Almost uniquely in the world of sport, most of the key professionals in the two biggest sports in the US get their first break in the draft.
Fans almost as hotly anticipate this annual event as by the would-be rookies themselves. After all, who wouldn’t want to see their team being able to snap up the next generation of talent with perhaps another Patrick Mahomes or Lebron James?
But getting any young player to the stage where they’re ready to make that big step up to the professional game takes a lot of time, persistence, and training. Naturally, it also involves the player themselves being hugely talented and committed.
The growing professionalism of college sports, particularly football and basketball, means that the coaching they receive needs to be of the highest level.
There’s also the consideration of just how important college sport has become. Looking at some of the college football betting lines, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a professional sport.
Something else that seems to belie its college amateur status is the sheer amount of cash that’s paid to the coaches of college teams. In many cases they are the highest-salaried member on the respective college’s payroll, pulling in $10,000,000 a year, or more.
So while the students do have to spend some time on the academic elements of their courses, a far greater proportion of their time will be spent being coached.
It’s not all action
While there are obvious differences between football and basketball coaching, which we’ll move on to, there are also a number of similarities.
The first is how the coach and his support staff prepare the players under their supervision for the professional game.
They need to be schooled in the expectations that will be made of them if they do move up. This can cover anything from the physical training regime to being in a reasonable psychological frame of mind to compete and win.
Another essential part of coaching is to get over the importance of building squad cohesion. Whatever the game situation, players need to know that they have each other’s backs. The coach has the power to create the tightly bonded squad required if the team and individuals within it are to be successful.
The differences between football and basketball
Even someone who knew nothing about sports could tell you that football and basketball require completely different skill sets. Both might feature unique physical specimens as players, each with extraordinary abilities, but the preparation they need to exploit these to the full is distinctly different.
Let’s take a look at football first. This game is a captivating mix of speed, power, aggression, and skill. So, coaching will operate against a backdrop of many hours spent in the gym. Typical workouts for football players will include lifting weights and doing sled pushes. The idea is to create players who can suddenly go from standing still to producing explosive bursts of power and energy.
Agility and stamina are also needed, so coaches will probably also have performance targets for their players to attain, targets that are certain to increase as time goes on.
Basketball is somewhat different. For a start, it’s a non-contact sport. So, while it does need a high level of fitness and strength, aggression is less critical. This means that the coaching will include running through game play and honing the essential skills such as dribbling, blocking, and shooting through hoops.
In both sports, actual game play will also be an essential part of training, focusing on particular situations and scenarios.
In addition, coaches will be supported by their assistants and specialists in other fields, such as physios, nutritionists, and sports psychologists. The objective is to provide a fully holistic approach to sports coaching.
Measuring success
There are broadly speaking two key measures of how successful coaching has been in basketball and football. Obviously, the first of these is how well a team does over a season. For most teams, getting into the play-offs is one of the key indicators. The ultimate aim is to become champions.
While this is generally how coaches are judged, and it can also be their downfall, there’s another way to assess their effectiveness.
Essentially, it’s their job to prepare their players for the next step in their sporting careers. So, nurturing talent and helping a player be as good as they can possibly be is an accurate measure of success.
So consistently providing the NFL and the NBA with the next generation of talent, ready to take to the pitch or the court, accurately measures a coach’s effectiveness and success.