3 grown daughters. Twitter: @coachmont73 Website: beyondthehardwood.com Listen Now: Listen in ITunes: Itunes link Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link   Coaching/Leadership Quote ‘You don’t handle people, you work with people’ click to tweet! Coaching your own Kid Make sure you take into consideration the age and make-up of the teams you are coaching My ‘Cringe’ Moment Coming from an era of Bobby Knight, Coach Montgomery shares being really intense and focusing on winning My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’ Know that if you set an aggressive goal like making it to the State championships – it is grueling on the coaches, players, families, and fans. Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun In 31 years – they never scrimmaged in practice – they spent practice time doing drills that were applicable to the game HUGE IDEA #1 - Whole-part-whole teaching method – Show it all, then drill it, then run it in full. Start it at 2-0, then 3-0, then 4-0, then 5-0. Then add in a defense. Dribble tag – put it to music and do it for 5 to 7 minutes to keep it fun Best Stolen Idea Figure out what your team needs to work on – then seek out 1 or 2 drills to focus on that Discipline It’s a team sport – Coach Montgomery would end every practice with a 90% drill – he picks 5 different players to shoot 2 free throws, if they don’t collectively make 9 out of 10 – the whole team runs Use the Bench – One of the most effective discipline tools is to use playing time/the bench Reward and Recognition HUGE IDEA #2 3 Huge awards at end of season: 1 – Most charges 2 – Best free-throw shooter 3 – Leading rebounder Parent Involvement Coach would never talk to parents about playing time Inspiring Story A lot of kids don’t appreciate what you are investing in them at the time – but come back years later and thank you Winning Winning should be one of the goals, but not the goal. Coach Wooden never talked about winning, but rather about playing your best Kids need to learn to win, and more importantly need to learn how to lose The One that Got Away Coach Montgomery has no regrets on his preparation for each game – but certainly there are games that hurt Spending time with Coach – Randy talks about spending time with Coach John Wooden ‘You don’t handle people, you work with people’ Awesome story about how he ended up at UCLA instead of Minnesota Parting Advice Write down 2 or 3 things you want to accomplish, then set up your plan accordingly – don’t overcomplicate things The Best-Laid Plans of a High School Basketball CEO This book has a unique perspective in each chapter – From the perspective of a 100-win coach(Coach Matt Kramer), and from the perspective of a 500-win coach (Coach Randy Montgomery) Find it here: beyondthehardwood.com Interview Links / Promotional Partners HUDL   Ready to be an Awesome Youth Coach? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter: