To be a successful coach, you must teach your players individually, and then as a team

By Michael J. Pallerino

Kevin Cantwell believes that teachers are born. Ask the 25-year-plus coach and recruiter about the finer points of coaching basketball and that's what he'll tell you. Cantwell firmly believes that coaching is not so much about the Xs and Os as it is about teaching your players. And if you want Cantwell to be brutally honest, because he will, he'll emphatically say that today's coaches – in any sport and on any level – must be teachers.

The statement is just an honest assessment from a long-time basketball professional that has done everything from coaching (Appalachian State, Georgia Tech), to recruiting (Stephon Marbury, Kenny Anderson), to serving as an instructor for a diverse collection of players at every level of the sport (Clemson's Terrence Oglesby).
Ask him and he'll profess that coaching is an art form that must be held in the highest regard, especially when your child is involved.

Maybe that's why Cantwell is dedicating his time these days to helping develop the On Court Player Development® program – a systemic approach to bringing back the ideals of character building, life lessons and fundamentals to the sport. As On Court's director of player development, he believes the growth of a fundamentally sound basketball player rests in the hands of his coach.
"A lot of coaches don't realize that they have to spend time building the finer points of what a player needs – self confidence and self esteem," Cantwell says. "Those things are not only critical to the development of a player, but to the development of him as an individual as well. You have to be a teacher to really understand this. If you're a good coach, then you are a good teacher, and vice-versa. The bottom line is that when you walk onto that court, you have to realize that what you are doing is going to leave an impact – touch these kids lives forever."

Simply put, Cantwell says that if you cannot relate to your players on an individual basis, you cannot coach them as a team – period. "Think about it, basketball is game where you have five players running around with five different brains going in five different directions," he says. "It's so hard to get all those brains moving in the same direction. That's why you see teams on the collegiate and professional level gelling at the mid-season mark. It takes a while to get everything and everybody moving in the same direction.

"Think about that when you're coaching on the youth level. Remember, you are a volunteer who only has so much time to work with these kids. You have to make that time count. You don't have the luxury of six days a week to employ a complicated set of offensive and defensive plays. Focus on making the experience simple and fun."