As coaches, we are always looking for ways to give our team and program any sort of slight edge. Coaches are also educators and looking to put their players in a better position after being in their program than when they came into their program. In basketball leadership skills help in that regard. As coaches and educators, we want to set up our athletes to be successful when they stop bouncing the basketball. There is one program that I feel has checked both of those boxes for our program for the last five years and that program is Lead ‘Em Up.
Lead ‘Em Up is a Leadership Program that was created from Adam Bradley and his team that is designed to be dynamic and engaging for athletes to develop the skills for leaders that are needed to win. In my opinion, that “win” component means much more wins in the victory column during the season. Those “wins” are preparing young people with the needed skills to become successful employees, spouses, parents, etc.
Basketball Leadership Ideas
Lead ‘Em Up has 8 thoughts they believe in:
- When the leader improves, everybody wins.
- Leadership is a skill and like any skill, it needs practice in order to improve.
- Great leaders can make the “uncool” into the new “cool”
- Leadership isn’t sometimes, it’s all the time.
- Better people make better athletes
- Leading by example is not enough; there needs to be more.
- The more you pour into your players, the more they have to give.
- We want players as excited about leadership development as they are about skill development.
The program provides weekly exercises that the coach leads that work on different skills like engagement, focus, self-discipline, and many, many more. When coaches become members, they gain access to the lessons that are easy to follow and implement.
In addition to the great lessons, the Lead ‘Em Up team does an interactive video session either with the coaching staff or entire program to kick off the season on the right footing. We have elected to do the session with our entire program to really help build up some of the initial skills that are necessary.
Any question you have about the Lead ‘Em Up program can be found at their website. As they say at the end of every lesson: Have Fun, Lead ‘Em Up and Build Green!
Kyle Brasher | Gibson Southern High School
Lady Titans Basketball Coach
Related: Youth Basketball Practice Plan – End-of-Game Situations
Resources:
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