{"id":161239,"date":"2021-05-16T09:51:08","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T08:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/?p=161239"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:54:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T08:54:20","slug":"coaching-the-perfect-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/coaching-the-perfect-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaching the Perfect Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The perfect game in the Major League Baseball<\/a> (MLB) is a victory by a pitcher (or a combination of pitchers) with no batters reaching first base. This to me signifies the perfect game in coaching. The team is locked in and guided by the leaders (pitcher \/ catcher) to the perfect game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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How would coaching the perfect game looks like?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How would coaching a perfect game looks like? To me this starts with the way we coach. For me the perfect game would be the coach sitting on the bench letting the team play without interfering with (verbal) commands. To reach this I will use Transactional versus Transformational coaching.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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How can we make them find answers without me saying?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\nMike de Kraker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Celebrate Mistakes<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Transactional is when we are focused on winning (more than developing) and it\u2019s \u2018my way or the highway\u2019, what do we teach our players?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Mike\r\n
Mike de Kraker in a game<\/sub><\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As coaches we might know the answers. We can make them win. But are we telling them the answers or are we letting them discover the answers? To me the latter is the way I coach.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There is a vision: How can we make them find answers without me saying. We have to make sure the environment on training resembles the actual game. If they see, experience and feel different scenarios in practice they will be able to find solutions for problems in a game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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If we believe in them and support them to make decisions without fear of punishment, we can take a seat and let them enjoy the game.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\nMike de Kraker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Will there be mistakes<\/strong><\/a>? Absolutely! How do we react on those mistakes? Mistakes should be celebrated.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Mike\r\n
Mike de Kraker<\/sub><\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If we can inspire them by believing in them, encourage them and support them when they make mistakes<\/strong><\/a>, we can make them learn.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What will they learn if we punish every decision with suicides, push-ups or other punishment? Does that encourage them to make another decision which isn\u2019t prescribed upfront? By always coloring within the lines the growth is limited.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If we believe in them and support them to make decisions without fear of punishment, we can take a seat and let them enjoy the game.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Learn to sit back and observe<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We try to keep away from being the PlayStation coach. That is a coach that controls the decisions and keeps giving them instructions from the side by telling every player to pass, dribble, shoot or cut. When faced with adversity they will look at us to come up with a solution.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Practice is to let them learn and think to make decisions. We will give feedback by asking questions. There needs to be a balance between learning and overloading their cognitive space.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When they accept feedback from us and players, they can make decisions<\/strong><\/a> in game. Which makes us as coaches take a seat and let them play ball.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Mike\r\n
Mike de Kraker in a time out.<\/sub><\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Kaizen<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As coaches we keep expanding our knowledge<\/strong><\/a>. Instead of using knowledge we already know, we want to improve <\/strong><\/a>every day. In our Academy we use the word: \u2018Kaizen\u2019 for it. Keep improving 1% each day instead of developing 10% over 15 days. If we can show players that we can make mistakes by learning, we can inspire them to keep developing.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Practice is to let them learn and think to make decisions. We will give feedback by asking questions.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\nMike de Kraker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even when writing this blog, I\u2019m not sure if there ever will be possible coaching the perfect game in basketball. There are so many variables <\/strong><\/a>within the game we can\u2019t control.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A phrase I use: \u201cGive a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.\u201d We must teach them how to fish instead of giving them a fish. The biggest question remains:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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What would your perfect coaching game look like?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\nMike de Kraker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Special thanks to Sportcoach for allowing me to write this blog. It has been tremendous to see everybody sharing and learning in these times.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Thank you Coach Mike for your post \u201cCoaching the Perfect Game<\/strong><\/em>\u201d, and we hope to see you soon!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Twitter:\u00a0@Mike_de_Kraker<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mike de Kraker\u00a0(U17 & U21 Head Coach – Elite Academy Antwerp).\u00a0He writes in this post about Coaching the Perfect Game. Transactional versus Transformational coaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":157016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[870],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball-coaching"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isportcoach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}